Voltron: Universal Defender
Fanfiction by: Spirit Reader and Serpentdragon
Voltron created by: Toei Animation, World Events Production, and DreamWorks Animation
Chapter 6: The Legend Reawakens – Part 2
"Do it again, Dardarian! Activate the particle barrier!"
"Yes, Princess Erina!"
While Marcus, Sasuke, and the rest of the newly christened Voltron Paladins were busy trying to retrieve the Red Lion from Sendak's Galra ship, Princess Erina and her loyal vizier are currently trying to get the Castle of Lions ready for battle. It's been over 10,000 years since it last saw any major action and the two of them wanted to make sure that everything was ready. Unfortunately, while they were testing out the weapons system, they ran into a problem with the castle's particle barrier.
When they first tried to activate the shields, Erina and Dardarian didn't notice anything happening and realized something was wrong. To that end, they spent the last 30 minutes making sure that everything was properly hooked up and that the power was running smoothly. Once they felt that everything was set, Dardarian activated the particle barrier again. Sadly, while the shield did surround the castle for about a moment, it quickly faded away.
"Quizknack!" Dardarian exclaimed. "What could it be this time?!"
As he began tugging on his beard in frustration, Dardarian was wondering what else could be the problem. Without the particle barrier, the Castle of Lions will be completely exposed and certain death would await both him and the princess. He needed to do something to fix this, but had no idea how to go about it. Eventually, as Dardarian continued to contemplate this predicament, Erina was taking her own steps to solve the problem.
Making her way to the bridge of the castle, the last princess of Altea made her way to the control console that activated the particle barrier. After removing the outer plating, Erina looked inside the console in order to see if there was anything off about it. When Dardarian took notice of this, the vizier quickly made his way to the princess and went on to look inside the console as well. It was here that Dardarian finally saw what was wrong.
"Oh no, the barrier crystals are out of alignment!"
"We have to fix it immediately!" Erina pointed out. "Without the particle barrier we'll be defenseless!"
"But we're both too big, princess! What can we do?"
As the two Alteans tried to solve their currently problem, Erina picked up something thanks to her sensitive hearing. When she turned her head, the young woman noticed the 4 Space Mice that were inside her pod back when she was in cryo-sleep. Thanks to their smaller size, the mice were able to squeeze through the small opening inside the console and began moving things around.
When Dardarian saw this, the vizier was extremely worried that the mice might make things even worse than they already were. However, before he could reach in and stop them, Erina stopped Dardarian. She then pointed out to him that the mice were in fact trying to get the crystals back into alignment. Upon seeing this, Dardarian became confused by how the mice were capable to handling this complex machinery.
"How do they know how to do this?" He questioned.
"I'm not exactly sure," Erina answered. "But I can hear them talking to me. I think, because we spent the last 10,000 years sleeping together in the cryo-pod, our minds are connected."
Upon hearing the princess say this, Dardarian looked at her with a mixed expression on her face. Erina took notice of his looked and completely understood Dardarian's skepticism. After all, it seemed completely illogical that a couple of mice would have the intelligence to do something like this, even if their minds were connected to Erina's. But, that's exactly what's happening now and despite how illogical it seemed, Erina was very happy that it was.
Soon, after a few more minutes of working, the mice finished putting the final crystal in space. When he saw that, Dardarian activated the particle barrier one last time. After about 3 seconds of charging up, the Castle of the Lions was finally able to sustain the particle barrier, much to everyone's relief. Erina then watched as the mice exited out of the console and started cheering to themselves, causing the princess to smile.
"Thank you, little ones."
While continuing to look down at the mice, Erina noticed something next to her. Upon turning her head, her smile soon turned into an annoyed frown when she saw Dardarian stare directly at the mice while placing both of his index fingers at the side of his head. At first, the princess wasn't going to say anything as this was probably one of the vizier's antics. Unfortunately, the longer she continued to look at him, the more she felt the need to ask.
"Dardarian…What in the name of the ancients are you doing?"
"…I'm trying to get them to make me a sandwich," He answered truthfully. "I get hungry when I'm stressed."
Upon hearing her vizier say that, Erina let out a rather loud sigh as she began shaking her head in disbelief. Sendak and his forces could rain down upon them at any moment and Dardarian wanted the mice to make him a sandwich. If this was any other person, the princess would have given them quite an earful for having such an attitude. However, Dardarian wasn't just anybody and Erina has known him long enough that he was always like this. Because of that, she just slapped the back of his head, prompting him to get back to work.
Once that was done, Erina started making her way back to her station. As she did so however, the princess looked out through one of the castle windows and stared out into the sky. She was starting to worry about the Paladins as she hasn't heard anything from them for a while. Although she wanted to believe that they'll be alright, Erina simply couldn't help but be worried about them. This prompted her to clasp her hands together as she began praying for their safety.
"Please be alright…"
Meanwhile, back on Sendak's ship, Sasuke was busy marveling at the Red Lion as it sat in the hanger bay. From the moment he first laid his eyes upon it, the young man instantly felt a connection between himself and the lion. He felt drawn to it, like how Felecia and the other Paladins said he would be. If it were possible, Sasuke would've liked to spend a few more minutes just looking at the Red Lion. Unfortunately, he knew that time wasn't on his side.
At this very moment, both Tony and Kevin were doing everything within their power to hold off Sendak and his forces so that he could get to the lion. Not only that, but Marcus and Felecia were also taking the time to rescue all the captured prisoners that were on the ship, one of which might also include Felecia's girlfriend, Amrita. Everyone was trying their best to accomplish their respective tasks and Sasuke knew that he had to do the same. With that in mind, he quickly rushed towards the Red Lion.
Upon reaching the particle barrier that surrounded the mechanical beast, Sasuke gently placed his hand upon it. He remembered that the Blue Lion lowered its shield when Tony touched it and hoped that the Red Lion would do the same for him. However, as he continued to touch the shield, nothing seemed to happen. This soon prompted him to begin knocking on the shield.
"Open up," He said. "It's time to go."
Knocking on the shield again, Sasuke waited for a response from the lion, but nothing happened. This confused him somewhat and he began to wonder if something was wrong.
"Hey! It's me, Sasuke! I'm your Paladin! Open up, damn it!"
The Red Lion still didn't respond to Sasuke's words, angering the Paladin as he began banging on its shield even harder. As he wondered what was wrong with it, he recalled what Erina told him earlier about this particular Voltron Lion. She explained that it was extremely temperamental and that he first needed to earn its respect before he could properly bond with it. However, Sasuke didn't know how to do that and he soon discovered that he didn't have any time to figure it out either.
Just before he could knock on the particle barrier one more time, Sasuke suddenly heard something coming from behind and instinctively ducked towards the ground. Upon turning his head, the Red Paladin saw a small group of Galra drones, all of which were pointing their blasters at him. When he saw them, Sasuke immediately summoned the energy shield that his armor produces and used it to block the oncoming blaster fire.
"Damn it, Red!" He yelled at the lion. "Stop messing around! We got to go now!"
As he pleaded for the Red Lion to react to his presence, Sasuke became extremely disappointed when it still refused to move. Things were getting desperate and now wasn't the time to be stubborn or picky. The Red Lion has to know that, but still didn't do anything but sit there. This angered Sasuke greatly and, as he continued to be pushed back by the drones blaster fire, prompted him to take action.
With that, the Red Paladin placed his free hand to his side and summoned forth his Bayard. Then, after transforming it into its sword form, he rushed towards the drones at an incredible speed. The drone that was closest to Sasuke tried to intercept him by attacking the Paladin with its blaster, but Sasuke easily blocked that attack with his shield. He then used the opportunity to slice the robot clean in two with his sword.
"None of you are getting your hands on this lion!"
With determination in his heart, Sasuke rushed over towards the remaining drones and began to battle against them as well. Even though the Red Lion wasn't responding to him, he wasn't about to let the Galra continue to have it either. The universe needed Voltron back and Sasuke was fiercely determined to make that happen.
Eventually, just as he took down two more drones, Sasuke looked up and saw that another platoon of them were already here and ready to fight. At this rate, he knew that he needed to find some way to take care of the drone before they overwhelmed him. While trying to come up with something, he noticed a console next to him. Since he was in the hanger bay, Sasuke believed that the console activated the doors that allowed ships to go into space. This gave him an idea and although he knew it was a risk, he ultimately didn't have a choice.
To that end, Sasuke pressed a button on the side of his helmet, causing the visor that was shielding his eyes to completely cover his entire face. He then slammed his fist into the console, opening a hatch underneath him. Right away, all the drones were instantly sucked into the vacuum of space. Once all of them were gone, Sasuke struggled to close the hatch back up, but the vacuum was too strong and he soon found himself sucked outside as well. He then looked on in horror as the Galra ship was getting further and further away from him.
Thankfully, before anything could happen to him, Sasuke looked on as the Red Lion finally activated and rushed over towards him. It then proceeded to swallow the Red Paladin, shielding him from the infinite vacuum of space before making its way back towards the Galra ship. Although he wasn't entirely sure what caused the lion to finally respond, Sasuke was simply glad that it did. He then went on to sit down in the cockpit and placed his hands on the control sticks.
"Good kitty," He said with a smirk. "Let's roll!"
As Sasuke headed out to assist Tony and Kevin with dealing with the Galra fighters, Marcus and Felecia were still searching for the cell where all the prisoners were located. Although his memories were still pretty spotty, Marcus was confident that knew where he was going, prompting Felecia to simply go along with him. After about 5 minutes of running around, the two Paladins were finally within ear shot of the prison cell.
However, just before they could get any closer, a small pyramid-shaped Galra drone was hovering in the hallway right across from them. When it turned around, the drone instantly started scanning the Paladins and was about to send a message to the others about where they were currently located. Fortunately, Felecia reacted quickly and was able to stun the drone by shooting it with an electronic deactivator from his armor.
"That thing saw us!" Marcus pointed out. "We need to get of here before more show up!"
"Wait…" Felecia replied. "I think we can use this little guy."
Quickly making her way to the drone, Felecia opened its control panel and began tinkering around with its wiring. In almost no time at all, the lines on the drone's body started glowing with a light blue color just as Felecia closed its panel. She then watched as it started floating in front of both her and Marcus.
"Good. After a bit of tinkering and resetting its controls, this thing is now working for us."
"…Wow," Marcus said, impressed by what he just saw. "That was amazing, Felecia."
"Thanks…I think I'll call him Rover."
As Felecia looked on at Rover, the young woman let out a proud smile of accomplishment. Although her skills as a pilot were suspect, Felecia had absolute confidence in her engineering skills. In fact, back when she was at the Garrison, she was ranked second in her class when it came to that category. The only person who had better scores than her was Kevin, who was skilled enough to enroll based on his engineering skills alone. Now, with their newest companion in tow, Felecia and Marcus continued on their way to the prisoner cell.
After making their way down a few more halls, the two Paladins stopped in front of a door with green markings on the front. From his memories, Marcus was pretty sure that the prisoners were on the other end of the door. When Felecia took note of this, the young woman had Rover automatically deactivate the lock, allowing the two of them to go inside. Upon entering the room, Felecia starting frantically looking around for Amrita.
"Amrita…!" She called out too. "Amrita, are you here?! It's me, Felecia!"
While Felecia was busy calling out to her beloved, Marcus slowly entered the cell. Once inside, the Paladin looked on at several different alien species, all of which were wearing the same prison uniforms that he was wearing when he first landed back on Earth. He also noticed how frightened they all were, as some of them were even holding on to one another. Because of that, he slowly extended his hands to assure them that they meant no harm.
"Don't be afraid," He said in a calm tone of voice. "We're here to help you escape."
As the aliens continued to look on at the Paladins with skepticism, one of them took notice of Marcus. Although he didn't recognize him at first due to the armor that he was wearing, he did recognize his voice. Because of that, all of his eyes suddenly lit up.
"It's you…" He said in near disbelief. "It's you, the Champion. If anyone can get us out of here, he can."
"…Champion?"
Confused for a moment, Marcus looked on as all the expressions that were on the aliens faces suddenly began to change. Now, instead of looks of fear and despair, they had looks of hope and relief. He then started to wonder what the alien meant by Champion and why he referred to him as such. Because he could ask him what he meant though, Marcus noticed that Felecia was beginning to make her way out of the cell.
"We don't have much time," She said in a disappointed tone. "Let's get to the escape pods."
Without a moment's thought, Felecia raced out of the cell and began to follow Rover to the section of the ship where all the escape pods were located. When he watched her leave, Marcus noticed a few tears in her eyes, indicating to him that she wasn't able to find Amrita. Knowing that trying to comfort her now would be pointless, the Black Paladin reluctantly let his teammate go before turning his attention back towards the prisoners.
"Let's go everyone," He told them. "We have to hurry."
Right away, all of the prisoners immediately complied with Marcus's request and began making their way out of their holding cell. They then raced after Felecia, who was still following after Rover. After a few minutes of running, they eventually arrived at another one of the ship's hangers. Inside was a sole escape pod, which Rover proceeded to open on Felecia's command. The two Paladins then went on to help each of the prisoners get inside the pod and safely secure them.
Once all the prisoners were inside, Felecia began typing in the coordinates so that the escape pod will make its way to the Castle of Lions on Planet Arus. As she was doing that however, both she and Marcus suddenly heard a loud thumping sound coming from behind them. When they turned their heads, they watched as a small squad of Galra drones was making their way towards them.
"Halt!" One of the drones said in a monotone voice.
As the drones prepared to fire upon the group with their blasters, Marcus got in front of them and braced himself for a fight. However, at the exact moment that raised his arms in preparation, Marcus noticed that his right arm was beginning to glow with a dark purple color. It was the robotic arm that the Galra installed into him back when he was their prisoner. Somehow, it was reacting to these drones and it was causing him a great deal of pain as a result.
When Felecia saw this, the young woman became extremely concerned and immediately stopped her work in order to check up on Marcus. But, before she could do anything else, she watched as Marcus suddenly jumped up and raced towards the drones. One of the robots fired its blaster at him, but Marcus easily blocked it with his hand before cutting its head off. He then went on to take down two more by slicing at their feet before finally taking down the last one by punching a hole right in its gut.
With the battle over, Marcus looked down at his arm and saw that the glow was quickly fading away. As he stared down at it, Felecia walked up to him with a look of amazement on her face. What she just saw was absolutely amazing, prompting her to compliment the Black Paladin for his skill.
"Marcus, that was amazing!" She said. "How'd you learn to fight with that?"
"…No clue."
In all honesty, Marcus had absolutely no idea how managed to do what he did. For a moment, it was like his entire body was on auto pilot and that he was simply along for the ride. He also didn't know what to make of it, mostly because he wasn't sure if having this robotic arm was a blessing or a curse. In the end though, Marcus decided to put those thoughts in the back of his mind. Right now, all that mattered was making sure that these former prisoners got to Arus safely.
To that end, Felecia got back to work and finished typing in the rest of the coordinates. Once she was done, the doors to the escape pod closed and the ship got ready to take off. Before it left however, the alien the first recognized Marcus walked up to the door and began waving at him with a warm smile on his face.
"Thank you…Marcus."
Once again, Marcus was caught off guard by the alien's words. How'd he know his name and why did he refer to him as Champion earlier? He was about to question him about it, but the pod immediately shot itself out into space and began making its way towards the planet. Upon seeing that, Marcus was a bit disappointed that he wasn't able to get his questions answered. However, he soon realized that there will be time for that later. Right now, both he and Felecia needed to make their way back to the Green Lion, which they quickly proceeded to do.
Meanwhile, back out in space, both Tony and Kevin were busy still engaging with Sendak's fighter ships. It's been about 15 minutes since their friends infiltrated the cruiser and the Blue and Yellow Paladins have been doing everything within their power so that Sendak will focus all of his attention of the two of them. Fortunately, this was fairly easy because while Tony was dealing with the fighters, Kevin was trying to take down the cruiser's ion cannon.
"How are you holding up, Kev?!" Tony asked as he blasted another ship.
"…Been better," Kevin replied.
As the Blue Lion took down 3 more ships with a single laser blast, the Yellow Lion was racing towards the ion cannon. However, just before it could reach it, an invisible force field intercepted it and pushed the lion back. The resulting knock back, violently shook up the lion, causing Kevin to feel nauseous again. Thankfully, the young man was able to hold it in.
"Come…C'mon, dang it! Why won't thing break?!"
Growing increasingly irritated with the situation, Kevin had the Yellow Lion fire a concentrated laser blast at the ion cannon, only to watch as the force field blocked the attack. This resulted in a stalemate that lasted for quite a while, something Kevin knew wasn't good. He needed to find a way to break through this pesky force field and get to the ion cannon, but didn't know how to go about it. But, after watching the field deflect another one of the Yellow Lion's attack, a thought suddenly popped into Kevin's head.
From what he could tell so far, Kevin noticed that the force field was absorbing any kinetic energy that it was struck with. While noting that it was a good defense, he also noted that no matter how much energy any shield could absorb, there was a limit to how much it could actually withstand. Because of that, Kevin decided to not use several different attacks, but instead one continuous one.
"Alright…Here goes nothing!"
With some help from the Yellow Lion, Kevin was able set full power to its lasers and fired off a powerful blast from its tail. Like before, the force field absorbed the attack, but Kevin kept on going. After a while, he noticed that the field was beginning to crack under the constant pressure of the blast. Then, after a few more seconds of waiting, Kevin watched as the force field was finally destroyed.
"Yes! It worked!"
Once the force field was gone, Kevin immediately raced over towards the ion cannon and managed to put a major dent in it thanks to the incredible strength of the Yellow Lion. He then jump back and got a good look at his work. Although he was unsure whether or not he could actually pull it off, Kevin was happy to see that he was able to successfully accomplish his part. He then looked on as two objects started racing towards him from the other end of the ship.
To Kevin's joy, the young man saw that the objects approaching him was both the Green and Red Lions respectively. Marcus, Felecia, and Sasuke were successful in their mission and were beginning to make their way back down to Arus. This prompted him to go about doing the same thing.
"You guys made it!" He exclaimed.
"That's right!" Felecia replied.
"Let's get back to the castle!" Sasuke insisted.
As the 3 lions started flying towards the planet, Tony took notice of all of them and got ready to do the same. Before he did so however, the young man decided to have one last bit of fun and launch a laser blast at Sendak's ship. Although the attack didn't do much damage to the ship, it did knock it around quite a bit, much to the Blue Paladin's satisfaction. He then joined the others as they flew down to Arus.
Meanwhile, on the bridge of his ship, Sendak was busy clinching his sharp teeth in frustration. Not only did the Paladins refuse to hand over the lions they possessed, but they also had the audacity to infiltrate his ship and steal the Red Lion from his grasp. When he saw that, Sendak was so insulted by their actions that he ruthlessly murdered one of his own men in frustration. He then turned his attention towards the others, who were all looking back with silent looks on their faces.
"Follow after them!" He demanded. "Either we get those lions or we blow that planet to cosmic dust! Fire the ion cannon!"
"Sir, the ion cannon has been damaged!" One of the soldiers pointed out.
"Then send the drones to fix it!"
Saluting in compliance, half of the Galra soldiers operated the ship and began directing it towards Arus while the remaining half went with the drones to repair the damaged ion cannon. While this was going on, Sendak was angrily looking staring through the view screen while on the bridge. As he stared at Arus, the commander started clinching his robotic fist in anger, causing sparks of purple energy to erupt from it.
"Victory…or Death!"
Back on Arus, Sasuke and the others were busy in one of the deepest chambers inside the Castle of Lions. All of them, with the exception of Marcus, were busy inside their respective lion as they stood in front of a large door. As for Marcus himself, he was in front of the lions, waiting patiently for the door in front of him to open. After about a minute of waiting, something began to occur.
One by one, each of the lions started to light up as their bodies started glowing in an aura of their respective colors. As that was happening, the door that they were standing in front of started to glow as well. It then slowly opened up and, as Marcus looked on in amazement, revealed the Black Voltron Lion. With its red wings, black and yellow markings, and golden horns, the lion unleashed an ear deafening roar, which in turn prompted the remaining lions to roar in return.
As she looked on from the bridge of the castle, Erina let out a small sigh of relief. Despite the doubts and worries that she was having, the new Paladins were successful in the mission and now all 5 Lions were finally together. If things were different, this would be a joyous occasion, but Erina was quickly reminded that the hard part has only just begun.
At the same time that the Black Lion was finally unveiled, an alert suddenly sounded off throughout the entire castle. From the view screen, both Erina and Dardarian looked on in horror as Sendak and his Galra fleet were beginning to make their way down from the planet's atmosphere. Once they arrived, the two Alteans knew that they would bombard them relentlessly until they broke through their particle barrier and killed them all. Because of that, as she braced herself for what was to come, Erina activated the intercoms and gave a declaration to her new Paladins.
"Sendak is entering the Arusian atmosphere!" She revealed. "We need Voltron now!"
Upon hearing the princess, Marcus nodded his head and, with a determined look on his face, made his way inside the Black Lion. Once he was in and sitting down at his control station, the Black Lion responded to his presence and unleashed another roar. It then flew up through a tunnel as the remaining 4 lions followed close behind. They then made their way outside and landed in front of the castle. It was at that moment that Sendak's fleet finally arrived and began their assault.
Without a moment's hesitation, the fleet unleashed a devastating barrage of laser fire towards the Castle of Lions. Thanks to its particle barrier, the castle was able to withstand the first wave of the attack, but the Galra immediately responded to that by launching their second wave.
"Sir, the ion cannon is back online!" One Galra trooper declared.
"Fire!"
In response to Sendak's order, the soldiers charged up the ion cannon to full power. After about a minute, a powerful laser blast shot from the cannon and struck the particle barrier. Although the shield protected them from being blasted into dust, the resulting shockwave from the attack was still quite devastating in its own right. Once the attack finally came to an end, Dardarian checked the particle barrier's energy levels and saw that they were already depleting.
"Princess, the barrier gets weaker with every blast!" He revealed. "At this rate it's only a matter of time before the shield goes down and we're defenseless!"
"…Paladins!" Erina called out too. "Dardarian and I can keep the castle's defenses up for a while, but you have to form Voltron now or we'll all be destroyed!"
The Paladins all tensed up after hearing Erina say that to them. They were already under a lot of pressure and hearing all of that didn't help matters. Soon, Sendak's ship fired off another powerful blast from its ion cannon. Once again, the castle's particle barrier managed to block the attack, but it only ended up weakening the shields even more. When Marcus noticed that, the Black Paladin realized that it was now or never.
"Listen up, guys!" He said, addressing the rest of the Paladins. "The only way to succeed is to give it everything we got! I know things look bad, but I know we can do this! Are you all with me?!"
Knowing that they were all going to die if they didn't act, the remaining Paladins decided to stand by their leader and fight with him. As a result, they all nodded their head in agreement. Marcus, taking their silence as a yes, also nodded his head as he gripped the handles on his control sticks. He then took a deep breath before using all of his strength and pushing both sticks forwards.
"Then let's go!"
Lunging forward, the Black Lion made its way outside of the particle barrier and started heading towards Sendak's ship. Following right behind were the Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow Lions. As they jumped off a large ledge and began running across the ground, a sudden realization came across the Paladins.
"Um…How exactly do we form Voltron?" Tony asked.
"Good question…" Sasuke followed.
"I don't see a combine into giant robot button anywhere on my dashboard," Kevin pointed out.
As several Galra fighter ships began firing down at the lions, each of the Paladins were trying to figure out how to form into Voltron while also doing their best to avoid being blasted. To say this was difficult would be a massive understatement as, for the most part, the Paladins were basically making things up as they went along. This was especially true for both Felecia and Kevin, the two most inexperienced pilots.
"This is insane!" Felecia said as she nearly avoided a laser blast. "Can't these guys just give us a few minutes so that we can figure this out?!"
Moving her control sticks to the left, Felecia had the Green Lion avoid an oncoming ship. Then, before it could get away, the lion bit down on it with its powerful jaws and threw it away. Once that happened, Felecia then attempted to stand her ground by firing upon several other Galra ships, but was ultimately forced to run away when they began to overwhelm her.
Meanwhile, as he attempted to distance himself from his attackers, Sasuke managed to take down two ships at once thanks to the Red Lion's tail laser. He then noticed a third ship locking on to him and attempted to take that one out too. However, before he could fire, the Yellow Lion suddenly appeared from out of nowhere and knocked both him and the Red Lion down.
"What the hell?!" He said angrily.
"Sorry…" Kevin replied, not meaning bump into his teammate.
The Yellow Lion put its head down in response to Kevin's apology, but immediately perked back up when both it and the Red Lion were fired upon again. This forced the two to run away, but both Sasuke and Kevin knew that doing this was only going to get them so far. They needed to do something and they needed to do it now.
Eventually, as the battle continued to grow more and more intense, the particle barrier surrounding the Castle of Lions began to weaken even further. It soon reached the point that it began to flicker in and out. When Erina noticed this, she knew that there wasn't any time left and that Voltron needed to be summoned now.
"Hurry Paladins!" She called over the intercoms. "One more attack and we're finished!"
Once he heard that, a desperate Marcus started doing everything within his power to try and find a way to form Voltron. However, nothing in his lion's dashboard gave him any hints and most of the ideas that he had didn't seem possible given the amount of time that they had left. Because of that, he decided to just go for broke and informed his teammates of what he just came with.
"Maybe if we fly in formation, we'll just combine!" He said. "Everyone, run towards that nearby cliff and take off on my cue!"
"Yes sir!" Tony responded.
With their orders given, the 4 Paladins followed their leader as they made their way towards the cliff that he was referring too. As he they got closer to it, each of the lions automatically prepared themselves to take flight.
"3…2…1…Voltron!"
After reaching the edge of the cliff, the 5 lions jumped off and began flying high into the air. At first, nothing seemed to be happening and Marcus started to wonder if his plan failed. However, he soon felt a strong tugging sensation coming from his lion. In addition, the other Paladins also felt the same tugging sensation coming from their lions as well.
"What's this feeling?" Tony questioned. "Are we forming Voltron?"
"I…I don't know…" Kevin answered. "But it feels like we're all being pulled in the same direction."
"…That's because we are," Marcus pointed out. "Look up!"
As they lifted their heads, the Paladins looked on in horror as Sendak's ship was hover just above them. Not only that, but it was releasing a powerful tracker beam at the lions, causing them to slowly make their way towards it. Although the Paladins attempted to do everything within their power to escape from the tracker beam, it was simply too strong as the more they struggled the more they became stuck.
Upon seeing this from the bridge of his ship, Sendak let out another fiendish grin. He knew that there was no way that the lions would escape from the tracker. This battle was over and now all that was left was to destroy the Castle of Lions.
"Send a report to Emperor Zarkon," He told one of his men. "The day is ours!"
With that said, the Galra cruiser fired one more blast from its ion cannon. This time, the castle's particle barrier wasn't able to withstand the sheer force of the attack and shattered as a result. With their only means of defense now gone, all Erina and Dardarian could do was look on in horror as the ship got ready to launch one final attack.
Meanwhile, the Paladins were still struggling to break free from the pull of the tractor beam. As he tried to come up with a plan, Marcus noticed the situation happening at the castle and knew that time was up. Something needed to be done now, but he didn't know what to do. Not only that, but the morale of his teammates was starting to falter as well.
"No, we're going to die!" Kevin screamed.
"This is it…" Felecia said in horror.
"We're doomed!" Tony exclaimed.
"…It's over." Sasuke pouted.
After hearing his teammates accept their fates, Marcus closed his eyes and became dangerously close to doing the same. But, just as he was about to give up, the Black Paladin suddenly heard a loud roar coming from inside his mind. As he perked up and wondered what it was, Marcus then noticed that someone was talking to him.
You have to keep fighting!
At first, Marcus had no idea who was talking to him, but soon realized that it was the Black Lion. It was encouraging him not to give up and to continue on with the fight. When he realized that, Marcus silently berated himself for giving in to despair so quickly. There was too much on the line for him to do that. Marcus knew that he had to win this battle and proceeded to convince his teammates to continue the fight as well.
"No!" He exclaimed. "We can do this! We have to believe in ourselves! We can't give up…because we're the universe's only hope! Everyone is relying on us! We can't fail! We won't fail! If we work together…we'll win together!"
As they listened to Marcus's speech, the helplessness that the remaining Paladins were feeling was gradually starting to disappear. Now, it was quickly being replaced with a sense of hope and determination. Marcus was right. Everyone was indeed relying on them. They had to keep fighting because everyone was going to suffer if they didn't.
"Sasuke, Felecia, Tony, Kevin…are you with me?!" Marcus asked.
"Yes sir!" The Paladins answered.
Grabbing their control sticks, all 5 Paladins pushed down on them and used all of their strength to try and get their lions to move. As they did so, each of their lions started glowing as they let out a powerful roar. They were responding to their Paladins determination, which greatly increased their power. In time, they were finally able to break free from the pull of the tractor beam after one massive push.
Once the lions were free, they immediately flew high into air and began to converge onto one another. The limbs of the Black Lion began to fold into itself as it sat up. Both the Red and the Green Lions did the same before rocketing towards the Black Lion. The two lions then attached themselves to Black, acting as a pair of arms. At the same time, the Blue and Yellow Lions folded up and transformed to a pair of makeshift legs, which attached themselves to the Black Lion as well. Once that was done, the face of the Black Lion suddenly opened up, revealing the image of a highly intimidating man.
Following this powerful transformation, they newly combined robot made its way towards Sendak's ship and immediately pushed the ion cannon upward. This caused the ion cannon to go off target and completely miss its attack. When Sendak saw what was going on, the Galra commander started to step back in fear. He knew what this robot was.
"Vol…Voltron…!"
Yes. The robot was none other than Voltron, the legendary defender of the universe. After over 10,000 years it has finally returned. As she looked upon it from her castle, Erina couldn't help but to shed a few tears of joy. It's been so long since she last witnessed its magnificence and it was still a sight to see.
As for the Paladins, all 5 of them were amazed by what they were able to accomplish. Somehow, someway, they managed to literally pull things together and summon Voltron. It was almost too good to be true, but it was the truth.
"I can't believe it!" Sasuke happily exclaimed.
"We formed Voltron!" Felecia followed.
"I'm a leg!" Kevin gleefully revealed.
"How are we doing this?!" Tony questioned with a playful smile.
As the 4 of them continue to marvel at their accomplishment, Marcus was simply looking on with a silent smile on his face. Although they cut it close, they were finally able to form Voltron. It was a huge relief to him, but Marcus knew that it wasn't over yet. Because of that, he confidently pushed both of his control sticks forward.
"I don't know…but let's get that cannon!"
Following that declaration, Voltron turned to the side and took a hold of Sendak's ion cannon. It then easily snapped the cannon off from the ship and tossed it to the side. Once it was gone, Voltron then proceeded to punch its right hand, which the head of the Red Lion, straight into the ship. Once it was inside, the lion unleashed a powerful blast of energy that not only destroyed anything in its path, but caused a massive explosion as well. Voltron then went to attack several other areas of the ship, causing to quickly break apart as a result.
Upon seeing this from the bridge, Sendak knew that it was only a matter of time before Voltron came from him as well. Although his pride as a Galra commander wanted him to stay and accept his fate, Sendak also knew that sometimes that playing the long game was the best way to achieve victory. Because of that, he swallowed his pride and took his top lieutenant with him as they hopped into an escape pod and rocketed off the ship towards a far off section of the planet.
Meanwhile, Voltron was nearly finished destroying the entirety of the Galra ship. All that was needed to finish the job was one final attack. With that in mind, the Paladins had the robot fly high into the air before having it dive back down at an incredible speed. This allowed Voltron pierce right through the ship like a giant spear. Once it safely landed on the ground, a massive explosion occurred and Sendak's ship was nothing more than a fiery cloud in the sky.
"We won!"
Back at the castle, the Paladins were busy resting by the front gate as they waited for both Princess Erina and Dardarian to arrive. As they caught their breath, each of them was thinking about what they just went through and how they got here to begin with. It's been a long 24 hours and so much has happened during that time. Still, none of them could've ever imagined that it would end like this. It was almost impossible to believe, but then again the Paladins just accomplished the impossible.
After a few more minutes of waiting, they noticed the castle gates beginning to open and saw both Erina and Dardarian making their way up to them. This prompted the Paladins to slowly pick themselves up from off the ground and stand side by side. Once she finally reached them, the princess said the only thing she could say during this particular situation.
"Well done, Paladins!"
"…Thanks pretty lady." Tony replied with a smile.
As the princess continued to congratulate the Paladins for their hard fought victory, Felecia was busy putting her glasses back on before looking up towards the sky with a solemn expression on her face. Although she was glad that they were able to defeat Sendak, her primary concern was Amrita and her current whereabouts. At this point she could be anywhere in the universe and while Felecia tried her best to keep her emotions in check, it was obvious that she was deeply worried for her beloved.
While she continued look up, Marcus took notice of Felecia's sadness and immediately walked over towards her. After taking off his helmet, the Black Paladin went on to gently place his hand upon her shoulder. Upon feeling it, Felecia looked up and saw Marcus give her a reassuring smile.
"We're not going to stop searching until we find her, Felecia." He told her. "But no matter where she is…I know she would be proud of you."
Marcus's kind words quickly lifted Felecia's spirits. As she smiled gently at him, the Green Paladin knew that feeling sorry for herself wasn't going to help Amrita at all. She had to stay strong if she had any intention of finding her and bringing her back home. With her resolve strengthened, Felecia nodded her head at Marcus as she silently thanked him for what he said.
Back with Erina, the young princess was still quite pleased with how all the Paladins performed during this battle. Soon though, as she looked and stared at the 5 Voltron Lions, a powerful realization washed over her. This caused her expression to gradually shift from one of happiness to one of anxiety. She then looked back at the Paladins and told them what was on her mind.
"We won the battle, but the war has only just begun," She started off. "I'm afraid Zarkon will not stop until he gets these lions."
"It's a good thing you Paladins know what you're doing," Dardarian followed. "Because you're going to have to form Voltron again and again."
"Right…" Kevin replied before fully realizing what he just heard. "Wait…What?"
The realization of what the princess and her vizier just said immediately caught the Paladins off guard. Tony then walked over to Dardarian as he freely voiced his opinion on the matter.
"Form Voltron again…?" He questioned. "But we barely survived forming Voltron this one time."
"And you only had to fight one ship," Dardarian pointed out. "Just wait until you have to fight an entire fleet of them. It's not going to be easy being the new Defenders of the Universe."
Another powerful realization rushed over the Paladins as listened to what Dardarian just said. Although it didn't really hit them before, the fact that their now the new Paladins of Voltron was finally settling in. While some of them were shocked and others were a bit frightened, Marcus simply let out a small smile.
"Defenders of the Universe…" He said as he turned to face the Voltron Lions. "That has a nice ring to it."
As the other Paladins joined him in staring at the lions, Marcus started thinking about all the events that led him to this point. Never did he expect that a simple mission to Kerberos would result in him battling an alien empire from the reaches of the universe and piloting a powerful machine like the Black Lion. It was almost impossible to believe, but it was the truth. Now, as the prospect of his new responsibilities became more apparent to him, Marcus couldn't help but to smile even more.
"This is going to be fun!"
Chapter Preview
Life as a Paladin of Voltron is never easy and our heroes are about to find that out the hard way. Although they managed to summon the giant robot and defeat Sendak, the Paladins discover that they're unable to form Voltron again. What happened and what can they do to bring back Voltron?
Next Time, Chapter 7: Paladin Training
Announcements
Spirit Reader: Hey guys, it's Spirit Reader here. I hope you're liking how Voltron: Universal Defender is starting out. My friend Serpentdragon and I have worked hard on it and we hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoy writing it. If you could, please leave a review for us so that we can hear your thoughts and opinions. We would really appreciate it.
Serpentdragon: Hey everyone, this is Serpentdragon, Spirit Reader's writing partner for Voltron: Universal Defender. We both hope you guys are enjoying the story so far. I know we have followed the original episode of Voltron pretty closely thus far, but after this chapter, you'll start to see it take on more of its own path. We'll be following the story's broad strokes, but this will definitely be our own interpretation of the story. We're both huge fans of Voltron: Legendary Defender and hope that you guys will continue enjoy our take on this epic space fantasy.
Spirit Reader: Well guys, that's it for now. We'll be off next week for story developments, so you can expect Chapter 7 to be out on either May 3rd or 4th. Until next time, this is Spirit Reader and Serpentdragon Signing Off!