Chapter Three

The Yellow Lion

The lion raced through space, heading towards its destination, a destination unknown to even the pilot.

Celk was now almost entirely in control of the lion, although she still moved it towards its set destination, so she played around with the controls a bit. She moved the joysticks, testing their sensitivity.

Chezor eyed the control module.

"Did the lion talk to you yet?" she asked, "I mean did it say when- and if- we can activate another wormhole?" Chezor would never forget the feel of energy as it raced through her when the wormhole opened - when they entered, it was like energy had exploded, swirling and moving though her. No, it wasn't energy more like pure quintessence. She wanted to feel that again, feel that light.

"It has not," Celk responded, "but I do not see why we should not try to open one." Chezor placed her hand on the module, but nothing happened, no light, no energy from the lion. She frowned in annoyance and removed her hand.

"Well," she said, "we are either too close to our destination for a wormhole to work or the lion had an emergency wormhole generator that we used up."

"Hey where are we going anyways?" Alic asked from the back. Chezor jumped, she had forgotten he was there.

"I mean I'm usually briefed on my missions before I leave, you guys seemed to be in a bit of a hurry to get moving." Chezor and Celk shared a look.

"Well we can't exactly keep it from him, if he is the pilot we're looking for he sorta needs know what's going on….," Chezor whispered, Celk nodded.

"I was going to suggest the same thing," she whispered back. "You tell him."

"Wait, why me?" Chezor said. "I had to come up with all those lies for Mister Four Arms back there!"

"Because….," Celk said, thinking, "I am driving?" The way she said it sounded more like a question then a statement. Chezor sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Fine," she said. Suddenly Celk gasped and grabbed Chezor's hand.

"Chezor, look!" she said, "your hands!" Chezor looked down at her hands and gasped in shock, the burns where gone! Vanished!

"Wh…what…" Chezor stammered, "How? I could barely move then a few dobashes ago!"

"What happened?" Alic asked, walking forward to join them.

"My…my hand was burned," Chezor said "It was bleeding, now it's …fine." Alic looked at it in confusion.

"Are you sure it was burned?" he asked. "I meat it looks normal."

"That's what I'm confused about!" Chezor said. "It was burned really badly, I could barely move it, now, now its fine." Alic eyed her hand.

"Do Galra Altayan half breeds have supper healing?" He asked suspiciously.

"Not that I know of," Chezor said.

"I know!" Celk shouted, "When you opened the wormhole! It must have healed your hands!" Alic and Chezor shared a look.

"I don't think wormholes do that," Alic said hesitantly.

"A regular wormhole would not," Celk said smiling "But this isn't a normal ship, why would it have regular wormholes?" Chezor blinked.

"That actually makes sense," she said.

"What do you mean 'not a regular ship'? Alic asked in confusion, "what kind of ship heals people when they open wormholes?" Celk gave Chezor a sideways glance.

"Alright fine! I'll tell him!" Chezor said, "I was just figuring out how to say it! I'm still trying to figure it all out myself!" She turned to Alic who had a confused expression on his face.

"Aright," Chezor said sighing. "What I'm about to tell you sounds crazy, I know. But I promise you as a member of the Guns that I'm telling you the truth." Chezor took a deep breath and began.

By the time she had finished half a varga had passed. Alic sat on the floor, his hand rubbing the back of his neck.

"Wow," he whispered, "That's…"

"I know" Chezor said, sitting down next to him. "It's insane, I'm not exactly sure how much I believe it myself," she paused for a moment.

"If you don't believe us, we'll drop you off at the nearest colonized planet and leave. I promise. I don't want to force anyone into this. But I'm begging you, for the sake of the universe, wait until we're at the next destination. If there's no lion there we'll take you back." Alic turned to look at Chezor.

"Look me in the eye and tell me you're not lying," he said. Chezor turned her head and looked him straight in the face.

"I swear by King Lotor himself. I am telling you the truth." Alic swallowed hard and nodded.

"Then I'll go with you," he said. Chezor smiled and nodded.

"Hey Celk!" she called, standing up. "How long to the next lion?"

"About three vargas," Celk called back.

"Are you kidding me?" Chezor shouted, "Three hours! We're going to be in here for 3 hours!" Alic looked at her in confusion.

"What's an hour?" he asked.

"Did I say hour?" Chezor said. "It's a time span humans use on Earth, one hour is about one varga." Chezor turned to look back at him.

"You're human, haven't you been to Earth?

"No," Alic shrugged. "My parents raised me in space. I've only ever seen pictures."

"Oh," Chezor said, turning back to the window, "well you're not missing much. Earth sort of…stinks."

The vargas slipped by. After the second, Chezor laid down on the small bed build into the wall and fell asleep.

Chezor giggled happily, listening to her sister's voice through the intercom coming from the helmet that was far too large for her. Her father stood behind her, talking to her mother though his helmet. She couldn't hear what they were saying; she was too focused on her sister's voice. Suddenly an alarm blared throughout the ship, her father picked her up, the helmet falling off her head. Chezor cried as her father ran through the ships long halls, it was too loud! There was too many people shoving and jostling around them. Her father turned a corner and ran to a large window, through which one could see the second cruiser.

"Can you hear me?" her father said, panic in his voice. "Please, are you there? Answer me!" Suddenly with a flash of red light the second cruiser exploded.

Chezor sat up, panting. She looked around her, remembering where she was. Alic lay asleep on the floor. She carefully steeped over him and walked over to Celk.

"You tired?" she asked.

"A little," Celk responded. "You might want to wake Alic up, we are nearly there." Chezor nodded, walked over to Alic, and shook him awake. Alic's eyes flew open and he focused on Chezor's face.

"Oh," he said groggily, "it wasn't a dream."

"We're almost to the lion," she said, smiling. Alic yawed and stood up.

"Chezor," Celk called, "what type of ships are those? There is a lot of them." Chezor walked over to Celk and looked out the window to see a large, brown planet with more than 50 ships gathered around it.

"Quiznak!" Chezor shouted.

"What?" Alic said standing up, "what's 'Quiznak'?"

"Those are Altayan sentry ships," Chezor said, panic rising in her chest, "by the looks of them we just stumbled across an Altayan owned planet!"

"Oh Quiznak," Alic repeated looking at the ships.

"Celk," Chezor said, "are you positive that's where we need to go?"

"Yes!" Celk said, "this is where the lion led us!"

"It's the right pace," Alic suddenly said. "I couldn't feel it at first, but I can now. It's like some sort of energy is pulling me. The lion is there, I can feel it!" Chezor breathed in a deep breath.

"All right," she said, feeling around in her jacket pockets. "But do exactly what I say or we are all dead." She felt something in her pocket, grabbed it, and pulled out a teal marker. Chezor blinked. Why do I have this in my pocket? She thought. Chezor closed her eyes and shifted her skin tone so it was paler, her Galra markings disappearing.

"Alright, here's the plan" she said, her eyes still closed. She opened them and found Alic staring at her, his mouth hanging open.

"What?" she asked, "have you never seen an Altayan shift before?"

"No," Alic said, his voice laced with shock. Chezor removed the marker lid and drew Altayan markings under her eyes.

"I'll pretend to be Altayan," she said, "you two need to pretend to be my non-cogs, you know – slaves. They will be video calling us any second now so this has to work! We need to distract them long enough to get Alic to the planet's surface without them trying to kill us!" Alic nodded.

"Yeah, not dying is a good plan!" Alic said, "One problem…How do we pretend to be non-cogs?"

"You," Chezor said pointing to him, "try to stay out of site, your clothes are a dead giveaway. Celk, I need you to stare straight ahead and not say a word. Got it?"

"Yes," Celk said. They continued towards the planet's surface, Chezor's heart beating so loudly she could hear it. As soon as the lion entered the planet's atmosphere a video com appeared in the corner of the window showing a female Altayan with brown hair and blue markings.

"State your business," she said coldly, in a voice thick with a heavy Altayan accent. Celk instantly stared straight ahead. Alic slipped behind the pilot's chair, staying out of the Altayan's site.

"Uh...Hi!" Chezor said brightly, her heart pounding, "We…I mean I have been assigned to work at this outpost…Uh…By commander…Saya."

"I wasn't asked for clearance," The Altayan said in annoyance, "and I don't know of any commander Saya."

"She's new," Chezor said quickly…a little too quickly. The Altayan squinted at her, suspicion in her eyes.

"What's your clearance number?" she asked.

"uh…clearance number…Um…?" Chezor said. At this point they were nearing the planet's surface. Just a little longer. Chezor thought.

"Tell me your clearance number or we will open fire!" the Altayan said, anger in her voice.

"Now!" Chezor shouted, Celk slammed the joysticks forward, the lion shot forward, its claws almost skimming the planet's surface, the video com vanishing.

"Alic," Chezor shouted, "where do we go!" Alic pointed to a huge mining shaft entrance.

"There!" He said. Celk moved the joysticks, the lion shot towards the mine. Suddenly lasers exploded around them. Chezor looked up through the window to see the ships that were guarding the planet surface now firing at them.

"Hurry!" she shouted.

"I am trying!" Celk shouted back! They were at the mine shaft now. Celk slammed her hand down on a button, the lion's mouth flew open, its face falling down until it touched the surface.

"Go!" Celk shouted. Alic looked at her like she was out of her mind.

"Jump out?" he shouted. "When all those ships are trying to kill…" Chezor grabbed the back of his shirt and shoved him out of the lion! Alic gave a small scream and fell out the lion's mouth.

"Move!" Chezor shouted! Celk slammed the joysticks up, the lion exploded upwards!

Alic

Alic screamed and rolled onto the planet's surface. He got to his feet and watched the lion shoot into the sky…I'm going to die. He thought. A laser slammed into the ground near him. Alic screamed and ran inside the mine shaft elevator. He slammed the button that activated the lift and slowly moved down into the earth. I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna dieeee! His mind screamed and he descended. The lift stopped and he leaped out. The tunnel was well lit by small, floating, blue, Altayan lights and he could make out two tunnels ahead of him. The energy that he had felt outside the planet's atmosphere was stronger underground. He could feel it pulling him into the left tunnel. He ran forward, he passed tunnel after tunnel, offshoot after offshoot. It's a labyrinth he thought as he ran, a huge underground labyrinth! Even when he couldn't see he could feel the energy pulling him forward, never letting him take the wrong path. Alic didn't know how far or how long he ran. He turned one final corner and froze. Glowing yellow runes covered the walls, a door with a glowing yellow V stood at the end of the tunnel; on the floor was a huge, glowing image of Voltron. He stared up, sword in hand. Alic stared in shock. He shook himself. Focus! he thought, running forward towards the door. He slammed his hand on the hand print, the door flashed yellow and began to open.

Chezor

Chezor gripped Celk's chair as they flew. A laser of blue light shot out of the lion's tail, hitting a ship causing it to explode! Celk few through the explosion, firing another blast and exploding another ship. Chezor and Celk both cried out as a rain of bullets hit the lion. The lasers had hit the lion, but Chezor could feel the pain as an electric wave shoot through the ship, as though they had been hit themselves!

"Shield is at 10 percent!" she shouted through gritted teeth. Celk pulled the joysticks back, the lion plunging downwards, making Chezor's stomach fly into her throat. At the last second Celk pulled at the joysticks, the lion shooting upwards. Chezor fell to her knees and barley managed to pull herself back to her feet and grab Celk's chair before another rain of bullets hit the lion. Chezor panted, her knuckles white.

"Shield at 5 percent," she said.

"There are too many!" Celk panted, "what do we do!"

"I don't know!" Chezor shouted "avoid and evade?" Suddenly the ground on the planet below exploded! A huge yellow lion blasted out, slamming onto the ships behind them!

"Hi guys!" Alic said through the intercom, "Miss me?"

"Alic!" Chezor shouted with joy, "You have no idea how happy I am to hear you!"

"You found your lion!" Celk asked.

"Yeah!" Alic said happily, "its awesome right? This thing has so much armor! It even told me where we're supposed to go next and showed me Voltron! You were right Celk, he looks awesome!"

"Escape now, reunion later!" Chezor shouted.

"Oh yeah," Alic said. "Let's go!" Both lions shot up, clearing the planet in a matter of ticks! Lasers flew past them as they flew.

"The ships should leave us when we get far enough from the planet," Chezor said. "They're not programed to follow us past that." She was right, after about 5 dobashes the ships turned and flew back to the planet. Chezor and Celk both relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Alic," Chezor said, "where did your lion want us to go next?"

"It wants us to get the next lion and pilot," Alic said. "They're both at the same planet. Oh and it wants you, Chezor, to come over to my lion, I assume to open a wormhole."

"Right," Chezor said tiredly. "We'll find the nearest habitable planet, I'll switch ships, and then I'll open one."

"Three more lions to go," Celk said smiling. Chezor nodded.

"Three more lions," she said.