Special Thanks to Hexenwerk, San child of the wolves, JackieStarSister, ladyAlyafaelyn, SecretEnigma, Mythfan, and IcyPanther for your wonderful reviews!

Chapter 4: Little Warrior

Kolivan blocked furiously and stepped forward, bringing his sword to his opponent's throat in the same second.

The fight froze and Regris lifted his hands. "Yield," he said.

Kolivan smiled and stepped back, sheathing his blade. "Well fought," he said. "Who's next?" He turned to his Blades lined up along the wall, but all shook their heads.

"We've already gone at least one round with you, Kolivan," said Shah.

"Perhaps someone else might be interested?" added Renen with a nod towards the door.

They all looked and found all four paladins in their armour, helmets under their arms. Princess Allura was behind them and grinning.

"Kolivan, would you mind sparring with the paladins for a while?"

"I wouldn't mind at all, Princess," Kolivan replied, inclining his head.

"Excellent! I have some work to do, but Coran will monitor from the observation deck." She gestured in its direction, and Kolivan spotted a shadow through the tinted glass wave at him. Clapping a hand to Lance and Keith who were nearest her, she beamed, "Have fun, paladins!" and then she left.

None of the paladins moved from the doorway, so Kolivan took the opportunity to address his Blades. "That concludes training for today. Dismissed."

When no one moved, he raised a brow.

"Oh, come on, Kolivan!" Bavi chided. "You really think we're gonna leave when the spar of the century's about to go down? Bets anyone?"

"No betting!" snapped Regris. "They're children."

"So? They're Voltron Paladins. I want to see Kolivan sweat for once against someone other than you or Yarrata."

Yarrata, cleaning her claws, grinned and said, "Agreed."

"Ignore them, Paladins," Timalli encouraged.

It was Keith who moved forward first, Lance and Hunk following, with Pidge at the rear.

"So, uh, how's this gonna work?" asked Hunk.

Kolivan was sorely tempted to say 'Name your terms' which was exactly what he would say to any other opponent. Instead, he stepped forward, unsheathing his knife. "Let's see what you four can do." His knife shifted to a sword. "Weapons are allowed. The duel ends when you have a kill shot."

Lance smirked and his bayard materialised in his hands as a rifle. He took aim. "I got one."

Renen and Zoshia snorted while Kolivan huffed. "Nice try," he said.

"Is it going to be us four against you?" Pidge wondered.

Kolivan glanced over his shoulder. Timalli sighed and rose, coming up beside Kolivan. She unsheathed her sword with a ring of Luxite.

"Go easy on him," she said with a smile. "He's been training all morning, so he's tired."

Snorted chuckles rippled behind him, but Kolivan refused to turn around and give them the pleasure of his displeasure. The Paladins looked torn between humour and shock because did one of the Blades just make fun of her commander?

"Shall we?" Kolivan gestured with his free hand.

Keith half-turned. "Divide and conquer," he whispered. It sounded like an attack formation.

Kolivan realised the truth of that thought when they divided into pairs: Keith and Lance, Hunk and Pidge. Bayards materialised into weapons, and Kolivan hid his smile at the strategy playing out before him. Each pair had both a close-combat and a long-range weapon.

Kolivan and Timalli crouched and waited.

Lance and Hunk fired straight at them, and the two Blades rolled to either side, avoiding the shots. Kolivan regained his feet in time to take Keith's bayard against his Luxite. He dodged another of Lance's shots and yanked Keith into the line of fire. Keeping him between them, he forced Keith back with strike after strike.

Keith was good. He was small and agile, but no less strong, able to block most of Kolivan's blows.

Lance didn't realise his danger until it was too late. Leaping past Keith, he ducked Lance's shot and rammed him in the gut with his sword's pommel. Lance staggered back, winded. Anticipating Keith's retaliation, Kolivan sidestepped the sword's swing, grabbed him by an arm and threw him into Lance, downing them both.

BOOM!

Kolivan whirled around to check on Timalli. He should have known she required no assistance, despite going up against a Voltron Paladin armed with a double-handed blaster. She was going head-to-head with Hunk. Twisting her blade against his hand, she disarmed him and then kicked him hard, before turning on Pidge.

Advancing on Keith and Lance, Kolivan was unprepared for Keith leaping at him – the fight was not over in this paladin's mind. Kolivan blocked Keith's slash, twisted, and slammed him into the ground. Rolling off him, he brought his blade down to kiss the vulnerable neck, unprotected from a gap between helmet and collar.

"Keith." The appellation was a whisper of horror.

A shriek behind him alerted him to Timalli going down hard. Kolivan didn't have time to turn before something stabbed into his lower back. Electricity jolted through him, nearly knocking him senseless, and he remained on his feet by force of will.

Not for long. A foot slammed into his knee. Kolivan held back a yell as his leg buckled and he collapsed.

Kolivan twisted around in time to get a foot pressed into his neck and a shining green bayard jabbed into his face. The bayard halted a scant inch away, and everything stilled. Hardly daring to breathe, Kolivan looked past the bayard and up into Pidge's eerily fierce face. Her light brown eyes were lit with a supernova as she stared down at him.

"Yield." Kolivan said it, though he didn't move.

Pidge didn't move either, and it was in that moment that he understood how seriously she and the other paladins took their training, how seriously they defended each other, and how precarious their trust with him and his Blades still was.

"Pidge?" Keith picked himself up off the floor and neared slowly. Kolivan was distantly aware that his Blades were tense, all with their hands on their weapons and moving towards them. Kolivan didn't dare twitch a finger to let them know that all was well because he wasn't at all sure that Pidge wouldn't react to the movement.

Keith came up behind her. Placing a hand on her shoulder, he drew her back gently. "Good job, Pidge," he whispered. "Good job."

And just like that, the spell broke: Pidge blinked and lowered her bayard, every muscle in her body relaxing.

The tension behind Kolivan eased and Regris pulled him to his feet. His tail twitched and tapped against Kolivan's ankle: Are you all right? You went down hard.

Fine. I'm fine, he said in the way he tapped his fingers against his friend's wrist and squeezed.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Shah help Timalli stand. Her eyes were wide in her face as she regarded Pidge, and it was not Kolivan's imagination when she sidestepped around Shah so her comrade stood between her and the paladin.

Keith was saying the same thing to Pidge, his voice pitched low enough that Kolivan strained to hear. "I'm fine, Pidge. Look at me. I'm fine."

Pidge trembled where she stood. "Fine… Yeah… Okay." Her smile was tremulous but it held in response to Keith's gentle one.

"That was spectacular!" Lance crowed, shattering the tension that remained, just as Coran arrived on the deck, his hair and clothes windswept and his eyes wild.

"Yes, it was." Kolivan drew level with the paladins and smiled at each in turn. "You all fight with heart and soul. You compensate for individual weaknesses, which is an incredible skill to have learned in such a short time. You protect each other. Even during training, you are fierce. Well done, all of you."

His eyes landed on Pidge who reddened and looked down. "Well done, Kahira-ta," he told her.

Coran stiffened, his brows shooting towards his hairline, but then a smile broke across his face and he inclined his head to Kolivan.

Pidge eyed Kolivan, half-sheepish, half-wary. "What does that mean?"

"It means," he replied as his Blades gaped at him for giving this little girl a time-honoured, Galran title of courage and loyalty, "little warrior."

-:-

Thank you for reading! Please review. :)