Praevideat
A Voltron: Legendary Defender story

Summary: Elaina Blanche, a notorious science teacher at the Garrison, follows her runaway students on an unwelcome adventure of space travel and intergalactic war several light years away from her home. As Elaina struggles to find her place on Team Voltron, she must face her own skeletons and overcome many challenges to finally understand what her purpose is.
Genre: Adventure, Friendship Warnings: Spoilers, Minor Mental Illness

Chapter Two
Rise of Voltron Pt III

"We gotta get it outta here!" Pidge cried out to Lance.

"Hang on!" Lance messed with the controls and dodged the lasers. Elaina gripped the seat tighter feeling the pressure of the speed forcing her to the floor. "All right. I think I know what to do!"

"Be careful, man! This isn't a simulator!"

"Well, that's good. I always wreck the simulator."

"You what?" Elaina's head snapped to the teen in question. She thought the other instructor's were kidding when they would tell their tales of the infamous Lance McClain, but she always believed they were exaggerated. Lance wasn't the best student she ever had, but he still worked hard. She quickly turned to Shiro and gripped his shirt sleeve, "Take over. Please."

"I don't know how to pilot this." Shiro made an excellent point, but Elaina was willing to take her chances.

"Neither does he."

Lance pushed a lever and a laser shoots out of the lions mouth. He then forced the lion forward, using its claws to damage the external panels of the enemy ship in an ungrateful manner. Then the ship erupted to flames where the damage was done.

"Nice job, Lance!" Shiro praised, smirking at Elaina. She only crossed her arms and turned away in a huff. The kid was lucky.

"I think it's time to get these guys away from our planet." Lance turned the robotic feline around and headed away from Earth.

"Wait." Elaina jumped back. "We're not going back?"

"Those guys will destroy Earth if we do," Keith argued with her, referring back to the last discussion.

"Maybe, but the Garrison-" But what? Elaina knew the Garrison couldn't do anything. She just wanted some normalcy, something familiar. Something not dealing with aliens in a mechanical lion that only Lance can supposedly hear.

"The Garrison isn't going to help. Nukes aren't going to stop these guys-"

"So there are nukes…" Hunk interrupted, his voice revealing the panic Elaina was desperately trying to hide. "Are they underground? Have we been exposed? I'm not gonna grow a third eye, am I?"

Shiro didn't bother with Hunk as he looked at Elaina with worry. "What's going on?"

Elaina shook her head. "Nothing."

"They're gaining on us!" Pidge exclaimed. A hologram screen appeared, showing the rear of the lion like a backup camera. Elaina and Shiro brought their attention back to the problem at hand.

"It's weird," Lance commented, his eyes looking sternly ahead. "They're not trying to shoot us. They're just chasing."

"Okay, seriously, now we think having aliens follow us is good?" Hunk's anxiety was not helping Elaina at all as he continued to voice his concerns. "I am not on board with this new direction, guys!"

"Where are we?" Keith questioned.

Shiro looked around at the stars, being the most experienced out of the bunch. Then with wonder, he finally replied, "Edge of the solar system. There's Kerberos."

"It takes months for our ships to get out this far." Pidge looked outside in amazement. "We got out here in five seconds!"

In front of the lion, a large, transparent purple halo appeared. In the middle was an iridescent mix of colors. Elaina would have found the sight beautiful and the scientist in her made her craving to learn more. Unfortunately the fear of what could happen next outweighed the rest of her emotions.

"What is that?" Hunk

"This may seem crazy, but I think the lion wants us to go through there." Lance didn't answer, but this lion sure knew what was going on.

"Where does it go?" Pidge's voice was filled with worry.

"I don't know." Lance worried as well. He glanced over his shoulder. "Shiro, you're the senior officer here. What should we do?"

"Whatever is happening, the lion knows more than we do. I saw we trust it, but we're a team now." Shiro looked over at Elaina. "We should decide together."

Elaina didn't look away from him at first. She wasn't happy with the choices she was given. Everyone else was onboard with hopping through an unknown wormhole, but she most certainly was not. She crossed her arms and refused to answer, knowing very well that the others have ignored her up to this point and they would override her vote here as well. Finally, Elaina crossed her arms and looked away, giving only a subtle nod as an answer.

Lance immediately jumped into action, "All right. Guess we're all ditching class tomorrow."

You know that roller coaster that just takes off right at the beginning? Your body gets thrown back from the force pushing passed you and there's no time to scream because the air completely escaped your lungs? That was the exact feeling of jumping through a wormhole. And Elaina hated every long second of it.

The lion appeared on the other side, and even though traveling through the wormhole took a maximum of 3 seconds, the entire group took a solid minute to recover. Elaina legs almost failed and she almost fell on top of Pidge. Hunk had it worse than the rest and found the nearest empty compartment to empty his stomach.

"So sorry," Hunk apologized.

"I'm just surprised it took this long," Pidge deadpanned.

Shiro leaned forward, almost hovering over Elaina to get a better look outside.

"I don't recognize any of these constellations," he stated, trying to find something familiar to map with. "We must be a long, long way from Earth."

Elaina gasped and took a step back. Her eyes never left the window as her arms began to wind themselves around her torso. Mapping and direction was one of the core lessons in the Garrison. No one was allowed to graduate without passing the course with flying colors, but it was years since Elaina took the class. She won't even pretend she remembered the specifics when it came to the stars, but she knew constellations. Even Ursa Major didn't stand out to her out here though.

In sight was a planet that looked similar to Earth with land and water. There were even clouds scattered across the surface, but the continents were another unfamiliarity. Elaina dug her fingers into her skin until she felt an uncomfortable pain.

"The lion seems to want to go to this planet. I think… I think it's going home," Lance spoke while tightening his grip on the levers. Then on its own, the lion turned on the thrusters and flew straight into the atmosphere of the planet. Everyone was losing their footing and held on to the only thing in the cabin that was stationary. That only thing happened to be Lance. "Guys, personal space. Hunk, you're breath is killing me."

Hunk ignored Lance's comment. "Um, is it just me or is anyone else having second thoughts about flying through a mysterious wormhole? Why are we listening to a robotic lion anyway?"

"But it got us away from that alien warship, didn't it?" Lance argued.

"I don't know if you noticed-" Keith stood up, letting go of the seat in front of him, "-but we're in an alien warship."

The air pressure in the cabin died down and the lion was straightening itself out again. The others because to let go, feeling the safety in the air, but Elaina's hands were still gripping on the back of Lance's seat, refusing to look out the window..

"Oh, are you scared?" Lance teased.

"With you at the helm? Terrified."

"All right, knock it off." Shiro scolded. "No one's happy to be in this situation, but we're here now. If we want to get through this, we've got to do it together."

"So, what do we do?" Pidge inquired.

"First, we find out where we're headed. Lance?"

"I… don't know. I'm sorry. The lion's not talking to me anymore." His brown eyes widened. "Wait! Wait, wait, wait! Listen. I think I hear something."

While they all listened to the sound, Elaina was the one to realize it first. Well, her nose did. Not even a half a second longer for the rest of the group to realize the source of the sound.

"Oh my- You are so disgusting, McClain!" Elaina screamed, bopping him on the head while covering her nose and mouth. And she thought having him in class was a hassle.

Lance recovered quickly, smirking at his own gross joke while everyone was still groanin. "But seriously, there's a castle up ahead."

The lion lands with a hard thud, forcing Elaina forward into Pidge again. Elaina had never been more happy to be on solid ground, even if she was on an alien planet.

"So…" Hunk dragged out. "What now?"

"We get out, I suppose," Shiro replied.

"But how?"

Good question, Elaina thought. Then the lion moved it's head down, the sudden motion causing Elaina to yelp.

"You okay, teach?" Lance asked, not bothering to hide the teasing tone.

Elaina glared at the main control hub, hoping this lion would take the hint. "Just peachy."

The group let the main cabin and back to where they entered when they found the lion. Elaina tried looking around for any cabinets or lockers. There must be suits somewhere, right? She turned around just as the teens started approaching the airlock.

"Stop!" Elaina stood in front of the door with her arms spread out as far as she could, the adrenaline from the flight was still pumping through her veins. "We're on an alien planet and you're all just going to walk out with no suits, no helmets, and expect us to be able to breathe? Are you all insane?"

The sound of the airlock releasing and metal gears shifting echoed in the chamber. Elaina witnessed the room getting brighter and brighter as more panic began setting in. They were all going to die, and it was all because some robot cat opened the hatches before anyone could do any testing.

Lance took in a deep breath and released it quickly, "Seems breathable to me."

The four youngest walked around Elaina who dropped her arms in defeat. Was she the only one with common sense on this… this thing?

Shiro then approached her and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Thanks for looking out."

Elaina gave him a half smile as she watched him exit the lion. She noticed the tensity in his shoulders as he walked away before deciding that she was indeed the only one with common sense.

To say the castle was beautiful would be an understatement. The building was tall with the most extravagant color white that reminded Elaina of her mother's pearl necklace. The white was accented with turquoise stretching all the way from the base of the castle to the top of the towers. The castle didn't look evil, but neither did the witch's house in Hansel and Gretel.

"Whoa." The entire group was amazed at the sight.

"Keep your guard up." Well, all except Shiro.

"Something wrong?" Pidge asked, not sensing the danger Shiro felt, or the danger Elaina felt from the moment they all found the blue lion.

"My crew was captured by aliens once. I'm not going to let it happen again." Elaina frowned at Shiro's comment, her eyes locking onto the scar on his face as he stared at the castle with discomfort.

Suddenly, the lion moved on its own and let out a loud roar. Then the castle began to move, doors the size of the lion opening up and inviting the group inside. Elaina had enough of mysterious entrances and far-fetched scientific theories becoming reality, but she followed the rest inside the castle.

"From the size of the lion, I expected these steps to be bigger," Pidge commented inquisitively after stepping off the final step and entering a larger chamber. A blue light suddenly glared down from above, illuminating everyone in its hue.

"Hold for identity scan," a neutral female voice spoke. Blue halos circled around each member, starting from their feet to their heads.

"Why are we here? What do you want with us?" Shiro interrogated, assuming the worst.

Elaina studied the lights as the reached her chest. Once they made it to her head, the light turned a dark red and the blue light from above quickly switched to red. As if that wasn't enough, a loud siren began echoing in the chamber.

"Intruder," the voice said over the siren. "Danger Level 1. Initiating security protocol."

Then floor beneath Elaina's feet suddenly vanished. Her eyes locked onto Shiro's fear-filled irises before all she saw was the inside of the hole that appeared. Her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach as she began to freefall into the pit of despair. This was it. This was the end for Elaina. She knew this was going to happen, but nope. She ignored all her fears for the safety of her students and now she was dead.

But… She stopped falling. Something was gripping her wrist so tightly Elaina wanted to continue screaming from the pain. She finally looked up to see five pairs of eyes peering down. The only eyes she paid attention to was Shiro's. He must have jumped to catch her as his body was laying on the floor, his prosthetic holding onto her for dear life. He looked like he was struggling to hold her until he saw she was looking up. Everyone let out sighs in relief.

"I got you." Shiro smiled.

Hunk came over and helped pull Elaina up. When her feet reached solid ground, Elaina wanted nothing more to reach out for comfort. She looked at Shiro and the others and stood up straight.

The lights turned white and brightened up the chamber.

"Are you okay?" Lance approached her.

"I'm fine." Elaina rubbed her wrist and gave eye contact to the teen. She attempted a half smile even though she was feeling quite the opposite. Her heart was still racing in her chest and she could barely keep her breathing steady. She was able to play it off because Lance smiled back.

"I guess we're going that way." Pidge's comment forced everyone's attention to the only new entry that was kept hidden until that moment.

The teens walked ahead with Shiro and Elaina following close behind., attempting to hide any fear and unease from everyone.

I am okay, she thought repeatedly while occasional "hellos" broke her mantra. She was uncertain why Hunk would want any of the inhabitants of the castle to know they were there, especially after what just happened to her. I am alive.

"Are you okay?" The question was repeated, but by another voice. Elaina glanced up and saw Shiro staring down at her. He gestured to her wrist.

"I'm fine." But Elaina definitely wasn't. She kept thinking about everything that lead up to this moment: the students going missing, finding a mechanical lion from an alien galaxy, jumping through a wormhole to get away from aliens, almost getting killed in an alien castle.

"Don't you think this is strange?"

"If you'd ask me two years ago, I'd say yes."

"I'm serious!" Elaina turned to him, keeping her voice just above a whisper. Hunk's "Hellos" echoed through the seemingly endless halls. "We shouldn't have boarded that lion. We shouldn't have flown through that wormhole. We shouldn't be here."

"But here we are. We can't change what already happened." Shiro's voice was calm, but that didn't release any of Elaina's tension. "Besides, Earth would be destroyed if we stayed."

"What if it already is?" Elaina hissed. "We left it alone with aliens that can destroy it in a blink of an eye. What if they got mad we ran off with the lion and took it out on our planet?"

"It didn't."

"How do you know?" Elaina's raised voice echoed through the hall, causing Keith and Pidge to look back. The woman gave an awkward wave and a crooked smile until they turned away. Elaina dropped her hand and gazed back up at Shiro, her voice back down to a whisper. "Well?"

Shiro didn't answer immediately. "I just do. I can't explain it."

"I am a scientist, Shiro. And scientists don't like unexplained hunches."

Shiro let out a soft sigh, "You have to trust me on this one, El." Elaina wanted to. Truly. But after everything that happened so far, Elaina was skeptical. She was even doubting her sanity. The thought made her frown and pinch her arm. "What happened to 'every glass is half full?'"

"You changed, right?" Elaina looked away, her voice soft and uncertain. She could see the subtle nod. "Well, so have I."

Author's Note:
Sorry for not having an update schedule on this. I work full time and go to school full time to it's a little difficult for me. I try to give a little buffer so I can post somewhat regularly, but obviously that didn't work. Anyway, thanks for reading!