AN: Allura won't be so reliant on her Father's AI.

Chapter 5

Trust was something that they wouldn't receive easily when it came to the populace of New Altea, in fact they might just be strung up if anyone saw them. After all, these Alteans really hated Galra. The 6 of them weren't like the Galra that the universe was familiar with. They didn't share the same violent, xenophobic, and arrogant beliefs; they were very much aware of how messed up the Galra Empire was. This was the reason they'd pledged their allegiance to the royal family on New Altea.

"Please, allow us to repay you for your mercy and kindness." Navzar pleaded. "I will pledge my very life to the royal family in order to atone for the sins of my kind…my family's sins." Minato was silent. "I've seen the Galra do things…I've watched children die and innocents suffer, and worse."

"You want to atone?" Minato was silent for a few moments before he spoke again. "Then let's see if you have what it takes to become my family's elite."

After that, they were turned into an elite squad that reported to King Minato and Queen Kushina directly. They had a great many purposes, but protecting the royal family was their main purpose. At the moment, they were in their ship heading to their destination. "I can't believe that the Prince is using the Blue Lion." Verer said. They'd been monitoring him on the King and Queen's orders, and seeing the blonde leave Earth in the Blue Lion was a pretty big surprise. Hopefully Voltron would rise soon, and bring an end to Zarkon's reign.

"Yes, but why aren't we going to report this to the King and Queen?" Vrok asked.

"Because, the Prince is going to tell them, and it would complicate things if they found out from us; remember that the Prince doesn't know about us." Navzar stated. 'Not yet anyway, we'll encounter him sometime.' She had always wanted to meet the prince face to face, to let him know that there were Galra who didn't support Zarkon. 'We aren't all the same.'

Planet of the Yellow Lion

"Relatively peaceful he says, what a load of shi—" the Blue Lion crashed into a Galra fighter ship that was flying after him. "Come on, Hunk, I'd appreciate it if you'd hurry up." He was being chased by at least 20 Galra fighters, and it wasn't fun. The tail laser managed to take down a couple of them, but it wasn't good enough. 'Alright, Blue let's try something dangerous and stupid!' he laughed as the lion roared. With a bit of concentration, the blonde managed to flood the lion with own quintessence. The being a mouth laser that tore through a great many fighters with ease, and the lion's speed increasing. "Now, let's try something fun!" the fighters chased as Naruto flew upward. "And, drop." The lion flipped as it fell, shooting as it did. "Now that's what I'm talking about!" his eyes suddenly widened.

A fighter was coming straight at the Blue Lions underbelly. "No, no, no!" the fighter suddenly exploded before it could get any closer. Something crashed into it from below. A heavily armored lion, the Yellow Lion. "Hunk?!"

"Yeah, this thing is awesome, what it lacks in speed it makes up for in armor!"

"That's nice, now can we get out of here before more Galra show up." The duo were out of the planet's atmosphere and through the wormhole within minutes.

Arus – Castle of Lions

Somehow, Naruto knew that things were going to get a bit more complicated. But finding out that the Red Lion was on board the Galra Ship that was orbiting Arus only served to make things worse. "Coran, I think your calculations were a tiny bit off." The blonde said. "So, what do we—"

"Princess Allura." A large screen opened to reveal their enemy, a Galra commander with an artificial left eye and a scar over it. "This is Commander Sendak of the Galra Empire." This wasn't good. "I come on behalf of Emperor Zarkon, Lord of the Known Universe. I am here to confiscate the lions." He stated. "Turn them over to me, or I will destroy your planet." He was dead serious as the screen closed, leaving them in shock.

"All right, let's not panic." Shiro said.

"It's a little hard to do that when we were just threatened with total annihilation, and let's be honest here that guy will destroy the planet and us even if we hand over the lions." Naruto said.

"Not to mention we only have 4 lions."

"Technically, only 3 working lions." Pidge stated much to Hunks distress.

"Thank you Pidge. Three working lions and a castle, that's, like, 10,000 years old."

"10,016 to be specific." Naruto added. "Just saying."

"10,600 years old." Coran corrected. "You see, it was built by my grandfather—" Hunk quickly covered his mouth.

"Thanks, Coran." He said though not really meaning it. "Thank you for that. See? Now is this perfect time to panic."

"Wait! This castle has a particle barrier we can activate. " Allura stated.

"Well, that offers some comfort, but what about Sendak, his ship, and the Red Lion?" Naruto asked. "I'm guessing that this castle has defense capabilities, but a Galra battleship is a bit much; I doubt just 3 lions and the castle can take it down." Allura nodded in agreement, the blonde was making sense. "And, I'm going to hazard a guess but that battleship will likely have an ion cannon that'll break through the particle barrier." He sighed. "10,600 years will have allowed Galra technology to advance by a significant amount."

"He's right." Coran stated bringing up the scan of their enemy's ship.

'Of course he's right, he's up to date on the current Galra technology because of his home world.' The blonde was putting his knowledge to good use and would continue to do so, but holding back enough so that nobody else got suspicious.

"Now, we've just got to figure out our plan of action, and figure it out quickly." Shiro said. "And, I doubt Sendak will leave this planet alone if we run away."

"Staying is our only option." Keith said.

"So, we fight but that still doesn't solve our…" the blonde paused forms few moments before speaking once more.

"Wait, I have a plan!" the two royals exclaimed at the same time. The two looked at each other. "Oh, uh you go first Allura." Naruto said.

"Thank you." She took a breath. "But, first I want you all to know something." A determined looked now adorned her face. "You five paladins were brought here for a reason. The Voltron Lions are meant to be piloted by you and you alone…we must fight and keep fighting until we defeat Zarkon. It is our destiny and Voltron is the universe's only hope…we are the universe's only hope." There it was, the confidence that they'd hoped to see; it was inspiring.

"We're with you, Princess." Shiro said.

Castle of Lions – Paladin Armory

White body armor of unknown material worn over a black space suit; the armor includes a helmet, cuirass, rerebraces, bracers, belt, cuisses, and knee-high boots. This was the appearance of the Paladin armor that they now adorned. The color of their respective lion adorning their armor. "Hm, fits surprisingly nicely." Naruto said as Allura brought their bayards.

"The bayard is the traditional weapon of the Paladin of Voltron." She said as each one floated to the Paladin they belonged to. "It takes a distinct shape for each Paladin." Almost immediately their bayards transformed. A sword and shield for Keith, a grappling hook for Pidge, a cannon for Hunk, but Naruto's had yet to transform. "Shiro, I'm afraid your bayard was lost with its paladin." She said before going over to the blonde. "Strange, it should work just like the others."

"Is it damaged?"

"No, it's just—oh!" The bayard suddenly transformed into a rifle. "There we go." She said as Naruto inspected it.

'That was close, this thing suddenly started siphoning my quintessence like the lion did; I almost let my disguise fall.' He let out a sigh of relief. From now on he would have to be extremely careful otherwise he would be caught. "So, now we have our armor and weapons, but what's the plan?" he asked.

2 Hours Later – Space

Flying up to a giant Galra Battleship wasn't exactly what Naruto had expected, and using themselves as bait wasn't something that Hunk was fond of, but it was Shiro's plan. "Pretending to give ourselves up, this plan better work Shiro." The blonde said before opening a line to the battleship. "Attention, Commander Sendak, don't fire we are surrendering the lions." Naruto said. 'Pidge, you'd better hurry.' He took a breath. "Hunk, you may want to calm down a bit before the shooting starts."

"Calm? How can I be calm about this?"

"I didn't say that you had to be fully calm, but just calm down a little bit because I don't want anything to happen to you when the fighting starts." The blonde said as the ship's docking bay doors opened. "Pidge, what's your estimated time if arrival?"

"It's eta, and I'm in." she said. Naruto's attention was now solely focused on the glowing purple light coming from the ship.

"What is that?!"

"Our signal to get out of the way!" immediately the two avoided the tractor beam that would've pulled them in. Moments later the fighters were deployed. "Hunk, you wreck that in cannon and I'll annihilate these fighters!"

"You got it!" he said flying towards his target.

"Alright Blue, let's take them out!" the lion roared and then charged forward. Firing lasers from its tail, dodging enemy fire, and maneuvering with speed and grace. "That's it, chase us." The fighters were indeed chasing him just like he wanted. "Stay away from Hunk." The blue lion flipped over the fighters. "Mouth Cannon, full power!" the fighters were taken out in an instant.

More came out, and went after Hunk as he went for the iron cannon only to hit a force field. "A force field, really!?"

"Shoot it with your mouth cannon and aim at a single point, don't let up!"

"Alright." The Yellow Lion fired, and within seconds the barrier was down. "Heck yeah!" Hunk exclaimed before smashing into the ion cannon. Effectively crippling it.

"Guys!" Pidge called as the Green Lion flew out from the battleship.

"You're alive, oh thank god, you guys had me worried there." The blonde said. "Keith, you got the Red Lion!" now they were ready, now they were one step closer to forming Voltron. All they needed now was the Black Lion.

Arus

Naruto had to admit that the Black Lion was impressive, and that Shiro being the leader was smart. The blonde did take notice that Allura was a bit jealous of Shiro. It was obvious that the princess wanted to be a Paladin herself, these were her father's creations after all. The young woman had even changed into an outfit that resembled Paladin armor and had her hair tied up. "That's a good look on you." Naruto said. "Warrior Princess."

"Warrior Princess." Allura chuckled. "Trust me, I'm no warrior, but I can fight when needed; my father taught me."

"I was tutored for a bit before my mother took over." The blonde smiled. "She even taught me everything she knew about alchemy." He wanted to punch himself, he seriously just let that slip out. Allura's curiosity had just been peeked. Thankfully, the alarm had just sounded. 'Thank the ancestors!' He said before running to his lion.

"Sendak is attacking, Paladins to your lions!" they were out of the castle within minutes. Just in time for the ion cannon to fire twice in a row. Allura would provide cover with the castles defense for a long as she and Coran could, but Voltron was needed now.

"Listen up, Team Voltron! The only way to succeed is to give it all you've got" Shiro said. "This looks bad, but we can do this! Are you with me?" they nodded in affirmation.

"Wait, I'm nodding is everyone else nodding?" Hunk asked.

"Yes." They replied in unison.

"Let's do this!" with that said, they charged forward outside the castle's particle barrier. There was just one problem.

"Does anyone have any idea of how to form Voltron?" Keith asked since there was no indication or button. Galra fighters began firing at them from above as they ran.

"Maybe—" Naruto was cut off by a blast coming mere inches away from him.

"This is insane! Can't they cease fire for one minute so we can figure this out?" Pidge exclaimed in agitation before jumping back and destroying two fighters via throwing them into each other. Keith was forced to turn around and shoot down multiple fighters in order to keep from getting hit.

"We have to do something!"

"Combine!" Hunk exclaimed ramming into the Red Lion.

"Hunk!"

"Ok, that didn't work."

Despite the situation, Naruto couldn't help but find them amusing. "Hey, maybe we should fly in formation." The blonde suggested.

"Good idea, on my cue!" they quickly gathered back together. "One, two, three, Voltron!" they leapt off the cliff and flew upward, staying in formation as they did.

"Here we go!"

"This is the only idea I had so sorry if it doesn't work!" Sadly, it wasn't meant to be at the moment.

"Nothing's happening." Shiro stated.

"Hold on a second, I feel something."

"Yeah, it's like were all being pulled in the same direction." A sort of excitement began to take over, but it was quickly snuffed out.

"Uh, guys, I think I know why. Look up." Shiro said. They did and saw a bright red light coming from Sendak's ship.

"Son of a but—"

"Sendak's ship is sucking us in like a black hole!" Pidge exclaimed cutting Naruto off. The ship fired on the Castle once more, this time the particle barrier was down. Now, the castle was fully exposed. Naruto's eyes widened, they were going to be captured and the castle would be destroyed. For a moment, he felt true despair, but only for a moment. He didn't hear the others giving up.

"No!" Shiro's voice snapped him back to reality. "We can do this. We have to believe in ourselves." he wouldn't give up. "We can't give up. We are the universe's only hope." His words rang true. "Everyone is relying on us. We can't fail! We won't fail!" – "If we work together, we'll win together!"

"Yeah!" in that moment the lions glowed their respective colors and broke from the tractor beams grasp, and in a display that they would come to get used to. Their lions combined into a single entity that would save the universe, Voltron. The battleship had fired once more, but missed.

The smoke cleared, showing the massive humanoid robot.

"I can't believe it!"

"We formed Voltron!"

"I'm a leg!"

"Oh, this is going to be so much fun!"

"Yeah, now let's get that cannon!"

Voltron grabbed the iron cannon and in a single motion, tore it apart. It punched into the hull and fired straight through causing the part they were on to be separated. Jumping into the ship, Voltron began tearing it up from the inside with great efficiency before tearing through it and jumping out. Flying up, it came back down and went straight through the only stable part of the battleship. Causing it to explode in a spectacular fashion.

With the destruction of this battleship, they'd won their first battle and more were to come. Soon, they would be known as the, Defenders of the Universe.

Chapter 5 End

AN: Finally, I'm done with the first episode!