Chapter 34: Reflection Part 5(Marinette's POV)

Marinette studies the Mirror. It's frame is decorated like a ladybug(like all of her lucky charms) and the glass has a red tint to it because of the Red Gas swirling around Black.

It's so odd. Why would her lucky charm make a mirror?

What is its purpose? What is it telling her to do? This isn't like any of her other lucky charms, which meaning comes clear to her minutes after creating the charm. So what is it telling her to do?

What does a mirror do? It reflects the person's appearance, and it symbolizes reflection. How is that going to help her get out of this gas filled planet? Reflection…...Reflection…..Reflection…..

Should she detransform and get Tikki's opinion? But what if the Lucky Charm disappears when she does? Well she still could ask Tikki what it meant… Marientte shakes her head, if she does that, then she's undermining her problem solving skills. There has got to be a reason her Lucky Charm chose a stand up mirror able to flip to a wooden side to hide the mirror's glass.

There's got to be. And she can figure it out on her own. She is intelligent despite this taking minutes and minutes to figure out. Calm down, you've been in worse situations than this. Just think about it.

Mirrors are often the symbol for Reflection in movies, like how people are hiding their true nature, and the mirror shows that. Of how mirrors show opposites of people...But does that have to do with her current situation?

Marinette scratches her head, looking at the mirror. Is it telling her to act oppositely? No if that were the case her opposite would appear in the mirror and not her reflection.

Reflection…...Reflection…...Reflection…..

Whenever she thinks about the mirror, the word Reflection always comes up. That must be important, but why? How does Reflection help her?

How does Reflection help her? Reflection…...Reflection….Reflection….Reflection.

A lightbulb goes off in her head. That's it! It must be talking about how I have to reflect on myself, which will in turn somehow help me get out of here.

And so Marientte sits down near the mirror. Closing her eyes, she focuses on herself and all that has happened so far. Training to pilot Red, collecting sculrite from the belly of a Weblum with Hunk, fighting her first battle at the Balmera. Recusing Thace from Galra Central Command, Defeating Zarkon, Shiro's death, which brings tears to her eyes as she remembers how he was just gone, and all that remained was his armor, breaking out of the fear of being stuck in Keith's shadow, forming the Voltron Coalition, taking the role of leader of Voltron and being the Black Paladin….

As she remembers these things, she can't help but think of her family, her friends, Chat and Keith. Marinette misses her friends and family now more than ever, and wishes she could be with them. But she has to fight and stop the Galra from taking over the Universe.

She realizes she has to let go of her family and friends, to truly be in this fight. To truly be focused on beating the Galra. And she realized the moment she said they had to take time to train themselves, as Lance, her and Allura need to get used to the lions.

Marinette let's tears roll down her cheek, of course she can miss them, but she has to not let that distract her from making good choices that will help them beat the Galra. She can't take risky, risky risks just so she can go home faster, otherwise the war might be lost.

And there's a possibility the Galra will attack and take over Earth. So she has to stop them before that happens, before they go to Earth and take it over.

Light increases, and soon Marinette sees darkness again.

Finding it strange she opens her eyes and finds herself staring at Black. Black opens its mouth, "Marinette." It rumbles, it's voice deep like a male's.

She gets up and faces the Black Lion, looking into it's yellow eyes.

But the astral plane fades, and she finds herself back in the pilot room of Black with all the systems online. Marinette opens the com link, "Can anyone hear me?"

All four lions come onto the screen, "Marinette is that you?" asks Pidge. "I thought something bad had happened when you couldn't reach for a few seconds there."

"So everyone's lions are working?" They all nod.

Lance chimes in, "And I feel closer to Red now. Like our bond has gotten stronger."

Allura nods, "Yes I feel it too with Blue. and Marinette I'm sorry for putting us into this mess. I wasn't thinking rationally."

Marinette smiles at her, "Well on the bright side, I think this experience made us bond with our lions better, even the veterans."

"Who are you calling Veterans! But yes, I do feel a stronger connection to my lion," huffs Hunk, making Pidge smirk.

"Then let's get back to Coran. I bet he's worried about us."

Back on the ship:

Coran runs up and gives Allura a hug, "I thought you were all gone! I couldn't contact you for thirty minutes! I didn't know what had happened!"

"Coran we're fine. This experience made our bond with our lions stronger."

Coran huffs, "Is that so? Well it isn't worth me having a panic attack, I'll tell you that. I was worried sick!"

Allura rolls her eyes at Coran's statement. "I'm sure you were very worried."

"Of course I was! Alfor made me promise to protect you! And what would have happened to the universe if Voltron disappeared again!?"

Marinette comforts him, "We made it out, didn't we? But we do promise to be more careful next time."

Coran mutters, "Fine."

She watches as Coran walks away, he is right. Voltron could have been lost today. But it wasn't. That lone enemy ship could be a problem, but we'll deal with that after we train to become a better team, instead of scatterbrained and unprepared for attacks. They have to be better. The Universe depends on it.