Lance wasn't so sure about this partner maze, but he figured he and Keith would totally win if it was a competition, and if it was a competition between him and Keith, Lance would obviously win. He was good at mazes as a kid- this would be a breeze.
He didn't see the maze yet, but he figured it would appear in a moment.
"To form Voltron, you need to trust each other!" Coran declared. "This paladin maze will teach you that trust. Your teammate can see the walls, but you can't. If you touch the walls, you'll get a slight shock, so listen carefully!"
"Aw, man, Keith's guiding me?" Lance lamented. "Why does he get to be on the one on the mic?"
"Two steps forward," Keith said.
"Two steps forward," Lance grumbled mockingly. He did so anyway. No shock. That was good.
"Okay, turn right, and take three steps in that direction," Keith said.
Lance walked right into the wall and fell backwards as electricity sparked out at him.
"Keith!" he squawked indignantly.
"My right," Keith clarified. "Go to my right."
So Lance did- right into another wall.
"We're switching places!" he demanded loudly. "Now you're doing it on purpose!"
"You're taking too big of steps!" Keith shot back. "Move a small step back and then go right- my right!"
"Stupid mullet," Lance grumbled. He followed the directions. This time he wasn't shocked- thankfully. The old paladins probably didn't have this much trouble. They probably had the maze figured out within seconds.
"Okay, keep going forward about five steps- five normal steps, not those weird long steps you do," said Keith.
Lance scowled up at him and took five steps forward. He surprisingly wasn't shocked this time, either.
"Now turn to my left and go ten normal steps forward, and then turn right and keep going five more steps," Keith said. "After that, left again and take eight steps."
It continued like this for a little bit. Lance only got shocked a couple more times before he made it out of the maze, but by then, he was so done with the training exercises. He had hoped he'd get a chance to boss Keith around, but Coran decided the other paladins deserved a chance to test out the maze first. It was pretty funny to watch, actually. Hunk tried to make himself as small as possible, and Pidge was so small he would always be like two steps short of where he needed to be based on Hunk's reckoning. Shiro experimentally poked at the wall while he was waiting for Pidge's instructions, seemingly unhurt but almost amused by the shocks.
"He's always been weird," Keith had muttered to Lance in explanation.
The next exercise, they would be working with their lions. That was something Lance was sure he could manage. He and Blue worked super well together, and she welcomed him as he walked into her cockpit with a warm purr.
Coran's face appeared on a little holographic screen on his dashboard, smiling brightly. "You can't form Voltron if you don't have a strong bond with your lion."
"Ha! No problem, man," said Lance. "Me and Blue are tight. We're like day and night, black and white, peanut butter and jelly-"
"You can have peanut butter without jelly and vice versa," Pidge informed him.
"You get what I mean," Lance scoffed.
"Well, good," said Coran. "Then you'll do well. This is an expert-level drill that you really shouldn't try for several more years. Last time a new pilot tried it- well, it ended badly. Anyway, we're in a rush, so we're going for it anyway! Put your lions in a nosedive!"
That didn't sound too bad to Lance.
"Let's do this, Blue," he said.
"And activating training helmets," Coran added.
The entire world went dark. Hunk nearly screamed.
"Coran, what the quiznak? I can't see!" Lance yelped.
"Exactly! You have to learn to see through your lion's eyes and pull up right before you hit the ground," said Coran happily.
"Oh, no," whimpered Hunk.
"Alright, Blue, babe, show me what you've got," Lance murmured, closing his eyes and trying to find some sort of supernatural- there! He pulled on the bond he figured he'd found between him and Blue, and suddenly the world in front of him lit up as if he were the one plummeting to the ground. He let out an exhilarated laugh.
"This is the coolest!" he crowed.
"Excellent, Lance!" Coran exclaimed proudly.
"Keith, you still going?" Lance challenged.
"You bet I am," he said. "You?"
"Ha! I'm speeding up!" Lance declared. He did indeed increase the speed- something that certainly didn't upset Blue in the slightest. The ground was rapidly approaching, and if he glanced over he could see Red next to him. "Getting scared?"
"Never!" Keith exclaimed.
Lance yanked back on his controls and Blue pulled out of the nosedive, shooting triumphantly back into the air. Lance whooped triumphantly, especially when Keith crashed into the planet's ground with a loud string of curse words Lance hadn't thought him capable of.
Blue sent him warm feelings of pride, and he let himself bask in it for a moment. He tried to send her back thanks and love, and he figured she got it.
In both of their distraction, they crashed into a cliff side.
"Shiro and Lance, good work pulling out of the nosedive," Coran exclaimed. "Lance, you have to keep paying attention at all times. Keith, you were too over confident. Hunk, you didn't even get close to the ground! Pidge, I think you got distracted last minute, which left you to crash as well."
Despite their small crash and the bit of criticism, Lance was on cloud nine. He had done better than Keith! That was an accomplishment, right there. Blue sent him her pride again, along with a distinct feeling that translated basically to, "My paladin is way better than Red's paladin."
Lance really loved Blue. She was the best.
"We only have a couple more exercises today," said Coran. "Just land your lion and meet me back in the castle!"
Oh, joy. More exercises. Lance was so excited.
The latest exercise had them putting on weird headset things. Lance fidgeted with his for a moment until it sat comfortably.
"This exercise is very important," said Coran. "You need to be able to clear your minds and focus on Voltron. Everything else must fade away."
Lance tuned Coran out. The first thing that came to the forefront of his mind was his family, but that flickered and turned into the blur of memories of his childhood that the castle seemed to be dredging up lately. Lance tried to push it out of his mind and focus on Blue, even if she, too, brought feelings of a past he didn't remember, couldn't remember-
Finally, he was able to focus on Blue, on her comfort and her oceans and her love for him and those she knew before him, and channel that into focusing now on Voltron. He could feel the others doing the same. Keith's desert shack glitched into the Red Lion. Hunk's array of delicious looking food, the images of his parents and siblings, faded into Yellow. Shiro's vision of Galra prisons and terror flipped into his family on earth and then to the paladins and finally to Black. Pidge's thoughts or what must have been his girlfriend, and maybe his family-
Pidge's thoughts didn't move.
"Pidge, quit thinking about your girlfriend!" Keith snapped.
"I- I'm not!" he protested. "Hunk's rooting around in my head!"
"Wha? I thought we were open?" Hunk complained. "You can look in my head hole, I think I've got a pretty nice head hole, pretty homey."
"Everyone should be able to look into everyone else's head holes," said Coran. "Clear your minds!"
Finally Pidge's thoughts cleared into Green.
"Now, form Voltron," said Coran.
They came so close- they almost had it- then the original image popped back into Pidge's memories. Pidge shot up, angrily throwing off his headset and throwing it to the ground.
"Hey, Pidge!" Lance exclaimed.
"I'm done!" he seethed. "I don't like all of you looking around in my head. It's my thoughts, not yours, so butt out!"
"Pidge, we're getting the hang of this," said Shiro softly.
"I- I'm tired, alright," Pidge said, brow furrowed as he looked away.
"Okay," said Shiro, "alright. A break, then."
"You have been working hard," Coran agreed. "Maybe a bit of a break would do you good."
Lance offered him a grateful smile. The man looked surprised and smiled back hesitantly; he was giving Lance a really odd look. Lance wondered if maybe he'd seen something weird in his memories, or maybe if the alarms Lance remembered, presumably from a smoke alarm, reminded Coran of the fall of Altea.
He hoped not. Coran was really nice, and Lance didn't want to make him feel bad.
Just as they were beginning to relax, Allura stormed in, eyes furious. Lance mentally groaned and wondered if he could complain to Alfor at some point and Alfor would tell her to chill out some.
He'd maybe use different wording, though.
"What are you all doing lying around?" she demanded. "You're supposed to be training!"
"They're resting," said Coran. "You can't push too hard. They are only-"
"Can't push too hard?" she growled. "This is war, I must push hard. Get up. Get up! It's time you face the gladiator."
The look on Coran's face told Lance that this was not going to be good.
It was even worse than Lance had expected. A single robot managed to kick all of their butts in less than ten minutes. Allura had raved at them about the level being fit for an Altean child- paladins of Voltron should have easily been able to subdue it.
Lance was one hundred percent ready for dinner. It was food goo again, but it looked a bit like fancier food goo, which Lance supposed was nice. Variety was always a good thing.
"It's great focusing food," Coran informed them. "With this meal, you'll be forming Voltron six times a movement and twice on the astral conflux!"
"It smells great, Coran," said Shiro. "Thanks."
Great was a bit of an overstatement, but it smelled a bit better than the normal food goo, so Lance wasn't complaining too much. Just as he was going to eat it, glowing handcuffs appeared on his wrists, and suddenly he was shackled to both Hunk and Keith.
"Hey! Hold the phone!" he protested.
"I saw a lot of good, solid individual performances out there," Coran said, "but you haven't been working as a team. So, this is the final exercise of the day."
"Coran, no, man, think of what you're doing," Hunk lamented.
"This one's great," he said, with a grin that said it would be great for him but not so great for them. "You can feed each other like a pack of yalmors!"
"What's with the yalmors?" Lance grumbled. "Glad I'm not one."
It went- badly. Hunk yanked on Lance's arm to get at the food, pulling Keith into Lance's food. Lance glared at him in annoyance. "You defiled my food goo!"
"It's your fault!" Keith shot back.
"Agh, this is ridiculous!" complained Pidge.
"Can't you just give us a break?" Shiro asked, apparently finally fed-up with the princess. "Everyone has been working hard all day."
"Yeah," Keith said. "we're not a bunch of prisoners for you to toy with like- like-"
"Like a bunch of toy prisoners!" Lance supplemented.
"Exactly!" Keith exclaimed. "Thank you, Lance!"
"Hey! No yelling at the Princess!" exclaimed Coran.
Pidge huffed. "The princess of what? We're the only ones out here, and she's no princess of ours!"
Lance winced. That was kind of a low blow, and he even thought he saw hurt flash across Allura's eyes before she lowered them.
Then, the princess did something Lance was not expected.
Using her spoon as a catapult, she chucked a big blob of food goo right at Pidge. Pidge blinked in shock as if dripped down his face.
"Oh, it is on," Pidge said, narrowing his eyes threateningly.
Then, it was a free-for-all. Together, the Paladins gathered up spoon- and handfuls of food goo to chuck and Coran and Allura, who retaliated in turn. Hunk sucked a bunch of goo into his mouth, then shot mouthfuls at the Alteans. Lance and Keith managed to team up to send a full plate at them, laughing the whole time.
Lance hadn't had this much fun since he'd been at home with his family.
"Enough!" Allura suddenly shouted.
Uh-oh. Here came the scolding.
"Can't you see what you're doing?" she demanded. They exchanged uneasy looks, but then her face broke into a smile. "You're working as a team!"
"Ha- she's- she's right!" Keith said in shocked glee.
"I don't even hate you right now," Lance mused with a grin.
"You guys thinking what I am?" said Hunk.
"Let's go form Voltron!" Shiro exclaimed.
"Yeah!" Lance, Pidge, and Keith echoed.
"No- no, I meant dessert but- alright, yeah, Voltron!" said Hunk.
Lance was beginning to think that maybe- just maybe- they could actually do this whole defenders of the universe thing, after all.
A/N: Hey guys, I know it's been a while! College orientation has been exhausting, we've been doing stuff like all day every day, so I haven't had much time to write. Maybe I will start having a tad more time, between homework and stuff XD.
I hope you guys like this chapter! More team bonding, which, of course, was all this episode really was, with just the teensiest bit of angst in there! Thanks so much for reading! Love you guys! 3