Chapter 8

The group is exhausted. Hunk dozed and woke himself up. Pidge and Shiro were working on something. "Maybe if we run this configuration." Shiro suggests. Pidge fidgets a little. "Still nothing." She tells him disappointed. "Allura, try the sonic wave." Pidge tells her. "Okay, I'll try." She tries to power blue up. "It's still not working. And it probably won't work again until our power-cores are recharged."

"Roger that. Well, our long-range scanners still haven't detected any planets nearby. No star systems, nothing."

"How long have we been out here?" Lance asks. "Going on four movements." Romelle replies. "And how long is it going to take us to get to Earth at this speed?"

"I think Pidge something like ten billion deca-phoebes."

"I said one and a half Earth years."

"Eh." Romelle shrugs it off. "Whoa, whoa. Wait, there's a big discrepancy between ten billion deca-phoebes and one and a half Earth years. Which one is it?" Hunk comments. "It's one and a half Earth years." Pidge yells. "We've gone over this several times, though there may be a margin of error of about a month, depending on any time dilation we encounter." She further explains. "Look, we knew this wasn't going to be an easy or quick voyage, but replacing the Castle of Lions is our top priority." Shiro tells the group. "We just have to stay sharp and maintain discipline. We knew when we started this journey that we'd be low of power. We didn't plan on going through the galactic void, but we'll get through it." Keith adds. "Don't worry, guys. We'll run into something eventually that will turn this trip around." Lance promises the group. "What makes you so sure?" Hunk asks his friend. "If my experience in space has taught me anything it's that something always come along to try to kill us." No one knows what to say to that.

The area around them darknens. "Hey, Pidge, why is it so dark out here?" Lance asks. "I can't be sure, but my theory is that this area is surrounded by some kind of nebula that blocks most of the light."

"Oh, yeah. Must be a patch of that dark matter I've heard about."

"That isn't what dark matter is."

"Although, when it's this dark, I guess it doesn't matter, right guys?" Hunk jokes. Most of the group groans at the horrible joke. "This is why no one rides with me anymore, isn't it?"

"Guys, I think I might have an idea on how to get the lions back to full power." Shiro tells the group. "And you're just now telling us this?"

"Well, I'm sorry, Lance, but I guess having my consciousness transplanted from the infinity of Voltron's inner quintessence into the dead body of an evil clone of myself has left me a little out of sorts for the past few weeks."

"Oh. Yeah, that."

"What is it, Shiro?" Keith asks. "It's difficult to articulate, but remember when we were fighting Zarkon and we were hit with that beam that drained all of our quintessence?"

"Yes, you were all completely incapacitated." Allura comments. "That's right, but we managed to regenerate enough power to keep fighting."

"Yeah. We repowered Voltron ourselves." Keith added. "Exactly. And I think that's how it's meant to work. Since I disappeared, you've been relying on the Castle's crystal to keep the lions charged. But if you were a team of fully-realized paladins, you wouldn't need that."

"I... I can't help but feel this must be my fault. You were able to recharge Voltron before, but since I joined..."

"It's no one's fault." Shiro tells her. "Being a Paladin of Voltron takes training. You just haven't had time to focus on working together to find you balance in this configuration." Shiro elaborates. "Well, we've got nothing but time now." Pidge tells the group. "That's right. We've been down before, and we always come back." Lance adds. "I'm glad you're here, Shiro. After all you went through, how did you find the strength to be the leader of Voltron?" Keith asks. "I had help. That's why there are five of you, to lift each other up."

"So what should we do? Flight formation exercises."

"What's that?" Pidge asks. "You know, when you line up and..."

"No, no, no! That. Dead ahead." Everyone looks and sees bright flashes. "My scanner aren't picking anything up." Pidge tells them. A bright flash comes right in front of the lions. It knocks them back. "What the quiznak is this?" Lance asks. The light is pushing them backwards. "Whatever it is, we got to move!" Keith says. They try to fly away, but electricity zaps each lion. It stops. But they get blasted again. They all scream. After the flash of light disappears, the lions are out. "Is everyone all right?" Keith asks. "I'm here." Pidge responds. "Still alive." Lance responds. "That was crazy." Hunk yells. "I'm fine." Allura tells them. Allura looks over at Coran. He is frozen like a statue. Keith turns around. The wolf is also frozen. "Hey, are you okay, buddy?" Keith floats over to check on him. Shiro is also frozen with his eyes closed. "Shiro, can you hear me?" Pidge tries to get him to respond. Pidge's helmet scans him. "Shiro seems to be frozen, but his vitals are strong."

"Same here." Keith responds. Lance pokes Romelle's face. "Copy that with Romelle. What is going on?"

"Coran is frozen as well. Our paladin armor must have protected us from the shock. The Blue Lion is completely incapacitated."

"Yeah, Red is out too."

"So, we're all alone in space, no power, no way to call for help, nothing within several thousand light years..." Hunk panics. "What do we do?" Lance asks. "Pidge, is there any way to get the lions back up and running?" Keith inquires. "Maybe, but I don't know how long it'll take. And I don't know if you've noticed, but we're all drifting in opposite directions after that blast."

"If we don't get the power back on, we might lose each other." Hunk explains. "Okay, the power's gonna have to wait. Our top priority is tethering the lions together." Keith tells the group. "I think I have an idea of how we can do it." Allura says. "How? Some magical powers that you learned on Oriande?"

"Lance, one, it is alchemy, not magic. And two, no, I have some leftover zip line in my hull."

"Oh."

"Wait, we're getting out of our lions to do this? We don't even know what that energy pulse was." Hunk points out. "It's the only way to stay together. Allura, grab that zip line. Let's get moving." Keith tells the group.

Keith exits his lion. "Everyone stay sharp and hang out."

"Ugh. So many lions, all spinning." Hunk makes a sound like he might puke. "Come one Hunk. You've been through worse than this." Lance tells his friend. "Yeah, yeah. Yeah, okay. Let me just... Nope. No good. Oh, don't barf in the space helmet, Hunk. Don't do it."

"You're going to have to push your lions to my location. Otherwise, there won't be enough cord to attach us together." Allura tells the other Paladins. "Uh, by ourselves? I don't think that's possible." Hunk comments. He tries in vain. "Yeah, no, we're definitely gonna need more help. Our jetpacks just don't have enough thrust. This is gonna take forever. We're gonna have to do this one by one." Hunk observes. "On our way. Everyone to the Yellow Lion." Keith tells the Paladins. They all begin to push him towards Blue. "Oh no." Lance says. "What?" Hunk asks. The Paladins turn to see another bright flash that caused the problem in the first place. "Everyone hold on." Keith tells them.

The hold onto the Yellow lion. Pidge slips, so does Hunk. Everyone else does as well. They all scream as they get blasted away. "I'm losing sight of the lions." Pidge exclaims. "Stay together." Keith tells the group. "Oh, no." Hunk almost pukes. They are all able to link arms in the chaos. "Fire your jetpacks. Let's get stabilized." Keith tells the group. They do as their told and they stop spinning. "Oh, thank you." Hunk tells them. "Does anyone have eyes on the lions?" Lance asks. "I can't see them." Pidge tells everyone. "Neither can I." Allura comments. "At this point, I don't even know which direction they're in." Hunk adds. "Okay, let's run through our checklist. Does anyone have supplies?" Keith asks. Everyone says no. "Our suits will recycle enough moisture to keep us hydrated for a little while. We just need to hang tight. We have each other." Keith tells the group. "Don't worry, Hunk. Something else will be along to kill us any minute now."

"Not helping Lance."

"Any minute." They just continue to float. They decide to link arms in a star formation. Legs out heads and backs together. They decide to sound off every few minutes. "Everyone sound off." Keith tells them.

"Lance here."

"Pidge here."

"Allura here."

"Hunk?" Keith asks. "I'm hiding."

"I need you to sound off, Hunk. It's important to maintain discipline and mental acuity in these situations. These techniques helped my mom and I through the Quantum Abyss."

"Keith is right. Being lost in space has been known to drive one mad. Too much time contemplating infinity is not good for the mind." Allura adds. "I like to keep busy calculating pi out as far as I can. The record is 4 quadrillion, but that's using the Hadoop parallelization framework. I'm just using my brain." Pidge tells them. Hunk laughs a little. "Hadoop." Hunk chuckles more. "Wait. Guys. Look. Lights."

"Told you Lance would go crazy first." Hunk comments. "No, no, no, no! I see them. There really are lights." Pidge looks more of the lights from before are there. "Perhaps it's a ship." Pidge tells them. "Oh, yes. Yes. We're rescued." Hunk cheers. Incorrect. It is a bunch of space fish like creatures floating past them. "Amazing." Pidge wonders aloud. "They're beautiful." Allura comments. They begin forming a pattern around the group. "We should follow them." Hunk adds. "What?" Keith asks. "Yeah. They must be heading somewhere. Like a hive or something. Wherever that is, it must be better than floating around here just, like, starving to death." Keith thinks for a second. "Hunk's right. Let's follow them. Everyone stay together." They moment they power up their jetpacks, the creatures scatter. "Where'd they go?" Lance asks. "Were they even real." Pidge asks. "I guess they could've been a hallucination. But that usually only happens when you're going mad." She adds.

They get back into their formation and continue the routine they had began. They group was tired and hungry. They had no idea how long they had been floating. It could have been minutes, hours, or days. "Everyone... Everyone sound off." Keith says with much labor. "Allura here."

"Lance here."

"Pidge here."

"Hunk, sound off immediately." Keith orders. "Keith you don't have to-"

"It's okay Allura. It's okay. I was just kind of, you know, lost in this fantasy that we'd get to Earth and, you know, the Garrison would throw us a parade and all that stuff, and then, you know, maybe I'd meet some hotshot pilot who wanted to check out the Yellow Lion, and then maybe the Yellow Lion would take a shine to her, obviously, and I'd be like, 'Whoa. Whoa. I can't stand in-between you two. The bond is strong here.'"

"Hunk, what are you talking about?" Lance asks. "Fantasizing about quitting Voltron." Keith analyzes. "No, no, no, no, not quitting. No. Just, you know, being the bigger man. Just stepping aside to pass the baton down to a younger generation."

"Am I quite wrong or is Hunk still very young by Earth standards?"

"No, I think time is different for me, like I'm on dog years or something." They hit some kind of cosmic cloud. It starts pulling them. "What is this?" Lance shouts. "I'm being pulled away!" Allura shouts. "Something is attacking us. Keith, what do we do?" Hunk asks. "I can't hold on." Allura shouts. Keith lets go with on hand, and makes the Paladins be in a chain. He starts slashing at the cosmic thing with his unactivated bayard. Allura's hand continues to slip from Hunk's. After a minute, the cosmic thing disappears. "My bayard won't work. We don't know where the lions are. We're being attacked by things we can't even see."

"Keith, what are you talking about? There's nothing out there. It's just us." Lance tells him clearly concerned. He ignores the question and they go back to their routine again. The beeping sounds on Keith's helmet, but he doesn't say anything. "Keith, shouldn't we sound off?" Lance asks. "What's the point?"

"Lance here."

"Pidge here."

"Allura here."

"I am Hunk."

"I wonder how my dad and Matt are doing."

"Better than us, hopefully." Keith says. "My father had something he always said in dire situations." Allura begins.

"'Give up'?" Keith asks.

"Sorry?"

"It doesn't seem like he was a real fighter when the chips were down."

"Keith, come on." Hunk tries to calm the situation unsuccessfully. "You have a lot of nerve questioning someone's leadership. You're the one who abandoned his team."

"Allura please." Hunk tried. "Don't talk to him like that." Lance yells at Allura. "As I recall, you were the one who got all cozied up to Lotor."

"Keith, you ran away. Maybe you should have just stayed away." Allura fires back. "Everyone stop!" Hunk yells. "Look, guys, I understand what's happening here. You're all brave heroes who don't know how to react to being scared, and it is causing you to attack one another. That or you're all going space mad. Hopefully, you're just scared. I'm scared all the time. I can talk you through it."

"Sorry, Hunk, I guess I just don't know how to be a coward." Allura tells him. "Right. That's what I'm saying." Lance leaps at her. "Leave him alone." Allura pushes him. "Stop it." Keith tells her. "Why don't you just drift off by yourself, Mr. Loner." Allura retorts. "Fine."

"No, don't." Hunk shouts. Hunk grabs his leg. Lance grabs Hunk's leg, Pidge grabs Lance's arm, and Allura grabs Pidge's hand. "We have to stay together."

"Why, Hunk? Are we really even friends? It there anything holding us together besides some messed up series of coincidences? I mean, what are we? Some chosen saviors? Do you really believe that? What are we even doing out here!" Keith yells that last bit. "We're doing what we have to." Hunk responds. "Let me go."

"No."

"Uh, guys." Pidge starts. "Is it more of those creatures?" Lance asks. "No, it appears to be a singles source. It looks like a planet." Allura comments. "No way." Lance says. "It's... Earth." Keith says. "That wave must have knocked us all the way across the universe." Pidge guesses. "We're home." Lance shouts and begins to jetpack in that direction. So does everyone else, except the yellow Paladin. After a pause, he follows. "We're gonna make it, guys." Lance says with hope. Pidge and Lance have tears in their eyes. Hunk looks around. "Wait, wait, wait, wait, guys, where's the sun? Where's the other planets? Or the moon?" He pauses. "Stop. This is too good to be true. Stop. Everybody, stop." Hunk flies in front of the group and blocks their path. "Hunk, what are you doing?" Keith asks annoyed. "Stop it Hunk." Lance tells him. "No, no, something is wrong."

"Hunk, you're hallucinating! You're going space mad! Just let us take you home." Pidge tells him. The group grabs Hunk and begins to fly again. Hunk pushes back. "No, listen to yourselves. You're letting all of this get the better of you. There's no way that can be Earth." They other four push back again. "Just trust us, Hunk. You'll thank us when we get there." Allura tells him. "Let me go!" Hunk shouts. He gets free and is shot a ways away. Hunk pulls out his bayard. Using much willpower, he gets it to turn on and fires on 'Earth'. The illusion disappears and is replaced with the eye of a creature. A very large creature. "What the quiznak is that thing?" Lance asks. "Hunk was right." Pidge says. "He saved us." Allura adds. "Here it comes." Hunk interrupts. The creature opens its very large mouth and tries to swallow them. They scream and fly away. Just barely being missed. "Guys, that thing is hunting us. It's gonna get us all unless we do something." Lance points out. "Like what? We can't even use our bayards." Allura adds. "Hunk, how did you manifest yours?" Pidge inquires. "I don't know. I just knew that I needed to."

"What are we gonna do? We don't stand a chance." Lance shouts. Hunk hardens his resolve. "Get out of here. I'll buy you some time. Go!"

"Hunk!" Lance and Pidge shout. "No!" Allura screams. Hunk shouts and fires his bayard on the large thing. It opens its mouth to swallow Hunk. But he keeps flying towards it. The group grabs his leg. "What are you doing?" He shouts at them. "Fire jetpacks." Keith orders. They move back before the creature gets them. "What are you guys doing? I told you to escape!"

"Why we ever do that without you?" Lance asks. "Yeah. You can't just expect us to just leave you." Pidge adds. "We're a team, Hunk. We have to stick together like you said." Keith tells him. "I'm sorry I said those hurtful things earlier. I was wrong." Allura adds. "I'm sorry too. This series of messed up coincidences did happen for a reason. They brought us together as Paladins. But more importantly... they brought us together as friends." The sentence sparked some sort of connection. Suddenly their bayards worked. "All right, team. We have to attack this thing with our bayards from every side possible. That way it can't target us all at once. " Keith tells his friends. The group attacks from different sides, avoiding the creatures mouth and other body parts that stick out of the creature trying to get them. Pidge hits it and gets pulled along. She gets flung, and crashes into Lance. They stop next to the others. "It's toying with us." Allura realizes aloud. Lance fires.

Before it can eat them something fires at the creature from behind the paladins. The lions have come and attack. It flies away. "Yeah you better run!" Lance taunts. Pidge turns around. "I think he might actually be running from that." Pidge points out the same stuff that got them into this situation. "Again?" Hunk asks. "We know we can't outrun it." Allura points out. "We're not running this time." Keith tells them. All of the Paladins get into their lions. "Form Voltron." Keith tells the team. They do. The white blasts get closer, but Voltron stands their ground. They get hit, but they keep going. The bayard bay comes up in Keith and Lance's lions. The put it in a turn. Voltron's wings turn large and gain super boosters. They fly. The light changes colors as they fly through. They make it through. Everyone who was frozen, is now unfrozen. "What happened? Did something come to try to kill us?" Romelle asks. "You know it." Lance sighs and slumps. "It looks like that nebula carried us thousands of light years away." Allura analyzes. "So where are we?" Coran asks. "That looks like... I recognize these constellations. "Pidge says excitedly. "This is Earth's Galaxy. It's the Milky Way!" She tells them. "Home." Hunk says. "We made it." Lance smiles. "We're finally here." Shiro says. "Well, what are we waiting for?" Keith asks rhetorically. They start heading in the direction of earth as fast as they could.

AN: That's the end of this chapter. You're welcome to skip over this but I just wanted to address three things.

1. First and for most. You are awesome. Thank you for reading this. It really means a lot. (You're still awesome even if you don't read this.) Just your daily reminder that you rock.

2. I hope you liked this chapter. I originally was not going to include this episode because it is one of my least favorite. Definitely the least favorite of season 7. I just hate how they turn on each other. But I realized it is pretty important to the story, and Hunk rocks in this episode. In a hardcore badass way. I am also always terrified. And I don't have to go through the same things he does. So that is why I decided to keep it but rewrite much of the dialogue to my advantage.

3. You've probably noticed that I have been going episode by episode. The next one is the 'The Last Stand Pt I" and then part two. If you will remember, that is where Earth prepares for and then tries to survive the Galra invasion. After a lot of thinking, I decided to not rewrite these parts. "But that's where Adam dies." Many of you are probably yelling. Yes I know. And I really, really, wish that he and Shiro could have had a happy ending together. But for a few reasons, I have decided against it. I think the creators actually did very well on these two episodes. I also fell like it was an important part of the story. And I don't really know enough about him to feel comfortable enough writing him. Like yeah I guess I could make it up. But when I write a character, I like to create a character sheet. Likes, dislikes, goals, hobbies, personality, back story, all of that, and we have like nothing for Adam. I just wouldn't know where to start with his character. It does make me sad, but seeing as this is my story, I decided that this is what was best. I hope you read the rest anyway even if you don't like this decision. There is much Klance ahead.

Thanks again for reading. You're awesome. Nerd Out.