Chapter 4 - Forming Voltron is Actually Harder Than Originally Planned

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"Everybody up! Zarkon's attacking! The castle's about to be destroyed!"

Natalie startles awake at the noise and barely processes when Keith, already dressed, jumps off of the bed, grabs his jacket and runs out of the room. She stares blankly at the now closed door before registering the alarm tone continuing to blast through the castle. "Oh crap."

She jumps out of bed, tripping over the sheets on her way, grabs her hoodie and then she runs from the room to get to the bridge. "Go, go, go! We need Voltron now!" she hears Allura continue to shout over the speakers. "Hurry, we can't survive much longer."

Things then get weird when Coran suddenly adds, "Oh, no! Allura is dead! Aw, it's horrible! Her head fell off!"

Natalie starts to slow her pace as he continues, "Wait! What? Her severed head is trying to speak to me! What is it Allura's head? What are your final words?"

"Coran," Allura says in the background.

"Oh, yes, princess, I'm listening," he continues as Natalie finally makes it into the bridge where the others, minus Lance, were already in the room.

"It's over," Allura informs Coran.

He was too engrossed in his performance to really take in what she was saying, "Oh, I know! If only Voltron had been formed."

He then spots them, "Oh! Time!"

They continued to stare at him for a few seconds before Shiro, the only one in his armour, speaks up, "I guess this isn't an actual attack."

"And it's a good thing it wasn't because it took you…Coran?" Allura says before facing Coran.

"Seventy-five degrees," the man answers seriously, making Natalie raise her brow. "Oh, sorry. No, this is a meat thermometer."

"However long it was, it was too long," Allura continues, clearly frustrated. "You must always be ready to do battle with Zarkon. Look at you! Only Shiro is in uniform. Keith, Pidge, Hunk, where are your bayards? And where is Lance?"

As if summoned by her words, the door behind them opens and they look to see Lance enter. He was completely decked out in his blue paladin pyjamas, his blue robe and his blue lion head slippers. He also has a drink in his hand as he walks in casually. "Good morning, everybody. What's going on?"

"Coran and I have been up for hours getting the Castle back in order," Allura explains, walking closer to the group. "We had to run a test on the alarms, and we decided to test you as well. Guess which one failed?"

"Hey!" Hunk interjects, letting out a wide yawn. "You got to sleep for ten thousand years, man. Monday night, I was on Earth. Now I've flown through space, fought some evil alien named Zarkon, eaten goo in some weird castle. That's a lot to process in, uh…I don't know. What day is today?"

Coran jumps in, "It's the third quintant of the Spicolian movement. Hump day!"

"It's a lot to process," Hunk concludes.

"You must understand the stakes of our mission," Allura says as she brings up a holographic console. "Over the last ten thousand years, the Castle picked up distress beacons from the following locations."

The projection then changes to a full room map of the universe. Natalie watches as a vast majority of the planets glow red to indicate the distress beacons, it was disturbing in how many there were. "So," Allura continues, "we have to assume Zarkon has conquered almost the entire known universe. Earth is here."

She then swipes the map to show the Milky Way and Earth's location within it. "An attack on your planet is inevitable," Allura informs them.

Which was not hard for them to tell, the distance from Earth to their current location was truly vast, but the map made Earth look so very close to the nearest Galra conquered planet. Natalie could see that Allura was right, the Galra would undoubtedly reach Earth. "Oh, no," Hunk says.

"Exactly," Allura says before continuing, "Our mission is to free all those planets. Coran and I are getting the Castle ready to leave Arus. During that time, you have to learn to form Voltron, so we can begin fighting Zarkon."

"The Princess is right," Shiro exclaims, "Let's get to our lions and start training."

"Wait," Pidge interjects, "but I want to talk to the prisoners we rescued from the Galra ship."

"Negative, Number Six," Coran jumps in, "I have you ranked by height, okay? The prisoners need to remain in the cryo-replenishers until tomorrow."

"That's right," Allura agrees, "Now, get to your lions."

Natalie watches as the four that were not in their armour run from the room to get it, and as soon as they disappear, she turns back to face the Alteans, "So, a couple questions. Firstly, what am I going to do?"

"Firstly, you should probably get dressed too," Allura points out.

Natalie looks down to see that she was indeed still in her red pyjamas, which were actually Keith's Paladin pyjamas that he insists he will not need so she uses them, with only her hoodie on top, "Right okay, and then what?"

"Then you can help Coran and I get the Castle ready."

"Right, then I shall do that," she says before turning to leave the room. She gets a few feet before remembering her other question, "Oh, and do I, uh, also need to come running during an alarm in the morning, because, you know, I'm not a Paladin and I have no lion to rush to."

Allura gives her a bland look, "Yes, Natalie, it would be preferred that you came too. It's entirely possible that we have mechanical emergencies on top of the direct threat from enemies."

"Right, of course, that is also important," Natalie agrees, nodding her head and turning back towards the door, "Just remember that if I'm still asleep at the time, I will probably come running in my PJs."

Allura has no time to answer as she leaves the room, brushing her hand with Keith's as he and the others return, all five Paladins now heading for their individual lifts.

When Natalie returns to the bridge, they were apparently already trying to form Voltron if the cheers coming through the comms was any indication. "How are they doing?" she asks the two Alteans, Allura watching their progress as Coran tinkers with one of the consoles.

"Well, they haven't formed Voltron yet, but I'm optimistic," Allura informs her, continuing to watch the others.

Natalie shrugs and joins Allura in watching them. Unfortunately, after several rounds of cheers, the tone gets less and less excited until they finally start to get bored. "Yay," Hunk cheers monotonously, "Am I the only one who's still pretending to be excited?"

"Clearly, this isn't working," Shiro eventually says, "Let's set down for a little bit."

"Maybe we should be building Voltron from the ground up," Keith suggests.

"What do you mean?" Shiro asks.

"I mean, let's try literally building Voltron," Keith explains, "like, stacking on top of each other."

"Like a cheerleader pyramid?" Lance cuts in jokingly.

"You got a better idea?" Keith throws back.

"It's worth a try," Shiro says.

Natalie watches from the windows on the bridge as they land and start trying to build Voltron. Though she gets very confused when somehow, Lance and Pidge are on the bottom, Keith is length-ways above them, Shiro has the hind legs on the bottom two with front legs on Keith and for some inexplicable reason, Hunk was set down on top. She had no control, she cracked, laughing with her hands on her stomach because it was the most ridiculous thing she had ever seen.

"Hunk," Shiro deadpans, "what are you doing?"

"What do you mean?" the younger boy asks.

"You're supposed to be the leg over there," Shiro explains.

"What? No. No, no, no," Hunk says, "I'm pretty sure that when we did it last time, I was the head. Right?"

"You yelled 'I'm a leg," Lance shouts at him.

"Yeah, I was yelling a lot of things," Hunk says.

"Shiro's the head," Keith cuts in.

"All the time?" Hunk asks.

"Let's just try it my way for now," Shiro suggests.

"Okay, but next time I call head," Hunk relents.

Natalie had spent most of that conversation snickering.

Keith keeps his lion steady as it stands on top of the Blue Lion. Beside him was Pidge, keeping the Green Lion steady on top of the Yellow one. Above them was Shiro in the Black Lion as he slowly lowers it to rest on top of the Red and Green Lions. He was starting to feel how ridiculous his idea was, but they needed something, so he does not bring it up. "Okay," he hears Shiro speak softly to himself, "Arms and legs…and I'll form the head."

Keith feels when the Black Lion sets down, its large size jarring the Red Lion slightly. "Feel the bonds with your lions," Shiro says to them. "Now channel your energy into forming Voltron. Focus. Focus."

After a short while of nothing happening, Shiro speaks up again, "Is everyone bonding and focusing?"

"Why was this so much easier before?" Lance asks instead of answering.

"Let's take a break," Shiro says with a sigh.

"Sorry to interrupt," Allura cuts in, "but I may be able to help. Yesterday, you weren't able to form Voltron until you were in the heat of battle."

"Yeah," Pidge agrees.

"I'm listening," says Lance.

"You're right." Shiro.

"Yeah, I guess," Keith chimes in.

"Perfect," Allura cheers softly, "because I need to run diagnostics on all of the Castle's defences. This should help."

Keith watches as the particle barrier forms around the Castle and it suddenly starts firing beams at them. Keith and the others start shouting and screaming, running away from the beams. "Allura, what are you doing?" Keith shouts at her.

"Running a diagnostic test on the Castle defences and inspiring you!" she explains as if she was not currently having the Castle fire upon them. "I believe in you Paladins! Let fear be your guide! Form Voltron!"

"Where's Nat?" Pidge shouts. "There is no way she would approve this!"

"Oh, Natalie and Coran are working on some things in other areas of the Castle," Allura off-handedly explains, "but I'm sure she would be fine with this."

Allura pretends she does not hear Pidge's mutter of 'no, she really would not be.'

"Forget this!" Lance yells as they continue to dodge. "I'm heading back to the Castle!"

Keith dodges while watching Lance, and cringes as the Blue Lion rebounds off the particle barrier, sending Lance and the lion crashing to the ground.

"Please stop!" Hunk pleads as he runs around. "Please! Have mercy on us!"

"You think Zarkon is going to have mercy on you?" Allura replies. "He's probably on his way right now to destroy us all!"

She then disconnects from the call, but the onslaught continues and Keith can do nothing else besides continue to dodge.

Natalie and Coran were on their way from their latest repairs when they come across Allura, no longer in her jumpsuit and back in her dress. "Princess," Natalie calls excitedly, "How are they doing with the Voltron thing?"

"Well, I haven't checked in on them in a while," she admits, "but I had them testing out the Castle's defences, so hopefully they've made progress."

"Okay, nice," Natalie nods as they head towards the door leading into the lounge, before she stops when she realises what the Princess said, "Wait! What?"

She does not get her answer as Allura has already moved on to talking to Coran about the Castle, "Are we at full power on condenser number five yet?"

"No, still just eighty-four percent," Coran replies.

The two Alteans get close enough to the doors to open them, showing them four out of five Paladins slumping on the couches. Allura assumes automatically that they had succeeded, "You did it! You formed Voltron!"

"No," Keith says stiffly, "the shooting stopped and the particle barrier shut down, so we just flew in."

"What?" Allura asks, glaring at them.

"Oh, right. Sorry, Princess," Coran starts, making Natalie realise it was probably their fault. "We had to turn off the Castle defences to test the fire suppressors."

Allura just looks at them blandly as Coran stands still and Natalie awkwardly chuckles, rubbing the back of her head. They thankfully need not explain further as Shiro enters from the other side of the room, addressing the four laying about on the couches, "What are you guys doing here? We're not taking a break."

"Shiro's right," Allura agrees. "You should be training."

"We've been training," Hunk argues. "When are we going back to Earth?"

"I'm not going back until I find our family," Pidge throws in.

Natalie shares a look with her sister, letting her know with that look that she was with her on that one.

"Guys," Shiro cuts in, "there won't be an Earth if we don't figure out how to fight Zarkon."

"How are we going to fight?" Lance asks. "We can't even figure out how to form Voltron."

"Well I'm not surprised," Coran says. "You know, the original Paladins fought hundreds of battles together, side-by-side. They were like a pack of yalmors linked at the ears."

Natalie had so many questions about that, but decided to hold her tongue given the current situation. Lance speaks instead, "Wow. Yeah, that's definitely not us."

"During the last attack," Coran continues as if Lance had not said a word, "your survival instincts forced you to work as a team, but that will only get you so far. You'll have to become a real team to have any chance of forming Voltron and then beating Zarkon next time. You should try working out on the training deck."

"There's a training deck?" Hunk asks.

Coran just gives them a strange smile before turning and leaving the room. They all share a look before following him out the door.

Natalie would have gone in with the others if Coran had not asked her to follow him. As it turns out, he had taken her to what appeared to be the control room that looks down on the training deck. Below them, the others were in a circle in the centre of the room as the systems come to life. "Two, two, one, two," Coran mutters, testing the headset he was using to ensure those downstairs could hear him. "Okay, listen up, guys. The Paladin code demands you put your team members' safety above your own. A swarm of drones is about to attack."

With that said, the drones, small floating spheres, flew out of small holes that open up along the walls. Coran continues as the drones head towards them, "It's up to each of you to do everything you can to protect the other members of your team."

As the drones surround them, their shields activate on their right arms. "Wait, wait, wait," Hunk says as he looks down at his shield, "what's going on? Did you guys get one of these?"

"Get ready," Shiro says to them.

The drones immediately start firing, scaring Hunk into ducking, making the beam heading for him hit Pidge in her back. Natalie flinches as she watches her sister fall into a hole that opens up below her. "Protect your teammates," Coran reminds them, "or no one will be there to protect you!"

With Pidge's spot vacant, another drone is able to hit Hunk, causing him to dive into a different hole that opens below him. The remaining three form a tighter circle, pressing their backs together and using their shields to deflect the beams. "Time to increase intensity," Coran informs them.

The drones then speed around them, creating a circle that makes it impossible to discern where the drones were and when they were going to fire. The rate of fire was causing them to strain, but it was not going to stop Lance from being Lance. "You keeping up over there, Keith?"

"Just concentrate on keeping me safe," Keith retorts.

"Me?" Lance scoffs, "I own this drill. You're the one who needs to concentrate."

The drones unexpectedly get lower to the ground, surprising Lance into lifting his foot and the beam he dodges hits Keith instead, sending him down his own hole in the ground. The sudden lack of someone behind him means that Lance also gets sent down a hole and before long, with no one there to watch his back, Shiro goes down too. This ridiculous display has Natalie face-palming and shaking her head. Hearing Coran groan, she looks to see he was doing the same.

Natalie found the next exercise to be fascinating. Well, more accurately, she found the science behind the exercise fascinating. She looks down at where Lance was waiting, surrounded by the walls of a maze. The interesting part of this, was that Lance could not even see these walls, they were actually invisible. "To form Voltron," Coran was explaining beside her, "you must trust in each other. This ancient Paladin maze will teach you that trust. Your teammate can see the walls, but you cannot. So listen carefully. If you touch the walls, you'll get a slight shock."

"Wait," Lance says as he puts on his helmet, "who's guiding me through?"

"Take two steps forward," Keith says from his spot on Natalie's other side, staring intently at an image of the maze in order to guide Lance through.

"Oh, no. Not Keith," Lance moans. "Why does he get to be the man on the mic?"

"Now, just sit tight," Coran placates him, "You'll get your turn."

"Like I said," Keith cuts in, "take two steps forward, turn right, and take three steps that direction."

Lance starts moving and immediately hits a wall, shocking him very visibly, causing Natalie to flinch. "You did that on purpose!" Lance shouts up at Keith.

"You're not listening," Keith tersely says back.

"You said, 'turn right,'" Lance argues.

"But before that, I said, 'take two steps forward,'" Keith argues back.

Lance groans, turns, takes a step forward and just runs into another wall. "We're switching places right now!" he yells.

The next exercise found the Paladins back outside in their lions, Coran and Natalie watching from the bridge. They were flying in formation rather far away, so Natalie was relying on the scanners to see what was going on. "You'll never be able to form Voltron," Coran was explaining to them, "unless each of you has a strong bond with their lion."

"No problem," Lance brushes Coran's words aside, "me and Blue are best buds for life, for real."

"Perfect!" Coran says in return. "Then you won't have any issues with this exercise. Everyone, put your lions into a nose dive!"

Natalie throws a shocked look Coran's way, what kind of exercise was this? The others seem to find no problem, because she sees the calm on their faces as they do exactly as he had instructed.

"This is an expert-level drill," Coran continues as the five of them enter the nose dive, Natalie's heart along with them. "That you really shouldn't attempt until you've been flying for years, but uh, we're in a bit of a rush, so here we go. Activating training helmets."

What exactly are training helmets? Natalie got her answers when the visor on all their helmets turned dark, making it impossible for them to see. Most of them gasped, but of course Lance started screaming, "Coran, what's happening? I can't see!"

"You must learn to see through your lions' eyes," Coran explains. "The goal is to pull up right before you crash into the ground. Feel what the lion feels!"

"Mine feels scared," Hunk asserts before pulling out.

Meanwhile, Lance was turning it into some kind of competition as usual, "You still going, Keith?"

"You know it," he replies, "you?"

"Going?" Lance scoffs, frowning, "I'm speeding up!"

"Oh yeah?"

Natalie could only watch as Keith took the bait, the two boys now diving even faster than before.

"Must be getting close," Lance says after a while.

"Must be," Keith retorts.

"You getting scared?"

"I'm not scared!" Keith shouts, rising again to the bait.

Natalie felt the moment they crashed into the ground, it rattled the castle. She grew worried, and felt relief when she heard Lance's groan of 'I win.' Then she felt her brow twitch in irritation, when would Lance grow up and when would Keith stop falling for it?

"What was that noise?" Pidge called through the speakers, "Did they crash?"

The fear of crashing scared her off, and she backed off just before the ground, but still clipped the side of a cliff as she pulled up. Natalie turned her eyes to the screen displaying Shiro, and she could see the concentration on his face as he continued to dive. She begun to worry he might crash as well, but he pulled up metres before the ground. It seemed he was the only one to succeed as he and his lion continued to weave through the rocks, "I think I'm getting this," he mumbles.

"Excellent, Shiro!" Coran exclaims from beside her.

At least someone was able to do it.

They were now back in the training deck, sitting in a circle facing in wards, with strange cerebral devices on their heads. Natalie was back in her place on the observation deck, watching as Coran instructed them. "Now the most important part of paladin training is being able to meld your minds and focus on one thing: Voltron. Everything else has to fade away. This technique will be essential every time you form Voltron. So, relax and open your minds."

Natalie could just make out what some of them were thinking about, Keith about the shack in the desert, Lance about his family and Hunk, of course, was thinking about food.

"No walls, no secrets between paladins," Coran continued in a soothing tone.

As for Pidge, the image of their photo with Matt before the Kerberos mission kept flickering in front of her, making Natalie's heart ache.

"Come on, everyone, clear everything. Now, focus on forming your lion."

Shiro's image of the Garrison was the first to morph into his lion, followed by the boys. Pidge's image continued to stay on the photo.

"Bring your lions together and form Voltron. Keep your minds open, work together. Good! Keep focusing, only one to go!"

Keith is the first to open his eyes and check, noticing Pidge had yet to bring up her lion, "Pidge, stop thinking about Matt, I know you miss him, but now isn't the time."

"I wasn't!" she protests, "Hunk was rooting around in my head!"

Wait, that had been Hunk's fault?

"I thought we were open," the boy defends, "You can look in my head hole."

"Everyone has to be able to look in everyone's head holes!" Coran exclaims and Natalie tries really hard to not to laugh at how that sounds. "Clear your minds!"

They go back to focusing and it finally looks like they will be able to do it.

"Good," Coran says softly, "Almost there. Now, form Voltron."

Just when it looked like everything was going smoothly, the green arm of Pidge's lion turned back into the photo of Natalie, Matt and herself.

"Pidge!" Lance shouts.

She rips the device off her head, and throwing it on the ground she shouts, "I'm done with this! Look, I don't like everyone grubbing around in my head!"

"Oh, come on, Pidge, we're starting to get the hang of this," Shiro tries to reason.

"Isn't the only secret you were hiding was that you're a girl, well we already know that," Hunk throws in.

"Maybe it's because I'm a girl that I don't want four guys in my head," she snaps back before sighing, "I'm just…I'm just tired, okay?"

"Okay," Shiro relents, "Let's take a break."

A few minutes later, Natalie and Coran were down on the deck with the others who were all seated as Coran handed out pouches of water for them. Natalie's first instinct is to sit beside Keith, because they were used to seeking each other out. However, her sister was the one who actually needed her, so she sat beside Pidge, allowing the younger girl to lean into her. They need not say anything, but Natalie could feel her sister's appreciation.

"You have been working hard," Coran says. "Maybe it's time to relax a little."

As if the training gods had summoned her, Allura chose this moment to come storming in, back into her own suit. "What are you doing lying around? You're supposed to be training!"

"Just resting a bit," Coran assures her, "You know you can't push too hard."

"What do you mean, 'can't push too hard'?" she gripes. "Get up you lazy lumps! It's time you faced the Gladiator!"

They had no chance to protest as the princess turned to leave causing them all to share a look before resigning to their fate. Natalie on the other hand, quickly rose and chased after Allura. She caught her in the halls, "Allura, do you have a moment?"

The other girl stopped, "Yes, what is it?"

"I know you're worried about the Galra and getting them ready for the fight, but I'd like to remind you that they're only human," Natalie says as she walks to be beside her.

"I am aware that they are human, I don't see your point."

"My point is, humans are not as durable as I've come to realise you Alteans are," she explains. "Humans are a relatively weak species, we tire easily in these conditions and I'd also like to point out that with the exception of Shiro, the others are only just leaving behind their childhood by Earth standards. Katie is only fifteen and females are already considered the weaker gender on Earth. While the boys are mostly keeping up, she is struggling not only because she's a girl, but because she's younger and a lot smaller. A lot of these physical and mental exercises that are designed for stronger species are going to tire all five of them out a lot faster than it would if they were of another species. So my point, I need you to go a little easier on them, because while yes, they need to get stronger and have better team work. They won't be able to fight at all if they can't even move from exhaustion."

There was a tense silence for a short while, and Natalie could see that Allura was thinking about her words. "I see your point," she eventually says, "I'll keep that in mind from now on."

"That's all that I ask."

Allura replies only with a nod of her head before walking off. Natalie made her way up to the viewing deck again.

"In order to defeat the Gladiator," Coran was explaining, "five paladins must fight as one."

Natalie was a little bit worried about what exactly this Gladiator was, though she had a very good idea. Sure enough, barely a few seconds after Coran had finished speaking, a hole above their heads opened up and a humanoid robot fell from it. It was crouched in its landing and held a staff above its head.

It wasted no time and started on its first target; Hunk. The boy yelled as he fired on it, but it easily dodged around the rapid fire. Keith had to raise his shield to deflect the friendly fire as the Gladiator quickly knocked Hunk off his feet and then zapped him. Its attention was then centered on Pidge as the girl ran at it, trying to hit it with her bayard. Unfortunately, she stood no chance as it easily fought her off and she found herself thrown at Hunk, landing on the poor boy.

Natalie was beginning to think it was hopeless, what the hell was this thing?

Next to have a shot at it was Lance, firing from his gun, however, again, it fought him off before knocking his bayard out of his hands. Keith tried coming in from behind, but it managed to fight both boys at once and using its staff, throws Lance into Keith, taking both of them out.

Shiro was the only one left at this point, and Natalie was worried with him being alone. He activated his arm, but just as the Gladiator was coming in, he appeared to freeze, his arm returning to normal. The robot would have managed to hit the distracted man if Keith had not jumped in and blocked the staff with his sword. "Shiro, are you okay?" he asks, turning slightly to face him.

The distraction was enough for the Gladiator to hit Keith and then knock him into Shiro. Now that they were all down, the Gladiator deactivated, falling over as Allura came up behind it. "That combat simulator was set at a level fit for an Altean child!" she admonishes, "You're not even close to working as a team, let alone ready to face Zarkon!"

She looked ready to say more, but her eyes met Natalie's and she let it go.

Eventually, it was time to eat and they all found themselves in the dining room. The seat at the head was vacant, it was Allura's seat, Natalie sat opposite on the other end. Shiro sat beside the princess' seat, going down the line was Hunk, Lance, Keith and Pidge, who was beside Natalie. Before them was, of course, food goo in all its infinite greenness. "Ahoy young paladins, and one engineer," Coran starts cheerfully, "I've whipped up a big batch of focusing food. After this meal, you paladins will be forming Voltron six times a movement and twice on the astral conflux!"

Natalie was curious to know what exactly an 'astral conflux' was, but the sight of the food goo was making her a little queasy. Shiro answers for them instead, "Smells great, Coran. Thanks."

They were all ready to eat when Coran suddenly smirked, pulled out a remote and pressed a button on it. The five paladins now found themselves handcuffed to the person next to them, Shiro and Pidge being on the ends were the only ones with a free hand. Natalie had her spoon halfway to her face, she had paused in surprise at what had happened. "Hold the phone!" Lance calls, the first to regain his wits.

"I saw a lot of solid individual performances today," Coran explains, ignoring Lance's comment, "but you're still struggling to work as a team. So welcome to the final bonding exercise of the day."

They started playing around with their joined limbs only to find that they quickly magnetised back together even when slightly separated. Hunk is the first to snap, "Coran, I want you to think about what you're doing."

"This one's a classic," the man continued, ignoring him, "You get to feed each other, like a pack of yalmors!"

They were all giving each other evils, and Natalie was a little put out to see that Keith and Pidge looked unsure how to handle being handcuffed to each other. Lance looked down her way and finally noticed something, "Hey, why is Natalie free?"

While the others gave him incredulous looks, Coran explains like he is talking to a small child, "Well for one, she isn't wearing a suit that has the cuffs and for another, she isn't a paladin that needs to work on Voltron building team work."

"Oh," the boy mutters, realising he had made himself look like an idiot.

Time went on as they continued to try and eat while cuffed to each other and Allura had even joined them at some point. Natalie spent more time watching them than actually eating her own food. They were pulling each other, accidentally biting each other or knocking food off spoons. Sometimes hands ended up in another person's bowl and overall arguments were breaking out, though mostly with Keith and Lance. While Natalie was generally amused, Allura was getting clearly frustrated. "Do Earthlings ever stop complaining?" she finally says.

"Can't you just give us a break?" Shiro asks calmly, the only one calm amongst the paladins. "Everyone's been working really hard today."

"Yeah," Keith says, standing in his place, Pidge and Lance's arms raised slightly with him. "We're not some prisoners for you to toy with, like…like…"

"Like a bunch of toy prisoners!" Lance shouts out.

"Yes! Thank you, Lance!" Keith says to the other boy, causing Natalie to raise her brow in wonder.

However, this was making Coran angry, "You do not yell at the Princess!"

"Oh, the princess of what?" Pidge suddenly throws in. "We're the only ones out here and she's no princess of ours!"

She barely finishes her statement before food goo is flung in her face courtesy of Allura and her spoon.

"Go loose, Pidge!" Keith shouts, lifting his bowl and returning the favour to the princess.

However, Coran quickly blocks it and uses his ladle to fling food goo in the faces of the paladins. Natalie had ducked when Pidge had been hit, so she escaped being hit with Coran's attack. Hunk shakes his head, trying to get as much off his face as possible, "Oh, it's on now."

Before long, it had turned into a full on food fight, the five paladins versus Allura and Coran. Natalie, on the other hand, was under the table, waiting for it to be over with. She had the one outfit, she was not getting food on it. It sounded like a lot of fun was being had, but she stayed hidden until the sounds of Allura sinking into a chair resounded. She stuck her head out to see that it was finally over. They all started laughing with each other as Natalie finally crawled out from under the table, sitting back down in her chair.

"Enough!" Allura suddenly shouts, causing Natalie to jump slightly and the others to stop laughing. "Do you see what you're doing?"

They were silent in shock until her head came up to reveal the big smile on her face, "You're finally working together as one!"

"Hey, she's right!" Keith says happily.

"I actually don't hate you right now," Lance admits jovially.

"You guys thinking what I'm thinking?" Hunk cuts in.

"Let's go form Voltron," Shiro answers.

"Yeah!" they all exclaimed.

"Actually," Hunk cuts in again, "I was thinking dessert, but yeah! Let's do it!"

It was at this point they all fell down to the floor, Natalie finally letting loose her laughter that she had been holding back.

After a quick clean, they had made their way to the bridge, the three non-paladins waiting outside the castle, while the others made their way to their lion hangars via the bridge. "Everyone ready to do this?" Shiro calls as the video feed of his cockpit displays in front of them.

The other displays soon follow as they all make it to their lions.

"Roger that!" says Pidge.

"It's on!" chants Lance.

"Yes sir." Keith.

"I was born ready!" Hunk cheers.

"Then let's go!" Shiro shouts as his lion roars, shaking the castle along with it.

Natalie watched in wonder as they exited their hangars and converge to one point. She had only seen Voltron after they had already formed it the last time, now she got to watch the magic happen as five lions became one giant robot. Eventually, Voltron stood before them and Natalie knew she had that look on her face right now, the one that Keith usually got afraid of. Because it usually came right before she drowned herself in research and barely came up for air. She almost did not hear Allura's comment over her excitement, "I told you I could get them to do it. They just needed a common enemy."

It then occurred to Natalie what had happened, Allura was not pushing them hard for no reason, she had made herself out to be the bad guy so that they would work together. It made her feel a little bad about the way she had talked to her earlier. "It's true," Coran said sagely from behind the two girls, "like the old proverb says, 'A man can be driven to do anything, if a beautiful woman is just really, really mean to him.'"

"Ahh," Natalie drones while both her and Allura frown, "Now, usually I'd like to discredit something like that, based on the fact that it's rather sexist and that one of those picked on paladins is also a woman, but seeing as I use it on a rare occasion to get Keith to do something for me, I'll ignore it. Though I'm less mean and more guilt-trippy, I guess it's the same principle."

The six humans were back in the lounge, spread out around the couch. Keith had his arm behind Natalie as they sat next to each other, watching Lance get pumped, "Man that was cool! I'm so charged up, I don't know if I'm going to be able to sleep tonight."

"Not me," Keith says, "When my head hits the pillow, I'm going to be lights out."

"You have the benefit of a warm, human pillow to help you sleep," Lance says teasingly, causing Natalie and Keith to blush.

The couple do not have a chance to comment on that before Hunk cuts in, "I just want you to know that I realised when we were in Voltron, we're brothers, man."

He pulls Lance and Keith, who was forced to let go of Natalie, into a tight hug. "And, of course, a sister," he continues, "You know? Like, we're totally connected. No secrets, no barriers, no nothing. Brothers, and sister, all the way. I love you guys."

"G-forces mess with your head a little bit?" Keith asks as Natalie watches Shiro stand up.

"Yeah, maybe a little," Hunk agrees, letting the two other boys go, "I don't know. It's been a tough few days."

The boys all stood, getting ready to move out, but when Natalie stayed sitting down, Keith gave her a look. "I'll come to bed soon," she tells him softly, using her head to indicate Pidge who had yet to move either.

He nods in understanding before leaving. Shiro stops when he notices the girls are not moving, "Going to bed, girls?"

"In a minute," Pidge answers for them.

"Good work today," he says to the younger girl, "We're really coming together."

As soon as they were all gone, Pidge pulled out the photo from her pocket, Natalie stood so that she could join her sister. She sat still beside her for a while before finally saying something, "We'll find them, Katie. Of that, I have no doubt."

"I hope so."

Instead of saying more, Natalie took her little sister into her arms and said nothing about the tears she could feel soaking through her clothes.

Keith woke up when he heard the door open, but kept his eyes closed knowing it was just Natalie. He waited while she changed into the pyjamas that were technically his, and felt the bed dip when she finally joined him. He did not resist when she moved his arm to wiggle under it and he tightened his hold on her when she lowered it to be over her waist. She had known he was awake because she knew he was a light sleeper. "Is she okay?" he finally whispers when she stops moving, indicating she was comfortable.

"She's okay, she's just worried about Matt and dad," she answers softly, he could tell she was starting to fall asleep.

"We'll find them, Nat."

"I know."

He knew the moment she fell asleep, and he could feel her soft breaths on his arm. He kissed the top of her head and allowed himself to fall back into the darkness of slumber.

A/N: finally another chapter!

So, a little KeithxNat at the end there, because while this fic isn't a romance, I ain't gonna miss opportunities to throw in cute scenes between the two.

Now, November, and therefore NaNoWriMo, is around the corner. This could mean one of two things. Either; 1 - I actually do what I plan and write a book, having no time for fanfiction, or 2 - I go in with a book plan, then end up writing 50k words of fanfiction to procrastinate like I did last year.

Long story short, this fic may get major updates in November, or none at all for a while. Hard to say.

Well, until next time.

Seza, out.