Chapter 17
A/N: remember people, the story and OCs are owned by me, nothing else, kay? Kay.
/comms/
"Bold is intercom or Coran's magical flying cubes"
Flashbacks/Yorak talking privately with Keith
"Zarkon! How did he find us?!" Allura exclaimed.
"His commanders must've radioed him from Olkarion," Keith growled.
"We need to wormhole, now! Everyone to your stations!" Shiro ordered as they all began rushing to their positons. "We need to put some distance between us and Zarkon! This could be the fight of our lives."
"Until the next fight comes," Jaz deadpanned catching herself against the console as the Castle shook as the blaster fire began raining down on them.
"That's a lot of fighters!" Hunk exclaimed.
"Jaz! Try to take out as many of those as you can!" Shiro commanded. "Allura, do what you can to evade them! We can't have them following us through the wormhole!"
"On it," the Awoken mage said as her eyes began glowing and energy began to form outside of the particle barrier.
"Lance! Keith! Lay down some covering fire we need to buy Jaz time for her attack!"
Nodding Keith pulled up the controls for the small drone pulling the trigger and moving back and forth, it reminded Keith of a minigame on some Nintendo game he used to play.
"—twelve-o'clock," Pideg said and Keith turned, moving his drone and accidently hitting Lance's as he shot the fighters.
"Hey!"
"Sorry! Gotta be quick!" Keith stated.
Lance's drone rammed his. "How's that for quick?!"
"Why you…" he growled as they began ramming each other.
"Knock it off you two! Stay in your zones!"
"YEAH KEITH!"
"Pidge, keep calling out those fighters. Hunk, how are the defenses holding?"
"Uh…I don't know. Ten percent? Fifteen maybe? Everything's a blur, I have tired eyes! I've been up too long!" he complained.
"I've been up for a week straight because of combat before! So no complaining!" Jaz hissed baring her teeth as the energy line elongated.
"WHAT BATTLE WERE YOU FIGHTING THAT MADE YOU STAY UP FOR A WEEK?!" Lance exclaimed.
"I know we just came off an intense battle, but we gotta stay focused," Shiro reassured, "just until we jump!"
"When is that?!" Keith growled shooting down more ships.
"DUCK!" Jaz shouted and they all drove their drones down as the energy lashed out as Jaz swung her arm with a scream, slicing through the volley of fighters before hitting a cruiser. Swinging her other arm, she fired a second line, magaging to take down another cruiser and hit the bottom of Central Command. "Go! Use the moon!"
After saying those words, Shiro lept from his seat, catching her as she passed out cold. "Get us out!"
Nodding in agreement, Allura slingshot the Castle around the moon, putting more distance between the Galra and them. "We're clear!" Coran called and Allura opened a wormhole and flew inside.
"We're getting away from Zarkon, but how come we're still on alert?" Lance questioned as they all looked at the sparking wormhole.
"There's a Teludav lens malfunction! We're about to exit this wormhole a lot sooner than we planned!"
Coming out of the exit, they saw a large field of ice fragments floating around in a cluster. "Where are we? It looks like some sort of iceberg graveyard," Lance remarked.
"Coran, what's the status?" Allura panted.
"Checking now," he replied typing on his monitor. "We didn't make it to our exit, but we're far enough away from Zarkon's fleet where we should be alright."
"Is Jaz alright?" the Princess grimaced trying to stay on her feet.
"She should be fine, given some rest," Shiro stated, picking his friend up, "from what I do remember her magic takes a lot out of her."
Allura nodded, before sliding to her knees and they all worriedly gathered around her. "You look as exhausted as Jaz," Coran breathed, "you both exterted way too much energy. You all rest while I go to the main turbine and check on what's going—AHH!" he screamed as he went sliding across the room and slammed into the wall.
"Whoa, are you alright?" Lance questioned as Coran stepped away leaving a liquid impression of himself on the wall.
Keith's eyes widened, geez Coran sweat a lot…wait…how old was he again?
"I'm fine, I probably just hit a slippery spot," he lied pointing at the ground. "Someone clean that up!"
"You're sweating," Allura said looking at him with concern, "you might have a case of the slipperies."
"What?! No! that's an old person virus and im not old. I'm young."
"Keep telling yourself that Coran."
"Well youngish."
Keith blatantly felt Yorak's panic, "Oh Traveler! Can he see me?! Can he hear me?! I'm so sorry Keith! Everyone! This is not the droid you're looking for!"
"You're fine Yorak," Keith grumbled under his breath too worn out to bother switching languages.
"What are the slipperies?"
"It's a common Altean virus that occurs…later in life," Allura informed as they watched puddles form everytime Coram moved to a different spot. "It's not harmful and usually only lasts a couple days. But, it does cause one's body to secrete extremely slick fluid."
"Ew!"
"Gross!"
"Jhipp xijvajhinv ne quuhhok tef quunch hiquoj chea touk ih [Still disgusting no matter how many times you hear it]," Keith grumbled in Hevnoan.
"You got that right."
"Seriously, how many lanaguages do you two know?" Pidge grumbled recognizing the pattern of speech was different than Keith's normal go-to, so much for creating that translating program to find out some cool news curses to use behind Shiro's back.
"I'm gonna be sick," Hunk groaned.
"Yes, it is gross, so it's good that I don't have it," Coran denided.
"You're literally standing in a puddle of your own sweat," Lance grimaced.
That was all it took for Pidge to gag and run to go hurl.
"I'm not embarrassed, because I don't have it!" he exclaimed tossing his arms in the air and causing fluid to be splattered throughout the room, making Hunk and Lance run to join Pidge in puking. "And now I'm going to leave because I need to fix the main turbine." Turning to walk away, Coran ended up sliding around in his own sweat for a moment before falling to the floor and sliding off down the hall with a few curses.
"Alright," Shiro breathed, adjusting Jaz in his arms, "since Zarkon has no idea where we are, we can figure out our next step," they all sighed, "Maybe we can find that secret group, the Blade of Marmora. Pidge, where are those coordinates?"
The there was a moan as she sat up from the trash can looking a little green. "Wait a sec," she mumbled crawling over to her seat and tapping a few buttons, "I don't think my brain's working."
"Neither is mine," Lance sighed.
"Hello all. I've checked the engines," Coran called over the monitor.
"That was fast."
"I slipped right down—gah!" he grunted as he fell, popping up with a red mark on his forehead, "I mean hurried down! Anyways, good news: the Galra fighters did minimal damage, I flushed the turbine and it's fine. The bad news is the Teladav, or wormholer as you Solians call it, is in bad shape. Several scaultrite lens-stones of the magnifying-beam generator are cracked. As you know the generator uses a crystal to covert Altean energy into usable fuel. That supplies the power needed to wormhole. Anyways, I have to remove the cracked lenses and readjust trajectory until they can be replaced. I'm also going to need to divert power to make up for the lost energy. It's gonna take at least a quintant."
"Alright then, we'll hide the ship and get some rest while Coran comes up with a work-around," Shiro stated, "tomorrow we'll be sharper and refocused."
-.-
Keith rummaged through his drawers looking for a swimsuit, before Coran escorted Allura back to her room like Shiro was taking Jaz she mentioned that there was a pool on one of the lower levels of the Castle.
"Yorak," he grunted as he sifted through the mess in the closet, "I wouldn't have happened to put a pair of trunks in storage? Or at a wetsuit?"
"Um…no?" he said flying over looking down as Keith buried himself into the mountain of old clothes. "Besides, if you do find a pair of trunks, are you sure you want to swim in them? I mean, who knows who wore it last?"
Popping up from the center of the pile, the young Guardian glared at his ghost. "I haven't been swimming in over three years. In case you forgot, the Garrison didn't have a pool and living in the middle of the desert wasn't helpful either. Besides, the last person to wear them died ten-thousand years ago," he stated diving back in. A split second later, Keith stood up holding a set of red and white trunks, "Found one!"
Getting changed into the suit, he grabbed a towel, lazily tossing it on his head as he walked towards the elevator. Finally, he could have a few relaxing hours of peace and quiet. No Lance, no Jaz, no Hunk, no one talking loudly or arguing. Just him and Yorak and silence.
Slamming his hand in the elevator before it closed, he forced it open and didn't bother to hide his glower as he saw Lance on the other side wearing a swimsuit.
"What the heck do you think you're doing?" the Blue Paladin grumbled glaring at him as he stepped inside.
"Allura said there was I pool, I'm gonna check it out," he stated. "What are you doing?"
Lance gave a loud sigh as the doors closed, "Same."
Keith ground his teeth together, so much for relaxing. "Look, you stay on one side of the pool and I'll stay on the other. That way we'll be far away from each other. Very. Far. Away."
The elevator shook making them look up as something ground to a hault with a clang. "That didn't sound good."
Keith silently agreed, cursing as he and Lance were plunged into darkness.
"How are we gonna get out of here? I don't like the dark! Let alone being stuck in the dark with you!" Lance exclaimed turning towards the glowing eyes and Keith facepalmed.
"Lance, calm down, there's probably an emergency exit on the roof," he stated, feeling for the handles that were typically inside elevators. Finding it he carefully climbed up on it, pressing himself against the wall to keep from falling over. Feeling the roof, he found a latch and pulled, thankful when light came in.
"Dude…how are you balancing on that?"
"Practice," Keith stated jumping off and grabbing onto the ledge, pulling himself up.
"Wait!" Lance exclaimed, grabbing his ankle before he could pull it up.
"Lance, let go."
"No way, you'll leave me here in the dark!"
"I won't alright! Just chill!" he said shaking his leg. "Now let go, you're gonna pull me back in."
"Can you at least lift me to the ledge?"
Keith prayed silently for the willpower to just not leave him in the evelator. Ignoring the pain as he rolled onto his back and started pulling his leg up, stopping when a hand grabbed onto the ledge and the pressure on his foot gave out. "You can get the rest of the way right?" he said standing up and crossing his arms, "Or will I need to pull you up?"
"I've got this!" he exclaimed floundering his way up onto the elevator roof with a lot of whining and groaning. "Now what genius? How are we supposed to get out of here? In case you forgot we don't have our jetpacks and last I checked humans can't fly!"
"We just need to climb out," Keith stated looking at their surroundings. No elevator cable, so they couldn't use that to climb out and the next floor looked like it was still a ways above them.
"Hey, you ever see this old Disney movie: Emperor's New Groove?" Lance said.
Keith's eyes widened, he knew that movie, it was one of Cayde-6's favorites to toss on when he didn't feel like teaching class. "Yeah."
"Well—What? Really?"
Keith raised an eyebrow, "Is that such a surprise?"
"Uh…it just doesn't seem like your kind of thing," he remarked looking up. "Anyways, I was thinking we could do the rock-climb thing they did after the bridge fell. You know, back to back, pushing to keep each other up as we walk up the walls like Spiderman!"
Keith grabbed Lance's arms without hesitation, he wanted out, this was the best way to do it. Pushing back to back, he gave a glare to the Cuban, "Remember we have to move at the same time otherwise we'll fall, and depending on how high we get, we'll die."
"You really must be a blast a parties," Lance grumbled as they placed their feet on the wall and began walking up.
As they got further up the shaft, Keith noticed that he seemed to be leaning further away from the wall, and his worry was proven when he had to strain to reach the side on his next step. Getting his foot on the wall, he pushed harder when he noticed them slipping, he really didn't want to fall from this height without his jetpack.
"It's right, then left. You're off," Keith growled.
"You're off," Lance said pushing harder against him, where the heck was that force earlier? "And you're shoving too hard!"
"You aren't shoving hard enough!" Keith retorted putting more force into his side and looking up the shaft, how much further? If they kept this up, they'd strangle each other before reaching the exit.
"I should be at the pool right now."
"Stop whining," Keith snapped as his gaze landed on something, a panel maybe? Perhaps they could get the elevator moving again? Or was it a vent?
Either way, it was a way out of there.
"Look."
Lance turned his head, peering behind him over Keith's shoulder. Looking at each other they grinned and started climbing with new motivation. Getting up there, Keith kicked the panel in, revealing a vent.
"Lance, jump off the wall," Keith ordered grabbing Lance's arm.
He heard the Blue Paladin mutter a quick prayer in Spanish before Keith was shoved forwards into the vent, yanking Lance in behind them as they were shot down the ventilation system.
Coming out, they both screamed as they fell into open air, landing painfully on the metal floors.
"…Never seen a pool look like that."
Looking up towards the blue water, Keith and Lance stood up glaring at the roof-pool.
"WHAT THE HECK?!"
"Stupid Altean pools."
"How are we going to get up there?" Lance asked.
"Maybe there's a ladder?" Keith suggested as he stormed off to find one. Traveler help them if he could not find a way into the quiznaking pool.
-.-
Shiro sat on the bridge keeping an eye out for and Galra as the others relaxed, hearing the doors open, he peered over the chair, getting up as he saw Allura walking in. "What are you doing here? You should be resting."
"I cannont sleep," she stated startint to pull up a monitor. "Zarkon is out there, he's searching for us."
Shiro grabbed her hand, "I know how you feel, but you need to step away for a while. It's what's best for everyone."
An explosion rocked the side of the Castle, and they looked out the windows to see Galra fighters starting to surround them. "We're several galaxies away! How did they find us so soon?" Allura gasped.
"It doesn't matter, we need to get out of here!"
-.-
"You find one?" Keith asked glaring up at the pool.
"No, you?"
"No."
"…You think they jumped up there?" Lance questioned.
"Maybe?" Keith shugged.
The sound of something hitting the Castle echoed down to them they looked at each other then back at their surroundings in time to see the pool water engulfed them, dragging them up to the pool before gravity won out and yanked them back to the ground.
"Now it's just taunting us."
"We should get to the bridge!" Keith said yanking the Blue Paladin to his feet as he heard more blasts.
Racing through the halls, they ran onto the bridge, balking only for a moment as they saw the attacking fleet. "They found us again?" Lance groaned as he jumped into his seat. "How is that possible? Is that possible? It doesn't seem possible!"
"Right now we must figure out a way to get out of here," Allura stated as everyone else rushing in, getting into their seats.
"Or we can stay and fight," Keith stated, "Form Voltron enough running." In his opinion, it might be the only way to get out, from the scanners it looked like they were completely surrounded. If they took Voltron out then they could lure the fleet away, giving time for the Castle to move into a position from which they could wormhole away.
"It's too dangerous!"
"Allura's right," Shiro confirmed, "we can't take on Zarkon and his entire fleet. Remember what happened at the Command Center? We wouldn't have escaped if the Blade of Marmora hadn't shut down the shield."
"Turbine's up!" Coran informed appearing on the screen. "But I'm still working on the worm—GAH!" he screamed as he flipped, landing on his head before sliding across the floor. "Uh guys, I think I'm realizing now that I do in fact have a case of the slipperies. I'm sorry I yelled at you, Pidge. I may need your help after all."
"On my way!" she said darting out of her seat and off the bridge.
"Let's clear a path!" Shiro ordered as the Caslte moved out of the safety of its shelter.
"Lance! Fighter advancing on your nine!" Keith said shooting down several fighters giving chase.
"Thanks for the heads up! You've got one going for the lower barrier!"
"Good eye," Keith smirked shooting it down quickly before turning back to the main party.
"You're mine—What? Hey! I lost control of my drone!" Lance exclaimed.
"I've got you covered," Keith said turning to shoot only to have his controls fizzle away. "Uh, I don't got you. There must be a system failure."
"Nope! That was us!" Pidge called as Coran slid around screaming in the back. "We're diverting power from all non-essential systems to get the wormhole generator working."
"SHOOTING BAD GUYS IS PRETTY ESSENTIAL!" Lance protested.
"We've lost secondary controls. Thermal regulator's offline! And there goes the particle barrier!"
"Try it now! We should be able to do one very small jump…I hope."
"That doesn't sound good," Keith muttered.
Watching the scanners he grit his teeth, the fighters were getting closer by the second. "Wormhole's open!" Shiro called and Allura activated the thrusters, shoving the Castle through.
Slumping in his chair, Keith closed his eyes for a few seconds of reprive, only bothering to peek an eye open when they exited.
"Zarkon keeps finding us," Shiro breathed, "it's like he knows how to find us. Maybe he planeted somekind of tracker."
Allura typed on the monitor. "It's nothing on the ship. The Castle would've detected any tracking devices."
"They could be using a different frequency. The metallic storm up ahead looks like it might be powerful enough to block any transmissions from whatever tracker the Galra are using to find us," Yorak suggested and Keith gave a small nod.
"Until we find out how he's tracking us, we need to stay on alert, Zarkon could arrive at any second," Shiro ordered.
A loud snore sounded and Hunk burst to his feet looking pancked, "WHAT'S GOING ON!? WHO DID THAT?! WHAT'RE YOU GUYS DOING? WHERE ARE WE?"
"You woke yourself up snoring," Keith mumbled.
"My bad."
"Coran, what's our status?" Shiro asked pulling up a screen to where Pidge and Jaz were typing on the monitors and Coran was skating around the room.
"Actually there's a bit of good news I'm finally getting used to these slipperies. My mucus glands are working at an incredible rate!"
"Coran, say one more thing about that and I will hurl on you," Jaz growled walking onto camera. "I'm guessing Zarkon caught up again while I was out?"
"Yeah, any news on the Teladuv?"
"I'm afraid not. the last jump overloaded the lens stones. Now even more of them are broken. We're going to try some readjustments to change the beam trajectory."
"But we should warn you that there's a good chance that without temps or replacements we won't be wormholing anywhere," Jaz informed.
"There's a giant metallic storm ahead, I think we can hide in the eye of that until the repairs are finished. It should give off enough interference so we can't be tracked," Pidge called. "Also Hunk, run a scan with changing frequencies over the Castle, we might be able to find that tracker."
"On it."
"The storm seems like our best bet," Shiro said nodding to Allura.
Getting the memo, she flew the Castle closer, keeping above the turbulence before descending into the calm eye. "Brilliant Pidge, we're essentially invisible to any radar, radio waves, universal scans, or any other know tracking technology," Allura praised.
The alarms blared around them and they looked up, spotting the hulking mass that was Zarkon's Command ship covering the top of the storm's eye.
"No!"
"Oh c'mon!"
"How the quiznak did he find us?!"
"Not sure, but it definitely wasn't with normal instruments!"
"The scanners aren't getting any trackers either!" Hunk called.
Allura looked down, "It's me. It's been me all along. That's how they found us on Arus," she whispered before they all grunted as the Castle shook with the impacts of the blaster fire.
"That doesn't matter Princess, we're in this together. We're going to get out together," Shiro stated.
"How? We're trapped!"
"We need to form Voltron and go through the storm."
"Uh…did he just say through the storm?"
"The storm?! Are you nuts?" Lance questioned.
"Yeah! Wha—What is—What do you mean?!" Hunk stammered. "Why would we do that?!"
"It's risky, I know. But it's our only chance. We have to go through the storm then lure Zarkon's ship away. Giving Allura some time to get into open space."
"Then what?"
"Then we wormhole away," he said looking towards those watching on the monitor. "Coran, you know how you said it was impossoble to get this Castle to wormhole? Well we need you to do the impossible."
"I'll help out down here, I'm still pretty useless after using all my power like that," Jaz said shoving Pidge out. "You all get to your lions we'll figure this out…maybe."
-.-
Flying out and forming Voltron, they flew up towards the swarm flying above them. /Team! Let's draw these fighters out!/ Shiro ordered as the swerved to the side and dove into the storm.
"It's working! They're following us," Keith stated getting his bayard ready just in case. Watching the scanner he smirked as the ships began to explode as the rocks and other various debris slammed into them. "They can't follow us in this storm! It's tearing them apart!"
/The debris!/ Hunk exclaimed sounding a little sick as Voltron balked, ducked, and looped over and past the debris. /It's gonna tear us apart if we don't do something!/
/Pidge, we're gonna need that shield/ Shiro ordered.
/On it/
/And Keith, sword!/
"Yes sir," he replied slamming his bayard in and slicing through a large asteroid as it was about to slam into them as the storm continued to blow them around aimlessly.
/Legs! I need everything you've got!/
/Roger! Engaging lower trusters!/
/I'm right there with ya!/
Stabilizing, Voltron flew upwards, out of the storm and into open space where they saw the command ship hovering over the entrance they had been hiding in.
"That's a big ship," Yorak remarked, "not as big as the Dreadnaught, but still big."
Keith snorted, "No kidding."
"It's coming for us."
Keith made a sound of affirmation as Voltron turned and began flying the opposite direction, getting the command ship to follow in order for the Castle to get out.
/It worked! They escaped!/ Hunk said a few moments later.
And then the familiar dark feeling that had enveloped them back at Central Commander returned and the lions were unable to move.
"What's going on?" Keith growled through the pain as he tried to keep his part of the bond from falling apart, hoping the others were managing as well as he was.
/My lion!/ Hunk called.
Shiro groaned, sounding like he was in a lot of pain, he probably had to be, if Zarkon was the original Black Paladin, he was probably trying to wrench control away from right under him. Getting bonds broken was not a pleasant experience. /…Zarkon…he's seeking control of the Black Lion again! Fall back!/
Activating thrusters, they tried getting away, but the dark pressure only grew, Keith could feel it, the bonds were starting to unravel. They'd be separated within a matter of moments and it would be the Central Command mission all over again.
The pain ceased as explosions rocked the ship around them and the darkness receded. /PALADINS! NOW'S YOUR CHANCE! GET OUT OF THERE!/ Allura ordered as the Castle, now seeming pathetically small compared to the Galran ship zipped around it firing lasers and larger blasts.
Activating the thrusters, they shot away from the ship, putting distance between Voltron and Zarkon. /I forgot how strong Zarkon's connection to the Black Lion is/ Shiro murmured, /We need to keep our distance or risk losing Voltron. Disband and return to the Castle/
Nodding, Keith pulled out of the bond as the others did the same, returning to just original lions before shooting back into their hangars as the Castle flew away.
Sitting in Red, Keith checked the scanners and frowned, there wasn't a wormhole. "Why aren't we wormholing away?"
/We can't!/ Jaz exclaimed popping up in front of Coran on the monitor. /Didn't you hear earlier? We said there was a strong chance we wouldn't be able to!/
/We're missing several scaultrite lens-stones/ Coran added, /they're shattered! Gone! Don't exist! Solven'dai ho! That's Altean for gone/
/So unless you can make some, we're stuck/
/Scaultrite?/ Pidge asked. "I've seen somewhere before…I think Hunk was making some terrible cookies from that stuff!/
Keith grimaced, hopefully Hunk didn't try eating any of them. /Why on the Tangled Shore would you make cookies with scaultrite? Do you know where it comes from?/ Jaz gagged.
Rushing out of their hangars they met in the engine room with Coran as Jaz raced in with the cookies. Putting them under a scanner, Coran's eyes widened. "Unbelievable! These cookies do have trace elements of scaultrite," he said.
"Will they work?" Shiro asked.
"Might be able to hold for one jump. But we still need several people holding them."
"Good news is we already have people wearing protective gear to do it," Jaz smirked looking at them.
Before they knew it, they were inside the teladuv in various positions as Coran and Jaz placed the lenses in their hands moving their arms and legs as needed. Shiro was the only one standing straight up near the middle of the tube holding two lenses, Lance was somehow was hanging upside-down holding two lenses, Keith got lucky and was hanging from the upper left corner only holding one lens as he used his remaining arm and legs to keep balance, Pidge was standing on an angle holding to lenses, and Hunk was lying on the groun holding a lens in his hands and another between hs feet.
"It just warms my heart that people are enjoying my cookies," the Yellow Paladin smiled.
"Glad to hear that, but please, look for a translator next time," Jaz sighed rubbing her forehead. "Oh yeah! If you guys want to live, stay exactly as you are, because if you move even like a millimeter you'll die a horrible and painful death!"
"Rah Zu'u hind ful [God I hope so]," Shiro grumbled.
"I HEARD THAT!"
A blast rocked the Castle and Lance began panicking, "I THINK I MOVED! I THINK I MOVED!"
"Move back to where you think you were!" Coran called.
"We're gonna monitor the beam from out there," Jaz said as they began leaving the area.
"Wait! How dangerous is this?!" Hunk called.
"Honestly, this is the most dangerous thing I've ever seen or heard of," Coran stated grimly, "but since we're probably going to die anyways WHAT THE HECK! LET'S GIVE IT A SHOT!" he made a salute as the door started closing, "Goodluck gentlemen, and gentlelady, it's been a pleasure. Don't touch the lasers!"
As the door closed they heard Jaz humming a funeral march.
The darkness didn't last long as the teladuv began activating.
"We're gonna die! We're gonna die! WE'RE GONNA DIE!" Lance chanted.
"Hold tight Lance!" Pidge called.
The lasers fired, almost drowning out the sounds of the Blue Paladin's screams before they died out once hitting the lasers.
/IT'S NOT WORKING!/ Coran screamed as the doors opened.
"Why isn't it working, all the calculations are correct," Jaz hissed typing quickly looking for an error.
"The stones aren't reflecting properly, I need something to shine them up!" he replied wiping his forehead. "Wait a tick! I think I've got it! Activate the wormhole in ten ticks! Jaz close the door!"
"What?!" she questioned as he skated into the tube.
"Ten."
"What's happening?" Shiro asked as Coran slid pasted him to the end of the hole.
"Nine."
"Nobody move! I've gotta shine these stones!" he replied wrapping his arms around himself and pulling up a large concentration of slick liquid. "Good thing I've got a case of the slipperies!"
"Eight."
Coran shined Shiro's stones.
"Seven."
He quickly wiped over Lance's before moving to Keith.
"Six."
"Five."
Rushing to Pidge, he started shining her stones.
"Four."
"Three."
Coran got to Hunk, starting to clean the first stone.
"Two."
Looking to the next stone, Coran glanced at the activating machine, before shooting across the gap, wiping his sweaty face over the stone and diving into the small opening between he stones.
"One!"
Lasers shot out and began bouncing between the stones and the screaming paladins as the wormhole opened and everything went white.
-.-
"AWESOME!" Jaz cheered as they opened the doors.
"Great work team, we made it," Allura prasied before they saw everyone smoking.
"So that's why it smelled like barbecue," Jaz muttered crossing her arms as Lance fell to the ground.
