The team formed Voltron two more times after they finally connected to each other, the sense of relief that was passed between the five of them, and the two Alteans could probably be heard around the universe. Lance only hoped that over the course of 10,000 years, there was still faith in Voltron from others, if not, this would all be for nothing.

They had all decided that it was finally time to end their training for the evening and agreed to meet up in the lounge to relax a little before heading off to bed. Lance was the first to speak when everyone had gathered, the giddy feeling was still there for him after all the training, the feeling of accomplishment that he knew the others felt. It was surreal, and he wanted more of it.

"I'm still feeling charged up, I honestly don't think I will be able to sleep tonight!" His mind was rearing up, ready to begin again, wanting to jump from place to place, unsure when he should slow down and take a breather. He looked over to Keith as he responded to Lance's comment, claiming that he felt the opposite, all the never-ending training had tired him out. As he finished off his response with a smile, Hunk had slid his way in between the two and brought them in for a tight hug. A hug full of warmth, happiness, and sunshine. Lance loved every second of it.

When Hunk allowed the two of them to slip from his arms, Lance pulled at his azabache, taking comfort in it, as he had for Hunk. He felt his best friend glancing at him, sending a reminder of their promise to talk, Lance sent him a smile and nodded, getting up from the couch and walking off with Hunk toward their rooms. Exiting the lounge, they saw that Keith was in the hallway, probably waiting for Shiro, but before they continue on their way, Keith had stopped them, asking if he could speak to the Cuban for a moment. The Blue Paladin nodded, telling Hunk that he would meet up with him in Hunk's room, as he stood next to Keith. Before Keith could begin, Shiro had walked out of the room giving them a smile before saying goodnight and heading off. Lance glanced over at Keith, waiting for him to say something after Shiro had turned the corner. The silence between the two wasn't nerve-wracking, but awkward, Lance wasn't exactly sure how to speak with the Red Paladin since the two always ended up in some form of argument.

"Well," began Lance, trying not to sound too awkward. "What do you need?"

"I just wanted to say," Keith frowned, probably unsure of what to say, or how to say it. The Cuban stood there, his back hunched over, trying to hear Keith's mumblings.

"I just wanted to say thank you." Lance blinked. "Thanks for helping Shiro back there. Later."

Lance stood still, staring at where Keith once stood in front of him, unsure as to what happened. Keith thanked him. Keith Kogane thanked him. It felt, weird. Lance sucked in a bit of air through his teeth and walked down the hallway toward Hunk's room, after slipping into his room to change.

Lance knocked the door to Hunk's dorm, before letting himself in, the moment he walked in he saw that Hunk had already changed into the burnt orange pajamas he had on in the morning. The ray of sunshine looked over at his friend, sending him a welcoming smile and inviting him to sit on the floor with him, where he had already laid out a blanket and two pillows. The room looked exactly like Lance's except that everything was a mirror image of his own. The Cuban met Hunk's smile with one of his own, happy that after two hectic days he finally had some alone time with someone he considered as family. He made his way to where his friend was and plopped himself down on one of the pillows.

Sitting together, the two talked for what felt like hours, telling each other of their worries and fears. Hunk expressed his concern about leaving Earth without their family ever finding out what happened to them, or without a way to contact them. That left a sore spot with Lance, the two boys had each come from big families, all of them practically living under one roof. Hunk with his parents, his two aunts, and his uncle, not to mention his two cousins. Lance who had his paternal grandparents, parents, his four siblings, his sister-in-law, and Nadia, and Sylvio. Their family meant the world to both of them, finding a way to get back to them was something that the two not only wanted but needed. The two continued their talk, and Lance could feel himself nodding off, and sleep soon called for him.

.

.

.

Hunk's food was heavenly to Lance, and he would not be surprised if Hunk himself was God, if he is, Lance would worship him for the rest of his life, and he had a feeling Keith would too. The two Paladins scarfed down the meal presented to them by the Samoan after he declared to Coran that the food needed to be remade, but in a nicer form. Lance may not have known what Hunk used to create his food, but dear gosh, whatever the ingredients he used, he made them delicious. The Cuban heard the hiss of the door opening as Princess Allura walked into the dining room, he looked over to the Alteans who were discussing about a booster when the alarm began to blare and the lights around them turned a bright red. Keith and Lance quickly stopped eating and stood up from their seats next to each other, glancing over to the Alteans as Hunk let out a worried "huh."

Allura materialized a screen showing an outside area of the castle, a short figure can be seen ducking behind the rocks trying to be stealth-like and leaning its head from behind it. Behind him, Lance heard Keith question what the creature was, and the Cuban was almost tempted to give him a sarcastic reply, almost. Allura believed the creature to be a local Arusian as they watched it scurry to another rock, making its way closer to the castle. The small alien had horns resembling that of a ram, with pale-yellow skin leading to a short-striped tail, in his hands was a weapon that resembled a sword made out of stone. Lance found it very cute, as did Hunk, except for Keith who had already materialized his bayard in his right hand. The Blue Paladin sent a glare at the lone wolf, as Allura stated that Alteans believed in peace before anything else, and Lance nodded in agreement. The Princess set out to welcome the Arusian and Coran and the Paladins followed after her. Lance began to wonder if the Arusian would look good in a knitted sweater if he found the materials Lance wanted to try and knit him one. As they left the dining hall, Lance could hear the apprehension in Keith's voice as he ran after them, man does this guy have trust issues, thought the Blue Paladin.

Walking through the castle gates, Lance spotted the Arusian leap into a nearby bush, the teenager smiled at the alien, and pointed the bush out to the rest of the group. Allura walked in front of them toward the bush that the Arusian had decided to hide himself in, Lance caught a glimpse of him peeking through the leaves at them. The Princess bent her knees a little to coax the Arusian out from his hiding place. The Arusian jumped out from the bushes with his sword pointed at them, and while Lance was certain he should have pulled out his bayard, he felt no ill intent coming from the alien, unlike Keith who stood in front of the Princess, ordering the Arusian to drop his weapon. That apparently did not sit well with Klaizap, who had introduced himself in the third person, and raised his sword toward Keith, the little guy has guts. Keith immediately stood down as Allura commanded him to put away his bayard but with an annoyed grunt.

"Please kind sir," began the Altean, "accept my most humble apologies."

Klaizap let out a confused sound and placed his hands to his sides as he formally introduced himself as the bravest of the Arusian warriors, who had come to seek out answers to the recent attacks on Arus. He claimed that he would be able to gain these answers from a Lion Goddess. The group frowned a little in confusion as Klaizap motioned to a mural engraved in stone next to him. The image of a Goddess with the head of a Lion dressed in robes with Arusians kneeling before her was shown. Lance was confused as to how they could have missed the tall mural in front of them. And also interested in how the Arusians also had their own religion, his mind began to wonder if all aliens had their own of religion, or if it was only a few, he wanted to ask more about it, later on, to either Coran or Allura whenever they all had time. Apparently the Arusians believed they had angered their Goddess and that she had sent Voltron to punish them for their sins, if the alien had no idea what Voltron was, then the 10,000-year absence would really take a toll on gaining comrades in their fight against the Galran Empire.

Allura looked surprised at his interpretation of the recent events that have transpired over the past two days. Lance glanced over to her as she directed another smile toward the Arusian, telling him that he and his fellow Arusians have not angered the Lion Goddess, going further to state that the castle was hers, and introducing herself to him. The short alien let out a gasp and dropped to his knees giving the Princess a deep bow and claiming her as the Lion Goddess of the mural. Allura did her best to have him stop calling her that, but he would hear none of it, so she gave a resigned sigh and asked for Klaizap to take the five of them to the Arusian village. The warrior looked up to her and nodded profusely, the smile that he had given her reached his eyes and the way that he got up from his deep bow, almost as if he were jumping with joy. Lance let out a small chuckle, the excitement that the Arusian emitted was contagious, and Lance could feel it affecting him.

Allura invited the warrior inside the castle with them, leading him toward the hanger of the Yellow Lion while the three Paladins headed toward the dining hall to grab their helmets from the table—the kitchen in Hunk's case. There the three met with Shiro and Pidge, both of which looked physically shaken, the glare that Pidge sent the Senior Officer's way was murderous, and Lance was afraid for the older man. Shiro glanced at the three of them, asking where they were going, Keith was the one who answered, explaining that they would be making their way to the local Arusian village to thank them for their hospitality. The Senior Officer nodded and gave them a smile while he told them of their way to the Galran shipwreck in the hope to acquire information on Matt and Sam Holt. Before any more could be said, Pidge pushed Shiro and him toward the castle entrance, rushing him toward the direction of where the Galran ship had crashed. Lance watched as the two of them made their way there, a nagging feeling in his gut wanting to urge them to not go, but he thought nothing of it, and went on his way as well. He only hoped that Pidge got the answers he needs to find a way to locate his family.

Leaving the castle, Lance and Keith followed behind the Yellow Lion where Klaizap was leading the way to the Arusian village. Lance could not help but marble of the beauty of Arus, the expanse of greenery, the range of the mountains, and the body of waters that seemed to divide the mountains, Lance felt lucky to able to see this. Hopefully after all this was over and he would see his family again, he would be able to come back to Arus and sit back and relax. He kept a smile on his face throughout their journey to the Arusian village, seeing it over Gazrel Hill, he was amazed at how small and yet beautiful the village was. Most of the houses were made out of stone, roofs were dome-shaped, colored differently from their neighbors and seeing it from above, reminded him of the homes in the central cities of Cuba bustling with bright colors. As they brought the Lions to a halt on the outskirts of the village, Lance caught sight of many Arusians making their way to the center of the village awaiting to see what come out of the mechanical Lions. Klaizap was the first to make his way to the village, his sword strapped to his side, and short legs scurrying off. Leaving his helmet in his seat, Lance followed after the Alteans and Hunk with Keith taking up the rear of their group, heading toward the center of the village. On arriving at the Arusian village center, they came across with many eyes staring at them, many held uncertainty to the arrival of strangers, while others were in awe of guests visiting their village. Lance could not help but let out a small smile as the children were the ones who came closer to the group of five. Children are curious no matter the race, and the way they looked up to them—literally—just enhanced their feeling of curiosity. It was Coran who picked one up first, the child seemed to love being high up in the air, of course, she would, Arusians barely passed Lance's hips. The child would giggle and let out a burst of laughter full of energy, having fun just being held. The rest of the children soon followed, lining up for Coran to raise them in the air for their turn. Lance glanced over to Allura and Hunk as they seemed to have their own fun with other Arusians that came close to them. Keith on the other hand still looked as if he did not trust the welcome of the Arusians, he even brought his helmet, and held it close to him, glancing around the village seeming to look for danger. Seriously, this dude needed to chill, his whole aura was making two Arusians close to him look uncomfortable.

"Lion Goddess, Lion Warriors!" Lance looked over to where the voice was coming from to see that it was Klaizap leading two Arusians to them.

An Arusian donned with a green robe was the one who spoke to them first, introducing himself as the King of the Arusians, while the second Arusian donned in yellow only stood back in silence, staring at each of them before settling on Lance. The look that she sent him felt strange, almost as if she were looking above him, and not at him. Lance turned his attention back to the King, to catch him announce a Dance of Apology to be presented to the Allura—the Lion Goddess—as an atonement for their wrongdoing, as he clapped his hands, a female Arusian made her way from the side to step in front of the group of five and began to dance. Another group of Arusians had brought out drums and began to play a beat for the Arusian to dance to, Lance was both fascinated and creeped out on how the Arusians toes, were, well, like fingers, it was really creepy, but also, how did they put their weight on their toes?

"Please, there is no need for this-," Allura began, but she was then cut off by the King who halted the dancing Arusian, Moontow, and the music was cut short. Seeing as the Princess was adamant of refusing the dance, he called for some Arusians to begin a fire. A sacrificial fire. Lance was horrified, Hunk looked he was about to puke, Coran and Allura stood there with their mouths wide open, while Keith's eye grew wide. Allura quickly intervened on this, as there was already an Arusian being tied up in the background ready to be dropped into the fire.

So yes, the dance was a better alternative to sacrifices being made in their name.

"Allura, next time when an alien race decides to give us a Dance of Apology, just let them dance," Hunk whispered to the Altean, who only nodded in agreement. The music resumed as did the dance performed by Moontow.

At the end of the dance, the young Arusian gave Allura the same bow as Klaizap had given to her back at the Castle of Lions, and the other Arusians followed suit.

"Please rise, all of you," began Allura. "Thank you for dance, but I am not a great being worthy of your worship. With the events that have transpired these two quintents, I have accidentally put you all in danger. It is I who should be apologizing to you for making you all feel scared of what could happen to you and your home.

"I am Princess Allura, Princess of a planet once known as Altea, and these are the Paladins of Voltron, the being you saw in the sky. Voltron is not here to punish you for any of your wrongdoings, it is here to protect you and others across the universe. Although we may come from different worlds, and carry different traditions, we wish to live alongside the Arusians as friends."

With the end of her declaration, the Arusians let out a cheer and many of them braved themselves to come closer to the group of five, even Keith seemed to relax, if only a little to let an Arusian jump on him and give him a hug. Lance let out a laugh as he heard the Arusian's deep voice coming from such as small body and Keith's shocked face that followed after hearing it. He looked at the others, who each were busy with other Arusians, some had even managed to climb on Hunk's back who looked amused and seemed to enjoy it. Coran was busy throwing the Arusian children up in the air and catching them again, each letting out a cheerful smile and laughter. Allura was busy speaking with the Arusian King, Klaizap, and Moontow, probably discussing the dance that was just performed. Lance smiled as he felt his black suit being pulled by a few Arusian, he was about to speak to them, when one pointed toward the Arusian with the yellow tunic. Confused he glanced back at them, only to feel them pulling him toward her.

Lance had to fight off a flinch as he felt the Arusian stare at him as he made his way toward her under a small tree. Her stare throughout the Dance of Apology had only seemed to grow in intensity as he approached ever closer to her. The two Arusians who had led him to her, pulled at his hands and told him to sit on the ground where he could be at eye level with their village elder, at least he now knew why many of them held the Arusian in high regards. Lance sat on the ground for a few seconds, waiting for the elder to say something to him as the commotion was still being held behind him.

"I am Ulyseon, the elder of the Arusian village," began the Arusian. "You look, tired child, the dark cloud above you is weighing heavily on your shoulders. Your friends carry a cloud of their own, each with their own burden, each with a weight that is holding them back. However, your burden is greater, it would be best if you lessen that burden before you break."

Well if that wasn't ominous, then what was?

"I don't know what you mean," the Cuban began. "I don't carry any burden, at least, I don't think I do."

Lance stared at the elder in confusion, he wanted to say more, ask her more when his head started hurting and the ground began to shake. Lance held onto his head as he felt a pressure of energy trying to make his way into his mind, a familiar presence that Lance couldn't quite place when he heard Keith shout for them to head to the Lions while Allura and Coran directed the Arusians to a safer location. Ignoring the oncoming headache, he ran to Blue, only looking back to see Elder being led by other Arusians to safety. As the Paladins entered their respected Lions, there was an explosion that resonated in the air and shook the ground once more from the last known location of Shiro and Pidge, the three of them flinched, only hoping that their comrades were not hurt. Keith was the one in the lead as the Red Lion was faster than the other two, with the Blue Lion only a few meters away from it and the Yellow not far behind.

"Keith, do you see anything?" asked Hunk.

"I can barely make out what's landed with all the dust in the air, but it's something big, we have to get to Shiro and Pidge now!" responded Keith. "Lance, were you able to open a line of communication with either of them?"

"Just barely, I heard Shiro's voice before it was cut off." Spoke Lance.

"Wait! I got Pidge online. Pidge, are you two okay?"

On the other end of the line, the younger Paladin's voice could be heard over the sound of fighting from their location. "Yeah, some kind of Galran monster landed near us. I think it's a robot, whatever it is, it's freaking strong, get over here quick, we really need to form Voltron."

That seemed to push the three teenagers to rush toward Shiro and Pidge, they arrived just as the Black Lion was being hurled to the ground by the monster that Pidge had told them about. The three Paladins began to fire lasers toward the robot, laying down covering fire so the other two could get out of the situation and away from the monster. As the Blue and Red Lion kept firing at the monster, the Yellow Lion had come up from behind and rammed itself into the monster, knocking it to the ground. The other two Lions joined the others in the sky as the robot was beginning to get back up again.

As they formed Voltron, Lance couldn't enjoy the sensation of their energy resonating, as the headache that had formed seemed to grow in intensity the longer he stayed near the Galran-made robot. He wanted to say something to the rest of the team, but the pain he felt could wait to be dealt with after they defeated whatever this thing is. As Voltron stood in front of the beast, the Blue Paladin hissed as it generated an orb from the emitter-like arm, growing in size before it flings it toward them. At the same time, they jump into the air rolling away from the orb as it passed the right side of Voltron. Keith guided the Red Lion into the robot's emitter as Pidge took a chance and punched the skull-like head of the beast, hoping it would knock it the ground. As the monster lost its footing, the team guided Voltron into the air and brought the Red and Green fists together landing it on the robot's arm, as it blocked their attack, while its other arm called back the orb and made it hit Voltron in the back, sending him crumbling to the ground.

As the orb made contact with Voltron, all Lance saw for a moment was darkness, the pain that was once at a 6 had shot up to a 9, and it seemed to be getting worse the closer the orb and monster were to him. He wasn't sure if any of the other Paladins could feel it, but whatever this pain was, it made Lance wasn't to puke. The five Paladins maneuvered Voltron out of the way at the last second as the orb was going to land on them again. As much as Lance wanted to pay attention to Keith and Hunk as they spoke, the pain that shot through his body overtook his concentration. He could barely make out Pidge's warning about the orb when Lance could feel Voltron being rammed by the beast and knocking them too close to the Arusian village. Another hit by the orb flung Voltron toward the Arusian village, and Voltron fired its jets before it crashes into the small village, rising up into the air leading the monster away from the Arusians and into an open space.

Something about the monster they were going against felt familiar and Lance was not sure why. Each time the orb was sent toward them and hit Voltron sent a shock to Lance's head. The power emitting from it felt like Shiro's arm, but the energy was amplified, stronger, angrier. And this scared him. He kept his eyes on the thing as the others were talking, discussing ideas of what to do against the giant monster that Shiro described as a Gladiator from Zarkon's arena. He heard Keith tell them about Red trying to tell him something, and Lance, really didn't care, he just wanted the pain to stop, so no, he is not sorry for yelling at Keith to hurry up and just do whatever he to do to end this thing. To end his pain.

The orb once again knocked Voltron deeper into the crater it had landed in as the Gladiator made its way toward them, the ground shaking beneath Voltron as it began to get up again. The Gladiator was above them now, the emitter beginning to generate another orb, that Lance could feel would be his last blow. From the corner of his eye, Lance could see the formation of a sword in the fist-like head of the Red Lion. He watched as Keith guided the Red Lion to swing the blade toward the direction of the beast, knocking it to its knees. The Blue Paladin felt Blue send energy toward him, trying to bring down his pain as the beast exploded behind him, and if he wasn't in such pain, he would have commented as to cool guys don't look back at explosions. Man, did he miss his chance to make that joke. Instead he rejoiced with the others, as the pain level slowly decreased, thanks to Blue and the destruction of the Gladiator. Lance let out a small smile, his left hand clutching his head and his right on Blue's controller.

The Lions separated, following Shiro as he led the group to where the Arusian village was to check on them. Lance just wanted to go back to the castle and sleep his headache away, but he had so many questions he wanted to ask the village Elder. Landing in the same location, Lance followed behind everyone else, trying to get his headache to subside a little bit. The closer he got to the village the louder the voices of the Arusians got, and the more the other Paladins seemed to ease up. As the others entered the village, Lance stayed behind for a little and crouched behind a tall bush, placing a hand in front of his mouth trying not to throw up in front of the others. But the need to do so overwhelmed him, and he felt his lunch rise to his throat and out of his mouth. He threw up two more times after, each less than the first, but that didn't stop Lance from feeling disgusted as the smell entered his nose prompting him to gag. He coughed as he finally stopped and began to spit out the rest of the lunch that in his mouth.

Behind him he heard the small steps of what he assumed belonged to Arusian, he turned to see that it was the Elder. She looked at him in pity glancing above his head before staring at his eyes and into his soul.

"Your cloud has grown darker child; you must not let it consume you. You must take control of it before it is too late."

Lance cried; he was confused. He was exhausted.

What was happening to him?


I don't have any notes (asterisks) to add to this chapter.

I do have a/some question(s) though, how is the dialogue in the story? Should I add more? Or should I add it as needed like I have been doing?

Sorry about the lateness, I was finishing up my Finals and helping my sister with her schoolwork between my weeklong break before the start of my summer semester. So here is chapter 3.