Voltron: Universal Defender
Fanfiction by: Spirit Reader and Serpentdragon
Voltron created by: Toei Animation, World Events Production, and DreamWorks Animation
Chapter 3: The Awakening
It's always been mankind's greatest desire to fly out into space and see what lies beyond Earth's borders. However, anyone who thought of that had absolutely no idea just how vast the universe actually is or what secrets it holds. This was the case for 5 young individual from Earth; Marcus Robinson, Sasuke Kurosaki, Felecia Daniels, Antonio Martinelli, and Kevin Peterson. These individuals were about to learn what truly resides out there in the universe and what role the 5 of them will all have to play.
Following their escape from the alien ship that was chasing them from Earth, the group was busy trying to navigate through a vortex while inside of the mysterious Blue Lion. Somehow, for reasons that couldn't really be explained, the lion wanted them to enter the vortex and group ultimately relented to it. They had absolutely no idea what was about to happen now, but decided to push forward. They believed that the Blue Lion was the key to finding the remaining pieces of Voltron and they resolved to follow it in order to get to the super weapon.
Eventually, in a completely separate section of the universe, another vortex suddenly appeared and the Blue Lion exited from it. Upon doing so, Marcus and the others were all trying to shake off the intense jetlag that they were feeling from their interstellar travels. Unfortunately, while 4 of them were able to do so, Kevin was ultimately unable. Extremely nauseous, the young man soon found himself vomiting inside the cockpit of the Blue Lion, much to the disgust of everyone else.
"Damn it Kevin…" Felecia said as she attempted to avoid the vomit. "I know you're bad at this, but at least have some self control."
As Felecia shook her head in annoyance, Marcus walked over to Kevin and gently started rubbing his back. Having travelled through deep space before, he had firsthand experience of what Kevin was going through. Because of that, even though he did find it to be very disgusting, Marcus couldn't fault Kevin for throwing up and simply tried his best to comfort the young cadet as he continued to vomit.
While that was going on however, the others were busy looking out through the view screen. To their utter surprise, the first thing they saw was not the empty vastness of space, but instead a beautiful blue planet. It looked very similar to Earth, but it was clearly much bigger and seemed to have far more water. As they marveled at the sight of it, the Blue Lion suddenly started moving on its own, proceeding to make its way towards the planet.
"Hey…Where do you think you're going?" Sasuke questioned Tony.
"It's not me, it's the lion!" Tony replied. "I think…I think it's going home."
The Blue Lion quickly pierced through the planet's atmosphere, shaking its insides and, by extension, everyone else, as a result. Kevin nearly threw up again, but was stopped when Felecia forcibly covered his mouth and had him swallow his own vomit. Once the lion made it through the atmosphere of the planet, the group looked out its view screen and was able to get a better look of the surface.
As this was going on, Marcus noticed something coming up ahead. Although he wasn't able to make it out at first, the young man soon got a better look as the Blue Lion got closer to it. He saw that they were heading towards a large island. Not only that, but on the surface of the island of a large white structure. At a glance, the structure resembled that of a castle, but its design was vastly more intricate than any castle Marcus had seen before. It was clear to him that the Blue Lion wanted to bring the group to it, but Marcus had no idea why.
Soon though, the lion finally arrived at the island and proceeded to land down on some kind of landing zone. It then knelt its head down and opened its mouth. At first, the group had no clue what was going on, but soon came to the conclusion that the lion wanted them to leave the cockpit and head towards the castle. Because of that, they all complied too the lion's desire.
"Be careful everyone…" Marcus said as he led the others outside. "We're in unknown territory now and we need to be cautious."
"How come…?" Tony asked. "I thought you said that we should trust the lion."
"I know. Still…I lost old crew aliens before. I'm not about to let that happen again."
As he started to clinch his robotic fist, Marcus started thinking back to the time that he and his crew were captured. Although his memory during those days were still scattered, the one thing he did remembered clearly was the fear and agony that he felt. His failure to protect his former crew from that fate ate up at Marcus even now and he was determined to make sure that history doesn't repeat itself.
Once everyone was outside, they all took a moment to examine the castle more thoroughly before noticing that the Blue Lion was beginning to move on its own. They watched as the mechanical beast sat up and unleashed an ear deafening roar. Once that happened, the group then noticed that a section of the castle started to glow with a light blue color. This caused the doors to open up and reveal the interior.
Although somewhat apprehensive at first, the group slowly made their way inside the castle. Upon entering, they were amazed by just how sophisticated everything seemed to be. Whoever owned this castle must've had access to technology that was thousands of years more advanced than anything available on Earth. It was absolutely breathtaking, especially when it came to Felecia.
"Incredible…" She said in an awestruck tone. "This is absolutely incredible."
"…So what now?" Kevin wondered. "Where are we suppose to go?"
Just as Kevin said that, a light suddenly started to glimmer from the ceiling of the castle and shined down on the group. Once that happened, another light began to emerge from below and it went to cover them all very slowly.
"Halt for Identity Scan!"
A voice suddenly just spoke to everyone as the mysterious light continued to cover their bodies. Understandably concerned, Marcus stepped in front of his friends and braced himself for battle.
"Why are we here?!" He questioned. "What do you want with else?!"
The voice didn't answer the young man's questions. Whoever it was said everything that it needed to say and had no intention of saying anything else. This concerned Marcus as he was afraid that he might've just led his friends into some kind of trap. Because of that, he continued to assume his battle position even when all the lights slowly began to fade away.
Once the lights shining on them finally went out, another group of lights suddenly started to activate from a nearby hallway. As the Earthlings looked on, more and more continued to activate. From what they could tell, it seemed like the castle was telling them to head into the direction of the lights. Although this just raised their suspicions that they were being lead into a trap, the group found no other way of getting the answered they desired. With that, they all proceeded to head towards the lights.
"Well…He goes everything," Kevin nervously stated.
For the next 20 minutes, the group followed the lights as it led them deeper and deeper into the castle. As they walked, both Kevin and Tony tried calling out to someone, hoping that they would receive some kind of reply. Unfortunately, no one answered and that only raised their concerns. Soon though, as they made their way down towards the lower levels of the castle, they soon found themselves in another strange room.
In this room, several circular platforms were surrounding some kind of console. Intrigued, Felecia made her way over to it while everyone continued to look around the room. She then attempted to examine the console, trying to see what it was and how it worked.
"What is this place?" Sasuke wondered as he looked around.
"I think it's some kind of control room." Felecia answered. "But I'm not sure for what."
While continuing her examination, Felecia placed her hands on the console in an attempt to try and activate it. Upon doing so, a strange symbol suddenly appeared on the device and began to light up. This resulted in two of the platforms in the room to slowly begun to rise and reveal some kind of cocoon-like structure. They also noticed that inside both cocoons were people, one who looked like a man and the other a woman. Before they could determine anything else however, they watched as the walls of one of the cocoons slowly began to fade away.
Inside the cocoon was an extremely beautiful woman with long, flowing, blonde hair and purple eyes with a blue iris in the middle. Her attire consisted of a fancy dress that had a blue and white color scheme to it. In addition, she was also wearing a golden tiara with a crystal in the middle. However, what was most astonishing about her were her pointy ears and the pink crescent marks that were on her cheeks. When they saw her, everyone in the group was immediately awestruck by her beauty, especially Tony. They then watched as the woman slowly began to open her eyes.
"Fa…Father!"
Clearly shocked by something she just remembered, the woman suddenly stumbled out of the cocoon and nearly fell face first on the ground. Fortunately, Tony managed to catch her just in the nick of time. Upon getting a better look at her face, the young man was even more stricken by her beauty and attempted to look cool as she lifted her head to face him.
"Why hello there," He said, trying to sound as fancy as possible. "Good morning, gorgeous."
"…Who are you…" The woman asked. "And…where am I?"
"My name is Antonio Martinelli…And you're right here in my arms."
The woman stared at Tony intently, not sure what to make of this strange individual who was holding her so close. As she did so, she noticed something about him that piqued her interest.
"Your ears…"
"My ears…?" Tony glanced at his ears for a moment before looking back at the woman. "What about them?"
"…They're absolutely hideous. What's wrong with them?"
Taken aback by her comment, Tony let go of the woman and began staring at her with angry expression on his face.
"Nothing is wrong with them! Who are you to-"
Before Tony could finish his statement, the woman immediately grabbed a hold of his ear and used it to turn him around. She then grabbed his arm and twisted it back, causing Tony to fall to his knees in submission. Once she had him subdued, the woman slowly tightened her grip as she began to bombard the young man with a series of questions.
"Who are you?! Where is King Alfor?! What are you doing here in my castle?!"
"A giant blue robot lion brought us here!" Tony said, screaming in pain. "Ow! That's all we know!"
Confused by his answer, the woman slowly released Tony and pushed him back towards the others. She then examined each of them with a suspicious look in her eyes before continuing her questioning.
"How do you have the Blue Lion?! What happened to its Paladin?! Who are you people…and what are you doing here?!"
Realizing that things were getting too heated, Marcus calmly extended his hands out in front of the young woman, assuring her that they're not here to do her harm. He then went on to point at the others as he introduced them to her.
"I'm sorry but…we have no idea what you're talking about," He stated. "Why don't you tell us who you are? Maybe we can help."
The woman was slightly hesitant to reveal her identity to this group of strangers, especially since she still wasn't exactly sure what was going on here. However, upon seeing the apprehensive looks that was on some of their faces, she realized that getting upset wasn't going to solve anything. As a result, she introduced herself to the group.
"I am Princess Erina of Planet Altea," She revealed.
"I see…Well Princess, my name is Marcus Robinson. These are my friends; Sasuke Kurosaki, Kevin Peterson, Felecia Daniels, and Antonio Martinelli…but you can call him Tony for short. We come from the Planet Earth."
"…I see. I'm sorry, but I have to find out where we are and how long we've been asleep."
Making her away towards the console, Erina gently placed both of her hands on the touchpads that were on the side. This caused a small holographic view screen to appear in the middle, impressing Felecia greatly. The princess then started typing on the touchpad, trying her best to uncover the information that she desired.
While this was going on, the second cocoon started to activate. When Tony and the others took notice of this, they all watched as it slowly began to open as well. This time, it revealed a rather older man, who was wearing a suit that had the same color scheme as Erina's dress. Not only that, but her was a rather portly fellow with dark skin, purple eyes with orange irises, and well groomed black hair with a beard. Lastly, just like Erina, his arms were pointed and he had orange crescent shaped marks on his cheeks.
Upon awakening, the first thing that man took notice of was Marcus and the others. This caused his eyes to light up as he immediately jumped out of the cocoon and prepared to engage them.
"Enemy combatants!" He shouted.
As he watched the man jumped towards him, Tony easily sidestepped out of the way and watched as he fell face first onto the ground. Although shaken from the fall, the man quickly shook off the pain and stood right be back up.
"Quiznack! You're lucky I had a case of the sleep chamber knees, otherwise I would've had you in my family's famous choke hold and you'd be out in 3 ticks!"
Tony watched as the man began to demonstrate the choke hold that he planned on using on him if he did managed to grab a hold of him. When he saw this, the young man couldn't tell if this individual was being serious or if he was just playing around. Regardless, he wasn't about to let his comment go.
"Oh yeah?!" He replied. "I would have countered your hold, rattled your brain with a quick right hook, before taking you down with my famous power kick!"
"Oh really?! But at the moment you would've done that, I would stopped you dead in your tracks with my power bomb!"
As the two of them started simulating how they would've countered the others move, Felecia and the others were simply looking on with mixed expressions on their faces. Meanwhile, Erina was trying her absolute best to tune out their racket, but was having little success.
"Um…Who is this guy?" Kevin questioned.
"He's my royal vizier; Dardarian Angoliandos," The princess answered. "And, as you can plainly see, he's a bit eccentric."
Soon, after getting sick and tired of their bickering, Erina put her foot down, causing Dardarian to immediately stop messing around. He then watched as the princess was giving the vizier a rather stern look, clearly fed up with his foolishness. Upon seeing that look, Dardarian nervously straighten himself out as Erina turned herself back around and got back to work. Seeing that caused Tony to let out a small snicker, finding this display to be a bit amusing.
Eventually, after typing for another 5 minutes, Erina suddenly stopped. Her eyes then began to widen considerably and her entire body began to shake slightly. She then slowly took two steps back.
"This…can't be…"
"What is it?" Dardarian questioned and he ran up to her. "What did you find out?"
"If…If what I just read is true. Then we've been asleep…for over 10,000 years!"
10,000 Years Ago
Altea, a beautiful planet that's located on the far edge of the universe. Home to a kindhearted people known as Alteans, the planet was the epicenter of a technological advancement so vast that it completely changed the fate of the universe. The most notable of these advancements was the creation of a powerful super weapon known to all as Voltron. Created by the benevolent King Alfor, Voltron stood as a symbol for good and it soon became known as the Defender of the Universe. With Voltron at the helm, the universe entered a grand age of peace and prosperity.
Unfortunately, no matter what the era, peace doesn't last forever. Zarkon, king of the ruthless Galra Empire, had only one desire; compete domination over the universe. With a massive army at his fingertips, he conquered countless worlds and destroyed even more lives. If Voltron is considered a symbol of peace then the Galra and, by extension, Zarkon can be considered to be a symbol of evil. Soon though, Zarkon's desire for power became so great he began setting his sights on the one thing that would secure his rule for all eternity. That one thing was Voltron itself.
Without warning and abandon, Zarkon led his armies on a brutal campaign across the universe in his attempt to secure Voltron. In response, King Alfor and his allies did everything within their power to stop tyrant and put an end to his madness. Unfortunately, they were completely outmatched and one by one, worlds began to crumble at the hands of the Galra Empire. In time, the only world that was left to resist the Galra was Altea itself, but even it was on the verge of total destruction.
During one fierce battle, King Alfor was attempting to sustain the particle barrier erected around the fabled Castle of Lions. After countless losses throughout this world, the noble king was on his last legs. His eyes were shot, he had wrinkles all over his face, and his beard was long a messy. Even so, Alfor refused to give in to despair. He had to keep going, because it wasn't just his life on the line. The lives of everyone in the universe were hanging in the balance.
Fortunately, despite losing a sizeable portion of his men, Alfor wasn't alone in his resistance. He was joined by his daughter, Erina, and his loyal vizier, Dardarian. The two of them refused to abandon their king and were determined to stay with him and fight, even at the cost of their own lives. Together, the three of them managed to hold down the line and resist the Galra. However, despite their valiant attempts of resistance, the Galra continued their assault.
"The power in the engine room has been damaged!" Dardarian declared as he examined some data. "Emergency power is also rapidly diminishing!"
"The particle barrier won't last much longer!" Erina followed up. "If we're going to do something then we need to do it now!"
As the two of them tried their best to find workarounds to their respective problems, Alfor attempted to come up with a solution to this situation. Sadly however, every plan that did manage to come up with ended in death. All hope seemed to be lost. It was at that moment that Alfor suddenly received a hailing signal coming from a nearby Galra ship. When he put it through the castle's view screen, the noble king looked on as a menacing purple alien with glowing eyes and dark armor looked down at him. The moment he saw this alien, Alfor immediately knew who he was.
"Zarkon…"
"Yes Alfor…" The ruthless king replied. "Your fleet has been destroyed. Your planet, nearly wiped out. And now, I will be their shortly to claim Voltron!"
Once that was said, Zarkon terminated communications and his ship immediately fired upon the Castle of Lions again. Although the particle barrier managed to protect the castle, it was destroyed in the process. It would now take only more attack for Zarkon to wipe out his enemies and claim what he believed was rightfully his. Erina realized this and quickly turned towards her father.
"Father, we can't hold on much longer! We have to form Voltron and fight before it's too late!"
"…It's already too late," Alfor sadly replied. "We must send the Lions away! We can't risk them falling into Zarkon's hands!"
Taken aback for a moment, Erina was utterly shocked by her father's suggestion that they send the lions away instead of fighting. If they ran now, then everything they ever fought and died for up till this point would be in vain. Erina couldn't accept that, especially after all the things she lost in this war.
"No! We can't do that, father! We mustn't lose hope!"
Looking at his daughter, Alfor took note in the look in her eyes. It was clear that the princess was scared, but not for her own life. Instead, she was afraid for all the lives that would be sacrificed if they ran away and gave into fear. Alfor understood his daughter's feelings very well, but also managed to see the bigger picture. Because of that, he slowly walked up to Erina and gently placed his hand upon her cheek.
"I'm sorry, daughter. But if all goes well, I will see you again soon."
Once he said that, a small light shined on Alfor's fingertips and touched Erina's face. Instantly, the princess started to feel extremely drowsy and started to fumble backwards. Despite using all of her strength, Erina couldn't stay awake and attempted to reach out to her father before she fell asleep.
"Fa…Father…"
"…I love you, Erina."
Once Erina closed her eyes and fell into a magically induced slumber, Alfor held his daughter closely for a moment before carrying her into another section of the castle. With Dardarian following close behind, Alfor proceeded to place Erina into one of the sleeping chambers and sealed her inside it so that she wouldn't wake up. After he did that, he turned to face his vizier.
"Dardarian, you will take Erina and the Castle of Lions as far away from here as possible."
"But, your majesty…" Dardarian said, clearly shocked by the request that he was given. "You would have me leave your side at the very end?"
"…No," Alfor replied. "I would have you stand by my daughter's."
Walking over towards him, Alfor gently placed his hand upon Dardarian's shoulder. He then gave his vizier and comforting smile. Out of all of his attendants, Dardarian was the one he was the closest too. In many ways, the two of them were brothers and it was far that reason that Alfor had confidence that his friend could fulfill the task that he was given.
"I'm entrusting with what is most precious to me in this entire universe, Dardarian. Will you do this?"
Stunned by his king's faith in him, Dardarian couldn't help but become emotional and started shedding some tears. Although he wanted to stay and fight with him until the very end, Dardarian knew that Alfor was right. He had to take Erina as far away as possible from Altea. That way, even if the planet is lost, its legacy could still survive. So, with a heavy heart, Dardarian gently touched his king's hand before nodding at him.
"It would be…my greatest honor."
With that said, Alfor and Dardarian shared one final hug before the king left the castle to confront Zarkon. Once he was outside, Alfor watched as the Castle of Lions was started flying high into the air, thanks to the highly advanced booster rockets that were on its side. He then turned to face Zarkon's ship, which was slowly lowering down to meet him. After taking a deep breath, Alfor walked up and prepared to enter his final battle.
"To defend the universe!"
Present Day
Sometime after reading the information that was on the records log, Erina was busy sitting down on a set of steps. As Marcus and the others looked on, Dardarian tried his best to comfort his princess. Sadly however, the vizier's actions were having very little success.
"Planet Altea…and every planet in our Solar System have been destroyed," She said quietly. "Father, mother, and everyone…they're all gone. We're the only ones left."
The princess was on the verge of tears. Not only was she now the last of an extinct race of noble people, but the universe has gone through over 10,000 years of oppression by the Galra Empire with no one to oppose them. The despair that she was feeling was tremendous and it was only outweighed by one other emotion; anger. Erina was angry by the fact that her home was destroyed and her people were lost. But more importantly, Erina was angry with the one behind all this senseless destruction.
"Zarkon…!"
Suddenly, upon hearing Erina say that name, a memory flash shot through Marcus's mind. As he held his head in pain, the young man started to recall the time he was captive by aliens. Although there were still gaps, Marcus did remember one thing. He recalled the face of an evil tyrant with glowing purple eyes and that his name was Zarkon.
"…Zarkon," He said slowly. "Who is he?"
"A demon!" Erina angrily answered. "He was the king of the Galra. A vile creature…and enemy to all free people!"
"I remember now…Not that long ago, I was his prisoner."
As the others looked on, Erina immediately sat up. She couldn't believe what she just heard and started shaking her head in defiance.
"He's alive…?" She questioned. "Impossible! The Galra people have a lifespan of 300 years at best! For him to be alive…That would make him over 10,000 years old!"
"I can't explain it, but it's true," Marcus confirmed. "He's searching for a weapon called Voltron. Why does he want it? And what is it exactly?"
"…Zarkon is searching for it because he knows it's the only thing that can defeat him. And that's why I have to find it before he does. Otherwise…the entire universe will forever be his!"
Meanwhile, in another section of the universe, a Galra spacecraft was busy hovering above a nearby planet. Without any hesitation, the ship fired down several lasers beams at the planet's surface, easily penetrating its core. This caused the planet to become unstable, resulting in it breaking apart and being destroyed in a fiery blast. However, despite the billions of lives lost as a result of this heartless action, the Galrans inside the ship did not even flinch a muscle. All they did was direct coldly direct their ship towards its next destination.
As this was happening, a mysterious hooded woman was busy performing a ritual in one of the ship's many rooms. She had dark blue skin, long white hair, red marking on her face, and glowing yellow eyes. Surrounding her was several floating crystals, all of which began to flicker as the woman continued chanting to herself. In addition, there was also a strange insignia placed beneath her as well. The woman has been at this for several hours, not even taking a moment to rest or even eat. However, as she continued her ritual, something unexpected occurred.
Suddenly, a strange pulsation occurred throughout the woman's body. This caused all the crystals, as well as the insignia, to all start glowing at the same time. As the pulsation grew stronger, quickly recognized what it was. Because of that, she picked herself up and quietly left the room that she was in. This caused all the crystals to immediately stop glowing and fall onto the ground.
After a few minutes of walking, the hooded woman made her way towards the central control deck of the ship. Inside was a large man with dark armor and a cape. This individual was none other than Zarkon, who didn't even need to turn around to know that the woman was in the room with him.
"What is it, Haggar?" He asked.
"The Blue Lion has returned, my lord," The woman answered. "And now I sense a resurgence of Altean energy."
For a moment, Zarkon remained silent. Following the reports that the Blue Lion was located on a rather primitive planet and that it escaped through a wormhole, the Galra Emperor suspected that the Altean magic was behind it. However, that seemed impossible as he personally killed King Alfor before destroying Altea itself. There was only one possible explanation, but even that was hard to believe.
"Alfor's daughter lives…How?"
"I know not…" Haggar continued. "But it is time we reclaimed what is rightfully ours."
"Yes…Finally, I shall wipe out that foul race from the universe forever…And take back Voltron! Contact my commanders."
While this was going on, another Galra ship was flying through another section of space. Inside a powerful Galra commander named Sendak was busy doing maintenance on his robot left arm. The arm was 3 times larger than an average one with razor sharp claws. Not only that, but arm was connected to his body by a strange purple energy. Also, in addition to the dark purple skin/fur, that all Galra have, Sendak also had a robotic replacement for his right eye.
Once the maintenance was complete, Sendak tested out his arm by extended far out towards the other side of the room that he was in. After reaching a certain point, the commander made a fist in with the arm and used it to punch a giant hole in the wall. Following that, thanks to the energy that was connecting it to his body, the arm returned to Sendak. He then nodded sternly to himself, seemingly pleased with the results.
"Emperor Zarkon requests an audience with you, Commander."
Upon hearing the message over the intercom, Sendak immediately made his way onto the bridge of his ship. Once he arrived, the commander knelt down to one knee and placed his head down slightly. The other members of his crew immediately followed suit as the view screen started to activate. After a few minutes, Zarkon appeared on the screen and stared directly at the kneeling Sendak.
"Commander Sendak…" He started off. "The Princess of Altea is alive and hiding in your sector. We believe that she alone holds the whereabouts to the remaining Voltron Lions. Your battle fleet is the closest to her current location. Retrieve her and the Lions. With them all, the Galra Empire will be unstoppable!"
"I fight for the Empire," Sendak replied as he placed his right fist near his heart. "I conquer in the name of Galra. No foe has faced me and lived to tell the tale…and none ever will. Vrepit Sa!"
As soon as that was said, Zarkon signed off and the transmission came to an end. Sendak rose back to his feet and immediately turned his helmsman. He then proceeded to give him one direct order.
"Set a course for Planet Arus!"
Chapter Preview
Although she's still hurting over the loss of her people, Princess Erina doesn't have time to mourn. Commander Sendak's fleet is quickly approaching and she and her new allies must find the remaining Voltron Lions if they want any chance of surviving. However, that in turn brings forth a whole series of question. Where are the remaining lions? Who will pilot them? And can they retrieve them before the Galra arrive?
Next Time, Chapter 4: Lion Hunting