Chapter 10 Across the Universe

The Green Lion exited the dark portal without any control, smashing through huge junks of debris. Pidge was panicked for not gaining any control and feared that this would be the end for her. Finally, after getting smashed over 5 times, the Green Lion finally came to a stand still, with Pidge groaning as she sat right up again. She checked the systems to find out why her Lion wasn't responding. "What's the matter, girl?" After pressing more buttons and nothing worked, Pidge gave up and sighed. "Okay, rest a bit. I'll see what I can do." But then her eyes went wide as she remembered that a wounded Haggar was also with her. "Oh crap, Haggar!" She said with concern for the 1 who'd just saved her life as she got out her seat and went to check on her Altean friend, who was lying unconscious on the floor and had many wounds all over her body. Pidge started to shake Haggar to wake her up. "Haggar! Haggar, can you hear me?" But Haggar didn't move as she was still exhausted from fighting her counterpart. Pidge saw that she was bleeding from her wounds and rushed to get some medical supplies that were under her seat, but weren't enough. "Aargh! Damn it! This isn't enough!" She said in frustration before she took the few bandages and ran back to Haggar, nearly panicked as she didn't want to lose her friend again. "I don't have enough supplies, Haggar, but this will have to do-" But then, she stopped as she noticed that once she took off Haggar's upper suit, her wounds weren't bleeding anymore. In fact, they started to heal, which amazed the Green Paladin.

After a short minute, all of Haggar's wounds were healed and she slowly opened her eyes. "Ugh... K-katie?"

Pidge/Katie was so happy that her friend was alright and hugged her. "Haggar! Oh, thank God you're alright!"

Haggar smiled as she returned the hug, but broke it and tried to get up "Wh... what happened?"

"We got separated from the rest of the team during a wormhole jump." The Green Paladin answered.

Haggar didn't understand how that could happen but then got worried about Allura. "And Allura?! Where is she?!"

Pidge shook her head as she didn't know what happened to the others, especially Allura. "I don't know, Haggar." She then checked outside to see where they were and was surprised at what she saw. "It looks like we're in some sort of a trash nebula... and there is no gravity here."

Haggar checked from the windows and noticed the many debris and junk as well before the Altean sorceress had an idea what kind of place they were in. "This must be one of the universe's junkyards, but I can't tell which one we are in." But then Haggar didn't fully understand how they could have been separated during a wormhole jump. "But, Katie, how could this have happened? How could we have separated from the others?"

Pidge sat back on her seat and explained. "Well, after we rescued you from that 'evil witch', we collected you and we were going to jump through a wormhole. But then she fired some energy beam at us and the wormhole was somehow... disturbed by it. Before we all knew it, we lost control and... now we are here."

After hearing Pidge/Katie explain how this happened, she now understood before sighing as she said with contempt. "Dark Haggar."

Pidge raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What?"

"That 'evil witch', her name is Dark Haggar."

When Haggar started to explain to her earth friend about her battle with her evil counterpart and how she was created, Pidge was shocked to hear when she finished explaining everything. "Whoa whoa whoa, I need a minute here! You're telling me that that 'new high priestess' of Zarkon is an EVIL clone of you?!"

Haggar nodded. "Yes... and I fear she's more powerful than me." She then became angry at herself. "Damn it! Even when I used my full power on her, it was still not enough!"

Pidge calmed her down as she stroked Haggar's back. "Hey, don't say that. If it wasn't for you, I would have been dead by now. We all would've."

Haggar smiled at that as she rubbed her friend's hair. "Thanks Katie." But then she felt sorry for destroying the Voltron fighter. "And sorry for destroying the Voltron Fighter in the process, but I couldn't think of another way to fight that evil clone of mine."

"Nah, it's okay. I can just build a new one. And after seeing you fighting in that thing, I can make the second one even better, but just don't destroy it every time you fly in it." She finished with a wink.

Haggar smiled and nodded as she continued to rub Katie's hair. "I promise, Katie."

The 2 friends started to think of what to do next before Pidge said. "Okay, all we need to do is to stay calm. As we say on earth: 'When you get lost in space, the best thing to do is stay put and wait for people to find you'."

Haggar sighed, but felt that waiting wasn't an option. "Maybe... I can try to locate Allura with my mental link." She said as she closed her eyes and started to focus but she couldn't sense Allura's presence... not in the whole universe…but beyond it. Haggar opened her eyes and said sadly. "I can't locate her! It's almost like she isn't even in the universe... but is somehow, beyond the rift of time and space."

This made Pidge worried as she hugged Haggar close to her for comfort. "That's not good."

Meanwhile with Allura, Coran and her pet mice

The castle was still going at great speed through the corrupt wormhole and it wasn't showing any signs of stopping, worrying Allura and Coran as they tried to get out of the wormhole. "Let's check the Rift Exit Positioning Monitor to see where this wormhole goes!" The Keeper of Altea said as he pressed some buttons on his control panel.

"Coran, look! There appears to be something on the other end! We're heading right for it!" Allura told her servant/friend, seeing something at the end of the wormhole and seeing that they were heading straight for it.

"Scanners show that it's just a void of nothingness." Coran said as he checked the scanner and saw that there was only nothingness ahead. "Find us an exit before we fly straight into the void!"

Allura tried to find a way out of the wormhole but she couldn't get the controls to respond. "I can't, I've lost control of the castle!"

"Brace yourself, we're about to hit it!" Coran told her princess before the castle flew into the void of nothingness.

For a second, everything was in darkness but when Allura opened her eyes, she saw that nothing bad had happened to them. "Coran, we're okay." But then she saw 1 of her pet mice on her shoulder, she was surprised that it was a different animal, along with the other mice. "What happened to the mice? They've transformed." She said before noticing that Coran had changed as well...for he looked...younger. "Coran?"

"What, do I have something in my mustache?"

"No, you look...younger." Allura said with a dumbfounded face before seeing that they were heading to the black void again. She tried changing the coordinates but couldn't get a signal out or receive a single in because the system was locked. The castle went through the void again. When Allura noticed that each time they went into the void and it was making Coran younger than the last time and the mice change into much larger animals, she realized that they were in a time loop that was affecting everyone but herself.

Meanwhile with Shiro and Keith

When the Black and Red Lions came out of the wormhole, they crashed on a strange unknown planet. They tried to stop themselves from crashing but the Lions weren't responding and they both crashed in separate parts of the planet. Keith was the 1st to wake up and tried to contact Shiro but was only getting static and saw that his Lion was busted so he got out and began to run to his leader's location while still trying to contact him. "Shiro. Shiro, can you hear me?"

"Yeah Keith, I'm here." Shiro answered as soon as his communication device worked again. "How're you doing?"

"Not good, my Lion's busted. Are you alright?" Keith asked with concern for his friend.

"Yeah. Takes more than a corrupt wormhole jump and a crash-land to bring me down. But I'm not wounded or anything." He said with humor before he saw predators near his Lion. "But if you don't get here soon, I think I will be."

Back with Haggar and Pidge/Katie

The Green Paladin wanted to check out the junkyard to see if there was anything in it that they could use to contact the others. Haggar wanted to come as well, so she put her upper suit back on and put on a space helmet. While checking the junkyard, Pidge broke the silence, as she had just now remembered something. "You know, when you used your full power fighting 'Dark Haggar' you didn't even need your space suit to survive in the vacuum of space. I mean, that was amazing! So I was thinking...maybe in time you won't need a space suit anymore and you can use your full power to fight with us much easier."

Haggar shrugged as that could be a possibility 1 day. "Maybe. But I don't think it's a good idea to test it out now. We have other things to worry about right now." But just then she sensed multiple lifeforms close to them and looked to where they came from.

"What is it?" Pidge asked with worry.

"We're not alone." Haggar answered as she stood close to Pidge/Katie to protect her.

In the shadow of one of the space debris, some lights came out, looking like they were scary eyes. Pidge yelped as she aimed her weapon at whatever they were. "Who's there!?"

But Haggar lowered her weapon, as she sensed that the lifeforms weren't harmful. "No, wait Katie."

As more scary eyes appeared, one of them came out, revealing to be a fluffy cute little creature. Slowly all the fully creatures in all kinds of colors came out, checking on Pidge and Haggar. It seemed that they didn't want to harm the 2 friends before Pidge really thought they were cute "Hmm? Aw! Hey, little guys! Aw, you guys are cute. Too cute to be found in a dump like this."

Haggar agreed as she stroked the fur of one of them. "Indeed they are very cute."

"What are these?" Pidge asked, wanting to know what creatures they were.

But Haggar didn't know, as she had never learned anything about these creatures in her studies. "I don't know... I've never seen a species like these before. Are you guys the only ones living here?" It seemed that the creatures were communicating with them by standing next to each other in different order of their colored fur, saying 'yes' to Haggar.

Pidge then explained to them why they were here. "We hope our rough landing didn't disturb your day. We'll only be here for a short time. We're waiting for our friends to find us. We were separated during a wormhole jump." Then the creatures communicated, as if saying 'We could be your friends'. Pidge smiled at that. "Yeah, friends!"

Haggar then sighed sadly as she looked out into space with concern for Allura. "I sure hope they find us soon."

A few creatures seemed to recognize who Haggar was missing and formed together in the shape of a heart in front of her and communicated. 'Is there someone special you wait for?'

Haggar understood and nodded. "Yes... the love of my life." She answered before a tear came from her right eye as she looked into space again. "Oh Allura, please be alright."

Back with Allura, Coran and her pet mice

The Keeper of Altea was continuing to become younger every time they entered the black void while saying the same thing each time they came out but in a younger voice, frustrating Allura as the mice, now smalls crawled on her. "Coran please, I don't need any of your attitude right now!"

"You don't understand me at all! You have no idea what I'm going through! I'll be in my control area!" Coran said as he turned around with his arms crossed.

Allura pressed some buttons on her controls but still couldn't manually enter any coordinates. Suddenly, the Altean princess got an idea as she switched her controls to locate the Lions, especially Haggar and Katie. "Maybe we can locate them, the castle will automatically lock on to the Lions!" But she couldn't locate any of the Lions. "I can't locate them!" But before she could think of anything else, Coran turned on Opera music. "Coran, turn that off right now!"

"I can only express myself through music!" Coran said before they went into the void again, turning the Keeper of Altea into his child form before he said the exact same thing as the 1st time they entered the void.

"We've tried everything and nothing's worked! A few more trips down this wormhole, and you're going to disappear. I must find a way out!" Allura said with worry as she brought up another control panel.

"Just blast our way out." Kid Coran said as he began to run around and play with the again transformed mice.

"I suppose it's worth a try. The castle's defense systems might have enough firepower to destroy the tunnel." But after Allura shot the main laser at the void, it came back out, making Allura avoid the laser's as she kept shooting. "It's not working! It's like we're shooting at ourselves!" She said before the castle went through the void again.

Back with Shiro and Keith

The Red Paladin was running to Shiro's location while using his jet as much as he could to get there faster when he heard Shiro scream in pain. "Shiro, what happened?"

"Several creatures...wounded me."

Suddenly, hot streams of water erupted from the ground and Keith tried to run as fast as he could to avoid them but he fell in a canyon. Shiro, who had just gotten wounded by the predators, was surrounded by them until a saw a opening and ran to the far cave, making it inside but the creatures still had him trapped while he was holding his wound.

"Keith, what happened?"

"Minor delay, but I'm on my way. How are you?"

"Not good. I'm in a cave, but these creatures have me trapped and wounded me." Shiro answered while holding his wound as 1 of the creatures tried to get in.

"Don't move, I'm on my way." Keith told his leader and friend.

Meanwhile with Lance and Hunk

When the Blue and Yellow Lions went through the corrupt wormhole, they crashed through an icy ground and into water until they landed at the bottom of the sea. "Hunk! Hunk, are you alright?" Lance asked with concern before he heard his friend throw up. "You just threw up, didn't you?"

"Yeah. You would too if you got sucked out of a wormhole and crashed landed on an ice planet and landed underwater." Hunk counterd.

"That is what happened to me!" Lance reminded his friend before he checked his Lion's systems. "My main system is down. The crash must have screwed it up. How's yours?"

"I'm running on reserve power. My Lion's basically dead in the water." Hunk punned. "Anyway, we need to contact the others and get back to the group."

Suddenly, the Blue Lion's systems came back on. "Yes. Welcome back, beautiful." Lance said as the Lion's eyes lighted up to let Lance see in the water. When Lance saw what was in front of him, he was shocked, as the creature was...a mermaid! "No way! Hunk, this is gonna sound crazy, but I think I just saw a mermaid."

"Oh boy. Ok, how bad did you hit your head when we hit the planet?" Hunk asked with annoyance.

"No, I'm serious." Lance said before he saw the mermaid again and moved his Lion around.

"Lance, knock it off! We have to stay focused and find a way to get back to the others." Hunk tried to remind his friend before he saw Lance out of his Lion.

"I know we need to get back to the others, but it's a mermaid. A mermaid! Maybe she can help. Come on, let's follow her." Lance said with excitement.

"No way, I'm not going out there."

Ok, you stay here by yourself, all alone in the dark inside a Lion that's out of commission." Lance said, knowing that Hunk wouldn't want to do that before the Yellow Paladin quickly rushed to his friend in fear of being left.

The 2 Paladins looked for the mermaid until they saw her with their arm lights and chased after her for a few minutes until they saw an underwater village, much to their amazement until the mermaid appeared behind them. "Hello. Welcome to my village. Here, all are safe and warm." She said with a happy smile. That was when 2 walrus-like creatures appeared behind the Paladins, making them scream and swim back. "Please, do not startle our guests. I am Florona. The almighty Queen Luxia, keeper of our land, would love to meet with you."

"Wait. How did your queen know we were here?" Lance asked with a raised eyebrow, wanting to know how the queen of the mermaids knew he and his friend were on the planet.

"Queen Luxia knows all." Florona answered.

After getting the Paladins some sea creatures to ride into the village, they followed Florona and the others. "Lance, I know this mermaid thing is a dream of yours, but we really gotta go." Hunk said, knowing that finding the others was more important right now.

"We will, big guy, we will, but let's meet this queen first. Besides, maybe she can help us. And, if I just happen to find the future Mrs. Blue Lion, well, then that is all right with me." Lance said with his boyish charms as he thought of finding a future girlfriend.

When they all got to the village, the mermaid queen Lucia greeted them. "Space travelers, I am Queen Luxia. I welcome you to our village as honored guests."

"The honor's all ours. I'm Lance."

"Uh, Mrs. Queen, Your Honor, Your Excellence, I'm Hunk, and me and my buddy here, we crash-landed on your lovely planet, but we really need to get back in touch with our friends who are in space. Would you possibly have any way of doing that?" Hunk asked, wanting to know if the queen could help them with contacting their friends.

"Hunk, Lance, I can solve all of your problems. Here, we are all safe and warm." The queen said.

"You use magic, don't you? I bet this castle's a ship. This castle is a ship, am I right? Just don't say anything if I'm right." Hunk said with excitement, think that this castle was also a ship like Allura's.

"Here, I've brought you these. The bubble coral will provide you with all the air you need." Lucia said as a guard gave the Paladins a coral that made a bubble for them to breathe underwater without their helmets.

"Whoa-ho-ho! Thank you, Fish Queen. Huh. Cool." Hunk said with a smile as he took off his helmet, with Lance doing the same.

"And rest assured, your space vessels will be well protected." The queen said as Lance and Hunk saw their Lions being brought into the village. "Now, please, follow me."

While they were following the mermaid queen, Lance noticed a purple glowing plaint. "What is that?" He asked curiously.

"That is the giver of life to our people, the Baku Garden. When the waters froze over, we were forced to live down here. The garden provides us the warmth and food we need to survive. Because of it, we are taken care of. Here, all are safe and warm." The queen answered.

Back with Haggar and Pidge/Katie

While Haggar tried to figure out a way to find the others, Pidge passed the time by building some rumble to mimic her friends to the little creatures. 1st Keith. "My name is Keith. I'm so emo. Shiro you're our leader. What should we do?" Then she mimicked Shiro's voice. "We'll get through this if we work together. We're a team." Then she imitated Lance's voice. "Look at me! I'm Lance. Hey, is that a cute girl over there?" Then she imitated Haggar. "Hey! Hands off of the love of my life, you pervert!"

While Pidge kept imitating the other Paladins voices and that of Allura and Coran, it made Haggar giggle a bit. Then the little creatures squeaked and their lights flickered. "Huh? What is it?" Haggar asked the little creatures as they all seemed to look at the Green Lion.

When Pidge and Haggar looked as well, they saw that the Green Lion was online again, much to their relief and joy. "Hey, you're working again! Welcome back!" Pidge said enthusiastically. But she was so happy to get back into the Green Lion, that she didn't notice her leg was stuck to a cable, making her fall back on the platform.

"Katie! Are you okay?" Haggar asked with concern for her close Earth friend.

Pidge nodded as she groaned. "Yeah, I'm okay." But then they both noticed that her fall made the platform clear off some debris and noticed that the platform was actually an old satellite.

Haggar could hear one of the little creatures' minds, due to her powers and natural skills with small animals. 'Are those your friends?'.

Haggar shook her head. "No, It's not our friends."

"It looks like this is an old, rusty satellite." Pidge added, but then she gasped as she got an idea. "Hey! Maybe we can use it to find our friends before they find us."

Haggar noticed what Pidge was getting at and hugged her. "Katie, that's brilliant! But how are we going to power it back on?"

Pidge looked around the junkyard and said. "I'm sure that there are some parts in this junkyard that we can use."

For the next several minutes, Pidge and Haggar searched throughout the junkyard for parts that they could use to locate the rest of the team. With help from the little creatures, they constructed a communications array on top of the Green Lion's back, hoping that with the Lion back on, they could find the others, especially Allura.

Back with Keith and Shiro

The Red Paladin was still trying to find a way across the gap but losing beginning to lose patience before he remembered Shiro's words. "Patience yields focus."

"That really stayed with you, didn't it?"

"You've given me some good advice. If it wasn't for you, my life would have been a lot different." Keith said while he made an eruption of the water with his banyard and got an idea.

"Yeah. You wouldn't have crashed a flying lion on an alien planet and be stuck with little hope of rescue. So, you're welcome." Shiro said with a smile while holding his bleeding wound before he began to cough.

"Stay with me, Shiro." Keith told his friend before cutting the ground and making an eruption to get access to cassum. When he was halfway, he used his jet to get to the other side and climbed up the ledge. "Hang on. I'm on my way." Keith ran to Shiro's location before he finally saw the Black Lion. "Shiro, I have a visual on the Black Lion."

"Good, because these guys just started digging." Shiro said, noticing that the creature was starting to dig into the cave to get to him. When it finally did, it grabbed him by the leg and threw him a few feet away. The Black Paladin got up and tried to defend himself using his arm but it barely did anything and 1 of the creatures pushed Shiro off the ledge, making him lose his helmet before he tried to run.

When Keith got to where the Black Paladin was, he saw Shiro struggling with the predator creatures and it wasn't looking good. Keith knew that there was only 1 way to help his friend and entered the Black Lion. "I know I'm not Shiro, but he's in trouble. We need to help him."

Shiro defended himself as best as could, but the predators were too fast and strong and they were ready to close in for the kill as Shiro was close to accepting his fate when suddenly...the Black Lion, piloted by Keith fought the predators off until they ran away, saving Shiro's life.

Back with Allura, Coran and the mice

"Let's check the Rift Exit Positioning Monitor to see where this worm goes." Coran, now possibly 4 years old said before his stomach growled. "I hungry!" He said before stomping on the control panel.

"Coran, no! That is not a toy. You're going to break the Castle and everything will stop!" Allura told the child before running over and getting him off the control panel. But then she got an idea. "Wait a second. Perhaps we can simply stop the Castle from moving." She said as she went to press the button to shut off all the castle's power, which she did despite Coran biting her and pulling her hair. But despite the castle's power being shut down, it was still moving to the void. "I've shut down all the power. Why are we still moving towards the void?" Allura asked before the castle entered the void again, revealing Allura holding a now-baby Coran. "I know, I know. Who wants to check the Rift Exit Positioning Monitor to see where this wormhole is taking us? You do, that's who. We have to get out of this loop before the only thing left of you is your mustache."

Back with Hunk and Lance

The Blue and Yellow Paladins were enjoying the dinner in the village, but unknown to them, the entertainment was a hypnotic squid that put Hunk in a trance. When they were sleeping, 3 disguised mermaids came and took Lance but left Hunk behind when they saw someone coming. When Lance woke up, he saw the 3 disguised mermaids and they sprayed something on him to get him out of the trance. The blue Paladin tried to swing away but was held back by sea creatures that made him afraid before the disguised cave dwellers, known as Swirn, Blumfump and Plaxum convinced him that the queen was mind controlling their people.

"Wait. Wait a minute. Okay. You're trying to tell me the queen is brainwashing people? But she's so safe and warm." Lance said, not believing that the queen could be brainwashing her own people.

"What do you remember from yesterday?" Swirm asked.

"I remember we crashed, saw the mermaids and the village, then we had dinner, and then, uh we, uh." Lance said as he tried to remember yesterday but couldn't.

"You can't remember because you were under her control." Swirm concluded.

"Our theory is, the queen controls minds by using her voice to strike certain head switches in your ear pan." Blumfump started as he showed Lance a drawing of the queen.

"And her magnetic stare locks on to your eye-to-brain pathway plug." Plaxum added as she showed hers.

"Plus, her mind-control sonar is always broadcasting through the waters. Bong! Bong! Bong!" Swirm added.

"And She trains her people to use hypnotic movements to lull you under her control." Plaxum finished.

After telling Lance the whole story about how the queen forced everyone to the depths and brainwashing them, the disguised mermaids gave Lance a squid that would keep him from being brainwashed again. After forming a plan, Lance tried to act like he was still brainwashed to get past the guards but they instantly knew he was lying and better him before taking him to the queen. Lucia then ordered Hunk, who was still brainwashed and under a trance to take the Blue Paladin to the Baku Garden but he fought his way out with the help of the cave dwellers before Lance freed Hunk of the trance and they captured the queen, who revealed that she was being mind controlled by the Baku, which revealed itself to be a predator. While the yellow and blue Paladins fight the creature, Lance discovered that the Blue Lion was even more powerful underwater. After killing the Baku by trapping it under several big rocks with a Sonic boom, the mermaids discovered that it was the food from the Baku that was controlling them.

Back with Haggar and Pidge/Katie

Haggar and Pidge had just finished making the communications array, by installing the satellite disk on top, with help from the little creatures. After connecting the last cable, the array was online. "That ought to do it. Now let's see if we can get a hold of the Castle." Pidge said with a smile, making Haggar nod.

But then... the communications array shorted out. "Oh no! The satellite doesn't have enough power" Haggar said with worry.

Pidge was close to giving up all hope as she yelled. "No, no! We need to get out of here! We need to find our friends and Haggar needs to find Allura. COME ON!"

But suddenly, the Green Lion had heard her Paladin call for help and supplied enough power for the communications array to work!

"It's working!" Haggar said happily before she and Pidge hugged as their efforts had paid off in the end.

Pidge then thanked her Lion for what it did for them. "Thanks, buddy." Before she and Haggar then entered the Lion and used the satellite to locate where their friends were "I hope the signal's strong enough to reach the Castle."

"Me too, Katie, especially Allura." Haggar said as she touched her friend's shoulder with worry for her sweet princess.

Back at the castle

Allura held the baby Coran in her arms worryingly as there was nothing more they could do. "Coran, what are we going to do? If we hit the end of the tunnel again, you'll cease to exist." This made the baby Coran scared and made Allura sad as she was about to lose Coran. "I'm sorry. You were like a second father to me." She said sadly as a tear came from her eye. But Just then, the castle locked onto a coordinate. "Coran, look! The Castle has locked onto a coordinate." Allura quickly entered some buttons before they reached the end of the portal. "Come on. Come on!" A portal opened just before the Castle reached the end of the tunnel, and the castle entered it. As they exited the portal, the castle was now at the same junkyard that Pidge and Haggar were at. "We made it!" Allura said happily, but groaned as she held a full mature Coran in her arms, sleeping and snoring.

Coran opened his eyes, seeing Allura. "Hm? Mom?" Before the princess dropped him annoyingly on the floor.

Haggar was beyond happy to see that her Allura was alright. "Allura!" She yelled, having felt her lover's presence through their mental link.

The Altean princess felt Haggar's presence as well and tears came from her eyes as she saw that her lover was still safe, along with Katie. "Haggar! Katie!"

Pidge and Haggar entered the castle with the Green Lion. And when they did, Haggar rushed to Allura and both shared a passionate kiss. Allura was so happy that her beloved princess was alright. "Haggar... I'm so happy you're alright. I was afraid that you-" She said before Haggar put a finger on her lips.

"It doesn't matter, Allura. I'm here now." Haggar said with a smile before they shared another kiss before Coran and Pidge joined them.

Allura hugged the Green Paladin, who was beginning to be like a sister to her and her darling princess. "You saved us, Pidge. We were stuck in a time loop."

"You got us out with this giant trash pile." Coran said happy as they were finally out of that corrupted wormhole.

Pidge explained what it really was as she hugged Allura back. "It's a make-shift communications link that sends out the Green Lion energy. It's similar to the energy that guided the Blue Lion home."

"Pidge, you're a genius!"

Pidge shrugged as she said. "I know. Besides, it wasn't just me. Haggar helped me too, and the little creatures we found."

Just then, 1 of the little creatures came from the Green Lion, apparently it took a ride with them before It came close to Haggar, who smiled and stroked its fur. "Aww, you must have hitched a ride in the Lion, huh?" Haggar could then hear the little creature's thoughts. It was saying that it wanted to come with them. Haggar was touched by this, but didn't know if it was a good idea. So she said to him softly. "I know you like me and Katie. But I feel that this place is where you belong, with your family." Before she held it close to her. "But don't worry, I'll stop by and visit you guys some time." The little creature squeaked and flickered with its light to her, before exiting the Castle and went back to its family as Coran was fascinated by these little creatures.

Allura smiled as she then said. "Let's go get the rest of the Paladins.

Meanwhile with Shiro and Keith

"Thanks for saving me." Shiro said to Keith as they sat down.

"You'd have done the same for me. How's your wound?" Keith asked, wanting to know how bad his friend's wound was.

"My wound's great. It's still bleeding, but other than that, I'm great. Just trying to lighten the mood." Shiro said with humor.

"Hang in there. When Allura and Coran find us, they'll fix you right up. Or maybe Haggar could do it with her power." Keith assured his leader and friend.

"Keith, if I don't make it out of here I want you to lead Voltron." Shiro said to his friend, wanting him to lead Voltron after seeing how he piloted the Black Lion to save him.

"Stop talking like that. You're gonna make it." Keith told Shiro before he saw a portal open, with the Green Lion coming out of it, much to their relief to joy, knowing that they were going to be okay.

Meanwhile with Lance and Hunk

After the queen declared that she would be the voice of her people once again and asking Swirm, Blumfump and Plaxum to be her advisers, she and her people helped Lance and Hunk by activating the energy beacon, which they would use to contact interstellar travelers once again. Once the beacon was activated, a few minutes later, Pidge came through a portal and rescued the Blue and Yellow Paladins and their Lions.

Later on

Now that all the Paladins were saved and the group was reunited, Shiro was getting healed by Haggar while she told the others about her fight with this New High Priestess of Zarkon, who named herself Dark Haggar and was an evil clone of herself. That last part shocked everyone. And even as Allura had already heard everything through her mental link with Haggar, she was as worried as the rest of the group.

Hunk at least tried to stay positive. "Well, at least that 'evil clone' of Haggar, was not as powerful to face Voltron and her at the same time."

Lance agreed to that. "Hey, yeah. When we and Haggar stick together, then at least we stand a chance against Dark Haggar."

"But what if we don't?" Haggar asked with worry. "What if we got separated again and Dark Haggar is there, waiting for Voltron, or me!? I'm not even sure that either Voltron or me are strong enough to face her alone." Allura and Katie stroked her back in support as Haggar rubbed her Allura's cheek and Katie's hair.

The others wanted to encourage Haggar that that won't happen again, but then Shiro said. "Haggar is right. With this Dark Haggar on the loose, liberating the universe from Zarkon is going to be even more difficult. We need more allies if we hope to ever win this war. We need to ask The blade of Malmora for help. And since we need them, that's where we're going to next."

"I'll plot a course immediately." Coran said before going to his control panel to set course for the Blade of Malmora's headquarters.

"While you're doing that, Katie, Allura and I need to have a private talk. Just contact us when we get there." Haggar told everyone before taking Allura by the hand and putting her other hand gently on Katie's back as they went to the bedroom for a private talk.

Meanwhile at Zarkon's flagship

Dark Haggar appeared before Zarkon before she bowed and explained everything about what happened on her mission. "I'm sorry, my liege. I have failed to reclaim Voltron, or to kill my weak counterpart."

Zarkon was not pleased with hearing these excuses. "I gave you command of my best war ships and you return to me empty-handed and with excuses!?"

"I swear to you, Lord Zarkon, I will find Voltron! I'll start my search right away-" She tried to say but Zarkon cut her off.

"NO! You will do nothing! You have done enough, Dark Haggar!" This made Dark Haggar angry that she wasn't allowed to search for Voltron or her weak counterpart anymore. But then Zarkon stood up from his throne. "The reason that I don't send you is because your presence has most likely already scared the Paladins and Haggar enough to hide. They know that they are no match for you. Fear is their weakness, so we'll let them run and hide and then... we will strike. You, on the other hand will keep making the Quintessence that I require and help me to find the Black Lion. My link to it is still there but weakened, and you will use your power to help in the search for it."

Dark Haggar nodded, still looking angry. "As you wish... my lord."

They went to the location chamber and the evil clone then started the ritual with the other druids to help Zarkon locate the Black Lion. But It still frustrated Dark Haggar that she couldn't get a second chance to take on her weaker counterpart. But because she has the same memories as Haggar, she found something valuable that she could use in the future. She smirked evilly while thinking to herself. "Yes. This Prince Lotor will be a great pawn for claiming ultimate power. And as for you, Zarkon: enjoy the rest of your reign over the universe while you can, because your time is over...and my time has come! And when it does, I will enjoy crushing the life out of you, your pathetic empire...and eventually Voltron and my weakling counterpart!"

There you go, my friends, the Across the Universe chapter finally complete. Next is the Blade of Malmora. Rate and review. See you soon, my friends.