The last chapter was difficult for me to write, so this one will be more positive. Hopefully. I told you the next update might take awhile, but I was working on it more than I thought I would. Sorry if this chapter is low quality, I had a headache while writing this. Also I noticed that my 6th chapter only got 7 views after a week of being published, so I don't know if I'm not making it not interesting or if I'm ruining this or what. Let me know if you want anything added in the future! Again, the basic story line was provided by nine1775. If this chapter was boring, I'm sorry, but next chapter will be more exciting. Also I don't really know how to describe the castle, so sorry.
Katara
She was shocked. Lana really had kept most of the details from them. There was silence as Coran lead the paladins to the edge of the sinkhole, where the castle was. Apparently he'd moved it while Lana was telling her story. Katara noticed that Zuko and Pidge were staying closer to Lana, making sure to walk at the same pace as her. Katara turned to Toph and Lance, "Do you know if something happened? Zuko, Pidge,and Lana are limping."
Lance paused and looked back, "Yeah, they're definitely limping."
Toph frowned, "I felt some weird vibrations late last night."
Lance forwned, "You can feel vibrations in your sleep?"
"I got the feeling like something was vibrating in the air. It was like nothing I've felt before," Toph said, ignoring Lance.
"Welcome to the Castle of Lions!" Allura said, gesturing to the platform that had brought her down before.
Lana stepped up to Katara and gently touched the wound on her arm.
"The platform isn't big enough to take all of us up at once, so we'll have go to up in groups," Shiro said.
"Krolia and Romelle already went up," Allura said, turning to Keith, "Keith, your space wolf is waiting for you. Romelle said he's been a handful."
Sokka blinked, "Space wolf?"
"Long story," Keith muttered.
Lana, Zuko, Pidge, Allura, and Shiro went up first. Katara, Hunk, Aang, Toph, and Sokka went up next. That left Keith and Lance to be last. Katara prepared herself for something like the Ba Sing Se palace. Once she got up, she was not disappointed.
Allura
The look of wonder on the Gaang's face was worth Coran's lecture on the dangers of bringing the Gaang in. The paladins were grinning while the Gaang wandered around the room. It was easily the plainest room in the whole castle, but even Zuko was amazed.
Suddenly Sokka whirled around, "This was made with science right?"
Allura and Coran exchanged a confused look, "Yes?"
"Hah!" Sokka yelled, pointing to Katara, "see? Awesome things are made by science!"
Katara sighed, "Sokka, we talked about this. Aunt Wu wa-"
"Aunt Wu was wrong!" Sokka grinned.
The two started arguing, yelling across the room.
"STOP!" Aang yelled and the two siblings stopped and turned to look at Aang.
"Let's split into groups," Shiro suggested, glancing at Sokka and Katara.
Allura, Shiro, and Coran took Katara, Aang, and Toph. Keith, Lance, and Pidge took Lana, Zuko, and Sokka. Hunk, Romelle, and Krolia prepared the lions in case the paladins wanted to show off.
Pidge
If she was being honest, she just wanted to get back to the cave and find out more about the Shadow Clan. Instead she was stuck giving a tour to the Gaang.
"Here's the rooms," she said in a monotone.
The tour went by faster than she expected, Keith and Lance helped out a bit. Lance mostly told stories about their fights and adventures. Keith just made sure that they kept moving. Lana and Sokka were easily amazed by everything; Zuko, on the other hand, kept a neutral face for most of the tour. Once they met up with the others in the bridge, the Gaang exploded into questions. Most of them had to do with the castle's creation or how well in functioned. Allura and Coran did their best to answer the questions.
"How about we show them the lions?" Lance asked, glancing at Keith, "is that okay team leader?"
Keith turned away, "Yeah."
Pidge lightly elbowed him, "Remember, we have guests. Be nice."
She paused and saw Keith's face, it was completely red. Probably from Lance.
"Can we see the lions?" Aang asked.
Keith nodded and lead them down to the hangers.
Lana
The rest of the paladins ran ahead, probably to get in their lions. She wondered if the lions were lion-bees or something else.
"I wonder how big they are," Katara said and turned toward Toph, "can you sense anything?"
"No," Toph snapped, "they aren't moving."
A rumble and a swoosh cut off Lana's question.
"What are they?" Lana repeated.
"Lions," Keith snapped.
"Like lion-bees or lion-bears?" Katara asked.
"What the qwiznack are those?"Keith turned around, annoyed.
Katara guped, "Animals."
"We don't have those on our Earth."
"What about platypus-bears?" Sokka asked.
"Or cat-owls?" Katara leaned forward while walking and almost fell over.
"Nope," Keith growled, "instead we have stupid people and bullies."
Lana sighed, "I wish that was all we had to deal with."
"Yeah, we've got a lot of animal issues, food issues, Fire Nation issues, and- well, basically, we have a lot of issues in general," Katara said.
"Here's the hangers," Keith interrupted what Lana was going to say.
Her annoyance was forgotten quickly when she saw the huge room. A gasp escaped her lips as she took in the doors, the giant metal lions, the boxes, and the wolf that jumped on her face. Lana stumbled back and fell on the floor. Her elbow hit the floor in a weird way and she grunted as the wolf's claw hit an old scar.
"What. Are. These," Katara breathed.
"Yeah, what are they?" Toph asked, "I can't see 'em."
"They're metal lions that form a giant man that's over 100 meters tall," Pidge said proudly, stepping out from behind the green lion.
"Wanna see them fly?" Lance said, winking at Katara.
The lions flew apparently. Really well too. First the paladins demonstrated some tricks and drills. Then the Gaang got in the lions. Toph got in the green lion, Zuko in the red, Katara in black, Aang in yellow, Sokka in blue, and Lana joined Sokka in the blue lion. At first, Lana had clutched onto Lance's seat. But then Lance assured her that the only time he'd almost killed a passenger was the first time he'd flown the blue lion. Lana was still a little tense, but sat down. The ride was smoother than she expected and eventually she was standing next to Sokka while Lance told more stories.
Allura
Lance was taking to long. He kept flying in the same patterns, not trying anything new. The rest of the team was getting bored. Katara and Aang were showing off their bending while the rest of the paladins watched.
"Lance, you need to come down now," Allura commed Lance.
"Why? We were just getting the the best pa-"
"Get down here Lance," Keith interrupted.
"Alright, on my way," Lance sighed.
Allura raised an eyebrow as the blue lion landed.
"Who wants to go to a steam bath?" Lana asked as she exited the blue lion.
A cheer rose up and there was a race to get back to their houses. Katara and Aang won by bending. Katara threw water at the other teams, while Aang flew them towards the house. About half an Earth hour later, everyone was standing outside. The Gaang mostly wore wraps that resembled swim suits. The male paladins wore the swim trunks that they'd found in shops and Pidge and Allura wore wraps that Katara lent them. The female wraps were a large strip of cloth, that was held up by a thick string wrapped around their neck, to cover their chest and a skirt-like thing that cut off the knees. Everyone carried their clothes with them to change into once they were done. They walked to the caves, trying not to shiver from the cool wind. The Gaang ran the last few meters into the cover of the cave with the paladins following close behind. Lana lead them down a different path, the one that was dark. After a few twists and turns, they ended up in a medium size cave with a high ceiling. There was a large pool of water in the middle with a few rock 'islands.' The water was foggy and giving off steam. Allura sank into the water, sighing. It was the perfect temperature and not too deep. Everyone else got in, careful not to disturb anyone else. After a few minutes of relaxing in the water, Pidge splashed Lance and he splashed her back. Soon there was a whole water war going on, no one was safe and no bending was allowed. Everyone sank into the water, exhausted by the long day and the water fight. A huge 'bwwwaaaammmmm' shook the cave, startling the paladins.
"A Galra ship?"
"That's what their lasers sound like."
Pidge, Zuko, and Lana all looked at each other and at the same time said, "Oh qwiznack."