"EVERYBODY UP, ZARKON'S ATTACKING!"

That was Ben's wake-up call. Allura shouting over the comms. In other words, he was having a rough morning. Which really sucked, as he was having a great dream about chili fry smoothys (not a misspelling, but his favorite brand). However, that didn't matter, as he was needed. It hadn't even been 2 days since the Galra Empire's last attack, and Voltron still couldn't form. Having no time to change, he activated the ultimatrix. Having read the manual this time (he apparently needed a code to access it, keeping it locked on the previous models), he knew that:

a) There was no cooldown time, letting him stay as an alien indefinitely

b) If he reverts to human in a hostile environment, it will give him any necessary gear to survive (no tools though), and

c) If he reverts to human in a non-hostile environment, he will be in his signature outfit.

XLR8 sped down the halls, passing an alert Keith, Gwen, and Shiro, and upon finding the bridge and seeing no enemy ships, he realized that it was a drill and relaxed, reverting to human. The latter three arrived to see Ben chatting with Coran and Kevin, who was swapping a meat thermometer for a timer. When Pidge and Hunk arrived, they were not alert at all.

"Time! Allura called, tired of waiting for Lance. "How long was it?"

"Alright, there were four groups," Started Coran. "Ben, 3 ticks, group 2, 30 ticks, group 3, 5 and a half minutes, Lance, not here. Half of you did a nice job, actually."

"As for the rest of you," began Allura, "that was too long. You must always be ready to do battle with Zarkon. Look at you! Only three of you are in uniform. Keith, Pidge, Hunk, where are your bayards? And where is Lance?"

The man in question immediately stepped into the room. He wore a blue robe with gold trim and blue lion slippers. His face was shining, and he was sipping herbal tea. He yawned and said, "Good morning, everybody. What's going on?"

"Coran, Kevin, and I have been up for hours getting the castle back online. We had to test the alarms and decided to test you as well. Guess which one failed." Allura said angrily. She was furious that most of the paladins weren't taking their roles seriously.

Hunk started complaining, but then Ben gave a look that would frighten even Vilgax. "Can it," he said. "Normally, I would advocate for a learning curve here, but there's no time. Zarkon is a threat now, so we need to be ready now. I get it, learning how to control a superweapon can be hard, but the least you could do is wake up on time."

"He is right," said Allura. "In 10,000 years, the castle has picked up distress beacons from the following locations, so we can assume that Zarkon has conquered most of the known universe." The castle's star chart was mostly orange, with very little blue left. "Here is Earth. As you can see, an attack on your planet is inevitable."

Hunk whispered, "Oh no."

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

"Ben and the Princess are right," said Shiro. "Let's get to our lions and start training."

"Wait!" started Pidge, before Ben interrupted.

"I get what you're feeling," he started, "more than you know. But if you want to find him, you have to live long enough. You do that by training. Besides, the prisoners aren't done healing. You can talk to them before breakfast tomorrow, though."

"Deal," Pidge responded, visibly happier. The rest of team Voltron was shocked at how well Ben just handled the situation. He had just gotten Pidge to be happier, wake up earlier, and train. Shiro was getting more and more impressed by the minute with Team 10. Gwen could do magic, Kevin knew tech and could absorb materials, and Ben was a leader with the strength of an army! Everyone had spent the previous day learning about each other, and Team 10 had apparently done this before!

Once everyone was in their lions, they tried flying in formation until they were in sync. It went as well as last time. Allura said that they did need to get in sync with each other and connect with the lions for this to work, though, so they were on the right track. Keith then suggested literally building Voltron. It went just as poorly. Suddenly, Allura had an idea.

"Maybe they could bond through the heat of battle!" she exclaimed.

"I'd say only as a last resort," replied Ben.

"I mean, we do need to test the castle defenses..." retorted Kevin

"Kevin!" was his girlfriend's reply.

"Then it's settled!" exclaimed an excited Allura, activating the particle barrier. Team Voltron's screaming could immediately be heard from the comms.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" screamed Keith.

"Running a diagnostic test on the castle defenses and inspiring you!" was the princess's giddy reply. "I believe in you, paladins. Let fear be your guide! FORM VOLTRON!"

As suddenly as the explosions started, they stopped. Kevin and Allura turned to see Ben with his hand on the console, giving them a look that put Toepick to shame. "We need to talk," were his only words.

Galra Fleet

Another general returned early. Another general dead. This was the way of the Galra Empire. "What have you and your Druids come up with to capture Voltron?" asked Zarkon, growing tired of weakness within his ranks.

"My liege, pardon the question, but are you sure it was Voltron who defeated Sendak?" was the witch's reply, as she had sensed a new energy arise where Voltron was nearly captured. "Perhaps it was that shapeshifter from the mine."

"Only Voltron could have destroyed that battle cruiser so quickly," answered the emperor.

"I suppose so," said Haggar. "To answer your earlier question, I have been working on perfecting something. Something that will strike fear into the hearts of any that stand against it. Voltron may have surprised Sendak, but he will not be able to overcome my creation."

Castle of Lions, Arus

After being thoroughly chewed out by Ben and Gwen for nearly killing Voltron, Kevin and Allura let them lead the training while they worked on the castle. "Alright Team Voltron," Ben began, "break's over. Like it or not, we still have to train. The good news is, no more lethal training."

"Yay," was the unenthusiastic reply from everyone.

"Instead of training in the lions, we'll be training ourselves," said Gwen. "Now come on, let's go to the training deck." The paladins reluctantly followed.

Galra Fleet

Haggar walked through the eerie halls, toward the massive door guarded by four Druids. Calmly, she stepped through, as the beast inside growled. "I think I have the opportunity you've been waiting for," she said to the massive creature. "How would you like to get your revenge against the champion?" The only response it gave was another growl and a smile.

Castle of Lions, Arus

"Is this thing on?" Gwen asked through the loudspeaker. after receiving a thumbs up from Lance, she said, "Good. Your job here is to last as long as you can as a team. block the drones' shots. If you're hit, you fall. Make sure to be there for your teammates, otherwise, you'll be alone and fall right through the floor. Good strategy also involves a tight circle." She started up the drones.

Hunk immediately bailed on Pidge, who was out after one shot. The next shot hit the opening she left and immediately hit Hunk. Having two down, the remaining three got closer together as the drones sped up. Keith and Lance immediately started bickering, which left Lance distracted when the drones went low, allowing a shot on Keith. Lance's right was left open, which the drones instantly capitalized on, hitting him. Shiro, with nobody to watch his back, fell after just 25 short ticks. Team 10 clearly had their work cut out for them.

The next exercise was an electric maze. One person, Keith, saw the walls and the other, Lance, got to navigate. They did as well as you'd expect.

The next bit of training was the dive bomb. At least, it was, until Ben pointed out how difficult it is to do something, like pilot a ship, with senses that aren't your own. Everyone was cool with that expert opinion, and the exercise would wait until after Voltron was formed.

The actual next test was the mind meld. Everyone had to sit silently and think of nothing but forming Voltron. Unsurprisingly, it was going poorly. Pidge couldn't stop thinking about what seemed to be "his" girlfriend. After a brief lecture about openness between teammates and, more importantly, focus, it was going well. "I think they might actually get this one," said a hopeful Ben. As if the universe heard him, Pidge's head-lion turned back into the picture at the last second. Pidge immediately blew up, so everyone decided a break was best. With the skipped dive bomb, they had the time. Besides, they would need all of the rest they could get for the gladiator.

The gladiator was a five on one fight. Any of Team 10 could beat three on level five, but level one was a start. The level one was about as threatening as Dr. Animo or Psyphon. Unfortunately, all five members of Team Voltron combined couldn't manage that. The speedy gladiator went for the slow Hunk first. He was no issue. Next was the physically weaker Pidge. Again, no problem. The less intelligent Lance, however, was different. Thanks to Ben's coaching in the mine, when his gun was knocked away, he tripped the gladiator. Keith almost stabbed it, but it dodged and took them out Shiro was last, but his PTSD took him out of the fight before the gladiator could. Needless to say, there was some disappointment there. They weren't even close to being a team, let alone being ready to face Zarkon.

The last test was... dinner. Coran's idea was to tie everybody's hands together and have them eat. It started with complaints from Hunk, followed by Team 10 offering to demonstrate. Team 10 did well, as they were an established team. Team Voltron did as well as you'd expect. Food was flying everywhere, and everyone complained.

"Do Earthlings ever stop complaining?" asked an annoyed Allura.

"Some do, some don't," was Kevin's reply. "You got unlucky."

Ironically, the princess continued complaining, until Keith burst out, "Can you stop?! We're not some prisoners to toy around with, like... like..."

"Like a bunch of toy prisoners!" finished Lance.

Then, the strangest thing happened. Keith unironically thanked Lance. Team 10 knew that Coran's plan was working.

That revelation was cut short, however, when Allura flung a blob of goo at Pidge. Everyone knew then that dinner was over.

The food fight had begun.

It. Was. A. Mess. All three teams were laughing, having fun, and, most importantly, working as a team. Everyone noticed and went to try one more time.

This was it. It was now or never.

And it was then that Voltron raised his head once more.

Galra Fleet

Unbeknownst to the team, their first real test was on its way. The coffin-like capsule flew with a single goal: destroy Voltron