Kaiden's POV

Kaiden had been expecting another battle once they reached the sky, but it seemed that the Alteans on the ground were not interested in chasing them. At least, not for the moment. Min took them up, per Luxin's orders, and they reached the stratosphere far faster than the King boy ever thought possible. It had been far faster than Arin had ever flown them in any of the simulators or test runs, and that was saying something. While the girl had been a good pilot, she was a fan of piloting quickly. The only thing that made it bearable was the fact that she rarely crashed - Kaiden was confident in himself and himself only, and therefore had a few issues trusting the capabilities of other people. Namely the tiny girl who he had met when she was fourteen, and who he had expected to kill them all in the test flights.

Luckily for all three of them - even the boring guy, John, - what Arin lacked in intelligence, she made up for in physical prowess and instincts.

...And she was kind of funny to watch. All that energy had to go somewhere, and the black-haired young man enjoyed the show. He, too, had oodles of energy to get rid of, and he and Arin together had wrecked havoc on the Garrison during that year. Poor John - all the dull lad could do was watch as his teammates screwed up his life. He hadn't been bold enough to stand up to them; hadn't been passionate enough to ask the higher-ups to transfer to another team. Basically, he'd just existed whilst Arin and Kaiden snuck out, stole food, and broke into sections of the Garrison that they weren't supposed to be in. Of course, Kaiden had done the hacking and basically anything else to do with using one's brain. The girl in question was more the brute force; she had certainly not been afraid to damage property.

But that came to an end after a year. All Kaiden had heard of the crash was that it had been devastating (millions of dollars worth of damage,) and that Arin was the only student involved. They had refused to disclose anything about her injuries - or lack of them - and had simply said that she would not be returning to the Garrison. So, in the meantime, Kaiden was saddled with another boring doofus for a teammate, to add alongside John. Her name had been Penelope, and she was such a stickler.

The girl wouldn't even come with him to hack into the computers to learn more about the crash.

No dice.

Though he would never admit it to her face, Arin had been leaps and bounds more enjoyable to be around than either John or Penelope, and Kaiden had been extremely bored in her absence. (Though he had experienced much fewer headaches when she was gone.) But he hadn't expected to run into her again - on an Altean castleship, no less! - in his life, but he wasn't one for warm reunions. So he'd teased her; he'd pretended to not know who she was (and, to be fair, she did look different. Skinnier, less tan... kinda wimpy-looking) just to get a rise out of her. The Galinsky had always had a temper, and it was hilarious to rile her up.

There had been none of that after the six - seven, counting Luxin - of them had boarded the Teal Lion.

The small girl had mumbled something about, "Estoy tan cansado. Dios mio," and then curled up in a corner of the cockpit, falling asleep near instantaneously. She didn't even wake when the Lion hit the stratosphere and entered space itself... which was bumpy, to say the least. Though Min was not a bad flyer, the shorter boy was having some issues with the Lion. It wasn't the same as flying a pod or simulator, after all, so Kaiden couldn't fault him for that.

What he did fault him for was eating that Altean food before. That was disgusting.

"This is actually not that bad," the blonde girl - Nikolette - stated as she held onto the back of Min's seat. In spite of her statement, her knuckles were solid white from how hard she was gripping the... whatever material the seat was made from. Kaiden hadn't really had the time to analyze the contraption, but his fingers were itching with the desire to tear it apart and see what was inside.

If Luxin was right, then he had one of these beasts that he could call his own. Perhaps the Purple Lion wouldn't be too averse to being tinkered with. It was the logical one, after all.

"Just keep letting Teal take the lead," Luxin said, directed at Min though everyone could hear him. "He knows where to go."

Kaiden arched a brow and crossed his arms, staring out the window as they passed the moon. "And... where is that, exactly?" he questioned, moving to lean against one of the inner walls of the cockpit. A bit of turbulence hit and he nearly stepped on Arin's hand - which would have served her right for falling asleep in front of four strangers, the ghost of a dead alien, and a person who used to tease her mercilessly...

It was beginning to occur to him just how absurd this situation was.

Fortunately for Arin, his foot missed her fingers by inches, and he straightened up as Luxin replied, "Alfor - the man who built these Lions - and I had a... secret base, of sorts, several leaps away from Altea. Since we were building them to take down the monarchy, we knew that the other Alteans wouldn't have taken the coup well. So, we selected a small, desolate planet and started to build them there. And, if I am correct in my assumption that it has been untouched, we will find the White Lion still at the base."

Nikolette smiled, nervously excited to meet her own Lion. They all were, Kaiden suspected. Even though it kind of pissed him off to have anything in common with that bleeding-heart of a paladin.

Honestly, saving the Altean soldiers who wanted to kill them? Yeah... he'd pass on that one.

A few beats of silence passed before Kaiden grew bored. Such an intelligent brain needed to do something to pass the time, and since his favorite plaything was currently asleep, he'd have to go with the next best option. Which, in this situation, just so happened to be the creepy loner guy - Ren, was it? - who was leaning against one of the walls across from the King boy.

The teen slid away from the wall to approach the taller man, his light brown eyes glinting in mild interest. Though he didn't currently give a shit about any of them - save for his former pilot, because she amused him, - he needed to do something to pass the time, and nothing was better than pissing somebody off.

"Hey, there, big guy," he began, and Ren's amber eyes flicked over to his before moving away once more. "So, I had a question. Do you ever talk, or is that brain of yours just full of empty mush?"

One of the taller boy's brows rose incredulously, and he curled one corner of his lip. "Fuck off," he grumbled, his fists clenching and teeth gritting together.

But Kaiden was not one to be deterred so easily. "You're pretty tall, in comparison to most people from Japan. You're Japanese, aren't you? I'm one-quarter Japanese, myself - on my mom's side." The other teen's reactions were pretty close to what he wanted - clenching fists, slight awkwardness, stifled temper. Though, honestly, he wanted a bit more. Arin, if she had caught on to his teasing by that point, would have already tried to fight him.

Maybe. The fact that she was asleep was disconcerting.

"The last thing we need right now is fighting." That was Blake, the other silent one. She was the Gold Lion's paladin - or, at least, she was going to be, - which had already gotten under Kaiden's skin. He had a strong aversion to authority figures, and from what the intelligent young man could deduce, she was supposed to be the leader. And though she was already attempting a leader-like move or two (such as breaking up fights,) Kaiden wasn't anywhere close to accepting her.

He was closer to accepting Luxin as the leader.

Kaiden smirked, shrugging one shoulder. "I was simply asking innocent questions. We're not fighting." Not yet. "If anything, I'm trying to make a friend." He was not. In fact, he wasn't interested in becoming friends with anyone on the team. Not even Arin, though he supposed they hadn't even been friends in the Garrison. It had been more like partners in crime.

"I swear to quiznak. You humans are the most frustrating of creatures," the deceased Altean sighed in their ears, then directed his voice at Kaiden. "I understand that this is an odd situation. I understand that you might be frightened, or worried, but taking your issues out on one another is not the way to cope with those negative feelings." Well, it had worked before. Why not now? "We are about to make a jump, and we will be at the base soon. Please refrain from an all-out brawl until we get out of the Lion."

Min spoke up from the pilot's seat. "Teal wouldn't like that," he called over his shoulder, his eyes half-lidded. Was he about to fall asleep, too?

"Is Teal talking to you?" Nikolette asked, leaning over the seat so that she could get a better view of the control panel. The damned saint was obviously trying hard to interact with the others, though most of them (particularly the ones who were awake,) were absolutely not the friendly types. Min was likely her best bet for a pal at the moment.

The small pilot nodded his head, a lazy grin spreading over his lips. "Yeah, he's been talking to me since we connected our energies," he explained, brushing a hand over part of the glowing surface of the dashboard. "It's kinda like Luxin, but Teal's talking just with me."

"That's so coo- what is that?!" The blonde's statement broke off into a shriek when a dark, black hole suddenly opened up before them. Each of the paladins who were awake gaped openly at the foreign object. Kaiden's own heart dropped to the pit of his stomach - he suddenly did not want to be here. He didn't trust the pilot, he didn't trust these people, he didn't like this situation, he didn't have any control! He couldn't even get out of the freaking cockpit.

Nikolette screamed, and Arin jumped up so quickly that she slammed her head on the bottom of some type of jutting-out piece of metal that Kaiden didn't care enough about to analyze at the moment. The smallest girl blinked owlishly, glanced around at all the frightened faces, then at the black void in front of them. "Calm down - s'nothing," she groaned, rubbing her head and flopping back down on the floor. "I'm tryin'a sleep. Luxin, tell 'em."

Five sets of wide eyes snapped to her, astonished that she wasn't currently terrified, before Luxin's voice sounded in their minds.

"I wanted them to freak out a bit - as payment for the constant stress they're putting me under," the Altean protested, before clearing his throat (verbally) and continuing on with his explanation. "This is what I was talking about - the jump. We're going to portal through this and come out on the other side, where the base is located." Arin grunted meaningfully, and Kaiden could've sworn that he could hear Luxin rolling his eyes. "Also, please allow the Orange paladin some rest. She has been awake for over two days straight."

The King boy arched a brow at the younger girl. "So, how did you know what that was?" he demanded, still slightly panicked.

A pair of green eyes locked on him murderously. "Kai, I swear, if you don't let me sleep, I will beat the shit out of you," she threatened in a non-threatening, sleep-slurred way. "Y'know I can do it. Done it before."

Luxin sighed heavily. "We had a lot of time to talk before the rest of you paladins showed up. We exchanged stories and information in that time." That made sense, kind of, but Kaiden still didn't trust this situation one bit. Absolutely no part of him wanted to be anywhere near this Lion, or in space, with these people he hardly knew and certainly did not lie.

But there was no getting out now. Not when they were less than fifty feet from the portal.

{[ Voltron ]}

Min's POV

It hadn't been nearly as hard to pilot a massive, armored battle Lion as Min had thought it would be. True, he hadn't had a lot of time to think about the idea of it, but still. Teal had known where he was going, and his Lion was very gentle and quiet through their mind link. Almost as though he just understood the young man's dislike of loud noises. He almost hadn't even heard Ren and Kaiden's almost-fight behind him, because Teal had been sending out a near-constant purring vibration through Min's mind. Apparently, the metallic beast was pleased to finally have a paladin behind the wheel.

Or, the controls, at least. Figure of speech.

The portal thingy had been pretty, and kind of fun once they got past the initial scariness of it. Luxin had been as nice as possible in explaining it to them, and the jump had been relatively smooth. Teal was a nice Lion - so calm through the entire ordeal that Min nearly fell asleep. Which wasn't exactly uncommon, but it was strange under the circumstances. The purring and constant soothing emotions he was sending definitely helped.

Min had been surprised at the size of the base. The white structure took up a sizeable portion of the small, nondescript planet that it rested on. It resembled the Altean ships from Earth, but there were certainly differences. Like the purple spires on top, the lack of an Altean flag, and the vines growing up the sides of the base.

"Did you say that you and one other person built this place?" the one called Blake asked Luxin as they approached the planet.

The Altean was smiling, Min could tell. "No, we had help from several individuals of two separate races known as the Olkari and the Galra." His aura sent of a bit of a melancholy feel, and none of them felt quite comfortable enough to address it. Min wondered, vaguely, if the other alien specie were even alive now. After all, they had no idea how long Luxin had been dead. It could have been three days, or it could've been ten thousand years.

What had changed since then? How old were the Lions?

None of those questions seemed relevant at the moment, so Min instead focused on bringing Teal to the ground without crashing him. They kicked up a lot of greenish-gold dust from the surface of the planet, and the descent was slightly shaky due to the change in gravity, but otherwise, it was fine.

Luxin directed him to a set of wide, double doors that swished open (with much protest and a loud whine and shudder) when they approached so that Teal could step inside. At the entrance of the Lion, the lights flickered a few times, before turning on entirely and bathing the... hangar, of sorts, with a harsh, fluorescent light. Compared to the darkness of space, it was hard on the eyes, and Min had to squeeze his closed for several moments before he could open them again.

The boy got up from his seat and stretched luxuriously, a grin stretching across his lips. "Mmm... naptime," he stated, turning to exit his Lion. "Luxin, do you have any beds in this place?"

He could sense the man's hesitation before he replied. "I understand that you are all very tired, and that it has been a long day, but it is not over yet." He sounded genuinely sorry for them. "I am sorry, but this cannot wait another day. Now that you are here, paladins, I can find the coordinates of the Lions, and finding them is our highest priority right now."

"Maybe it's your highest priority," Kaiden muttered, but Luxin ignored him.

Instead, the Altean directed his attention to Min. "Since you are already in possession of Teal, I must ask you to take one of your fellow paladins to find their Lion. The White Lion is here, as well, but it will not awaken until we are in possession of all of the other five." He must've been able to feel Min's hesitation and disappointment through their mind link. "I know that it is not an ideal situation, but please try and put it into perspective."

Well... it was about the fate of the universe. Perhaps a nap could wait for a minute.

"Sure thing," he said in return, turning back around to his control panel. "But I'm taking big guy over there. He's the quietest." It was a minor stipulation, so Min thought that his request was reasonable.

Apparently, so did Luxin. "Very well. Get suited up, and you two will be ready to go find the Gray Lion."

{[ Voltron ]}

Ren's POV

The suit that Luxin gave him fit nicely against his tall frame, not chafing or tugging uncomfortably as Ren walked back to the Teal Lion with the shortest paladin leading the way. The Altean had given them the coordinates to find his own Lion, and though the location wasn't particularly far away, the tallest paladin couldn't help but feel... a bit nervous about it. Not necessarily to meet the giant Lion that he would be flying, or what they might run into on that faraway planet, but because he would be trapped in an enclosed space. Alone. With one single person.

Ren was not good with people.

But Min had chosen him for his quietness, so maybe the younger teen wouldn't want to talk on the trip there and back.

Was that really the point of being a team, though? Ren had been part of a team before, in the Garrison, but it wasn't at the magnitude of Voltron - obviously. This whole connecting of the minds shit was really starting to get under Ren's skin. He'd never wanted to be anywhere near this close to anyone, and the sudden necessity for it was disconcerting, to say the least.

Nevertheless, he got into the Lion without complaint, and took up his usual position of leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. Min took them out of the hangar rather smoothly, and apparently (through the weird mind communication thing) got Teal to go in the direction he wanted him to go. Vaguely, the taller boy wondered if his own Lion would listen to him like that.

The two teens stayed that way, in complete silence, for an indeterminate amount of time. It was unbearably awkward, and the Chevalier boy spent most of his time studiously ignoring the other paladin, who, in turn, simply paid attention to where he was going. Or maybe he was sleeping - Ren couldn't fully tell.

There was just one thing that was bothering him... and he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Suddenly, the realization hit him, and he couldn't stop himself from blurting out the question that had invaded his mind. "Aren't you that guy from the Garrison who killed his own dad?" As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he realized that it had been way over the line. Ren was socially inept, but he wasn't that socially inept, and he instantly regretted asking at all.

He saw the smaller boy's shoulders tense up ever-so-slightly, but Min didn't even look at him when he replied. "That's what they say," he said, voice strangely calm for what he'd just been asked.

Their conversation ended at that. Ren didn't want to know anymore, and he was fairly certain that Min didn't want to share.

The rest of the flight was spent in complete silence, and was even more awkward than before. Ren was sure that that was natural, since the two barely knew one another in the first place, and then he'd screwed up entirely with directly asking the younger boy if he'd committed patricide. But the whole Garrison had talked about that for a while, just as they'd talked about the tiny girl - Arin's - crash. Not a lot of details had been shared about either situation, and Ren guessed that the topics were pretty taboo.

Which is why he shouldn't have asked in the first place.

{[ Voltron ]}

Nikolette's POV

Her Lion was probably one of the most gorgeous things that had ever existed. Pearlescent white and massive - though not quite as big as Teal had been - the core of Voltron was stunning. And though it wasn't awake, and she could hardly connect with its energy, Nikolette could tell that it was a male. She wasn't sure why, or how she knew, but she certainly did. The Danish girl was so completely enamored with him that she almost didn't hear the hangar doors open behind her.

"Hey," came another female voice as Blake walked into the room, clad in her golden paladin uniform. Nikolette thought they all looked cool in their outfits - even herself and the bit of "cushion" she carried on her body. The suits seemed to conform perfectly to whatever build the user had - from Arin's tiny, limber form, all the way to Ren's tall and built body.

Alteans were many millennia above humanity in terms of technology.

"Hey, yourself," Nikolette returned, smiling slightly as the Gold paladin scratched the back of her neck. "Are you ready to go? Did I take too long with White?"

As if sensing her anxiety - though, to be fair, Nikolette was never good at hiding it in the first place - Blake offered a smile down at her. "I'm ready, and nah. Luxin just said that one of the pods in that big room down the hall was ready for departure." One of her dark eyebrows raised. "Are you sure you're good with taking me to my Lion? Because I'm cool with going on my own."

The blonde raised her hands quickly. "No, no, no. I want to go with you," she amended quickly, tucking her hair behind her ears so that she could slide her helmet on more comfortably. "Though it's probably best if you drive. I never did go to the Garrison, so I'm not sure I can fly one of these things." Her brother had been the pilot of the family, after all.

Blake gave her a nod and slight smile, and the two headed down to the pods.

The inside of the room was large, and not unlike an Earthly airplane hangar, but the ceiling opened up in round circles for the small pods to fly up through. Luckily for Nikolette, Blake was a good pilot, and didn't even touch the sides of the opening when she brought the pod upward and out into the sky. She hardly even felt the turbulence as they exited the atmosphere and reentered space.

"So, where did Luxin say the Gold Lion was?" Nikolette asked, eager to fill up the silence with talking. She fiddled around with her untransformed bayard in her hands as she waited on a response - when that thing had turned into a crossbow in her hands, she'd nearly panicked, but the fear had been overcome with the sheer amazingness that was the tech she had in her palms.

The other girl hummed lightly in response as she keyed in the coordinates on the small screen before them. "It's a bit further out than the Gray Lion, but closer than the Purple and Orange ones. We'll have it soon enough." She sounded pretty confident in her statement.

Nikolette shifted in her seat, feeling her brows knit together. "What if we have to fight for it? Like, what if there are bad aliens on the planet and they won't just give the Lion to us?" Fighting was... absolutely not the Vestergaard's thing. She was much more of a peacemaker, unlike most (if not all) of the other paladins. There was no question as to why she was supposed to be the White paladin, Luxin had said.

A shrug of her shoulder was Blake's initial reaction to the questions. "Then we fight," she stated, and the blonde recalled the expertise Blake had shown when she handled her own bayard - a sword that looked about a thousand times more intimidating than Nikolette's own crossbow. "Not much else to do in that situation, really."

"But I'm not really a fighter..." the younger girl trailed off, looking down at her lap. "I can't help but think that there might have been some mistake with Luxin calling to me to become a paladin."

Bright blue eyes flicked over to her for a heartbeat before glancing back at the starfield ahead. "Pretty sure we're all having those thoughts right now. Even Luxin," she told her, keeping her hands firmly on the controls for the pod. "But, in this situation, we can't let it get to us. You've got a family, don't you?" Nikolette nodded her head. "You want to protect them, don't you?" Again, she nodded. "Then you try. Don't worry about not being good enough for it, and don't worry about the what ifs or maybes." Nikolette blinked owlishly at the other teen, tipping her head to the sided. The tone of her voice had shifted into something almost... inspirational? It was much different than it had been before.

"I think you're gonna be a good leader," the blonde remarked, a smile forming on her lips.

Blake's nose crinkled a bit, and she offered a small smirk of her own. "And I think you're gonna be a good paladin," she reassured, reaching over to pat Nikolette's shoulder. It was an awkward move, but appreciated. The thought was there.

Perhaps this whole Voltron thing wasn't so bad, after all.

{[ Voltron ]}

An - It's a little shorter than last time, but there's a lot less going on in this chapter than the other one. I wanted to get into a bit more of the character's personalities, and I think that switching the POV so many times in this chapter helped with that.

Maybe.

Probably not.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed! I'll try and get the next chapter up in a couple of days. There will be a lot more action, and probably a much higher word count in the next one!

Question of the Day (please answer in reviews!): Who is your favorite paladin from VLD?
Mine is Pidge!

Thank you for reading, and please take the time to review!

Love,

anim8or