10,000 years, that's how long he and Princess Allura had been froze. It felt like just yesterday he had joking with the King and assisting Allura with daily tasks around the castle. He missed his wife who had been dead for quite some time and his son who had followed after his footsteps, being a soldier in the kings army after the war had started.
Looking out of the giant control rooms window, he know. His son hadn't made it through the war like he had. His son was dead, he and Allura where the only ones to make it out alive from there planet. This was the moment he was happy that Allura had gone to bed early for ones. It had only been a few weeks since the rise of the second set of paladins had arrived in the Castle and they had set off back into space.
Sighing he closed his eyes for a moment. He lost his wife,son the king and even his best friend and fellow Paladin, Grace. The rest were dead but there was still hope for Grace. Maybe she had made it like the King had hoped for, what he had hoped for. Lynching that escape pod had made him upset but it also gave him a glimmer of hope in the moment of hard battle between the Altean's and Galra
Hope that she would make it through the war, and like she had promised him they would meet again.
Just thinking of her made him smile. The way she would smile and laugh at his jokes made him want to hug her every time he would see her. Thinking back to the start, she wasn't always like that. She was feisty and cold hearted when they had first started talking, she didn't trust him at all but after awhile he noticed how she would stop scowling when he entered the room or how her voice would lose the cold words that slipped past her lips, they soon turned sweet nothings that made the castle a even happier place.
She truly was the heart of Voltron.
The only thing that worried the old paladin was that she was considered a " Minor Part" of Voltron. Voltron could form without her and the Gray lion but without her, the Voltron paladins would be lost. The Gray lion was made to help all of the paladins of Voltron. The Gray lion and it's paladin where a coping mechanism for the rest of the paladins. The King had known that when new paladins roses, homesickness would set in, loneliness and pure fear would pull the team in. Voltron would not be able to form without trust and care from there fellow team mates,Grays paladin was chosen for their wisdom and open mindedness, to relate to all of the paladins at some point in there life.
Gray herself was a power booster for Voltron.
Coran couldn't imagine a universe without the women. She was truly a kind of her own, that she was in his eyes.
He gave a small chuckle before he was loudly interrupted by the loud blaring of the alarm that made it known that a Galra ship was near by. He quickly turned around and head towards a control panel. Just as he started setting up the castle's defenses the doors to the control room slid open revealing Princess Allura.
The man perked up at the young princess as she hurried into the control room and started alerting the paladins who seemed to be still in there rooms. Quickly getting back to work he let his mind refocus. Thinking on it, a good battle could do just the trick to make him focus and not think about the past.
One thing was for sure in his mind. Grace was still out there, hopefully still nice and safe in her pod and out of harm's way for now. It was only a matter of time before the paladins needed her. In Coran's mind, he hoped it was soon. Before Zarkon got to her and before he would have to lose his last friend from his past.
--Time skip--
The paladins retreated into the room of the ship after the hard long mission they had just come back from. The alarms had blared do to a emergency signal from a nearby planet who was in the process of being attacked by a small fleet of Galra ships. The paladins were able to fend them of quite easy but it was still a rough battle.
Everyday the paladins realizedhow hard it was becoming to form Voltron. And it was taking a toll on the whole team, physically and mentally.
If they couldn't form Voltron then they couldn't protect earth, or even the universe at that.
After getting into the room the paladins moved to there own desired seats. Pidge found a empty chair and sat down, Hunk sat next to her on the floor. Lance spread his aching body over the soft couch of the room hardly leaving room for Coran and Allura to sit next to him. Shiro took a note to just stand and Keith leaned against the door frame of the room. Shiro sighed and looked at the two aliens before saying "Princess Allura, I speak as the leader of Voltron. We need to talk about are new problem, before it was about trust and teamwork, we got over it, everything was fine but now we are doing even worse. What are we missing, it's been even harder to form Voltron then it was before."
Allura nodded and looked around at the paladins saying " Yes Shiro I can see that the team is having a problem forming and I must say." She paused looking at Coran for a moment and then looking back at Shiro " I have no idea what could be the problem. You all over come the trust exercise. There is no other thing that I can think of that could be causing the problem." Shiro nodded as the rest of the paladins rolled there eyes.
Keith looked over at the princess from the door saying " Are you sure? The whole team has been working to together for weeks now and we are still struggling to form Voltron! There has to be something that we are missing." Everyone, even Lance who most of the time would have disagreed with the other male agreed with his point. Allura sat still for a moment thinking everything over in her head that might be the problem.
Coran, who stood behind Allura looked down at his feet in deep thought. His thoughts where a jumbled mess at this point. He could tell them about Grace and the Gray lion now and get over the fact that He had something to do with losing her in the first place, tell Allura how he had been the one to send one of her father's best friends and trusted teammate into space with no way of finding her. He looked back up, his eyes scanned the room and the faces that occupied it. Making up his mind he know he couldn't tell them but he could give a hint. Coran cleared his throat saying " Ah! Princess i believe this battle was to long and hard for us to look back on for today, why don't we relax and we can come back with some ideas later? ".
Everyone looked to Allura as Coran spoke, looking for her reaction. She sighed before standing up and dusting off the long skirt of her dress and said "I believe Coran is correct! Let us relax and think, we have had a long fight today and believe it would be best If we clear are minds before we start discussing more tactics." Shiro nodded in understatement, everyone else just sighed and went there own ways to different parts of the castle. Pidge and Lance headed back to their own rooms as Hunk made his way to the kitchen to cook and bake and Shiro and Keith made there way to the training deck finally leaving Allura and Coran alone in the now quiet room. Coran looked over to Allura saying " Princess are you going to go to your own chambers?" Allura hummed before saying " No I think i shall head to the garden for a little bit. Maybe it will take my mind off of all of this for a little while."
Allura headed out of the door and down one of the long corridors that lead to the castle garden. Coran had no intention of asking why she was heading to the garden, it seemed that she had been almost living in the garden at this point. If he couldn't find her in the control room or her room she was usually in the garden walking around. Coran himself didn't head to the garden often not since his wife was a live and Grace was still on the ship. To this very moment He could still imagine Grace walking around the garden in the middle of the night complaining on how she couldn't fall asleep and how boring her room was late at night. He did remember following her around during that time, consistently trying to get her to stop wondering around and go back to her room to try and get some sleep that night, but boy was she stubborn. She would roam around, slowly making her way around the large room before finally stopping and would plop down, all while paying attention to Coran babble on.
After a while of hearing the Altaran go on and on she would lay down and close her eyes, Coran still didn't know even after knowing her for a while when she would fall asleep during his rant. He would just end up looking over at her to find that she was turned over with her eyes closed. Coran himself would end up falling asleep as well, too tired to make his own way back to his room. He would wake up to find Grace rolled over next to him, her leg tossed over his own legs and her face buried in his shoulder blades, her arms curled over her chest with her hands under her head. Her hair would be out in every direction as small snores would leave her lips, it was barely a sound that left her lips, it was almost like a soft purr like sound. He would ether just lay there or go back to sleep, one thing that annoyed him was how light of a sleeper Grace was. She could toss and turn in her sleep and not wake up but in you were sleeping next to her and turned over to sharp or made a small noise she would hit or slap before waking up. It seemed to just be instinct on her part to just curl up when something was sleeping next to her, it was quite adorable in a few aspects. Well not the part about being hit for moving in your sleep that is.
But she was cute in her own way, that is one sentence Coran could say without a doubt.
Just as that thought left his mind a idea popped into his head, the ring! A few weeks before Grace had been frozen and put into her healing pod she had talked about leaving a ring for Allura. After Grace was frozen Allura couldn't stop talking about how a pretty lady had shown up with ring as a gift for her. Maybe if he could find her ring and give it to Allura would remember Grace and go looking for her! He would just have to go searching for that ring himself.
Quickly He made his way down the corridors, being careful not to run into any of the Palidans that might be roaming the halls at this time. It wasn't like he was doing anything wrong but at the same time in Coran's mind he was. He hated going behind Allura's and the rest of the Palidans back but if it was the only way to find Grace and get one of his last friends back, he would do it without hesitation. Coran lips turned into a angry frown as he meet Allura's door. Quickly he punched in the code to get into her room, happy that he could remember her long drawn out password to get in. Strolling into her room his eyes meet the neat nightstand, covered by makeup and littered with perfume bottles that clung to the edge of the stand, almost falling off the table. Getting to work he rummaged about her desk draw, under her bed and finally her nightstand drawers.
His hands roamed around in the drawer looking for anything that might feel like a small ring. His hand brushed against a soft but cold surface making him blink in confusion before pulling his hand out with the small object, a small red box coated in a soft layer of fabric. He ran his fingers over the top of the box a few times before opening it, he flicked his mustache a little as he looked at what was in the box. The ring was still as shiny as the first day that he had seen it when Grace showed it to him. She for once was ecstatic, blabbering on with bright pink cheeks about how she had made it all by herself and how she wondered if the princesses would like it. She did admit after showing him the ring that she would give it to the girl secretly hoping that she would not see her, but in the end it failed and she ended up being caught by the young altean princesses before she could leave it at the door.
Flashback~
Smiling he remembered how she had slowly drug herself back to the lions hanger with a deep blush on her cheeks and a small scowl on her lips. Coran had been working on some updates on the lions when she had walked in, he didn't pay much attention until she stud in the middle of the room. He flinched and stopped working on the lion as she gave a angry scream at the sky before tugging at her long hair in frustration " Why for the first time in my life do I have to try being nice and get caught doing it!?! I just wanted to be nice! But no, I have to be caught by a child! Uhhhh!!!" She proceeded to yell and rant before flopping down on the floor on her back. Getting back to work Coran said " So you got caught by the Princesses I see?" she grunted at the statement saying " Yep. I was just going to leave it at the front of her door for her to find when she came out but before I could even put it down she was just blam! right there in front of me!" Coran put a few codas into the lion saying " Well that's not so bad, why are you so shaken by it?" she rolled over a few times on the ground mumbling "Before I could even give her the present she started saying things.." Coran stopped for a moment and looked back at Grace who was still at this point rolling around on the floor. Coran sighed saying " And what did she say? I know little Allura can be a little rude at times but I have never seen her say anything to mean before.." Grace stopped rolling around and bolted into a sitting position, her hands over her face, her whole face was a deep red. She almost screamed out the reply " She-She said IWASPRETTY!!!!" Coran blinked scratching his head saying " Wait what? Your screaming way to fast and loud for me to even understand what you even just said."
She breathed in and out before saying in a slower but still screaming voice " She said I was pretty and that I should be a princesses too!!" she fell back onto the floor rolling around. Coran busted out laughing making Grace jump up and start hitting him, hard. The rest of the day was filled with Coran being chased by a overly annoyed Gray palidan who was hell bent on beating the crud out of the orange haired Altrean Assistant.
End of flashback~
Coran sighed, clutching the box a little harder in his hand. He quickly pocketed the box before retreating out of the room and down the hall, he needed to go find the mice.
Allura strolled out of the garden and into one of the hallways, after a few hours of hanging out in the garden she decided it best to head back to her own room for the day. Since she had awoken from her healing pod the garden had always been a safe haven for her to spend time in. It also reminded her of all the good time her and father had spent inside the garden itself. Even as a teen her father had spent time with her in the garden, walking around and talking or having a meal on the ground together. Moments that she would always remember, time she would get to hold for herself forever of her father. She smiled a bit as she walked back to her room.
After getting to her room she gave a small him as she put in her pass code to get into her room, the door have a small swish of air as it opened and she walked in, the door closing behind her. She slowly walked over to her night stand and looked in the small mirror that sat atop it.
She gave a sigh, she still didn't know what to tell the Palidans about the problem of forming Voltron. She could find no answer to give them at this point. She rubbed her temples before looking back in the mirror. Feeling a small tug at the end of her dress she looked down to find the small pack of mice at her feet. She gave a soft smile as they climbed up the side of her dress and stopped at her shoulder.She gently used a finger to run over one of the mice's heads making it let out a small squeal in joy. Allura was happy that the mice had been able to survive, they often reminded her of home, the home she could never go back to because it was long since destroyed. Before she had a chance to look back on that one of the mice pulled on her hand making her look up with tear filled eyes, one of the mice dragged a small red box up to her hand making the princesses pick it up. She studied the box for a moment trying to think of where she had seen it before, but nothing came to mind.
She slowly opened it and peered at the ring inside of the box. A light silver band with a clear pink gem in the middle,with two solid light blue orbs on both sides of the gem. Before she had a thought of saying she didn't know what kind of gems they were a voice, almost as clear as day popped into her head saying " The blue reminded me of your cheek markings, the stones are called blue howlite's there vary commune on my planet. And we'll i just think pink looks nice in you, this gems called a Rose Quartz. It's uhh super cute like you! " Allura almost dropped the ring. Her hands shook, she remembered that day. Thinking back she remembered the women in small aspects, she was tall even now she would be taller than Allura, she remembered a voice that cut in and out from a slightly deep female voice to a bit of a higher feminine voice that would draw you in. And what oddly enough she remembered about the women was how curved she was body wise. Thick thighs lead into wide hips and a slightly chubby stomach and a large chest, more curved than any other Altean women she had met or seen.
She remembered even calling her a princess.
She reminded the blush and the grin.
The cheeks.
She remember the pale cheeks that held no markings of a pure breed Altean.
The women wasn't Altean.
Allura shot up out of her seat knocking over a few things in her night stand, the mice ran from her stand and back to the walls of the castle. Allura shot out of the room, the ring still in hand as she ran down the hall yelling.
"Coran we must find the other princess! She must know what to do!"
