Chapter 6

A/N: Hey everyone! Welcome back! Now remember, I just own the story and my OCs, nothing else is mine. Necessary translations will be at the end of the chapter.

Keith sat on his bed as he looked through the inventory Yorak stored for him in whatever extra-dimensional pocked ghosts used. So far, he wasn't completely happy with what was available to him. He still managed to bring a couple sparrows with him, but not enough for the whole team to use if needed. As for ships, well, he was lucky to have a couple of his father's older ones plus his first new ship he got for his birthday before…before everything changed; but given the Castle and the lions, it looked like he wouldn't need to worry about those for the most part.

No, his main concerns were weapons and armor. He had a few spare armor sets, to use in case the Paladin armor proved to be utterly useless once he had the chance to test its mettle, but the problem was one of them was broken—he'd been needing to break it down for parts—and another was ceremonial, so it wasn't exactly useful. So, there was no way he'd be able to loan some to the others.

Weapons, though, were at least proving to be a bright spot in his morning. Like any Guardian, he was armed to the teeth. He had a couple swords, a grenade launcher, a couple other heavy cannons, shotguns, rifles, blasters, and even a bow he'd been learning to use. Plus there were a few older weapons he could break down to improve his arsenal. There was also the added bonus that at least he wouldn't have to worry about reloading any of the weapons that required actual ammunition for some time.

Hopefully they would finish this war before that happened. Judging by the battle the other day, they might be cutting it close, but it should be smooth sailing once everyone was properly trained. Keith gave it about two years to solve this issue, tops.

Before he could do anything else, the Castle came to life as alarms began to echo down the previously silent halls. "EVERYBODY UP! ZARKON'S ATTACKING!" Allura screamed over the intercom causing the Guardian and his ghost to jump. Closing his inventory, Keith leapt across the room, grabbing his jacket and bayard as Yorak vanished in a flash of light. "THE CASTLE'S ABOUT TO BE DESTROYED! GO, GO, GO! WE NEED VOLTRON NOW!"

Keith raced into the hall, nearly ramming his shoulder into a wall as he quickly turned a corner as he raced towards the bridge.

"THE CASTLE CAN'T SURVIVE MUCH LONGER!"

That almost made him stop. Survive much longer? Keith hadn't even felt anything hitting the Castle, even with the forcefield protecting it. He was sure that if they really were under attack they'd be able ot hear or even feel the shockwaves of explosions. "Yorak, check the scanners."

His ghost was quiet for a moment, before Keith sensed his annoyance, "Scanners are clear."

"Oh no!" Coran's voice rang out over the Castle, "Allura's dead! Aw, it's horrible, her head fell off!"

Shaking his head, Keith slowed his jog down to a walk. It was a drill, a very bad, poorly planned drill. He could see the others running into the bridge ahead of him, and Keith slowly followed, crossing his arms as he watched Coran overdramatically try to sell it.

"Coran," Allura muttered.

"Yes Princess?!"

"It's over."

"I know," the advisor bemoaned, falling onto his knees and throwing his arms into the air, "If only Voltron had been formed!" At that moment, the Altean seemed to spot them all and he shot to his feet, tossing something behind him, "Time!"

"I guess this isn't an actual attack?" Shiro realized.

"Wasn't that obvious from Coran's terrible performance?" Jaz stated crossing her arms.

"And it was a good thing it wasn't an actual attack!" Allura snapped. "Because it took you…Coran?"

"Seventy-five degrees."

Several of them blinked trying to process what they just heard. "Did the translator malfunction?" Jaz whispered to him.

Keith shook his head, "Nope."

"Oh, sorry, this is a meat thermometer," Coran realized, causing several of them to facepalm.

"However long it was, it was too long. You must be ready to go into battle at any moment," the Princess scolded, wrinkling her nose. "Look at all of you! Only Shiro's in his uniform. Pidge, Hunk, where are your bayards? Keith, where's your armor? And where's Lance?"

The doors behind them hissed open and they all turned to see said Blue Paladin saunter in wearing a blue robe, matching pajamas, and Blue Lion slippers. Taking a sip from his steaming up, he raised it to them, "Morning everyone. What's going on?"

"Coran and I have been up for hours getting the Castle back in order," Allura answered, her brow twitching. "We needed to test the alarms and we decided to test all of you as well. Guess which one failed?"

"Hey," Hunk yawned, "You guys got to sleep for ten thousand years. Monday night I was on Earth. Now, I've flown through space in a magical robotic lion, fought some evil dude named Zarkon, eaten goo in some weird Castle on another planet; it's a lot to process in…uh…What day is it?"

"It's the third day of a Spicolian Movement: Hump Day!" Coran supplied.

"It's a lot to process."

The princess sighed, going to the controls, "Then you must understand the stakes of our mission," she pressed a button and a hologram turned on. Like before, it was of the space around them, however, various parts of the diagram before were highlighted red rather than the blue they had been. "Over the past ten thousand years, the Castle has picked up distress beacons from all the following locations. So we must assume Zarkon's already conquered most of the known Universe."

Keith shared a skeptical glance with Jaz. There was no way this was all Galra, not when there were bigger, more dangerous enemies out there. He'd bet a large portion of this was either Cabal or Hive. The trick would be figuring out which ones.

"Our mission is to free all those planets," she continued. "Coran and I are getting the Castle ready to leave Arus. During that time, you five must learn to form Voltron so we can take the fight to Zarkon."

Shiro nodded, "The Princess is right. Let's get to our lions and start training."

"Wait," Pidge protested, "I want to talk to those prisoners we rescued!"

Coran was the first to respond as he slid up to the Green Paladin, "Negative Number 6—I have you ranked by height—they need to remain in the cryo-refreshers until tomorrow."

"That's right, so you all need to go to your lions."

"Welp, that excludes me," Jaz waved, "I'm going to get something to eat."

Keith tossed her an annoyed glance before going to his respective…elevator containing his armor. He quickly changed as it descended. It began to slow down, and Keith's brows shot up as he saw a pair of handles instead of his lion. It was only when they gave a flash and started to move, he leapt at it, grabbing on before it went too far.

Looking down the path he was sliding down, the Guardian wanted to facepalm. It was a zipline. A. Freaking. Zipline. Instead of being taken directly to his lion, he was going on a pointless roller-coaster ride.

A wall began to approach and at the end of the path Keith could see a hole in the group where he was probably supposed to drop down to hopefully enter his lion. Instead, he landed in some sort of speeder. "Oh come on!" he exclaimed as it whirred to life and began moving forwards.

Thankfully, this one seemed to finally reach his lion. The small sparrow raced up a ramp in the lion's chest and the sides retracted as the chair pulled up to the cockpit.

"Finally," he muttered, taking the controls and flying out from the Castle.

Unsurprisingly, the others appeared to have taken as long as him as he could see Blue and Black flying overhead towards Green. Joining them, the three lions landed and were ready to start once their final member made it.

After a few minutes, Keith furrowed his brows. Did Hunk get stuck or something?

Lance seemed to be thinking along similar lines as he opened a comm-channel. /So…uh, should someone go after Hunk?/

Almost on cue, Keith spotted the Yellow Lion flying towards them. /I'm here!/ Hunk apologized, the ground shaking as his lion landed unsteadily. /Sorry I'm late. Can't they park these things a little closer to the bridge?/

Keith agreed, it would make more sense than whatever maze he just went through. If Allura wanted Voltron to be formed in a short period of time, with a process that took that long, she clearly was out of her mind. And, if this place was designed to be so confusing for even the residents to have problems reaching important weapons, Keith was starting to see why the Galra were winning so far.

/Alright guys/ Shiro spoke up, /let's just fly in formation until we're in sync/

/Feel the bond with your lions until the five of you become one and form Voltron!/ Allura said, like that explained what they were doing.

The others cheered as they flew into the air. /YEAH!/

It was only after their first few passes that everyone's excitement began to wane.

/Yeah!/

More passes and loops around the Castle later, several of them were starting to get bored. /Yay/

About an hour later, it was only Hunk who remained cheering with a sad, /Whoo…Am I the only one still pretending to be excited?/

Keith didn't bother to answer as he glared down at the controls of his lion. What the quiznak? Everything went fine yesterday, so why wasn't it working now?

He felt a tugging sensation in his chest, and Keith turned his attention the bond with his ghost. "What?"

"Well, you could try building Voltron."

Keith shrugged, it wasn't a bad idea. Actually, there wasn't any others at the moment, so it was the technically, the only idea at the moment.

/Ok, so clearly this isn't working/ Shiro grumbled. /Let's land and figure this out/

Reaching out, Keith unmuted himself, "We could try building Voltron from the ground up?"

/What do you mean?/

He rolled his eyes. Wasn't it obvious? "I mean like literally building Voltron. We have the pieces, maybe stacking them up is he way to do it."

/Like a cheerleader pyramid?/ Lance snickered.

"You have a better idea?" Keith retorted causing the other Paladin to give an annoyed growl.

/It's worth a try/ Shiro said.

Well…the first try did not go well. Somehow, they ended up all out of order; and Keith still wasn't sure how Red ended up sideways on Green and Blue. But he was mostly confused by the fact Hunk, had somehow gotten on the top. He was a leg. Why was he up there?

/Hunk/ Shiro muttered, /what are you doing?/

/What do you mean?/

/You're supposed to be the leg, where Pidge is/

/What? No. No, no, no, I'm pretty sure last time I was the head…right?/

/You yelled "I'm a leg!"/ Lance reminded, sounding annoyed.

/I was yelling a lot of things/

"Shiro's the head!" Keith stated.

/All the time?/

"Yes!"

/Let's just try our way for now/ Shiro sighed.

Even without the video-channels open, he could still tell the Yellow Paladin was pouting. /Fine, but next time I call head/

That wasn't how it worked, but whatever. Red's joints groaned as the other lions dislodged themselves, allowing Keith to move off of Lance and Pidge and settle down beside the others. Hunk and Pidge swapped places, and then the Red and Green Lions climbed up on top of them. Black was the last to move, slowly flying into the air and hovering over them before slowly lowering down onto them. The metal around him creaked, but not as loud as it had been previously when two lions had been on Red.

/Ok, feel the bond with your lions/ Shiro said. /Channel your energy into forming Voltron. Focus/

Keith closed his eyes, reaching out with his own energy. A small smirk crossed his face as he felt Yorak's energy brush against his own. The ghost pressed close against him allow its Guardian to continue to reach out. While he could sense the fiery presence of the Lion, the others…not so much.

/Is everyone bonding and focusing?/ Shiro grumbled.

/Why was this so much easier before?/

A shrill squeal nearly made Keith jerk out of his chair, /I LOVE YOUR CHEERLEADER PYRAMID!/ Jaz called.

There was a loud groan from Shiro and Keith felt Red shift slightly as Black lifted off and landed back onto the ground, which prompted Keith and Pidge to follow suit. /Maybe we should take a break/

/Sorry to interrupt, but Jaz and I may be able to help/ Allura chimed in. /Yesterday, you weren't able to form Voltron until you were in the heat of battle/

/Yeah/

/I guess/

/Why?/

/Well, Allura and I are going to test the Castle defenses/ Jaz answered. /Hope this helps!/

Keith's eyes went wide as he watched the giant blue forcefield come to life. Different parts began to glow brighter than usual and laser blasts began to reign down on them, causing them to scatter. "ALLURA! JAZ! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" he exclaimed as Red wove between the blaster fire.

/Running a diagnostic test and inspiring you!/ Allura cheered. /Let fear be your guide! Form Voltron!/

A shadow flew overhead and Keith yanked Red to a stop as Blue slammed on the ground in front of them. /Ow/

/Please! Please have mercy!/ Hunk pleaded as his lion tried to dodge blasts.

/Do you think Zarkon's going have mercy on you?!/ Allura scoffed. /He's probably on his way right now to destroy us all!/

/Which is why we're practicing!/ Jaz chimed in happily.

Keith grimaced, Traveler this was going to suck.

-.-

"That was fun," Jaz grinned as she sat upside-down on the couch, her long azure hair cascading to the floor. "We should to it again sometime."

"Nope! No way!" Hunk said rapidly shaking his head. "Not doing that again."

"You're no fun."

"You weren't the one getting shot at," he countered.

The doors hissed open, halting further conversation as the two Alteans entered. "Are we at full power on condenser number five?"

Coran glanced down at a pad, "Still at eighty-four percent."

However, his reply wasn't acknowledged as Allura looked at all of them, her blue-pink eyes sparkling as a smile broke out on her face. "You did it! You formed Voltron!"

"Nope," Keith replied, crossing his arms as he leaned back on the couch. "The shooting stopped and the barrier went down so we flew in."

Her smile was immediately replaced by a scowl as one of her eyebrows began to twitch, "What?"

By her side, Coran gave a nervous chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck, "Oh, right, sorry Princess," he apologized. "I had to turn off the defenses to test the fire suppressors."

"What are you guys doing?" Shiro asked as he entered the room. "We're not taking a break."

"You were the first to fly in," Jaz stated raising her head to look at him.

"I had to go to the bathroom!"

The Awoken woman raised a brow, "And?"

Shiro didn't have the chance to reply as Allura put her foot down, "You all should be training!"

"We've been training," Hunk whined. "When are we going back to Earth?"

"I'm not going back till I find my family," Pidge answered.

"I'll go back when I have the rest of my crew," Jaz agreed.

"Guys, we won't have a home if we don't figure out how to fight Zarkon," Shiro spoke up.

Keith clenched his jaw at that realization. He'd already lost his home. Earth…it was his home away from home, but it still wasn't the same. He'd been living there for years until his father came back or until word came that the Red War was over. However, Keith would give anything to see his homeworld again. Every day not know what was happening or if everyone he cared about was ok…it hurt. He couldn't let that happen to his comrades.

"How are we going to fight?" Lance questioned. "We can't even figure out how to form Voltron."

"Well I'm not surprised," Coran replied. "The original paladins fought hundreds of battles together, side-by-side. They were like a pack of yalmors linked at the ears."

"Wow…that's totally not us."

"Well, during the last battle your survival instincts force you to work as a team. But that'll only get you so far," Coran said. "In order to form Voltron, you have to become a real team. You should try working out on the training deck sometime."

Almost instantly, Keith and Jaz perked up. "Training deck?" they asked curiously.

Unbeknownst to the rest of them Shiro held back a groan. The others were going to get a very rude wake-up call when put into combat training with Keith and Jaz. Shiro had learned that the hard way—the painfully hard way.

-.-

Keith stood in a circle with the other paladins on the training deck. Looking around the room, a small part of him wondered if this was the right place. Keith had grown up seeing messy training arenas as his teachers wanted to simulate a real mission field so they could learn to use their environment to their advantage. It was also easier than cleaning up every time someone used it. But this…it was too clean. Keith didn't like it. There was no cover, no enemy entrances, and a strange lack of scorch marks, body parts, metal, and blood. They couldn't train for the real chaos of a battlefield in someplace this sterile.

The only thing he could tell so far, is that this was a team exercise. Coran instructed them all to be in the same ring, back-to-back. Which meant they'd be fighting against something together rather than against each other. But, that still boded the question: What was their opponent? And where would it come from?

A loud bumping sound echoed in the room, "Check, two, two, one, two," Coran's voice spoke over the intercom. "Ok, listen up Paladins. The Paladin Code demands that you put the safety of your team members above your own. A swarm of drones is about to attack. Each of you need to do everything you can to protect the other members of your team."

Keith grit his teeth as his shield popped up and he watched a line of drones exit a small hole in the corner of the room. Of course it was a defense exercise; his least favorite type.

"Wait, wait, what's going on?!" Hunk sputtered.

And Keith was going to have to protect incompetent teammates, absolutely perfect.

"Did you guys get one of these?" Hunk asked, no doubt looking at all of them nervously.

Keith didn't bother to respond as he shifted his stance and raised his shield, his gaze travelling quickly to each drone, watching their rotation around them. He heard the first shot fire and Hunk yelped. To his right Pidge was hit in the back and she fell into a hole in the ground at appeared below her.

That gave an opening for an orb to fire and knock Hunk out of the game.

"Protect your teammates or there'll be no one to protect you!" Coran iterated.

His shield vibrated with energy with every shot that hit its surface. Taking a step back, Keith found himself back-to-back with Shiro and Lance, the latter of which was surprisingly useful, for now.

The floating sphere's orbit around them began to speed up, their shots starting to be more random than they had been before. "You keeping up over there Keith?" Lance sneered.

By the fricking Traveler, this was not the time. "Just concentrate on keeping me safe," he grumbled.

"Pfft, I own this drill, you're the one that needs to concentrate."

The drones dropped down and Keith followed suit. However, before he could block a shot, he felt a sting from Lance's side and the ground disappeared from under him. Keith grunted as his back slammed onto the ground, and he looked up to see the hole he just fell through closing. Well, that settled the fact that Lance was still unreliable.

-.-

"To form Voltron, you need to trust in one another," Coran said as Keith stood next to the Altean on the observation deck as Lance stood in the middle of the training room. "This ancient Paladin maze will teach you trust. Your teammate can see the walls, you cannot. So listen to them carefully, otherwise if you touch the walls you'll feel a slight shock."

Walls fizzled from existence, and a map popped up in front of Keith. Leaning forwards, he examined the map till he mentally mapped out the route.

"Wait, who's guiding me?" Lance called.

"Take two steps forwards."

The Blue Paladin immediately groaned loudly. "Aw no, not Keith. Why does he get to be the man on the mic?"

"Just sit tight, you'll get your turn," Coran reassured.

Hopefully, that reassurance would quell Lance's stubbornness for now; at least long enough for them to get through this stupid exercise. "Like I said," Keith started, "take two steps forwards, then turn right."

Instead of listening, Lance immediately turned right and ran smack into a wall, shocking himself. "You did that on purpose!"

"You're not listening."

"You said turn right."

"And before that I said take two steps forwards," he reminded, eyebrow twitching.

Lance growled and turned a random direction before bumping into another wall. "We're switching places right now!"

Keith rubbed the bridge of his nose as he sighed, this was going to take a while.

-.-

/You'll never be able to form Voltron unless each of you has a strong bond with your lion/ Coran stated as the Paladins flew in formation.

Over the comms, Keith heard Lance scoff, /No problem. Me and Blue are best pals for life!/

/Perfect/ Coran responded. /Then you won't have any problems with this drill! Everyone, put your lions into a nosedive!/

Keith frowned but complied. His instincts told him something more was going on with this exercise.

/This is an expert-level drill that you shouldn't attempt until you've been flying for years/ Coran explained, /But we're in a bit of a rush, so here we go! Activating training helmets/

The mask of his helmet turned black. Solid black. He could not see. Keith was piloting a several ton metal lion through the air towards the ground and he couldn't see. The Guardian had done tons of extremely dangerous exercises over the years, but this took the cake. No mentor or instructor would ever condone something this dangerous and stupid, ever. And that, was saying a lot.

/Feel what the lion feels!/ Coran exclaimed and Keith tuned him out.

This was not the time to be distracted by the shouting of his panicked comrades and their foolish trainer. Reaching out with his light, he could sense the lion's energy, but as for seeing, he had no idea what the hell Coran was talking about.

/You still going Keith?/ Lance called, sounding mocking.

Screw it, Keith ripped off his helmet, tossing it to the side as he took in the controls. If this was an exercise about surviving, he was going to due it based on logic, not dumb luck. "Yeah. You?"

/Going? I'm speeding up!/

Keith smirked as he saw the lion pick up speed as the ground got closer. Pushing on the thrusters carefully, he kept his gaze focused on the ground. "Must be getting pretty close."

/You scared?/

A grin broke out on his face and Keith pulled back, "Nope, but you should be."

/What—/ a loud thud cut off the other Paladin's answer and Keith smirked as he saw Lance crash into the ground, the legs of his lion sticking up in the sand. The idiot must've still had his helmet on.

"I win."

-.-

Keith crossed his arms as they gathered back on the training deck. It was starting to get rather frustrating that they had to keep going in and out of the Castle to their lions repeatedly for seemingly ridiculous bonding exercises. If they were going to do training, they needed to pick a location, inside or outside. Get all the stuff that needed to be done there out of the way so they weren't running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

And, more importantly, they needed to stop focusing on these stupid bonding activities. Bonds between teammates couldn't be forced. Keith had seen it loads of times with Lord Saladin and Lord Shaxx. They did not and would never get along, but they would put their personal issues aside for the sake of a mission. Which, in his opinion, was what the others—Lance in particular—should be doing. Valuable time was being wasted in stupid trust exercises rather than in real combat training, which he knew for a fact three out of the five of them had likely never even been in a real fight.

"Put these on," Coran said handing out several white headbands with random white and blue branches coming off of them.

"For what?" Pidge asked, raising a cautious brow.

"Bonding exercise," Coran chirped. "Paladins must be able to melt their minds to form Voltron. No walls, no secrets."

That made Keith's hair stand on end in alarm. "Nope," he said not even taking his from Coran and crossing his arms. "Not happening."

Pidge nodded quickly, "No way. I'm not letting anyone root around in my head."

A hand settled on his shoulder and Keith maintained his scowl as he saw Shiro's concerned but hopeful gaze. "We're just starting to get the hang of this, it shouldn't—"

"No."

Looking slightly disappointed but understanding, Shiro nodded his head. "Ok. Let's take a break then before we get onto the next exercise."

That was something Keith could agree to.

It wasn't too long after that announcement Coran and Jaz came down with pouches filled with what he assumed was water. Taking a sip, Keith glanced to the door as he heard it slide open to reveal an irate princess. "What is going on?!" she demanded stomping forwards. "What are you doing lying about?! You're supposed to be training!"

"Just resting a bit," Coran supplied. "You can't work too hard."

The royal looked affronted as her head snapped towards her advisor. "What do you mean can't push too hard?! They aren't working hard enough!"

"Princess, I've literally fainted from training without stop," Jaz spoke up taking a ship from her pouch. "So believe it or not, overtraining is a real thing. You can push too hard, even if you can't see it from your high horse."

Allura rolled her eyes as she looked down her nose at all of them, "Get up you lazy lumps! It's time you faced the Gladiator!"

Jaz scoffed, "Drey rek ni hon aan rot Zu'u tinvaak?1"

Shiro shrugged, taking another sip from his pouch, "Zu'u dreh'ni mindol nii.2"

-.-

Once again, Keith stood in the center of the strangely barren training deck. He twirled the blade of his bayard experimentally, trying to feel the weight. It felt as heavy as a traditional yulosite blade, and Keith hoped that this one would stay as sharp and durable. Though he seriously doubted it came with the extra perks of the highly…unusual metal.

Glancing around them room, he could see the others standing with relatively lax stances—save Shiro whom looked more uncertain and more ready for a fight. And, Keith would be too once he knew what they were up against and where it was coming from. He was used to hearing his enemies before he saw them, and he had always been able to observe small details about his opponents before a training match. But this place, it had nothing. No echoing screeches of captured Hive or Scorn monsters, no illuminating light of a screeb, cursed thrall, wizard, knight, or even a Vex on the rare occasion. Keith couldn't even see a door this so-called Gladiator was supposed to enter from.

It frustrated him to no end.

"In order to defeat the Gladiator, all five Paladins must work as one," Coran informed, "So good luck!"

A flash of blue came from above and Keith bristled as he saw a large white droid land on the ground in front of them. It was tall, white with golden accents, one blue eye, and had a battle staff; which struck him as odd as so far the Galra seemed more keen on distanced combat rather than close-quarters. It would make more sense to train against stun guns.

But then again, the ends of the staff could be blasters or something. He'd seen and sometimes helped his Uncle Cayde working on a lot of weird projects—most were fun—but some did leave him wondering what was going on in the Vanguard's head. A blaster-staff did not sound too far-fetched after the gun-sword incident.

The Gladiator made the first move; lunging at Hunk, the Yellow Paladin yelped, trying to raise his heavy cannon to fire it. Only, instead of hitting the droid, the blasts went everywhere else, forcing several of them to dodge the stray blasts. In one swift movement, the Gladiator swiped Hunk's feet out from under him and jammed the end of its staff into the teen's gut, sparks flying off the tip.

An electric staff, so that meant it didn't have ranged combat. Keith could work with that.

However, before he could, Pidge leapt at the robot while its back was turned. It whirled on its heel, and she blocked the staff with her bayard. Landing on the ground she rolled to her feet, deflecting another hit as it continued to swing before it kicked her into a wall.

A blast flew by it as it took a step towards Pidge, and the android's attention turned to Lance. Ducking under another shot, it began to charge forwards, leaping back and forth in an unpredictable pattern to avoid blaster shots from the sputtering Paladin. Lance raised his gun to block the staff as it swung towards him, however the blow merely knocked his bayard from his hands, leaving him unarmed.

Keith decided this was the opportunity to strike. Charging forwards, Keith raised his blade as the robot made to strike Lance over the head. Only, instead it whirled on its heel and blocked him. The Gladiator shifted and Keith rolled back as it attempted to knee him in the gut before it swung its staff around to hit Lance. The staff's impact practically lifted the Blue Paladin off the ground and Keith grit his teeth as he watched the other teen fly past him.

Fortunately, Shiro knew that was the perfect opening to attack. His brother in arms raced forwards, the hand of his prosthetic glowing bright violet. He raised it to strike only to freeze just a few feet from their enemy. He was pale, and his eyes suddenly looked glazed.

Something was wrong.

Sparks flew as metal clashed together and Keith deflected the Gladiator's strike. Keith allowed himself to be pushed down to the ground before he lifted his legs and vaulted the robot off of him. Leaping to his feet, Keith charged forwards and spin out of the way of one of the electrified ends at it made a jab at him. In turn, he swung his sword up, severing its arm. The metal clanged as it hit the ground and, unsurprisingly the machine still tried to continue the fight.

At least until Keith deprived it of its head.

He watched as the robotic head rolled along the ground, its optic dimming as it deactivated. A small part of him wanted to rip a crater into the chest to make sure it stayed dead.

Shaking his head, Keith willed his bayard to fall back into its unarmed state, this thing was no Vex. He turned on his heel, ignoring the surprised looks of the others as he approached Shiro and set his hand on his shoulder. "Shiro? You ok?"

His older brother blinked, looking surprised for a moment before he clearly registered the shredded robot behind him. "Y-Yeah. What happened?"

"I'll tell you what happened!" Allura snarled as she stomped in. "That combat simulator was fit for an Altean child! And you weren't even close to working as a team! None of you, save for Keith, was even able to stand toe-to-toe with the Gladiator! You're not even close to ready to face Zarkon."

The others looked embarrassed, glancing away nervously and Keith could feel Lance glaring into his back. But he didn't care, fighting was something he'd grown up doing, it was something he knew since he could walk. Of course the others wouldn't be able to do this. They weren't even expecting to be in a war till the other day. "In everyone's defense, we weren't planning on being thrown into an intergalactic war. They were part of an exploration program, not a combat program."

"That's obvious," Allura grumbled as she walked away.

-.-

"Ahoy young Paladins!" Coran greeted as he set out their plates. "I've set out a big batch of focusing food. After this meal you'll be forming Voltron six times a movement and twice on the astral conflux!"

"Smells great Coran," Shiro smiled as Jaz raised an eyebrow sharing a skeptical glance with several of the others. "Thanks."

As they began to reach for their spoons, none of them noticed Coran's mischievous smirk as he whipped out some sort of remote. Before they knew it, their hands had been cuffed together with the hands of the people sitting beside them or the arm-rest of their seat. "Hold the phone!" Lance exclaimed looking betrayed.

"I've seen a lot of solid individual performances today," Coran said pointing at the with the remote, "but, I still have yet to see you work as a team. So welcome to the final training exercise of the day."

Hunk pulled on his cuffs, his brows furrowing as he looking to the advisor. "Coran, I want you to think about what you're doing here," he spoke what sounded like a veiled threat.

Coran didn't seem to pick up as his grin grew wider, "Oh, this is a classic! You get to feed each other! Like a pack of yalmors!"

"Forget it," Hunk answered as he slammed his face into the goo.

"Damn, that's what I call determination," Jaz muttered taking a spoonful of goo before taking a hesitant bite. She covered her mouth as the taste and texture made her gag reflex fight against her as she forced herself to swallow the horrible substance. "Oh Ancients, I thought Eliksni rations were bad, this stuff is nasty."

"Why does Jaz get to eat without cuffs?!" Lance whined yanking his arm only for the motion to yank Keith's arm into his food. "You did that on purpose!"

"You yanked my arm into your food!" he snapped back.

"This is ridiculous! Just let us go!"

At the end of the table, Allura scowled as a vein began to show on her forehead. "Do Solians ever stop complaining?"

"Nope," Jaz grinned. "We pride ourselves on our ability to complain and annoy people."

"Can't you just give us a break?" Shiro requested. "Everyone's worked really hard today."

"Yeah!" Keith snapped. "We're not your prisoners!"

"And we're not your puppets either!" Lance agreed.

Coran gaped, "You do not yell at the Princess!"

"Oh the Princess of what?" Pidge rolled her eyes, "We're the only ones here and she's no princess of ours!"

A splat echoed in the room as it suddenly went silent as a green blob splattered on Pidge's face. All eyes turned to see Allura holding up the spoon used to launch it.

It. Was. On.

"Go loose Pidge!" Keith exclaimed grabbing his plate and hurling it at Allura.

Unfortunately, before his retaliation could land, Coran stepped in, swiping the good aside with what appeared to be a towel before he flung the serving spoon, covering them all in green slime.

A dark smirk began to cross Hunk's face, "Oh, it's on now!" Burying his face back in his food, he lifted it up and slammed his hands against his cheeks, spraying their hosts.

Things only escalated from there. Keith was aware of Pidge helping him hurl plates of goo and he also worked defense with Lance. Every now and then he could see Shiro and Jaz join in, blindsiding the Alteans when the opportunity arose—though Keith swore he saw Jaz hit Shiro in the face with a spoonful of goo, so they might've been having their own fight. And Hunk…Keith now rightfully had a healthy fear of the Yellow Paladin, in a food fight at least. He'd never seen someone become a living machine gun, it was both disturbing and impressive.

The fight only ended when almost every surface of the room had goo spattered on it somewhere. As green slime dripped to the floor, several of them began to stifle chuckles that threatened to escape. After such a stressful few days, it was nice to feel somewhat normal again.

"ENOUGH!" Allura shouted. "DON'T YOU SEE WHAT YOU'RE DOING?!"

"Good feelings gone," he heard Hunk murmur.

Keith clenched his jaw, getting ready for another fight. He was sorely caught off guard as the woman grinned at them, "You're finally working together as one!"

"Oh…yeah," he muttered.

"I actually don't hate you right now," Lance commented before yelping as a clump of goo slammed into his face.

"Thanks Jaz."

"No problem."

"Hey!" Hunk chimed in, "You guys thinking what I'm thinking?!"

"Let's go form Voltron!" Shiro smiled.

"Yeah!"

Hunk seemed to pout for a moment, "Actually I was thinking dessert, but yeah, Voltron works too."

-.-

Keith stretched as he entered the lounge with the others. It was relieving to finally have formed Voltron outside of a battle; at least now Allura wouldn't be breathing down their necks all the time and Coran wouldn't be throwing eighty different bonding exercises at them. Now they could focus on real training.

"Man, that was so cool!" Lance said jumping as he walked. "I'm so charged up, I don't know if I'm gonna get any sleep tonight!"

"Not me," Keith said leaning back onto the couch, "It'll be lights out once I get in bed."

Hunk slid into the middle seeming to tear up as he yanked them into a hug, "I just want you to know, I realized that when we were in Voltron, we're brothers, man! You know, we're like totally connected! No secrets, no barriers, no nothing! Brothers all the way!"

Keith didn't know if he was more startled by the tight hug or the bright flash that followed. Blinking a few times to see again, he didn't bother to disguise his horror as he saw Jaz holding what appeared to be a camera. "Aw, you guys look so cute!"

"I'm going to kill you," he muttered under his breath.

Unfortunately, he couldn't say his threat any louder as Hunk began squeezing tighter, Keith was pretty sure he was crying. "I love you guys!"

But clearly she still got the message. Jaz smirked at him knowingly, a familiar mirth in her eyes as she waved the camera tauntingly as she sauntered from the room.

He was going to throttle her for this later. After he erased that photo and any copy of it from existence.

A/N: here are the translations for this chapter.
1. Did she not hear a word I said?
2. I doubt it.