Chapter 22: Escape from Beta Traz

At the Blue Lion, the team was on course for Beta Traz as Lance made sure the route was still in front of him. When they got in range, he spoke to the team. "All right, guys, we're ready to fire." Pidge felt the need to remind him of the importance of a well-timed shot. "Be careful, you've only got one shot." "Don't worry, Pidge, I'm an excellent shot." Pidge didn't have any faith in that. "You are?" "Yes! That's my thing!" "Since when?" Pidge's shouts caused Belle and Jenny to cover their ears while Shiro grimaced. "Geez, Pidge. Keep it down." Lance didn't want to be stuck on this conversation and just wanted to get down to business. "Just get ready." Then, the Blue Lion shot out Shiro, Belle, Jenny, and Pidge before they got close enough. When they did, they fired ziplines from their gauntlets and used them to pull themselves closer to the ring. However, before they could land, Pidge's zipline broke off a plating, causing her to be hurtled, only for Belle to catch her line and pull her in. "Nice catch." "Thanks."

Later, they hid in the walls for cover as Pidge felt it was unnecessarily large despite its usefulness. "This seems like an awfully large place to hold only one prisoner." Jenny had a theory while Shiro didn't seem to care about that over the mission itself. "Maybe he's a psycho?" "Let's hope this Slav guy is as good as the Blade of Marmora said he is." Then, when the drones weren't around, Pidge and the others got to the door before she scanned it and made it ready for Shiro to place his arm there and open the gate before they got in. Next, Pidge scanned the system panel and got onto the security drones. "Beginning phase two of the plan. I'm blocking the sensors. Lance, you've got only four doboshes to scan the base and land your lion before they're back online." "Copy that."

Outside, the drones shut down before Lance did a scan check. "Initializing sonic scan now." Lance grunted as he thrusted the levers, making the Blue Lion roar before it summoned a sound wave generator and fired sound waves toward the prison. Then, scan had been completed shortly. "Sonic scan complete. Uploading the data." In the prison, Pidge received the data Lance sent. "Perfect. We're right on top of your entry point. Get to my location. Hurry, you've got 60 ticks." "On my way." Then, the Blue Lion got to the prison and entered it just before the door closed and the drones came back online. Shiro relayed the mission status to the group. "Okay, phase two complete. Welcome to Beta Traz." Then, Jenny thought about how familiar it was. "Beta Traz? Oh! Like Alcatraz! But, wait. Shouldn't they have called it 'Alpha Traz'?"

At Zarkon's command center, Zarkon was still as intent as ever to seek out the Black Lion. "More! Give me more!" However, the ritual was halted as he shouted and fell to the floor. "Why have you stopped?" "My lord, Haggar ordered us to limit your—" Before he could finish, the Druid was viciously attacked by Zarkon's Black bayard. "Remember who your master is. Now, give me more!" Then, the Druids has no choice but to comply with Zarkon's demand and continued.

At Kaecilius' Cruiser, Varek reappeared with a smirk on his face just as Kaecilius and Omegus noticed him, the latter not pleased with it. "Why do you smirk upon me, mortal?" "Master Omegus, I've grand news. The spy is working for the Blade of Marmora on the inside. It is none other than Commander Thace himself." Omegus felt he didn't need to be reminded. "Yes. I know. Just because I am trapped in this accursed realm doesn't mean my vision is out of reach." Varek got surprised about the fact that he'd seen everything, but then recovered his pride. "Then you must know of my grand scheme put a halt to their plans." "That I see as well. But we shall condone their plans for now if I am to be revived." Varek growled that his idea wasn't being given the decency to at least be heard before Kaecilius spoke to him. "However... if you have a better idea of which to propose, then let's hear it."

At Beta Traz, Pidge got everyone's attention as she showed a map to them like a holographic compass. "I've compiled the data from the Blue Lion's sonic scan and created this map. It appears the prison is comprised of three concentric levels. Each level is showing different types of security." Then, Pidge spotted three blue triangles. One on the left, one on the right, and one on the top. "That's weird. The Blade of Marmora said this prison was made just for Slav, but in showing three cells. Who else would be here?" Lance and Jenny gave out their ideas. "I'm guessing a space ninja. Or maybe someone with magical powers? You know, just spit-balling here. I don't know. Let's just keep tossing out ideas." "I'm telling you, guys. There's a psycho freak inside this prison. I just know it." Belle felt she was getting jittery and tried to calm her down. "Just calm down, Jenny. This isn't Alcatraz." "What are you talking about? I am calm. Right?" "Can you get a visual on the cells?" Pidge tried to look, but failed. "No, not from here. And even if I could, we don't know what Slav looks like." "Then we're just going to have to check both." Then, Lance called out divs on a cell. "Dibs on the closer one!" Jenny just glared at Lance for his behavior. "Really?" "What? My legs are tired." "From sitting in the Blue Lion all day? Hardly." That sting Lance where it hurt him. "Wow, Jenny. That's cold." "Whatever. It's not like you really care about what I wanted anyway." Pidge sighed at their lovers' quarrel before she spoke. "I'll go to the command center to try and access the security system." Shiro spoke up next to point out the groups. "Okay. Lance, you and Jenny will go to the closest cell. Belle will check on the right cell and I'll take the middle one. Let's get moving."

In one of the cells, the warden held a remote device and twisted the knob, forcing a machine to send electricity towards a prisoner as he screamed, relishing the data he'd received in the process. "Already, your mind is rendering me weapons and genetic modifications. It must be eating you up. Your brain turned against you and those who would oppose Zarkon. As he continued, he heard roaring all throughout the halls, alerting him to another prisoner with a worried look. "That's enough for one day. You're not the only one that needs my special attention." The warden then shut off the machine before taking a chip out of the helmet as the prisoner sighed. "With your mind, and your roommate's brawn, the Galra Empire will be unstoppable."

Meanwhile, Pidge has snuck into the command center through the air vent before hovering down and getting access to the main deck as the others waited for Pidge's cue. "I'm in." Shiro spoke to Pidge following this. "Guide us through." Pidge took a look at each different level. "It looks like the top level is patrolled by the sentries. The second level is patrolled by floating drones." Then, Pidge found a detail added into it. "Oh, wow, that's interesting." Lance thought it was good news. "Good interesting?" "The second level also has immobilizing foam." "Oh, so bad interesting." "And the third level?" "Closed system. I can't get in from here." Belle didn't think it made any sense. "You can't get in from the command center?" "No single location can access the entire prison. It's a security measure. When you reach that level, you'll have to link me in." "We're on our way down." Then, the group took off as Pidge got down to her own business looking at files for prisoners thanks to Ulaz's intel and skimmed through it in search of Matt. "Okay. While you do that... I'll find you, Matt."

Meanwhile, the group found a sentry standing guard as Jenny forged her bayard into a chain blade while Lance was open to suggestions. "How are we going to get by this guy?" As an answer, Jenny launched it at the drone, hitting him dead center before it collapsed and she pulled it back. Lance was dumbfounded by how quick it was. "Good teamwork on that one." Jenny just rolled her eyes at Lance's comment before they made it to the second level, only to be met with a drone. "Uh-oh, we're spotted." Just as Belle forged her energy sword from her prosthetic arm, Pidge spoke up. "No, no, no, that's mine! He's going to be your escort through this hallway. He'll scramble the monitors." Then, the drone did just that by shining a green light on it before Pidge spoke to them again. "Shiro, Belle, you go left. Lance, Jenny, you go right." "Affirmative." Then, the group took off before Belle saw a nearby cell and went to it as Shiro continued on and stopped at the middle and the others sounded off simultaneously. "We're here." "Okay, open the panel next to you. Connect your gauntlets so I can hack in." Then, Shiro, Belle, and Lance scanned blue light from their gauntlets to help Pidge access the cells. "Now, I have access to level three. Opening the entrances." Thanks to Pidge, the entrance doors opened before they ran in, only to find another set of doors in the way. Jenny wondered if it was a dead end. "Uh, Pidge, can you open those doors, too?" Then, Pidge noticed another dot behind Shiro. "Hide, Shiro. Someone's coming." Then, Shiro hid behind a structure of it to keep from being seen as the warden walked in and got to the scanner. Once it's scanned his face, the doors opened up to reveal a tall dark silver being in a straight jacket with jagged white eyes and sharp teeth. "Don't play innocent. I know what you did." The creature immediately charged at the warden, only for him to smack it with his robot arm before it growled at him. "Clearly you need more behavior training." The warden walked in before the doors closed. "All right, he's gone into the cell." Then, Jenny piped up. "Uh, hello? Aren't you gonna open them up?" "Uh, I can't from here." Shiro had an idea. "The door scanned his face before they opened for him." "Oh, facial recognition. Guys, hold tight. Shiro, you're gonna need to get a scan of his face." "Copy that." Just then, Pidge saw a camera footage of the creature in the straightjacket roaring as it got electrocuted by the same machine in the previous cell he'd went to before he stopped it. "I'll be back soon." Pidge looked on in horror as the creature snarled. As he walked out, the warden was unaware of Shiro pointing his gauntlet at him before he shone a flash on him. Then, the warden turned to find no one there before he sighed. "I got the scan, Pidge." Pidge then produced a render of it into their gauntlets. "Creating 3D render. Sending to you." The Paladins got the render before they held it over the scanners. As Belle walked in she saw a caterpillar-like alien with a beak crawling about. "Are you Slav?" Slav recognized her and got suspicious. "Why, Kren? Are you here to torture me?" Then, Belle spoke back to him. "How'd you know that? Look, I'm not Kren anymore. I'm just Belle. A Paladin of Voltron, by the way. I've come to save you." Slav only thought it made things worse. "Oh, no, even worse. In 98 and 3/100ths of a percent of realities with a prison break, I die! And your chances are even worse!" Belle got surprised to hear this before she spoke up. "What do you mean?"

Next, Shiro opened the door to find a creature in a straight jacket and surrounded by blue electricity in a cage who snarled at him in a dark and deep voice. "Who are you?" Shiro got his arm ready to strike in defense, being cautious of the creature's potential brutality. "I'm a Paladin of Voltron. Are you Slav?" The creature hissed his name as it laughed. "Sssslav? That coward? Not even clossssssse." Then, the creature tried to walk towards him only to be zapped by the electricity from the machine that was trapping him. Shiro then put his arm down as he knew the cage would keep him from breaking out. "Okay, so you're not Slav. Then, who are you?" "Who am I? I am known by many namessss. I am the incarnation of what the Galra Empire has done to the universsse. I am the poison that will end it... Siox!"

Meanwhile, Lance snuck into the cell while Jenny just walked up normally and found a big fluffy creature eating a drone's leg before it stood up, making Jenny worried. "Oh, please don't be a psycho...!" "Are you Slav?" Then, the creature walked toward Lance and Jenny before it answered. "Yup." "Don't worry, Slav. We're here to rescue you." "We're with Voltron. Do you know Voltron?" "Yup." "Great. Then you know what the Blue Lion is." "Yup." Jenny turned to Lance and gave him a stink eye. "Not everything's about you, you know." Then, Lance and Belle spoke intermittently. "Pidge, I've got Slav." Pidge got confused about who got Slav. "What?" "I said I have Slav, Lance." "No, I have Slav. Wait, hold on. Tell me the truth. Are you Slav?" "Yup." Pidge was getting annoyed with the confusion before she just got back to business. "We don't have time for this. You're just gonna have to bring both of them back." Then, she heard a door open before she swiped the info away and ducked under the desk. Then, Belle and Lance tried to speak to Pidge. "Okay. Give us the route out of here." "Yeah, we're ready to go, too." "Yup." Pidge couldn't answer immediately as she tried to stay hidden, much to Lance's annoyance and Belle's concern. "Hello?" "Pidge!" As she stayed hidden, the warden placed the file onto the desk, causing information to pop up as she sat underneath it.

Meanwhile, Belle spoke to Jenny and Lance. "Guys, looks like we're on our own. We've got to get back to Pidge." Then, Lance and Jenny got their bayards ready before they realized Shiro hadn't spoken up. "You got that, Shiro?" "We have to go back to Pidge." Shiro got the message and spoke to them next. "Not yet. First, I have to find out what Siox knows." "Siox? Who's that? It sounds like a psycho." "He's another prisoner here. I'm trying to see what he knows." "Okay, but if he's creepy, I'm not bringing him with us." Then, Jenny realized they'd no idea where to go. "Come to think if it, I don't know if I could bring the guy anywhere. I have no idea where we're going." Lance had an idea. "Slav, do you know how to get back?" "Yup." "What am I talking about? Of course, you do. You're a genius."

Meanwhile, Belle was speaking to the alien. "We have to get going, Slav." "No thanks." Then, she thought about how panicked Jenny was about her fear of the dark when they were kids, muttering about it before she took a deep breath. "I swear you're just like Jenny when we were little. Look, the only way out is through here. We're finally going to stop Zarkon. We have the Olkari and the Blade of Marmora on our side. Without you, we can't do it." The alien seemed confused as he made a motion with his hand that told her he had no clue. "Look, we can leave in the Blue Lion in no time, but we have to go." The alien grew relieved to hear this. "Oh, the Blue Lion. Why didn't you say so? Blue light has a frequency between 606 to 608 terahertz." "So, you're saying it can jam their scanners?" "No, that's just my lucky range of terahertz." Then, Belle realized who she was dealing with. "Oh great. I'm rescuing a superstitious alien." "Let's go!" Then, the alien stopped to shift the blanket. "Okay, uh, more to the left. Mm... This needs to be right. Um... Oh, but not too right." "What are you doing? Did you forget something?" "No. Just making a paradox." Belle decided to eat it out patiently. "This is gonna be a long day."

Meanwhile, Shiro spoke with Siox. "From the looks of you, I'd say you must've done... unspeakable things to the Galra Empire." "Of coursssse. I haven't done anything they'd never do themselvessss. Well, except maybe eat a head or two off..." "From the drones?" "No." Then, Shiro began to think it was a mistake to come here, and thought about how dangerous he truly was. "Why are you telling me this?" "So that you know when I get free, I'll come after you and everyone you love for ever speaking to me." Shiro was now beginning to think Jenny was right about it holding a psycho. "Okay, if you're not going to cooperate, I'm just gonna leave." The creature seemed not to care anyhow. "Your loss." As Shiro left, Siox smirked before a glob of black ooze clutched onto the remote and turned the knob to the left before it shut down the machinery and went toward his straightjacket and untying it before he laughed.

Meanwhile, a drone came through the door and spoke to the warden. "Sir, Laika and Siox have escaped." The warden knew how dangerous Siox was and didn't want to take any risks. "Oh, no!" Then, he proceeded to walk out of the door before he spoke to the drone again. "Guard this station." Meanwhile, Pidge wanted for the right moment. "Come on, get outta here."

Meanwhile, Lance and Jenny walked with their rescue, still aimless on where to go. "Are you sure you know where you're going?" "Because Lance might be off the mark on your genius-ing." "Yup." Then, a drone suddenly popped up in front of them before he lunged at a drone and gobbled it in his mouth. "Whoa! You're really savage!" "No wonder the blades think you're cool." "Yup."

Meanwhile, the alien had made a symmetry of the blanket's position forming a mountain. "Perfect!" "For what?" "Now, there's a two percent chance this mission won't result in a horrific, deadly fireball. Let's leave!" However, when they got out, the alien stopped Belle as he made a short scream. "Let's go back!" "What is it this time?" "It's that!" The alien pointed to a puddle of water in front of them. "So, are you allergic or something?" "It's not that! There's a 12 percent chance I could slip. There are even realities in which I drown because, in those realities, I never learned to swim!" "What about this reality? Did you learn to swim in this one at least?" "I can't remember! There are infinite possibilities!" Belle gripped the alien before she set him down while speaking calmly. "Look. Just settle down, now." Then, he proceeded with his ramblings. "I-I can already feel myself not being able to breathe. My lungs are filling with water." Then, Belle figured there's something going on with him. "That guy must've made you lose your nerves. But, it's okay. We can just go around the puddle." "No chance. There's a 15 percent chance you'll find a secret entrance and end up ejected to space." "In what direction is that entrance?" Then, the alien knew what she meant by that. "Oh, just on the right." "Then, I guess I'll go left."

Meanwhile, the warden noticed Siox's cell was empty with grave concern. "How did you escape? I'll find you, monster. And my pet."

As the warden began his search, Lance was talking with the fluffy creature as Jenny stood ahead of them, looking over the corners. "Pidge is the hacker of our group. Shiro's our awesome leader." "Yup." "Hunk's our mechanic. He's also a chef and just a pretty cool dude to hang out with." "Yup." "And Keith and Sandy are always doing things like flying into asteroid fields and black holes and cool junk like that. Jenny and Ayame are the mages who are really helping us out. They always put us first before themselves." "Yup." Then, he thought back on what he'd said about Jenny before realizing what he should've done to begin with and felt bad he hadn't done it with her, unaware that she was listening, too. "I'm pathetic. I used to make fun of people who would get their hearts broken. Heck, I was the one breaking hearts!" "Yup." "You don't have to agree with me so quickly. I guess I never knew what it meant to like someone the way I like Jenny. Jenny's not like any other girl I've ever met before. Probably because she's an alien, but still. She's smart, courageous, and makes me want to be a better person. That is so weird to say." "Yup." "And I can't tell her how I feel now. She wouldn't take me seriously anyway. I don't have anything to offer. I'm just a boy from Cuba who didn't keep his promise to her." "Yup." Having heard this, Jenny sighed in solemn reverence, reflecting on how tough she treated him after he failed to bring a ring from the space mall. "Lance..."

Meanwhile, Belle carried the alien as she ran. "You're so strong. Must be that robot arm. But doesn't it bother you that you only have one?" "The only thing that bothers me is the fact that I have one at all." Then, the alien got scared before he jumped off of her as he screamed. "What now?" "Look at all those cracks! I can't step on those." "You do know I was carrying you, right?" "Oh, I guess no one cares about their mothers' backs anymore!" "Wait a tick, you know that nursery rhyme?" "Nursery rhyme? I'm talking about quantum realities here. Cracks initiate space-time temporal fissures, which mathematically make higher probabilities for alternate realities in which your mother has a broken back." Belle blinked her eyes in surprise. "Huh. Didn't think about it like that. Is there a different route we can take?" "Well, sure, we could go out the scree duct, but, you know, it's all full of scree. Ugh! There's the vlaxenator, but you can hear the water dripping in there." Belle knew where this was going. "And you're afraid of drowning." "Now, you're getting it!"

Meanwhile, Siox was crawling on the ceiling as he growled. Then, he stopped to find a door leading to central command as his eyes shrunk before he continued onward. Inside the command center, Pidge was receiving a message from Belle. "Pidge, are you there? We need an alternate route. Pidge?" As she got the message, Pidge shocked the drone before it collapsed to the ground. "Okay, sorry about that. I'm back. I'll find you a new route, Belle." Then, Lance asked next. "Yeah, can you tell us where we are?" "Just a sec. pulling it up now."

Meanwhile, Belle and Slav were still stuck as he was afraid to go anywhere near the cracks. Then, Belle remembered what he was talking about concerning realities. "I get it. You don't know what's gonna happen next. My sister Jenny went through the same thing. When we were little, she was so scared of the dark, she didn't want to be anywhere near or inside it. But one day, we went into a cave, all of us together. Me, her, our parents, even our Grandpop, Smythe. When she was scared, he held her hand the entire time, telling her that one day, she'll be ready to face the unknown." Strangely drawn to the story, he inquired about her sister's fate. "And how did that work out?" "Well, she did. And the next thing she knew, she's in outer space, found her lost friends, and even piloted the Blue Lion for a while. All because she was willing to step into the unknown. It's high time you do the same, too." Slav became inspired by her speech enough to at least toughen up, as a result. "Alright. Let's do this." Then, he took a look at the cracks again before backing up. "Nope. Not doing it this way." Belle grunted exaggeratedly from this.

Meanwhile, Pidge couldn't find any other way to get out. "Uh, I don't see any other route, Belle." Then, a rapid beeping came from the computer as she noticed a black dot and an orange one both headed toward Lance and Jenny. "Lance, Jenny, look out!"

Having heard the message, Lance and Jenny responded by leaning against the wall. "Quick, somebody's coming." However, the creature didn't budge. "What are you doing?" "Are you trying to get us caught?" "Yup." "Wow. Some genius you are." Then, the warden walked in the hall to notice the creature. "I've found you." Then, he heard a dark voice speaking to him. "So have I." The warden turned to the ceiling too late to see Siox lunging at him and gripping him. He initially tried to attack with his robot arms, only for Siox to rip them apart being elongating his tongue out of his mouth and licking him before opening his mouth wide. However, before he could clamp down, he saw a shadow far away before chucking the warden away before creeping closer. Jenny was getting visibly scared as he crept near her. Then, in an instant, he clutched her by her waist and growled at her as she got frightened. "Please don't eat me..." Then, Lance retaliated by shouting at its back, unfortunately having no other effect but slight agitation. "Stay away from my friend!" Then, Siox just tossed Jenny to Lance like a stick before the warden noticed them as well. "There's your kidnapper. Put the prison on lockdown!" Then, the alarm went off around the halls before the creature took off ahead of Jenny and Lance before he shot out at Siox to no avail. Then, as Siox leaped toward Jenny, Lance tripped her before catching her while Siox missed. Then, he held her up and the two immediately hoofed it with the creature before the guns went online in the ceiling and shot out foam. While the creature evaded it with ease, Jenny and Lance used their shields to block out the foam. "Pidge, you've gotta shut off this foam for us! I don't think Jenny would like it in her hair!" "No, I don't!" "On it!" As Pidge was about to do so, she found a match and saw a video file of a cell exploding before it showed Matt being saved by a masked freedom fighter. "Matt?" Lance shouted to her again. "Pidge!" Pidge yelped as she was brought back to reality. "Sorry! Just reversing the targeting system, and..." Then, Pidge switches the targeting to the warden and Siox. "This ought to slow him down." In the halls, Siox and the warden were about to catch the Paladins before the foam got shot at them and trapping them. "What? No!" In the command center, Pidge made a quip before she nudged the drone's head. "Stick around. Huh? Huh?" Just then, three more drones emerged inside the room, causing Pidge to widen her eyes. "Uh-oh."

At the hall, Jenny and Lance took off with the creature away from the warden and Siox. "Come back here!" As they fled, the warden was left with no choice but to communicate to his drones. "Find out where they're headed! Lock down all exits!" Having heard this, Siox growled before launching his hand to the ceiling and easily slipped through the foam and chuckled as he crawled on the ceiling, bewildering the warden.

Meanwhile, Shiro had found Belle speaking to the alien. "Look, what else can we do to get across?" Slav wasn't afraid to answer. "Why don't we just turn the gravity off and float over them instead? Honestly, that's our best shot at getting out of here in one piece. I ran the numbers." "Well, why didn't you tell me before?" "I would have told you earlier if you'd asked." Belle growled at him as the alien was confused with her before Shiro spoke up. "Belle?" Then, she turned to see Shiro and grew relieved. "Oh, thank goodness you're here, Shiro. I was starting to lose my mind." "Pidge, any chance you can turn the gravity off?"

At the command center, Pidge heard this before she felt it was a good option. "Oh, that's a great idea! Then the sentries won't be able to maneuver, but we have our jet packs. It's genius!" Then, the gravity shut down before Belle picked up the alienand he cooked around her like a ferret before they floated over the panels. As they traveled down, however, they came across two sentries before Shiro and Belle cut them down to size with their arms, impressing the alien. "Those robot arms are fantastic! Now, imagine if each of you had two. Our chances of survival would go up 600 percent from from totally doomed to highly unlikely." "Does he always talk like that, Belle?" "You have no idea." Then, as they got back from their paths, the three of them found Jenny and Lance riding the creature before the alien spoke. "Oh, wow, you have Laika. The warden will not be happy about that." Jenny and Lance grew confused about who Laika was. "Huh?" "Who's Laika?" "She's the warden's pet yupper." "Wait, what?" As Jenny was shocked, Lance gasped at this. "You're an animal?" "And a girl?" "Yup." "And he's Slav?" "Yup." Slav then understood why they confused him for the yupper. "Oh, I see where the confusion was for you." Then, they heard roaring from far away and saw Siox crawling on the ceiling fast. Belle was confused about it as well as horrified. Jenny was twice as much so. "Psycho incoming!" "What the heck is that?!" "That's Siox, the Galra Eater. But don't worry. As long as the gravity is off, there's a 65 percent chance we'll survive."

However, it wouldn't last long as Pidge was still stuck and was forced to shut it off with a warning. "Gravity's back online in three, two, one." Then, the instant she brought it back online, the sentries fell before the Paladins fell as well before Siox laughed while Slav panicked while putting his hands on the back of his head and lowering it. "This is it! Our chances have gone down 500 percent! We're doomed!" However, Siox only glared at Shiro before going ahead of them. "Huh? What was that about? I know he practically threatened me and my friends, but still..." Then, Pidge spoke up to the others. "I'm headed for the hangar." Then, Slav looked up to see Siox went away. "I... I did it. I faced the unknown!" "Actually, you ducked in the face of the unknown, but it's a start."

Later, the Paladins, Slav, and Laika encountered Galra sentries before they opened fire and shot at them. However, they got their shields ready before they could get hit. "Get to the lion!" Then, they ran toward the sentries before Slav took action as well by crawling to a sentry while Laika chowed down on one. Then, Slav took a gun from the sentry and shot out at them while Lance did the same. Then, Shiro kicked an oil drum and kicked it on one of the sentries before tossing another to the ground, much to Lance's dismay. "I had him!" "Let's go. Slav!" To her surprise, Belle saw Slav holding the gun on top of one of the sentries. "Be right with you!" Then, the warden appeared from a door before he shouted to him. "Slav!" Then, the warden jumped into the floor before he turned to them. "You steal my yupper and my prisoner?" Then, the warden pushed a button in the belt, causing the Quintessence that lied in the two jars attached to his neck to sink into him before his eyes turned purple and grew bigger as his hands expanded in size before the rest of him did. Pidge arrived just in time to see it. "Okay, I'm ready— What is that?" Meanwhile, Slav wasn't pleased. "Perfect! The warden's used his stockpile of Quintessence! Our chances of surviving this are now 5 percent, tops!" Belle only prepares her energy sword in response. "Then it's time to beat the odds." "You're not going anywhere. And neither is the lion." After his proclamation, the warden darted at the Paladins, knocking them away before smashing his robot arm to the ground. Shiro tried using the wall to get an advantage only to be whacked away by his robot arm to a box before he fell on top of one. "See what I was saying about these robot arms?" Then, Lance shot at the warden from the air, only for the warden to reach him and grip him before landing and holding him up. As the warden began crushing him, Jenny saw this and grew desperate. "Lance, no!" Jenny shot her chain blade at the warden, only for him to catch it and fling her to the boxes. Next, Shiro and Belle charged their arms before they tried to punch him, only for the warden to block them, absorb it, and send them back, knocking them to the floor. Then, Pidge charged at him, only to seemingly be crushed by his robot arm. However, that was proven to be a hologram as she landed on top of the back of his neck to extricate the jars from him. This only angered him before catching Pidge and chucking the two of them at Shiro and Belle. At that instant, the alarm went off as Jenny and Slav hit the button to open the doors. As a result, the Blue Lion got sucked out into space before Laika tried to hold on but failed before being caught by the warden as the Paladins went out next. Then, Jenny and Slav took off before they noticed the warden's giant hand about to catch them before she shoved Slav away. However, that only put her in the position to be caught as she was now stuck in his grip. Belle saw this and grew worried for her. "Jenny!" Then, Lance had an idea to fix that. "Wait, I got this. Come on..." He focused his gun on the arm before he looked to Jenny who nodded to him before he took a deep breath and fired. The resulting shot hit him in the robot arm, causing it to malfunction and release Jenny as she flung out into space and into Lance's arms. Belle grew relieved while Shiro spoke to him. "Thank goodness." "Nice, Lance! That's why we bring our sharpshooter." "Yup." Then, Jenny looked up to him. "You... saved my life." "I owed you one." Then, as the two floated back in the Blue Lion, Jenny grew curious about another prisoner. "What about Siox?" "He's that guy's problem now."

Inside Beta Traz, the warden only turned to Laika. "At least you're okay. That's a good girl. Yes, you are. Who's a good little yupper? Who's the good little yupper?" However, he heard roaring from far away before he held up Laika and ran with her. "We need to get out of here!"

In the Blue Lion, Jenny felt bad about the fact that she held a grudge against him. "Hey, Lance? I'm sorry for holding that grudge against you. I should've known how you tend to be; you told me you would be. It wasn't fair for me to treat you raw just for that." "No, Jenny. I'm sorry. I've had every possible way to keep that promise to you, but I chose not to. Some boyfriend I am." Then, Jenny reminded Lance of something. "Actually, about that, you technically didn't." "What?" "The promise didn't have a deadline. I never said how long you could do that ring business for." Then, Lance smiled at her. "Jenny, don't ever change." "I should tell you the same thing." Belle smiled at how they made up as they hugged before Pidge spoke to her and Shiro. "The information I found on my brother says he was taken by a group of rebels. He's still out there." "Matt's a lot like you. He's a survivor." Belle agreed with Shiro as she placed her hand on Pidge's shoulder. "We'll find him soon. Count on it." Pidge smiled at them before Slav joined in and looked at her before she groaned. Then, Belle spoke to him about a certain topic. "Did you hav any friends from the Blade of Marmora in this reality?" "Oh, yes! They're a lot like you even. They defy the odds all the time. 100 percent. You remind me of one of them. Adea. She was so patient with me and is actually a good listener." "Well, I hope we get to meet her soon." "In which reality?" Then, Belle groaned next.

At Zarkon's command center, he was attempting to seek out the Black Lion only for a Druid to fall to the floor as he got tired from exerting his own Quintessence before Haggar spoke to him. "Sire, I believe there's a spy in our ranks. Though we can't say for certain he's with Kaecilius. Our communications may be compromised." "None of that matters. Once the Black Lion is recaptured, no one, not even Kaecilius nor Omegus, will stand against me. Have you made any further progress with the armor?" "None of the tests have been successful. Each time, the subject was killed." "I need it ready. If your beats will not defeat Voltron for me, I will do it myself."

A/N: There we go. Now, for Siox, his voice actor is Keith Szarabajka, the similar voice actor for Venom in Spider-Man: Web of Shadows. In the next chapter, the Blade of Marmora will deal with the same kind of problem the Galra Empire is having. As such, my title for this next episode will be "Spy for a Spy." That is all I can reveal for now. Until then, enjoy. :)