Arin's POV

"I can't believe my bayard is a freaking medieval weapon!" lamented Kaiden, for about the sixteenth time since they'd all received their tools. Arin had been quite fine with her own, because - come on - a staff with an energy blade on both ends? It was awesome, and she couldn't wait to try it out!

But perhaps if she'd gotten a simple bow and arrow, she might have been a little disappointed, too.

As it would happen, however, she didn't think that this was any time to be complaining about the type of weapon that they had to work with. The two of them were in a pod on their way to pick up their very own giant, robotic Lions! Luxin had paired them together because their Lions were the furthest ones out, and were the closest together.

So, Arin just offered her companion a small smile as she drove the pod in the direction of the Purple Lion. "At least you have a weapon. Plus it's one that you can use from far away, so that you don't have to worry about bruising your puny little body," she teased, smoothly pulling the pod to the side in order to avoid an incoming asteroid. Of course one of the Lions had to be in a dense, dangerous asteroid field.

At least their craft was small enough to get through it without getting hit, for the most part.

"Look, Galinsky, I don't know if you realize this or not, but you're a lot littler than I am," Kai told her in return, and Arin felt her cheeks flame up in embarrassment. She hadn't always been this tiny, but now that she'd lost all that muscle mass, she was finding it highly difficult to get back.

Instead of giving him a verbal response, she jerked the pod to the side. The G-force that came with the sudden movement caused Kaiden's head to slam against the window to his right - it probably would've really hurt, if he hadn't had his helmet on. It probably still did.

The black-haired boy shot her a glare and she grinned innocently as they continued on their way.

Fortunately, they only had to sit in silence for a few moments, because as they rose above the crest of a particularly large asteroid, purple invaded the windshield. Without warning, the pod crashed directly into the side of the Purple Lion - a beautiful splash of color against the vast darkness of space. The pod itself was instantly rendered inoperable, but Arin wasn't worried about that. They could fit the small craft inside the Lion to take it back to base, and she and the excessively-smart Kaiden would be able to fix it up.

The boy's light brown eyes scanned the giant Lion, a broad smile forming on his face. "It's incredible!" he enthused, closing his helmet and opening the hatch (after his partner had finished closing her own helmet, of course.) "We've gotta get inside!"

Arin spared only a second trying to get the controls on the pod working before the excitement was too much and she instead decided to jump into space after the King boy. Their suits had jetpacks on them, after all - there was no need to worry about getting lost. A grin broke out on her own face as she chased him into the Lion's mouth. "Shotgun!"

Huh. That had been spectacularly easy.

{[ Voltron ]}

Min's POV

This was by far the most difficult thing Min had ever experienced in his entire life. He and Ren had decided to take Teal down to the surface of the small, half-broken planet that the Gray Lion was supposed to be found on, and things had looked like they were going to be quite simple. In fact, they had initially thought that the planet was abandoned, because of the lack of any type of plant life or any sign of biological entities. The air here wasn't even breathable - they had to keep their masks closed the entire time, or they would instantly burn to death. Both he and Ren, who he was barely speaking to at the moment, had assumed that nothing could live here.

Needless to say, they had assumed wrong.

It had only been after they'd walked for a couple miles that the trouble started. The ground was dry, cracked, and incredibly rocky, and so he and Ren were using those rocks to balance as they traversed the terrain. Which was all fine and good, because there was no way the Lion's weight would have been supported by this crackling ground. The problem began when Min placed his hand on one of those giant rocks, and it moved.

The thing didn't move in the way of a rockslide or any other natural disaster. No, this movement was accompanied by a loud grunt and the scraping of claws on hard earth, and Min had leaped backward with a gasp of alarm.

Anyone would freak out if the ground had just come alive, right?!

Ren, who had been about ten feet in front of him, turned just in time to see the "rock" rise up on four legs. It resembled something like a lanky hippo, with six eyes and a long tail, and it had claws - big ones. And, on top of how terrifying the massive rockmonster was on its own, its awakening stirred up the rising of its friends, who were all pissed off to find that they had intruders on their soil. So, now Min and Ren were sprinting as quickly as they could across the dry earth, with Min turning every-so-often to fire his bayard (which happened to be a badass sniper rifle) at their pursuers.

It wasn't doing much.

The taller boy was doing his best to help, too, but he wasn't able to do much with his bayard - not at long range. It took the form of one of those weird war-fan things, and worked better up-close. And neither of them wanted to get up-close with these rockmonsters. Above the screaming (from the two teens) and the grunting and thundering footsteps (of the rockmonsters,) the small device in Ren's free hand started to beep. "We're coming up on the Gray Lion!" called the taller teen, his breath coming out in harsh puffs. It was way too hot on this planet.

"We're also coming up on a cliff!" panted the younger, his narrowed eyes widening as they sprinted straight for the dropoff. At the moment, all he wanted to do was run back to Teal and fall asleep in the cockpit. Was that too much to ask?

Apparently, when the fate of the universe was in the balance.

Ren reached the edge first, hesitating only slightly and glancing over. They were faster than the rock beasts, but not by much, and Ren understood that. Before Min could get there, the older boy had already jumped over the ledge. The small teen was only able to witness the millisecond before the larger hit the mercury-silver water (or, what he hoped was water,) below.

Now, Min wasn't afraid of heights - not at all. But this was a big jump, and he couldn't help but stop in his tracks.

"Jump!" Ren called up, waving one arm from where he'd surfaced.

The rockmonsters were gaining, and Min had no other choice. He took one step back to get a running start, so that he wouldn't hit the cliff wall, before launching himself off the edge.

It was a huge drop, and took around five seconds for Min to actually hit the water. It was a miracle that he managed to keep hold on his bayard through the whole process, and he gripped it like a lifeline as he surfaced, eyes wide and owlish as he glanced at the other teen. Small rocks were still dropping from the cliff as the hippo-like monsters leaned over the edge, gnashing sharp teeth and letting out high-pitched wails as they attempted to find a way down.

Breathing hard and trying to catch his breath, Min kicked his legs under the liquid. It was thicker than water - harder to move in, but easier to stay afloat. It reminded him of half-congealed gelatin. "You said the Gray Lion was nearby, right?" he asked breathlessly, thankful that their helmets didn't let any of the thick water into their faces. He could hardly keep his head up.

The older boy seemed to be having a similar problem - Min could hardly see his arms moving just beneath the surface, but he was still panting hard behind his mask. "The scanner says we're right on top of i-" He broke off at the sound of a muffled roar, and the two looked down just in time to see vibrant yellow, robotic eyes shine through the water beneath them.

"Hi, Gray," both boys said in unison, practically melting with relief as the Lion broke the surface of the thick liquid.

It was probably one of the most beautiful things either one had ever seen.

{[ Voltron ]}

Blake's POV

Nikolette was a nice girl. Too nice for her own good, but Blake could hardly fault her for that. If she were to get stuck on an impromptu mission with any of the other five paladins, she was glad that it was the blonde girl. It was a good way to ease herself into the role that she was going to play from here on out - the leader of Voltron. That's what Luxin had told her, anyway... it wasn't exactly what she wanted, but for the sake of the universe... did she really have a choice?

In her mind, the answer to that question was "obviously not." She had a family back on Earth - she wanted to protect them.

The biggest obstacle, in her opinion, was her terrible people skills. Also, the fact that most of these teens were young, and had such strong personalities that she would need to balance out. Though she supposed that Nikolette's job on the team was equally as taxing - how the quiznak were they supposed to do this?

Well... there was no time to think about it at the moment. Not when they were hovering over an alien planet, scanning all over for any trace of the Gold Lion. The planet seemed nice enough - lush greenery, colorful flowers, clear lakes, tall mountains. It would look pretty much like Earth, if the air itself didn't have this odd bluish tint to it. Scanners told them that the atmosphere was breathable, so Blake had made no move to cover her mouth with her helmet, and neither had Nikolette. Instead, the two just let themselves relax as they looked for any trace of gold on the surface of the planet.

"Do you have any siblings?" the blonde was asking, greenish-blue eyes changing from looking out the window to glancing at the older teen.

Blake smiled at the thought, recalling their faces. "Yeah - an older brother and a little sister," she explained, steering the pod around a mountain. This was nice - it almost felt like a leisurely car trip. "What about you?"

Nikolette grinned, picking at the knee of her paladin uniform. "Mhm. Older brother," she told her, then hummed as she thought of another question to ask. "Oh! Do you have a boyfriend?" Her tone rose slightly, taking on a sing-song lilt as she spoke.

"I don't really play for that team," Blake returned casually, taking her eyes off of the planet long enough to see Nikolette's face pale, then flush crimson.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean-"

Blake chuckled slightly, cutting her off. "Don't worry. You didn't mean anything by it," she calmed the other girl, turning her attention back to where they were going.

The pale girl's face had returned to somewhat of a normal shade, and she sighed with relief, apparently happy that Blake wasn't upset with her. "Well... whichever team you play for, it doesn't change my opinion of you," she assured, which Blake was grateful for. Even if it was a little unnecessary. She didn't really need that reassurance. "I still want to be your friend, and I still want you to lead Voltron. I'll still support you!"

"I'd hope something so trivial wouldn't effect other aspects of my life," Blake said in response, offering the younger girl a smile. "But I really appreciate your support. I have a feeling we'll all need someone as accepting as you on the team."

Nikolette blushed again and rested her hand on the window to her right. "I think that's kind of my job now - supporting. Isn't that, y'know, what the White Lion does?"

The dark-haired teen nodded her head once. "That's what I understand about it, yeah." She would've said more, had the small device sitting in between them on the seats started to beep. Apparently, they were approaching the Gold Lion's location. And, once she looked back up, she saw it instantly. On the tallest mountain peak, glinting in the soft sunlight that spilled onto the planet, stood the beast. It was at least ten thousand times as beautiful as Blake imagined it.

She wasted no time in sweeping the pod down and landing on the soil downhill of the Lion, as there was no room left on the ledge for it. Blake leaped out, eager to reach her own Lion. In hindsight, she probably should have known it wouldn't be as easy as just walking up to it, but for the moment, the Gold Lion was all that she was thinking of. Its beauty, its color, its energy... it felt like it was pulling on her very soul.

Blake hadn't taken three steps before she was surrounded, but not by any type of soldiers she could have imagined.

They were small, hardly reaching her knees, and fuzzy. Even the stoic Gold paladin had to admit, they were absolutely adorable.

"Halt in your tracks, sky-dweller!" chirped the boldest of them, a blue beast who approached her on two short, stubby legs. Its fluffy tail - almost like a lemur's - flicked behind it as it approached. "State your business! What wish do you have that is so important to approach the god of all?" It had a strange way of speaking; its words were slightly jumbled, and the tempo was off, but Blake got the gist of what it was talking about.

"That's not a god," she informed the creature carefully, pointing one finger at the Gold Lion.

All of the fuzzy beasts gasped, affronted.

"She blasphemes!" one squeaked, covering a smaller one's (presumably some sort of child's) ears with its palms.

Blake brought her brows together, confused. "I don't blaspheme!" she stated firmly, crossing her arms over her chest. "Who are you people, anyway?"

The blue one wrinkled its nose as it approached, a small knife in hand. It stopped mere feet away from Blake, refusing to take its eyes off of her (even to look at Nikolette, who was still hiding in the pod.) "We be the Eliskotarians. You are on planet Eliskotar, and this celestial being is god to these people." The creature's orange eyes narrowed sharply. "They call this one-" it began, pointing to itself, "-Kilma. Kilma is the head of this village, and Kilma is responsible for taking care of the god!"

"Look, I'm sorry for, uh... blaspheming," Blake said slowly, scratching the back of her neck. "But, uh, this god belongs to me. Or, I belong to it. Watch, please." With that, she moved to walk around the one called Kilma, and was only barely allowed to pass. The blue thing clearly didn't want to hurt her.

She wasn't surprised when she glanced behind her and found the aliens following her in a herd as she approached the Gold Lion. It ignited at her arrival, eyes aglow and releasing a loud roar into the sky and turning to crouch before its paladin. Blake had to wonder how long it had been waiting for her to come to it.

Judging by the loud purring she could feel in her spirit, it had been too long.

"The god kneels before her!" the Eliskotarians were gasping, murmuring between one another. "The sky-dweller be more powerful than even the god?!"

Blake had to stifle a chuckle. This could be fun.

The fluffy little creatures all fell to their faces before her, flat on the ground in some sort of reverent worship. "Oh, goddess! Forgive us! We be the ones who are blasphemers!" Kilma cried, tail tucking between their legs. "Please forgive this poor, wretched peoples! We shall do better! We shall!"

Aw. Now Blake felt kind of bad for them.

The tall girl walked forward and knelt down to pat the top of Kilma's head, planting a smile on her face. "I'm not a goddess, but I definitely won't hurt you," she assured, glancing over her shoulder at the Gold Lion. "That 'god' of yours is actually part of a bigger plan, and it will help protect you. That is, if you let me take it with me." Because she honestly didn't want to just come in and take the Lion without explaining things to these people. Who knew how many generations they'd worshipped the Gold Lion.

Kilma turned their orange eyes up to meet Blake's blue, their tail slowly untucking. "Goddess, you may take what belongs to you," they whispered, awestruck that whatever "goddess" they believed Blake to be would touch them like she was. "We are unworthy of such kindness that you have bestowed."

Well. Apparently there was no getting it out of their heads - Blake was the new goddess of the Eliskotarian people.

"Thank you," she said with a forced smile, instead of trying to convince them of anything else. She rose to her feet and turned to head toward the Gold Lion, nodding at Nikolette so that the other girl would know to follow her in the pod. The blonde needed to learn to fly anyway, and the pod was easy.

Blake had just reached the opened mouth of her Lion when Kilma called from behind her - "Wait, goddess!"

The blue creature had run up the mountain after her, holding a small, golden flower in its right hand. It lifted it up to her, orange eyes round. "This plant be the Eliskotar rose - it shall never wilt, and it shall never be crushed. Would the goddess please accept this meager offering as a parting gift?" The creature sounded so hopeful, and flowers really weren't Blake's thing... but...

"Yes... thank you," she found herself saying as she took the plant from the alien's outstretched hands, holding it carefully in her own. It was quite beautiful, and looked more like a Bird of Paradise than an Earth rose. White petals were trimmed in something that looked like liquid gold, and Blake could swear that it was glowing. "It's beautiful."

Kilma smiled broadly and bowed its head. Blake took that as her queue to leave, but was once more called back by the blue fuzzball.

"Wait... please, goddess... what shall the Eliskotarian people call thee?" Kilma asked, voice thin and breathy.

Blake smiled, feeling a bit of pride swell in her chest as she faced the small alien. Her answer was confident and solid, stated without a hint of hesitation:

"Voltron."

{[ Voltron ]}

Kaiden's POV

"You know, I like the way you pilot much better than I liked the way Min pilots. He was kinda freaking me out." Arin, in contrast to her former state of exhaustion in the Teal Lion, was now a bundle of energy as she bounced around the Purple Lion's head, trying to push buttons and see what things did. She'd already accidentally fired two lasers into who-the-hell-knows outer space. Kaiden could only hope they hadn't hit any planets or ships.

He raised an eyebrow at her, skeptical. "Why? Min was much more solid than me. I have Purple shaking and jerking all over the place," he deadpanned, casting his gaze toward her for just a moment before looking back ahead. Not that there was much there to look at, other than a few distant stars.

The Galinsky hummed in response, sliding on her back to fit underneath the control panel at his feet. He didn't worry about her fiddling with it too much, like he intended to do once they got back to base. "You're right. No offense, but you kinda suck as a pilot." Kai harrumphed and tightened his grip on the controls - he wanted to yell at her that he was an engineer, not a freaking pilot, but he wasn't temperamental enough to do that. Instead, he just stayed quiet as she poked around under the control panel and thought about what she was going to say (which wasn't exactly common for Arin, but he hadn't seen her in a year, so maybe she'd changed in some ways.)

"I guess it's cause I trust you more."

The statement was sure; there was no question in her tone. But then again, she always had been a decisive one. Still, Kaiden couldn't help but feel a bit... awkward about it. Probably because he didn't really trust any of their teammates - Arin included. Not to be rude or anything, because as far as piloting and stuff, he'd pick her out of any of them if he had to. It was actually really weird to be the one piloting her instead of the other way around.

As if sensing his hesitation - because she always was better at the emotional side of things - Arin gave him a cheeky grin. "It's cool if you don't trust me, though. I don't really expect you to," she assured, then looked back out at the distant stars. Both of them had always wanted to go into space. "That was always hard for you, right? Even though we all three spent a year together, you never got around to trusting John. Or me, I guess." She didn't really sound disappointed, but Kaiden guessed that she was anyway. The truth was that he had trusted her, kind of. To watch his back, to keep them safe when she flew their craft, to be truthful. Arin was probably one of the most honest people he'd ever met in his life.

"Did you say that Min was freaking you out before? I didn't think you were scared of anything," the older teen teased to change the subject a bit, eager to get it away from anything touchy and shit.

Arin snorted out a laugh and met his light brown eyes with her pale green. "Everybody's afraid of something, stupid," she remarked breezily.

The boy arched an eyebrow, slightly confused by her statement. "What exactly is there to be afraid of, then? I mean, you've been flying dozens of times before - in the simulator and out. You're not afraid of heights or something, are ya?" he questioned, leaning back in his seat and turning his attention to the girl.

"No, no. Heights are fun," she amended, hopping slightly so that she could sit on part of the control panel. Thankfully, her butt pushed no buttons, but Kaiden did not miss the slight wince and the rubbing of her left knee. "I think it's more that... I'm afraid of other people flying me around?" Now that was a question - she sounded much more unsure. "Yeah. I think that's about as close as I can get to explaining it."

Still, Kaiden was confused. "You weren't afraid to let John fly us around on that three-person aircraft that they let us use," he accused, crossing one leg over the other. "Even after he crashed that one time, you laughed and wanted to go again."

Glass green eyes flicked toward the windshield and the galaxies beyond. "It's a more recent thing."

That statement alone would probably cue most people in on the fact that they shouldn't press for any further information, but Kaiden was stubborn. "Is it about the crash that made you leave the Garrison?" he asked, not taking his gaze from her face. He wasn't concerned, exactly. It was more that he just wanted to know more about what had happened. Kai was naturally curious, after all.

"I don't want to talk about that."

Alright - that was enough to drop the subject. Something in her tone suggested that it would not be a good idea to proceed further, so instead, Kaiden decided to bring up another topic of discussion. "How are your brothers doing?" he asked, turning his attention back toward the front of the Lion, but not before he saw a small smile flicker on Arin's lips. She always loved to gush about her brothers.

"They're great - the twins are staying with our abuela in Spain," she said warmly, leaning back to rest her head on the glass window.

Kaiden's brows knitted again. "In Spain? What, did she move there?" He'd always thought her grandmother lived right down the road from them, in Seattle.

"Mhm. After the Alteans showed up, she took Micah and Seth with her over there. I wouldn't go - couldn't go - because I had physical therapy to do." Huh. So the crash must've been worse than he'd initially imagined it being. "She always did miss Spain, so I didn't blame her for leaving me with just Dad."

The older teen frowned at that. "Just your dad? Where did Doron go?" Her older brother had been an officer at the Garrison - a cool dude, albeit a little too friendly and unfazed by any sort of teasing. The stereotypical, adoring older sibling that Arin had always been highly proud of. Although, she was proud of all of her family except her father, so he guessed that was probably irrelevant to the situation at hand.

His question was met with a shrug of the shoulders and a change of the subject. "So how are your parents, Kai? Still those snotty, politician douchebags?" Her voice was a bit too enthusiastic, but he figured she probably just wanted to talk about anything other than Doron at the moment.

"Still those snotty, politician douchebags," Kaiden hummed with a grin. That was a good summary of them.

Arin was going to say more - he saw her mouth open out of the corner of his eye - but he cut her off. "We're approaching the planet that the Orange Lion is supposed to be on," he explained, circling Purple around so that they could see the planet itself. Thankfully, the spherical object wasn't too large, but it was dark and clouded. He suspected that there would be limited sight range on the descent down.

Screw it. They didn't really have a choice in the matter, so with a sigh, Kai angled his Lion toward the planet...

...only to find that it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. Entering the atmosphere was so shaky that Arin had been thrown to the floor and Kaiden had to tense every muscle in his body not to fall out of the seat, but once they actually hit the clouds, it became evident that sight distance wasn't so limited, after all. Apparently, the pressure in the air combined with whatever gases made it all up caused the clouds to all congregate at just the edge of the stratosphere. It was more like there was just a wall of clouds there to obscure visual on the planet itself, and once they got through it, they could see quite easily.

The planet was small, thank god, and nearly solid black. It was dark around them, but not excessively so. Only the type of dark that a solar eclipse might bring. The scanners all read that the air there was breathable, and that there was no life on the planet. Not that Kaiden had believed there would be - the darkness of the planet itself looked like cooled-down magma.

Bringing Purple down to the surface was simple enough, and she hit with a solid thud of metal on rock. Kai felt his teeth clack together when they landed, and if Arin did as well, she said nothing. Instead, the girl simply grabbed her bayard and hurried to exit the Lion, eager to meet her own.

"You should take your bayard, too!" she called over her shoulder, and Kaiden couldn't help but agree. He snagged his own - the cursed bow and arrow that it was - and followed her out.

As soon as the two of them touched the surface of the planet, Arin squealed with delight (a rare sound that Kai wasn't sure he'd ever heard from her before.) The black surface was reminiscent of ash, but when their boots hit it, it lit up with some sort of bioluminescent reaction to the pressure. Pale light shone from under their feet and floated up where they made dust, and it was obvious that Arin was completely captivated by it.

So was Kaiden, but in a different way. He wished more than anything he could have some sort of tubes or cups so that he could bring some of it back with him. Specifically so that he would be able to run it through tests and scans and figure out just what all of it was made of.

He was interrupted from his musings by his teammate bumping his shoulder with her own. "If we run into any aliens that want to kill us, I'm gonna leave you," she chirped, folding her hands behind her back. "Just telling you as a warning."

"What? Why would you do that?" Kaiden demanded, unable to stop the trill of fear that rose in his chest at the thought of being left alone to fend for himself. He was much smarter than he was powerful, and he knew that if there were any Alteans around, he'd be doomed on his own. Scrappy Arin had always been much better at combat, and he would hazard a guess that she still was.

"To pay you back for calling me Amy," the younger girl told him, dropping a cheeky wink before flouncing away and kicking up puffs of bright dust. The King boy followed her with a huff, more irritated than anything else. Though she'd never been too petty before, Kai couldn't help but wonder if something had fundamentally changed.

It hadn't.

Because, as they encroached in on the location of the Orange Lion, a great rumbling caused them to stop in their tracks. The two hardly had time to glance at one another before the ground opened under their feet and dropped them into the darkness below.

To their credit, neither one yelped or cried out when they hit the metal beneath them, and they recovered relatively quickly (for the situation, anyway.) Kaiden sat up first, rubbing his head underneath the helmet, and Arin rose right after him. He opened his mouth to ask if she was alright, but shut it immediately after when he looked over her shoulder at the creature looming over them.

It was purple in color, with large, catlike ears and slitted yellow eyes. And, holy shit, it was massive. To hazard a guess, Kaiden would've said it was somewhere between seven and eight feet tall, and humanoid, but very, very alien.

For all of her claims of abandoning him, Arin snagged her bayard instantaneously, rising to her feet but keeping her weight off of her left leg. The older teen had guessed, by that point, that there was something wrong with it, but he didn't have the time to think too hard about it at the moment. The Galinsky leveled the double-bladed staff at the monster and planted herself firmly between it and Kaiden, who was reaching for his own bayard.

"Back off!" she snapped, holding her ground as the creature approached (even if it was over two feet taller than herself.) "Who the hell are you?"

The monster snorted in amusement, and it was only then that Kaiden noticed there were more approaching behind him. "You intrude on our base, and demand to know who we are?" he questioned incredulously, brandishing his own weapon to angle it at the girl. It was much more intimidating - a gun, not unlike the ones the Alteans used. "What a brave little insect you are."

Arin's nostrils flared out a bit, and even if she wouldn't admit to it, her hands trembled as she held her staff. "My name is Arin Galinsky - I am a paladin of Voltron," she asserted, green eyes flicking from the gun to the alien holding it.

"You cannot be a paladin of Voltron," said the creature, a chuckle in its words. The girl looked affronted, tightening her grip on her weapon.

"And why is that?"

The alien arched one brow. "Because we have one of the Lions here, in the base," it stated flippantly, and Kaiden couldn't help but think that it wouldn't have told them that if it planned on letting them walk out of there alive. "Voltron cannot exist without all of the six Lions."

The small girl rolled her eyes and glared at the creature. "Why the hell else would we be here?! My friend and I were coming to pick up the Orange Lion so that we could form Voltron!" Her voice was something akin to a growl at this point, and Kaiden could only guess how badly she wanted to fight them. And, wait... had she just called him a friend? Before he could correct her on it, though, she continued. "Luxin told us to come here and get it!"

One of the creatures behind the first stepped forward at the mention of the Altean's name, and its eyes rounded hopefully. "Luxin sent you?" it asked, clearly in a state of disbelief. Arin nodded, and the alien placed a hand to its chest. The others behind him all gasped as well, murmuring excitedly between themselves. Apparently, they had all known the Altean? "Open the hangar of the Orange Lion," the second one commanded the others of its kind, and as they went to obey, it turned its attention back to the humans. It wore an expression of hope and pain at the same time. "Could you take me to Luxin?"

Arin glanced at Kaiden, who could do nothing but shrug his shoulders at the unexpected change of events. She looked between the two of them, and apparently had sympathy on the alien creature. "I don't see why not!" the girl responded with a smile, deactivating her bayard to place back in her belt. "Thanks for that, by the way. I was afraid that they were going to shoot us!" She chuckled awkwardly and scratched the back of her head, then extended her hand for the beast to shake. "What's your name? Uh, and, if you don't mind me asking, what are you guys?"

The purple humanoid smiled slightly and took her hand in its own. "My name is Kol'syk Adar, and my race is known as the Galra," he explained gently, offering Kaiden a welcoming smile as well. "I must apologize for our earlier behavior. We are not quite used to visitors." Which was probably an understatement, but whatever.

"It doesn't matter," Kaiden cut in, striding forward to shake Kol'syks's hand as well. "Can we go get the Orange Lion yet?"

His companion elbowed him in the side, shooting him a short glare. "Rude," she scolded, then looked up at the Galra with a bright grin. "We don't mean to rush, but we are kind of on a time crunch. Saving the universe, and all that good stuff." Her tone was lilting happily, clearly excited about meeting her Lion.

Kol'syk must have noticed, too, because he let out a soft laugh and nodded his head. "Of course - right this way."

{[ Voltron ]}

An - It's been so very long since I've written a chapter longer than 6k words! I'm so tired now, but I hope it was worth it. I wanted to knock out all the Lion-finding in one chapter, and introduce another character at the same time, and have a cool cliff-jumping scene. Oh, and to have Blake become the goddess of a planet.

A lot happened this time around, didn't it? xD

Anyway...

Kol'syk Adar was created by halle-effing-lujah

... and I am so excited to write about him and Luxin *^.^*

The team is gonna be reunited next chapter, so look forward to that!

Please review - it really makes my day, and helps to know what you guys are thinking. I've highly appreciated all the feedback I've gotten so far!

Love,

anim8or