Voltron: Universal Defender

Fanfiction by: Spirit Reader and Serpentdragon

Voltron created by: Toei Animation, World Events Production, and DreamWorks Animation

Chapter 5: The Legend Reawakens – Part 1

"Princess Erina, 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 Voltron Lions. Turn them, as well as yourself, over to me…or I will destroy your planet!"

When one is given an ultimatum, they only have 2 choices; comply or deny. In most cases, no matter what choice is made, the ultimate outcome of it will still be bad for the one the ultimatum is being forced upon. This was the case for Princess Erina of Altea as Commander Sendak just informed her.

With his fleet flying high above Planet Arus, ready to strike down with lethal prejudice, the Galra commander has just given Erina an impossible decision. Either she surrenders herself and all the Voltron Lions that she currently possesses or risk the destruction of Arus. Both choices were awful and both will lead to terrible consequences if they're made. Erina didn't know what to do and she doesn't have a lot of time before she has to come up with an answer. Her back was against the wall.

As Sendak waited for a response, Dardarian rushed over to a console and immediately cut the video transmission that he was transmitting. Despite the commander no longer being present however, his threat still lingered inside the Castle of Lions. Although they each had a different expression on their face, the fact remained that they were all concerned by what was going to happen. In time however, Marcus was the first to speak up and talk to the group.

"Okay…Let's not panic everyone."

"Not panic…?" Kevin repeated as he turned to face Marcus. "Not panic? What do you mean not panic?! That scary purple alien guy is hovering his battleship over us and we only have 4 of the lions!"

Upon listening to Kevin's explanation, Felecia immediately picked on something that he just said and realized that he was incorrect about it. The young woman then went to point out what he got wrong.

"Actually, we have only 3 working lions," She revealed. "The Black Lion is still sealed within the castle."

"…Thank you, Felecia," Kevin replied, gently tapping her shoulder. "We have only 3 working lions and a castle that's 10,000 years old. This is the perfect time to be panicking!"

"Actually, its 10,600 years old," Dardarian pointed out. "You see it was actually created by the grandfather of one my close friends. His name was Coran Her-"

Before Dardarian could finish his story, Kevin immediately rushed over towards him and covered his mouth. Now wasn't the time for a long and complicated story about the past. They had to figure out what they were going to do and they needed to do that right now. Eventually, as they weighed their options, Erina came to a sudden realization.

"Wait a minute! This ship has a particle barrier that we can activate!"

"Princess, you have already activated my-"

Just as Tony was about to finish his seemingly romantic statement, Marcus suddenly silenced him by taking his hand and covering his mouth as well. He then gave a cadet an annoying glare, telling him that there was no time for any tasteless comments. Getting the message, Tony nodded his head in compliance as he watched Marcus remove his hand from his mouth.

Shortly after that, Dardarian raced over to main control console and began typing rapidly. As he did so, schematics of Sendak's battleship suddenly appeared on the castle's view screen. With the words typed in an ancient Altean language, there was no way for the Earthlings to know what it said. However, the one thing that they did take notice of was the fact that the cannon on Sendak's ship was highlighted in red.

"The particle barrier won't hold against Sendak's Ion Cannon forever," He revealed. "It's just like with the ships. The Galra's technology has advanced greatly during the last 10,000 years."

"Can we panic now?!" Kevin asked.

"No!" Marcus instantly replied. "We just have to figure out our plan of action. And…figure it out quickly!"

Tensions were running high. Everyone was beginning to feel the pressure of the situation and it was weighing them down. As they all struggled to come up with some kind of plan, Tony soon got an idea. Granted, it wasn't an idea that he particularly liked, but it was one that might get them all out of this situation alive. Because of that, he promptly revealed what it was.

"I say we pop through a wormhole and live to fight another day."

"I second that plan!" Kevin instantly stated. "I mean, we did everything that we could, but we couldn't find all the lions. We gave it the good old college try, but we couldn't do it. We only have 3 so we can't form Voltron! I mean, I guess we can form some kind of snake…or maybe a worm."

Tony took a moment to ponder what Kevin just suggested they do with the lions. The thought of using them to form some kind of snake/worm seemed pretty off putting, especially when compared to a mechanical warrior like Voltron. He then started to wonder if his friend was being serious or just messing around. In the end, he knew that it didn't matter.

"It's decided," He said as he walked over towards Erina. "Princess, you come ride with me. One of you take the old guy."

Erina and Dardarian each stared at Tony with different expressions on their faces. While the princess simply looked at him with a slightly annoyed expression on her face, the vizier seemed rather upset. His anger was mostly directed at Tony's comment about him being old. Just being he's been in cryo-sleep for the last 10,000 years doesn't mean that he was old. In his mind, Dardarian considered himself to still be quite young.

While that was going on however, Felecia simply shook her head in disagreement while Sasuke let out a noticeable sigh. The two of them found Tony and Kevin's suggestion to run away to be quite foolish, if not cowardly. They then immediately stepped up and revealed what they truly thought about it.

"We can't just abandon, Arus!" Felecia pointed out. "The Galra we'll just keep destroying planets and capturing prisoners until they get what they want. We have to stop them!

"…Okay," Kevin replied, realizing that Felecia was sort of right in her statement. "So what we do what we did when he found the Blue Lion. We run then maybe Sendak will follow after us and leave the planet alone. Then we can form the Voltron worm thing and blast off out of here."

"Sendak could just destroy the planet and come after us anyway," Sasuke coldly pointed out. "Staying and fighting is our only option!"

"Here's an option..." Tony said as he turned to face Sasuke. "Shut your mouth!"

Upon hearing Tony say that to him, Sasuke snapped for a moment. The young man was already having a hard time dealing with Tony and his disrespectful comment was the final straw. As a result, he angrily grabbed a hold of his shirt and immediately pulled Tony towards him. However, Tony refused to back down and simply returned Sasuke's glare with one of his own.

"You got a problem with me, you bastard?!" Sasuke questioned.

"Yeah!" Tony truthfully revealed. "I've had a problem with you for a long time!"

The two of them were about to come to blows, but Marcus thankfully stepped in and stopped them both before it came to that. As he tried to keep them separated, he then noticed that both Felecia and Kevin were now arguing with one another.

"We're staying!" Felecia angrily declared.

"We're leaving!" Kevin frighteningly replied.

When he saw the two of them, Marcus prepared to make his way over to the two and get them to stop fighting as well. However, just as he did so, he saw that Sasuke and Tony were at each other's throats again. There were now 2 sets of fights going on and Marcus was having a hard time mediating the situation. To make things even more complicated, Marcus knew that both sides had a valid point and even he didn't know what was best. As a result, the young man did the only thing that he could do.

"Guys…Enough!"

In response to his angry declaration, everyone watched as Marcus's Galra arm started glowing a violent purple color. They then saw how upset he was with everyone as their constant arguing wasn't making this situation any better. Because of that, they immediately stopped their petty fights. Once he saw that, Marcus began to calm down, causing the glow in his arm to quickly fade away. He then faced Erina, looking at her with a concerned look on his face.

"Princess Erina, what should we do?" He asked. "These are your lions and you've dealt with the Galra Empire before. You know what we're facing better than any of us. What do you think the best course of action should be?"

After listening to Marcus's question, Erina took a moment ponder it. If they decided to run, then the Galra could destroy Arus and any potential planet they encountered in their pursuit of the lions. However, if they decided to stay and fight, then they run the risk of losing everything. The situation was dire and her options were limited. In the end, the princess said the only thing that she could say.

"I…I don't know…"

As Erina gently put her head down, Dardarian looked over at his princess and saw how disappointed she was in herself. Despite her royal pedigree, the fact remained that she was just a young woman who was only the equivalent of a 19-year-old Earthling. Forcing such an impossible task upon her shoulders was simply too much for Erina to bear. Dardarian noticed this and decided to call upon someone who could possibly help.

"Perhaps…your father could help."

Turning her head, Erina stared at Dardarian with a confused look on her face. How could her father possibly help them? After all, King Alfor died when Altea was destroyed over 10,000 years ago. She was about to question her vizier about this, but stopped when Dardarian had her follow him into another section of the castle.

After about 5 minutes of walking, the two Alteans arrived at their destination. It was completely dark chamber and the only lights that were on were being powered by some kind of strange console in the middle. As she made her way towards the console, Erina questioned Dardarian about this place.

"Dardarian…What is this?"

"King Alfor was well aware that there was a chance that he'd never see you again," Dardarian revealed. "So, before he put you into cryo-sleep, he had me insert his memories, his very being, into this computer."

As Erina slowly made her way towards the console, somehow finding herself drawn to it, the young woman watched as a small glowing orb appeared in the middle of the console. Upon touching it, the ball instantly exploded and the room that the princess was in suddenly began to change. Now, instead of being inside of a dark room, Erina was now looking at a beautiful flower field with large mountains standing in the distance. It looked like she was back on Altea, long before the war against the Galra began.

Then, as she continued to marvel at this nostalgic sight, Erina looked over back at the control console and saw something materialize above it. To her utter surprise, a holographic image of King Alfor appeared before her. When she saw it, tears of joy began to fill the princess's eyes.

"Papa…" She said as she slowly walked towards the hologram. "Papa…Is it really you?"

"Yes Erina," The AI confirmed. "It's really me. Oh, how I missed you."

His voice, his face, and even his mannerisms were all King Alfor's. Erina would recognize them anywhere and so she knew that this holographic AI that was standing before her truly was her father. This caused a small smile to appear on her face as tears slowly began to fall from her eyes.

For his part, King Alfor simply looked at his daughter with a sad expression on his face. Upon being activated, the AI scanned the computer logs inside the Castle of Lions and immediately knew the current situation. Because of that, he was aware of the lost of Altea, Zarkon's rule of the universe, and the predicament that Erina was now finding herself in. He then watched as Erina fell to her knees, her expression changing to one of joy to one of sadness and fear.

"Papa, I'm so frightened…" She revealed. "A Galra ship is set to attack and I don't know what to do. Please papa…I need your help."

"It was never my wish to place such a heavy burden upon you," Alfor responded. "And if it were within my power, I would gladly relieve you of it."

Erina felt a bit of comfort from her father's words. She knew that the only thing that exceeded King Alfor's strength was his compassion. Still, the fact remained that the king truly wasn't here with her and that Erina still wasn't sure what her course of action should be.

"I don't know if we should run, to preserve what we have…or stay and risk everything. I want to fight…but the Paladins of old are gone and I'm not sure if the new ones, these Earthlings, are good enough. What would you do?"

"…I scattered the Lions of Voltron to keep them out of Zarkon's hands," King Alfor explained. "You urged me to keep them and fight, but for the greater good of protecting the universe…I chose to hide them."

As she continued to listen to her father, Erina was slowly beginning to wonder if he was right. Even she did wanted to fight, the fact remained that this situation was nearly impossible to overcome. If Zarkon got his vile hands on Voltron, then everything that King Alfor fought and died for would be for nothing. Erina couldn't live with herself if that were to happen.

"…I think I finally understand now." She said as she sadly put her head down.

"No daughter…you were right."

Surprised, Erina's eyes open widely as she lifted her head back up and looked at her father. She then listened very closely to what he had to say next.

"In my fear, I made a terrible mistake, one that cost the universe billions of lives. Forming Voltron is the only way to stop Zarkon. You must be willing to sacrifice everything to assemble the lions and lead the new Paladins…in order to correct my greatest error."

Back in the central room of the Castle of Lions, Marcus and the others were busy waiting for Erina to return. It's been about 30 minutes since she and Dardarian left and they were all becoming a bit concerned. Eventually, as the group continued to wait, they started to hear two sets of footsteps coming from the distance. The first set of footsteps belonged to Dardarian, who promptly stepped to the side and proceeded to bow. Once he did, Erina then entered the room, now dressed in a new look.

Instead of the beautiful dress that she was wearing earlier, the princess was now in a full body suit with a white, blue, and pink color scheme. And her hair, which was originally down and flowing, was now tied up in a braided bun. As everyone stared in awe of her, Erina looked back at the Earthlings with a determined look on her face.

"Whether by fate or by coincidence, you 5 were brought here for a reason," She started off. "The Voltron Lions are meant to be piloted by you and you alone. We must fight and keep fighting until we defeat Zarkon and his empire. It is our destiny. Voltron is the universe's only hope. We…are the universe's only hope!"

As they listened to Erina's speech, the young Earthlings felt a sudden surge of power building up inside of them. They were no longer looking at the uncertain princess from a few moments ago. Now, they were looking at a determined princess who knew what she had to do. Seeing that gave them a needed boost in confidence, prompting each of them to look back at Erina with their own looks of determination.

"We're with you, Princess Erina!" Marcus declared.

"Good…because at this moment, you 5 have officially become the new Paladins of Voltron!"

Following Erina's christening, the princess proceeded to lead her new Paladins into another section of the castle. When they finally arrived, the group took noticed of 5 chambers. Each chamber contained a suit of armor and helmet. The armors looked practically the same, with the exception that it had a different color that went along with its white plating. These colors were Black, Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow, the same colors as the Lions of Voltron.

"These are your suits of armor," Erina revealed. "Aside from the added protection they'll grant you, the armor will officially identify you as Paladins. Please wear them with honor and pride."

As they each made their way towards their respective armor, each of the Paladins were extremely impressed by how they looked. Although Kevin, being rather big, was initially concerned that his armor might be a bit too small for him, his fears were quickly eliminated. Although the armor seemed rather hard and sturdy, it was also quite flexible. Because of that, Kevin saw that it could indeed fit him quite comfortably.

While this was going on, Dardarian looked at the Earthlings for a moment before making his way towards Erina. Although they've managed to retrieve 3 of the Voltron Lions, the vizier still wasn't quite sure if they had the makings to be Paladins. Because of that, he wanted to make sure that Erina was truly making the right decision.

"Princess, are you sure about this? They aren't exactly the best and brightest the universe has to offer."

"…I know," Erina answered truthfully. "But the Lions chose them. I must have faith in their wisdom. Besides…their all we got."

As she looked on at the Earthlings, Erina was a bit conflicted about the fact that she was pushing them to become the saviors of the universe. Despite that though, she remembered her words about needing to lead them if they wanted any chance of defeating Zarkon. Even if they weren't ideal, Erina had to stick by them because, as she just said, they're all she's got.

Eventually, the new Paladins proceeded put on their armor. After about 3 minutes, all 5 of them were suited up and turned back around to face Erina. It was at that moment that the princess placed her hand upon a table. This caused the surface of the table to open up and reveal 4 handle-like devices, each with a different color; red, blue, yellow, and green. The Paladins then watched as the objects floated up into the air and began making their way towards the Paladin whose color it matched up with.

"The Bayard, the traditional weapon of the Paladins of Voltron," Erina explained. "By simply focusing your mind it will take a distinct shape, forming a weapon that best compliments you and your particular fighting style."

Upon grabbing their respective Bayards, the 4 Paladins watched as they began to light up and change shape just like the princess said it would. For Kevin, his Bayard transformed into a yellow and white cannon. Tony's transformed into a blue and white laser blaster, something that he quickly became fond of. Felecia's Bayard transformed into a green and white fighting staff while Sasuke's transformed into a red and white sword. In addition to all of this, the 4 of them also discovered that their suits allowed them to summon an energy shield, which paired well with their Bayards.

While the 4 began testing out their respective weapons, Marcus looked over and saw that there wasn't a Bayard for him. Noticing this, Erina put her head down for a moment before making her way towards the Black Paladin. She then looked at him before stating the reason why the leader of Voltron doesn't have a personal weapon of his own.

"I'm sorry, Marcus. But your Bayard was lost with its original Paladin."

"…It's alright," Marcus replied, understanding the situation. "I guess I'll just have to make do without one."

Upon seeing Marcus give her a reassuring smile, Erina gently nodded her head, thanking him for understanding. She then got ready to head back to the control room so that she could go over the current situation in greater detail. Marcus, Sasuke, Kevin, and Felecia followed closely behind, but Tony was lagging a bit due to him marveling his blaster. He then took notice of Felecia's staff and began to snicker to himself, something the Green Paladin took notice of.

"Is something funny?" She questioned.

"No, it's nothing." Tony answered. "It's just all of us got awesome weapons while you got…a stick."

Snickering to himself again, Tony found it very amusing that something as tough as nails as Felecia would manifest a stick as her personal weapon. Not particularly fond of being made fun of, Felecia took the end of her staff and hit Tony right in the gut. The blow immediately knocked the air out of him, causing the Blue Paladin to fall to his knees as he gasped for air. Felecia then went on to snicker herself as she watched Tony.

"Yeah…I did get a stick."

Wanting to prove to Tony the value of her new weapon, Felecia took a moment to skillfully twirl it around like a baton. Once she finished, the young woman mentally changed the weapon back into its Bayard form before watching it disappear into her armor. She then continued on her way to the control room while Tony slowly picked himself up and followed closely behind.

Once everyone was in the room, Erina had Dardarian pull up a schematic of Sendak's battleship. It detailed everything, ranging from its size to how many weapons it had. The most notable thing however was the ion cannon, which was again highlighted in red.

"Our first order of business is retrieving the Red Lion from Sendak's ship," Erina stated. "We won't be able to free the Black Lion from the castle unless the 4 remaining lions are present."

"That's a pretty big ship," Sasuke replied, stating the obvious. "How are we going to find the Red Lion?"

"…Well, it's not a matter of we, but a matter of you." Felecia pointed out.

Sasuke glanced over at Felecia with a confused expression on his face. The Red Paladin didn't get what she meant by her statement. Fortunately, both Kevin and Tony were able to validate her claim.

"Felecia's right," Kevin started off. "Once you're inside, you'll be able to feel the lion's presence and track it down."

"Yeah…" Tony followed. "You know how you felt that crazy energy while we were in the desert. I initially thought you were out of your mind, but it turns out it's exactly like that mumbo jumbo."

Looking over at Tony for a moment, Sasuke recalled the time the group was searching for the Blue Lion while back on Earth. While he did sense the energy that was coming from it, that energy only grew more intense when Tony was nearby. Since that's the case then perhaps the Red Lion will react the same way when he gets onboard Sendak's ship. Before he could think about it further however, Erina started talking to him directly.

"Sasuke, remember," She told him. "Out of all the lions, the Red Lion is the most temperamental. You'll have to earn its respect if you want to be its pilot."

Upon hearing the princess say that to him, Sasuke stared at her for a moment before gently nodded his head. The Red Paladin understood his task and was determined to accomplish it no matter what. Once that was established, Marcus gently placed his hand upon Sasuke's shoulder as he addressed all of the Paladin.

"Alright…Here's our plan of attack."

Hovering just above Planet Arus, Sendak and his battle fleet were busy awaiting Princess Erina's answer. It's been shortly after an hour since the demand was made and the Galra was quickly losing their patience. Believing that the last princess of Altea wasn't taking him seriously, Sendak was prepared to fire a warning shot in order prove that he wasn't playing around. However, before he could give the order to do so, Sendak noticed that something had just left Arus's atmosphere and was heading straight towards his ship.

Upon giving the order to one of his sentry drones to activate the ship's visual magnifier, Sendak saw that the objects approaching him was none other than the Blue and Yellow Voltron Lions. Prior to his arrival, the commander had received the report that the Yellow Lion was discovered and taken away, so he wasn't too surprised that the Paladins had it. He then noticed that he was receiving a hailing signal, which he decided to answer. When he did, Sendak watched as Tony's face appeared on his ship's view screen.

"Attention Galra ship!" The Blue Paladin addressed. "Do not fire! We are surrendering the princess and our lions to you. Repeat! We are officially surrendering to you!"

Sendak stared at Tony and saw that the young man had a silent expression on his face. He wasn't able to read whether he was sincere in his claim or was simply lying to him. In either case, before he could question him, Tony promptly terminated communications. Once he did, the Blue Paladin let out a loud sigh of relief. He then started typing on his lion's dashboard.

"…Let's hope this works."

As Tony and Kevin slowly waited for Sendak's reply, the Green Lion was silently making its way towards the ship from its blind spot. Since the Galra already knew that they had both the Blue and Yellow lions, Marcus believed that they could be caught off guard by since they didn't know that they also had the Green Lion. Because of that, Marcus decided to exploit the enemy's lack of knowledge to his advantage.

Once the Green Lion was on the ship's underbelly, Marcus, Sasuke, and Felecia all got out. Thanks to their armor, they were able to safely breathe and move around in space without any problems. Sasuke then went on to summon his Bayard and transform it into its sword form. He then cut a small hole into the ship, one large enough for his comrades to get inside, but small enough that the scanners won't be able to notice.

While Marcus, Sasuke and Felecia were making their way inside the ship, both Tony and Kevin were nervously waiting for Sendak to respond. The two haven't heard anything from the Galra commander and were starting to become concerned, especially the Yellow Paladin. In time however, they watched as a part of the ship began to open up.

"Activate the tracker beam." Sendak declared from his control room.

Complying too their commander's order, Sendak's men pressed down on several buttons on their respective dashboards. This caused a bright purple light to quickly build up from the opened section of the ship. Tony and Kevin quickly took notice of this action, prompting them to firmly grip the control handles of their respective lions.

"What is that?" Kevin questioned.

"It's doesn't matter what is," Tony replied. "We got to move!"

Just as a powerful laser beam shot out from the Galra ship, the two Paladins quickly maneuvered their lions out of the way. When Sendak saw this, the commander clinched his fist slightly in anger.

"I knew it," He said, having suspected that this was some kind of setup. "Launch the fighters!"

Almost immediately, one of Sendak's men gave the order for the Sentry Drones to launch the fighter ships. When they did, Tony watched as several dozen spacecrafts shot out from the main ship and began making their way towards him and Tony. It was at that moment that the Blue Paladin knew that the next stage of the plan was now in motion.

"Kevin!" He called. "You find a way to dismantle the Ion Cannon. I'll cover you and make sure that these guys don't get in your way."

"Um…Right!" Kevin nervously acknowledged.

With their respective tasks now set, the two Paladins raced off in order to accomplish them. This resulted in a massive firefight as dozen upon dozen of Galra ships attempted to shoot down the Blue and Yellow Lions. As he looked on from his ship, a small smile slowly appeared on Sendak's face. A part of him was happy that the Paladins were resisting as it would make capturing them all the more satisfying. To that end, he put more pressure on them by sending out even more fighters.

Meanwhile, Marcus and his group had successfully made it inside the ship. Using the schematics that were downloaded into their suits wrist communicators, the three of them saw that they were on the lower levels. There was hardly any security this far down, which made walking around that much easier. However, just as they were about to begin their search for the Red Lion, something unexpected occurred.

For some reason, Marcus stopped walking and began staring down the hallway. As he did so, the Black Paladin started to feel a bit dizzy. He then had sudden memories flashes. One memory involved his detainment by the Galra while another memory had him being operated on. The intensity of each memory caused him a bit of pain, but it also caused a sudden realization to appear before Marcus.

"I've…I've been here before," He revealed. "After my crew and I were taken from the Galra cruiser on Kerberos…they brought us here."

Sasuke and Felecia stopped when they heard Marcus say that and looked at him with a shocked expression on her face. This was especially the case for Felecia as her eyes were widen completely and her jaw was slightly open. She then quickly made her way towards Marcus.

"If that's true…then that makes that your other crewmembers might be held captive here," She pointed out. "We got to rescue them!"

"…Felecia, we don't have time."

Felecia's eyes widen even more after hearing Marcus say that. She then watched as he put his head down for a moment before turning to face her.

"We have to find the Red Lion and get back to Arus."

"But we can't just leave prisoners here!" Felecia said, starting to shout.

"No one understands that more than me. But this is war and in war we have to make hard choices. Now let's get going."

As he turn around and walked off, Marcus started thinking about his crewmates on the Kerberos mission, Dr. Mitchell and Amrita. The three of them trained rigorously for it and in time, Marcus started to see them family. This was especially true for Dr. Mitchell, who was not only like a father to him, but also the one of vouched for Marcus to join the mission in the first place. If things were different, he would turn this entire ship upside down in order to find them. Unfortunately, that simply wasn't the case.

Despite his own feelings on the matter, Marcus knew that retrieving the Red Lion was more important than saving Dr. Mitchell and Amrita. If Voltron isn't brought back soon then everyone in the universe would suffer, and that was something the Black Paladin simply could not allow. Because of that, he pushed aside his own feelings and forced himself to continue on with his mission. However, Felecia had other idea.

"…No!"

Turning back around, Marcus saw Felecia glaring at him with an angry expression on her face. Not only that, but he also noticed that a few tears were forming around her eyes. He then listened as the Green Paladin revealed a shocking revelation.

"Do you remember you told me, back when were retrieving the Green Lion, about the girl Amrita Punjabi was dating?" She started off. "Well…it was me. I'm the girl that she was referring too!"

"You're…Amrita's girlfriend?" Marcus inquired.

"Yes! Ever since the Kerberos incident I've been frantically searching for any sign of her and that search led me here with you. I understand what you're saying, but I'm not going to give up when I'm this close! I won't!"

With that said, Felecia quickly turned herself and got ready to walk in the other direction. Even though she knew that her mission was to retrieve the Red Lion, the young woman didn't care. The entire reason why she's even here now is that she hoped to find any leads on Amrita's whereabouts. Now that she finally has one, Felecia was going to take it, regardless of the consequences. Thankfully, she wouldn't be going alone.

"I'm coming with you."

Stopping, Felecia turned around and saw that Marcus with staring at her with a determined look on his face. She could tell right away that something had just change as he was now agreeing to help search for the prisoners instead of focusing on the Red Lion.

"I remember where the prisoners are being held," He said before turning his head to face Sasuke. "Sasuke, you go find the Red Lion."

"By myself…?" Sasuke questioned.

"It's a minor change of plans. You'll be fine."

Placing his hand upon the Red Paladin's shoulder, Marcus gave Sasuke a reassuring nod. Although this wasn't part of the initial plan, Marcus had all the confidence in the world that Sasuke would be able to accomplish this task. As for Sasuke himself, the young man wasn't entirely sure that this was a good idea. However, he trusted Marcus and so he decided to have faith in his wisdom.

"Just remember what I always taught you, Sasuke. Patience yields Focus."

Understanding, Sasuke gave his mentor a slight nod, which in turned caused Marcus to give a small smile in return. Now that everything was settled, the Paladins rushed off into two groups as Sasuke began his search for the Red Lion while Marcus led Felecia to the section of the ship where all the prisoners were being held captive.

Eventually, after running around the ship for about 10 minutes, Sasuke encountered a fork in the road. He had no idea where each path led to, but he knew that he didn't have much time to ponder about it. From behind, Sasuke heard the footsteps of several Galra Drones. Knowing that he couldn't afford to be seen, the Red Paladin simply took a chance and decided to go to the right. He then ran through hall, making sure to hide whenever he heard the sounds of any of the drones nearby.

After about 5 minutes of running around however, something unexpected occurred. Somehow, Sasuke found himself back in the same fork in the road that he was at earlier. Initially confused at first, he quickly concluded that he went the wrong way and decided to go left this time around. Unfortunately, this didn't help him either as he soon found himself back at the fork only after a few more minutes of running. This irritated him, prompting Sasuke to punch the wall in front of him.

"Damn it! You've got to be kidding me!"

While gritting his teeth in frustration, Sasuke soon took a deep breath as he tried to calm himself down. He knew that getting angry wasn't going to change things. If he wanted to find the Red Lion he had to keep his cool. This caused him to remember the advice that Marcus just gave to him.

"Patience…yields Focus."

As he closed his eyes, Sasuke began to clear his mind. He then remembered what Felecia, Kevin, and Tony said to him when they retrieved their respective lions. If he wanted to find the Red Lion he needed to feel its presence and so he reached out his mind in order to do so. Once he did, it take him long to get a response.

Sasuke!

He heard a voice in his head and Sasuke knew that it was the Red Lion. Although it was still pretty far away, the Red Paladin was still able to feel its presence from inside the ship. This prompted him to reopen his eyes and turn himself around. He then started running in the direction he initially came. After about a few more minutes of running, Sasuke found himself in hanger bay and looked on as the Red Lion was standing right in front of him, shielded in its particle barrier.

"Got you!"

Chapter Preview

Sasuke has found the Red Lion, but much to his surprise the beast won't respond to him. As he struggles to figure out what's wrong, Felecia and Marcus continue their search for the prisoners while Tony and Kevin try their best to hold off Sendak and his forces. Can the Paladins somehow accomplish their respective tasks and finally gain control of all 5 lions? They'll soon have to because Sendak is losing his patience and is now prepared to destroy all of planet Arus.

Next Time, Chapter 6: The Legend Reawakens – Part 2