The Gladiator
Disclaimer: I do not own either Voltron the Legendary Defender, Harry Potter, or anything directly affiliated with either series with the exclusion of any OC's I may introduce.
"Speech"
Spell (Spells may appear in regular speech or narration.)
'Thoughts'
'Lions communicating'
'Reading'
(SCENE)
A few days have passed since the new paladins started their training in both their new weapons and their lions. The four male members of the team, all dressed in their uniforms, are currently walking into the dining room of the castle. Which already had Sirius and Remus sitting down, after practicing in using Voltron.
"Good job guys. It looks like we are finely getting the basics of Voltron." Cedric said to the group.
"Well, it could be better. We did fall after all." Draco said in a ticked off voice.
"That was your fault, Draco, and don't bother denying it." Harry said.
"Hey! Longbottom was at fault to. I may have caused us to trip, but he was the one to fail to catch us. If anything, it was a fail for the whole team." Draco retorted back before butting heads and glaring at Harry.
It was to this scene that Coran, who was completely oblivious to what was going on, walked in while holding a covered tray. His arrival knocking the red and blue paladins out of their glaring match.
"I have seen how hard you lot have been working. So I made an authentic paladin lunch." Coran said as he put the tray on the table, earning the attention of the others in the room, before removing the lid from the tray. Revealing a orb like structure, almost like that of an alien egg, that had dozens of fleshy, snot colored, tentacle like structures coming out of it that leaked a pinkish colored juice.
Everyone in the room cringed at the sight of this creation. Remus even putting both hands over his nose to try and block out the stench it was producing.
"Coran, I have only just been able to hold down that goop you have been feeding us for the past week, and now you go and throw this at us." Neville stated in disgust before leaning closer to the thing.
"Of course, this is absolutely filled with plenty on nutrients. Plenty of things to keep you all in tip top shape." Coran stated while twirling the end of his mustache.
"It smells like putrefied bubotuber puss." Neville stated.
"I can second that." Croaked out a disgusted Remus.
"Of course it stinks. That's how you know its healthy." Coran stated before picking one of the tentacles up with a fork.
"Coran, I know we restocked the supplies with herbs and other edible plants just yesterday. There is plenty to eat besides that. Which, by the way, I would only serve to the vilest of criminals." Harry stated before standing up. "I am going to go fix us up something to eat guys. Come on Neville, you said you wanted to learn how to cook." Harry said as he walked out of the room.
Neville quickly scrambled after Harry, with Remus not to far behind in trying to escape the smell. Leaving only two paladins, one elder wizard, and one Altean behind.
"You don't know what you are missing." Coran called out before taking a bight out of the morsel on his fork.
After taking a minute to absorb this sight, Draco turns Cedric. "Hey, do you know where Hermione is?"
"Yeah, I think that she is back in the cryo-chamber room. Waiting on the rescued prisoners to wake up." Cedric explained. "Though, it might have something to do with how the prisoners recognized us. Not personally, mind you, but our species…I think I will go see how she is doing." Cedric said before he got up and walked out of the room.
"Huh, do you think some space explorers or something from the muggle side got captured by the Galra?" Sirius spoke up from his seat while Cedric was leaving.
"No clue. I just know that I haven't seen Hermione this stressed since third year, and that apparently involved her taking all the classes while also secretly jumping through time." Draco said.
This statement caused Coran, who was still eating the tentacle things, to start to choke in surprise. He began slamming a fist into his own chest and eventually dislodged the piece of food that got stuck in his throat. Then he collected himself and stared wide eyed at Draco. "ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT YOUR KIND HAS ACCESS TO TIME TRAVEL?!" Coran yelled out to the young paladin.
"Yeah, but only to a limited degree. We use magical devices called time turners that allow the wearer, or wearer's, to travel up to a few days into the past. But that is the limit of them, and there are several strict rules that need to be followed or else you run the risk of causing massive trouble." Draco quickly explained to the crazed looking alien.
After taking a moment to calm down Coran corrected himself. "Sorry about that. Its just that with the revelation of time travel being a possibility, I thought we could go back in time before Altea was destroyed." Coran explained in a monotone voice to the wide-eyed group, who begin to calm down and gain a look of understanding.
"It's alright Coran, we get it, and we're sorry for getting your hopes up." Sirius said to Coran, Cedric and Draco voicing their agreement to this statement. "But you have to understand. When you travel back in time, it must remain almost purely observational. You can not change anything that you know will happen or interact with your past self. Doing so puts both your past, present, and future selves at risk of ceasing to exist entirely."
After a moment of morose quiet Harry, Neville, and Remus returned from their, surprisingly quick, cooking spree. Each one was holding a bowl with something different in each.
"Hey guys. I hope that you are…Uh, what happened while we were gone?" Harry asked as he noticed the dim atmosphere of the room.
"Nothing to worry about Pup. Now what did you bring us to eat?" Sirius responded quickly in a obvious attempt to shake off the depressing mood.
"Oh yeah, here you guys go." Harry said as he and the others placed their bowls on the table. Revealing to the others a bowl of mixed vegetables on top of what looked like rice, a bowl purple-colored sprouts that were skewered together, and a loaf like creation served next to some berries and greens. The sight of which caused the two humans left in the room from before to have their mouths water.
"I hope everything is to your liking." Harry said with a slightly nervous look on his face as he and the others took their seats.
"Are you kidding," Sirius said as he took a bite out of the rice dish. "This stuff is delicious."
With that said everyone, barring Coran, began to dig in. Coran, who had recovered from his shock from earlier, was a little incensed that the paladins and co weren't even willing to try his cooking, and stood away from them in a bit of a pout.
"They really like their paladin lunch." Allura said as she walked into the room from behind Coran.
"I don't want to talk about it." Coran said while raising his nose at the happily eating people.
"Good news, I got the final nebulon booster running." Allura said, ignoring the childish act Coran preformed.
Before anything else could be said, by either the humans or Alteans, the alarm began to go off. A holo screen popped up to reveal the outside of the castle. On the screen it showed a short, somewhat fuzzy, creature wearing a helmet and swinging a curved club like 'weapon.'
"What is that thing?" Neville asked with a tilt of his head.
"It must be a Arrusian." Allura said.
"What does the walking stuffed animal want?" Draco asked arrogantly.
Harry, in response to this, slaps Draco upside the head and says. "Think Malfoy. This castle has been inactive for ten thousand years. Nothing coming in or out. Now, there have been repeated sightings of five metal lions that combine into a giant robot. Why do you think the locals sent someone to investigate." Harry finished while giving Draco a deadpan stare.
Draco, who now looks sheepish, starts rubbing the back of his head and says. "Yeah, that was a stupid question."
"We should go meet him." Allura said once the two had calmed down.
"Are you sure that is wise princess?" Coran asked tentatively.
"Yeah, what if this thing is dangerous. Some of the cutest creatures can be deadly." Sirius spoke up.
"Yes, I am sure. We should, at the very least, speak with our host." Allura said resolutely.
"Just to be on the safe side… Coran, can you scan for any settlements near here?" Harry asked, coming up with a quick idea. Coran then does as he is asked, using a small tablet he had on hand, and did as requested, bringing up the desired information on screen. "Ok, the various settlements are pretty spread apart, and based on how plentiful resources are just outside the castle, they do not have any reason to war with one another. So, it can be safe to assume that they don't have any true fighters, and that any such position is more likely to be ceremonial." Harry said in an inquisitive voice that earned wide eyed glances from the others. "What?! Just because I let Hermione take the lead on intellectual stuff doesn't mean that I don't have a brain to. Besides, I spent the past year studying warfare practices for when Voldy decided to rear his ugly head."
The others were placated by this response and decided to leave. Each of them standing up and follow Allura outside of the castle.
(SCENE)
Meanwhile, back in the cryo chamber room with Hermione as Cedric walks in.
Cedric walks in purposefully and sees Hermione, who is in uniform, sitting on the ground, working on something on her laptop that she had enhanced to work in magical environments, with the mice sitting on her shoulder. As he got closer, she finally noticed that he had come in.
After a moment Cedric finally sighs and says. "Ok Hermione, we need to talk. I know that something is going on with you. Everyone has noticed that you are acting a bit strangely. I just want to know if this will affect your ability to perform in the field."
Hermione takes a moment to respond, and when she does, she says. "Your right, I am hiding something." Here Hermione pauses, takes a deep breath, and continues. "My mum and dad split when I was five years old. My mum spent long hours in the office as a dentist. My dad spent days on end in the laboratory he worked at. So them splitting up wasn't much of a surprise now that I look back at it. Within the next three years my mum remarried to her business partner and my elder brother joined our dad in the lab."
Cedric was a bit confused were this was going and seeing how it pertained to her acting secretively before she continued. "What I am hiding is that two years before I and the others started Hogwarts my dad's lab, or more specifically my dad and brother, was issued a mission by a little-known space exploratory organization issued by the United Nations. They were to take a highly experimental space craft all the way to Pluto's moon Kerberos. The trip would have normally taken years by standard Earth tech, but it was achieved in just under six months. They were set for their return trip after three months of field research, but a week after landing something happened. They had disappeared and there was no evidence as to what happened to them."
"Not long after contact was lost the organization, they worked for raided my dad's home and office and confiscated everything. I, however, managed to snag a few files and some data from my dad's computer before they could. I kept it hidden and managed to research everything I could on it for the next year, but I didn't manage to turn up anything. The only thing I was able to figure out was that the last bit of data that their space craft was corrupted as to be completely unrecognizable, or so I thought. After that I was a bit depressed but hid it by throwing myself into learning magic. However, after we fought that Galra ship I looked back into the raw data that castle's computer managed to gather from the signals it sent, for curiosities sake, and found that the data pattern was identical to my dad and brother's last transmission." Hermione finished.
"And you now think that the Galra stumbled upon and captured your family," Cedric realized out loud. "And I assume you are so interested in the rescued prisoners so that you ask if they possibly know anything."
"Yeah, I know it's a long shot, but you heard what that one guy said when we saved them. He said he recognized our species. If he saw either my family, or even their pilot, it would be a start to finding them." Hermione said with her eyes glistening a bit.
Before anything else could be said between the two, the cryo pods began to rise up out of the floor. Cedric and Hermione then began hurriedly running around the chamber collecting blankets and some kind of synthetic tea to warm the former prisoners up.
After all of the former prisoners are situated with a drink and blanket, the assumed leader of the group spoke up. "Thank you, it has been a long time since we have had any kindness from…anyone. At least anyone that wasn't a prisoner themselves."
"I am sorry to hear that." Hermione said as she sat down a thermos with more tea. "How long have you been prisoners?"
"Months…years, it is difficult to keep track after a while." The leader of the group said.
"Sorry if this is difficult, but when we first met you said that we were the same species as 'The Champion.' Who was he?" Cedric asked.
"I never caught his or the others names, after a point you just stop trying to learn such things. All I know is that he was the pilot of the group he arrived with. The eldest of the three of them was taken away ahead of us. The rest were taken to gladiator pits to be sacrificed to Myzax. A terrible beast of a sentient whose brutality and blood lust could only be matched by the highest ranking of the Galra themselves. He had slain countless others for his own thirst for blood before he was brought to the arena, were those numbers only continued to grow. That is, until he faced the Champion." Here the former prisoner paused and took a drink of his beverage. "As we were waiting to be led out into the arena one at a time, I saw the Champion start lashing out against his fellow, one that has a resemblance to you." He said gesturing to Hermione.
"He snatched the sword that was offered to the other one and began to act out in a fury, lightly wounding the other. He was then subdued and pushed into the arena, were he faced and defeated Myzax. Thus, earning the title of Champion. I later learned from the other human, before we were separated, that the Champion apologized to the other one. I assume he acted as he did so that he was chosen instead of the other one." The former prisoner finished.
"Were did this other one get taken to?" Hermione asked urgently.
"I am not sure. All of us that were supposed to be killed by Myzax were separated the day after the Champion's victory. Each of us being taken to a different location for one purpose or another, I'm sorry." The former prisoner responded.
After this was said Cedric and Hermione walked away from the rescued prisoners. Hermione then said. "I want to check out the wreckage of the Galra ship. There is bound to be something related to my brother."
"I don't suppose I can talk you out of it." Cedric said, being fully aware of how stubborn Hermione can be.
Hermione only gave Cedric a deadpanned look before he said. "Then I guess the only thing I can do is come with you."
(SCENE)
Meanwhile, with the other paladins, they walk upon the creature that they saw on the security footage. Said creature was busy looking at a different location towards the castle. Which allowed the group to walk up to the little creature, which somewhat resembles a weird stuffed animal, without being noticed until it they were rite next to it. When it did notice, it suddenly jumped behind the rock it was next to in fright.
Allura, in an attempt to placate the creature, walks forward and said, "Do not be afraid. We mean you no harm." Allura said in a calm and steady tone.
The creature, who had clamed itself, jumped back around from the other side of the rock. "I am Cliths'ap, bravest of our warriors." The now named Cliths'ap declared to the humans and Alteans in a somewhat reedy male voice, all the while waving his crude blade shaped club around.
"You do not have to be afraid of us. We are just wondering what you are doing here." Allura said in a kind voice with her hands clasped in front of her. Everyone else, barring Coran, is trying to hide some snickers at the combination of cuteness and ridiculousness of the situation they are seeing.
Seeing that the strangers mean him no harm Cliths'ap lowers his weapon and says. "I have been sent by my village to see what has angered the Lion Goddess." While also motioning to a mural of a lion headed woman.
This bit of information calmed the humans of their amusement and Allura to slightly raise her eyebrows before a small smile graces her face. "And what makes you think that she is angry?"
"For the past few moons there have been sounds of cloudless thunder and a many-colored giant dancing in the sky." Cliths'ap said while mimicking, to his best ability, the 'dancing' that the giant preformed.
Allura merely reinforces her smile and calmly states. "You have not angered her."
Being caught off guard by this, Cliths'ap replies with the question. "How can you be sure?"
"For I am princess Allura," Allura then gestured to the castle with one of her hands, "and this is my castle."
Cliths'ap, now wide eyed, is shocked speechless before he drops to his knees and raises his weapon like some kind of totem while saying, "Lion Goddess!" With reverence in his voice.
"There is no need for that Cliths'ap. Why don't you stay here while I go talk with my companions." Allura said, slightly embarrassed by Cliths'ap's actions.
Allura returned to the group and asked. "So, what do you think?"
"I think that we need to talk with the local village before we leave." Remus said in conviction.
"Why? Its not like they can heart us, and with them literally worshipping the princess, we can do pretty much anything we want with them." Draco arrogantly said before being slapped upside the head by an annoyed Harry.
"Think Malfoy! This is a civilization that seems to hold this so called 'Lion Goddess' in high regard, and sees the castle as some kind of holy site. If we just up and leave it is bound to cause untold panic and likely lead to either religious persecutions or ritualistic mass suicides." Harry explained in a lower voice to avoid the local from hearing him.
"That … is one way of looking at it. However, I was thinking more unto the line of continuing the Altaian tradition of opening up relations with other species." Allura said in a reserved tone, at first, before finishing in a more passionate voice.
"If that's the case, we should leave some people behind in case the Galra show up." Remus said.
"I will remain behind princess." Coran said dutifully.
"I'll stay as well. My eyes have been a bit watery since getting close to that little guy. I think I may be allergic to Arusians." Sirius said with the others seeing what he meant.
"I also nominate Draco to remain behind." Harry hurriedly said.
"What! Why?" Draco angrily responded.
"Two reasons. First, to act as interference and allow the rest of us to get to our lions in case the Galra do show up." Harry replied. "The second, is that I don't want you doing or saying anything stupid on some kind of power trip." This getting nods of understanding from everyone else.
Before Draco could say anything else, he had a silencing charm placed on him. Stopping the young Slytherin from saying anything as Allura turned back towards Cliths'ap, who was still kneeling on the ground, and asked. "Me and some of my companions wish to come greet your people. Will you be willing to introduce us?"
Cliths'ap eagerly nodded his head and jumped up. Leading Allura and those coming with her back to his village.
(SCENE)
With Hermione and Cedric, they are seen climbing into the wrecked remains of the Galra ship. Wondering around they seemed to have found an intact terminal.
"Now that we found one of these 'ter-min-alls' what do we do?" Cedric asked, extending the word terminal due to him being unused to the word.
"Now we just need to power it." Hermione said before she tried pressing a few buttons and getting no results. "Damn, its dead. Unless we can find some way to power this thing we have run into a dead end."
Taking a moment to think, Cedric looks at his rite hand and sees the Galra gauntlet. Thinking it was their best shot at the moment, he turned it on and placed his now glowing palm onto the console of the terminal. This seemed to do the trick and allowed the terminal to come to life, showing dozens of files that the two humans couldn't read.
"Cedric, you did it!" Hermione said excitedly. She then began the process of shifting through the various files and beginning the downloading process. "I'm coming Mat."
(SCENE)
Back with the others, the group that had went to the Arusian village. A number of the villagers are climbing on Neville and one jumped on and hugged Harry, both either smiling or laughing at what was going on. Remus is standing to the side and is just watching everything with a smile on his face. Allura, who was dressed in her mission attire, was standing before the chief of the village and was giving her greetings.
"Thank you for allowing us to visit your lovely village." Allura says in a kind and cheerful voice.
"No, thank you for visiting us oh great Lion Goddess." The Chief says in loud voice filled with reverence. "Allow us to show our gratitude with a Dance of Consideration." The Chief said while gesturing to a small platform behind him that held a female villager.
"There is no need for that Chief." Allura said kindly, not wanting any kind of special treatment.
This was, however, the wrong thing to say. As the Chief, instead of accepting this decision at its face value, jumped to the worst possible conclusion. "We have insulted you Lion Goddess!" The says in a horrified voice. "Then we must throw ourselves into the Fires of Repentance!" The chief said while a bonfire is lit further back behind the Chief.
"NO! TH…That won't be necessary. Please, go on with the dance." Allura says hurriedly, trying to avoid the mass suicide that was about to unfold.
With this sentence all of the villagers gathered around the small stage to watch the performance. Which was only some slow-moving hand and foot movements. While the village, including Remus and Allura, were watching this Harry and Neville entered into a quite conversation.
"Hey, Harry, there are some things I don't get about this situation." Neville said in a quite voice to his friend.
"What is that, Neville?" Harry asked in an equally hushed voice.
"How do the Arusians know about Allura, or her connection to the lions?" Neville asked.
Hear Harry to a moment to think before crossing his arms and answered. "I would assume the old paladins once defended this planet millennia ago. And that when the castle arrived planet side, it had some kind of projection from Alfor asking to watch out for the castle and Allura. I guess over time the natives ended up mixing Voltron with Allura. Either that or the Altaens had some kind of education outpost out here that they abandoned and that the information left behind was mixed up due to time or mistranslation."
"Ok, that explains that, but also leads to my other bit of confusion. How can the Arusians speak English? I can chock up the Allura and Coran knowing it to coincidence, but not the natives. I would have thought that their would have at least been some kind of language barrier." Neville explained his confusion.
"I think it might have something to due with our gear." Harry said after a moment of contemplation. "I think either our suits, one of the gadgets we have on hand, the castle itself, or even all three are allowing us to hear native languages as our own. Allowing us to hear English, or Galactic Basic as it is called to the wider universe."
"I guess," Neville said as he shrugged his shoulders. "It makes about as much sense as anything else we've encountered so far on this crazy trip."
"It makes sense to me." The villager that was hugging on Harry earlier, now sitting down in front of the pare, said in a very deep voice, surprising the two of them. They then quite down and return their attention back to the stage until they heard a loud boom go through the air.
This sound ends up drawing everyone's attention away from the stage and towards the sky. What they are seeing is a massive falling structure with Galra type markings.
(SCENE)
At this moment Hermione and Cedric are still downloading the data from the Galra ship. However, the progress is pretty slow, only being about twenty five percent done, despite them finding the terminal thirty minutes previously.
"This thing must have a tone of information on it." Cedric said boredly while holding his hand to the terminal.
"Either that or the systems are so damaged that it is hindering the progress. It might also have something to do with us using a system ten thousand years out of date with a different system format." Hermione responded.
They then hear a sudden boom go through the air, causing them to look around. Cedric then notices something coming towards them from the upper atmosphere from a whole in the ship.
"Uh…Hermione. We have some kind of Galra object heading our way, and it is coming pretty fast!" Cedric said with worry.
Hermione looks where Cedric is looking and sees what he is talking about. Seeing the object in question gets her to open her eyes in worry and then drops her eyes back to the data screen.
Coming to a quick decision, Hermione says. "It might not be finished, but it will have to do." She then disconnects and turns to Cedric. "We need to get out of here QUICK!"
The two then begin running out of the ship, using their jet packs to help avoid the larger obstacles and quicken their pace. Getting out of the ship the two run as fast as they can as the Galra rocket crashes rite on top of the scuttled ship, causing a tidal wave of debris to fly from the impact site. As the wave comes near the fleeing paladins, who have already been nocked down by the sheer force of the impact, two blurs suddenly appear before them, shielding them from the wave. When the debris began to clear it revealed the forms of the black and green lions, which then stood from there crouching positions.
"Did you know they could do that?" Hermione asked when she started to come out of her shock.
"No." Was all Cedric could reply with before looking past the lions to see the crashed rocket. Upon seeing it clearly for the first time both humans likened the appearance of the craft to that of a coffin.
(SCENE)
Back at the castle, Sirius and Coran are staring at the monitor, which has a zoomed in image of the rocket, as alarms are blaring around them. Then Draco comes running in after feeling the shake from the rocket crashing.
"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS GOING ON!?" Draco yelled to be heard over the alarms.
Coran then presses a button that shuts the alarm off and says. "We don't know! Something that looks Galra just crashed into the remains of the wrecked ship."
"How did it even get here? Didn't you have an alarm or something that was supposed to go off when the Galra had a ship coming towards us?" Sirius asked with a tick mark on his head.
Coran looks away from the main screen to look at a smaller screen that's in front of him. "Its energy output made it appear like that of a comet, it seems. Combine that with its overall speed of movement and without a proper output signal for identifying ships, the computer couldn't properly process it. Meaning that it couldn't identify it as wither Galra or even a threat." Coran explained after quickly reading the data.
Everyone's attention is then caught by the main screen again as the coffin like rocket began to light up. Steam then began to be released from cracks that appeared over the rocket as it began to open up. The four sides of the coffin falling away, with only a single antenna like structure left standing as part of the craft, to reveal a massive robotic figure with a club like arm.
"Uh…I think I need to get into my lion." Draco said before he turned and hurriedly ran to his access port to the blue lion bay. "Also, fix that bloody signal thing-a-majig Coran. I don't want any more surprises like this!" Draco shouted as his port closed behind him.
(SCENE)
Back in the village, all of the villagers are running around in a panic. Allura and Remus are off to the side trying to steer the panicking locals to safety. Harry and Neville are standing towards the side of the village facing the landing site, warning the locals away from heading in that direction.
"Everyone, take shelter in the caves. You will be safe there." Allura shouted out to the crowd.
"Hurry! Make your way to safety." Remus shouts out in support of the princess before tuning to shout towards the two paladins. "Harry, Neville, you two need to start heading towards the castle to help the others. Me and Allura got it from here."
The two nod and start running towards the transports that they used to get to village earlier. Hurriedly making their way back to the castle, but are forced to take a minor detour to avoid the battle with the giant machine.
(SCENE)
We cut back to the giant figure, who is battling the black and green lions. The figure, now that it is not obstructed by the smoke, is larger and more robust than Voltron. Its armor is much heavier in appearance than the legendary machine, and has a tank like structure on its back with two tubes that come out of it and attach to its upper torso. Its rite arm has a combination to it that shows that it doubles as the mechanical creatures only visible weapon, a club, while its left appears more like a normal hand. Its head has no visible mouth and appears to be designed to resemble a helmet and mask combination with two glowing yellow eyes. Said eyes being very different from one another. The rite eye looked like it belonged to that of a general robot, but the left looked organic. In fact, the area around the eyes looked almost like some kind of skin.
When it first came online, it charged at the black lion raising its club arm and slamming it down on where the lion was standing. However, the lions were much quicker than the giant figure. They flew out of the way of the hulking figure and began to fire lasers at it to little affect. The figure, who was not even slowed down, simply charges anew at the lions.
Seeing as they couldn't seem to hurt the figure, the two paladins flew out of reach of the mechanical monster.
"We can't seem to scratch this thing." Hermione said in frustration.
"At least we can stay out of its reach until the others arrive. Now lets fig…Uh, what is it doing" Cedric said as he noticed that the figures club arm began to spin. As it spun an orb formed at the base of the weapon that the figure then points towards the lions.
The orb then launched towards the lions, who quickly dodge and barely avoided the orb. The orb hit the ground slightly behind the lions, but the figure simply raised its arm which summoned the orb back to it, hitting the black lion as it does so. Surprised by this, Hermione, and by extension the green lion, turn towards the green lion. The figure, deciding to capitalize on this laps in concentration, then begins to launch the orb again. But before it could release the blue lion comes flying in and blasting the figure in the head. Causing the orb to shoot wide and completely miss its intended target, flying through the sky behind the lion.
"Alright people, what's the situation?" Draco asked as he flew over to the others.
"So far, we can't even scratch this thing. Its like trying to fire a low powered stunner at a giant. The only way we'll be able to take this thing out is with Voltron. We just need to hold out until- DRACO, LOOK OUT!" Cedric yelled as he noticed the orb flying back towards them.
"What? Wh-Uh." Draco said as he is hit by the returning orb, which flies back to the point that it first formed.
After that the three lions are purely on the defensive. Unable to damage, and barely even slow, the mechanical beast the three lions are put through their paces. However, their luck seems to begin to run out when the orb manages to hit the green lion as it is flying. Nocking it to the ground and being unable to move, the green lion is defenseless as the giant mech comes running up, intending to crush it, and its paladin, in a single strike.
Suddenly, two sets of rapid fire hits the mech in the head and disorients it, stopping it temporarily to the green lions benefit. As the green lion flies back towards the others it sees the red and yellow lions have arrived.
"Now that we are all here, LETS FORM VOLTRON!" Cedric yells out.
"YEAH!" The others yell back. They then begin to fly in formation and begin the combining process. The blue and yellow lions forming the legs and the red and green lions forming the arms. As the other lions are entering the final configuration phase, the mouth of the black lion opens and reveals the face of Voltron.
The assembled robot flies down to face the recovered mech. Voltron then flies towards the mech to deliver a powerful punch, but the mech doesn't react. It absorbs the blow without even taking a step back, to the shock of the paladins, before it punches Voltron away with its non-club hand. The blow sending the team flying back.
"Ok…That didn't work. Any other ideas?" Asked a worried Draco.
"We don't have enough experience with Voltron yet. We don't know what kind of capabilities we have rite now." Cedric said to the others.
Neville suddenly sees the orb flying back their way. "LOOK OUT!" Neville shouts as he hurriedly forces the robot to barely avoid the flying projectile.
As they avoid the orb the mech comes charging at them and hits them further back as the orb returns to its starting point, with the tines of the club rotating and humming. The mech then charges at Voltron with its club hand, but Voltron moves further back before the blow is able to land. It was at this point that the paladins noticed that they were standing on a hill overlooking the Arusian village.
"We're at the village!" Harry shouts.
"These people can't defend themselves. We have to move." Cedric says to the others as he looks at the village.
Hermione then shouts, "INCOMING!" As the mech launches the orb once again, hitting Voltron in the chest.
As Voltron fell, the paladins hurriedly activate their back thrusters. This causes them to hover a few dozen feet above the village instead of crashing down into it. Voltron then carefully flies over the village and circles towards the west just as the mech began to crest the hill. Seeing the mech, Voltron hurries its pace and flies away from the village with the mech following. It fires its orb once again, but Voltron dodges with its thrusters. Quickly turning around, now that it was safely away from the village, and prepares to fire with its left arm (green lion) blaster, but due to a mishap, the wings on the back of Voltron separated and formed a shield instead. Surprised by this, the paladins were slow to react and were forced to block another orb strike instead of retaliating. Which only pushed them back a bit this time.
"Ok, that happened. Again, I ask, any ideas?" Draco asked the group.
"We have to hit a week point." Cedric said, as he leads Voltron to continue dodging the mech's attacks.
"Yeah, but were. We have hit it on its body and head and accomplished nothing." Neville responded.
"Why not those tubes beside its head. Maybe that's how its powering the orb." Harry said quickly.
"Harry, you're brilliant, and I think I know how we can get to them." Hermione said before she relays her plan to the others.
Voltron then uses its thrusters to sidestep another orb attack. Which is quickly followed up by Voltron flying towards the mech with its shield held out before it. However, instead of managing to land a blow with the shield, the mech catches and holds the strike away with its club hand, but before it could respond Voltron retaliates. Using its rite arm (red lion) blaster, it fires a precise shot at the tube on the left side of the mech's head, severing it completely. This, however, didn't seem to have an immediate affect on the mech as Voltron flew back from it. At first, it seemed a bit dazed with the orb flickering a bit before it recovered and got back into a combat stance with its weapon of choice returned to it, but it was noticeably slower while doing so.
"Ok, it is not down, and its weapon is still functional." Hermione said before she noticed something, "but it seems to have lost power to much of its motor functions."
"English, Granger." Draco said annoyed by the scientific jargon.
"Uh, it means that it is slower. Which means that it can no longer chase us, and maybe even its physical attacks." Hermione shot back.
"That's something, at least, but that orb is still a problem." Cedric said as he maneuvered Voltron out of the way of the next orb attack.
It was at this point that the paladins noticed that the attacks sent by the orb were faster and stronger than before. So fast, that Voltron only managed to dodge it by a hair's breadth, and when they managed to be block it with the shield it managed to push them back even further than it did before.
"Hey, Hermione, why is that orb thing moving faster than before?" Neville asked nervously.
"The mech must have diverted all non-essential power to its weapon. Its basically an overpowered bludger at this point." Hermione surmised to the rest of the group as they continued to dodge.
"A bludger…" Harry's eyes widen in realization as he paid extra close attention to the mech as it continued to attack. After several more minutes of the team dodging the attacks, he finally realized a pattern to it. "Guys, I think I have an idea."
"Well…SPIT IT OUT ALREADY! I am getting bloody tired of having to keep running from this thing." Draco yelled out in annoyance.
"The orb, it keeps returning back to the club after every third attack. I think it needs to recharge every so often to avoid it dissipating." Harry explained to the group. "It may only be there for a few seconds, but that is the best opportunity we have to take out that other cord."
"Are you sure Harry? Because we can't risk…" Cedric began.
"Yes, I'm sure. Wood hammered into all of our heads into studying beater patterns to avoid being hit by bludgers. This is the same concept." Harry cut in and explained himself.
"Ok, when is the next…" Neville began to say before he noticed that the mech was launching its next series of assaults before shouting, "ORB!"
Voltron was unable to dodge it in time, so it absorbed it with its shield.
"That's one." Cedric said as he prepared for the next attack.
The orb attacked again, forcing Voltron even further back than before. Which is quickly followed by the third attack. When this attack hit, Voltron buckled under the pressure of the attack and the shield broke apart into its original form and flew into different directions by the time the orb disengaged. The orb then flew back to the club, as Harry surmised.
"Now's our chance!" Cedric shouted to the others.
Voltron, which is kneeling from the last attack, launches forward. Raising its rite fist and carefully struck the remaining tube, which is followed by a point-blank energy blast. Voltron then quickly flies back from the mech before it could retaliate. As it observed the mech, it noticed that the orb was flickering before it completely dissipated. It then noticed that the mech was twitching a bit before it began to become stable and start to make small movements. The paladins noticed as it did so that it wasn't moving as fast as it did at the beginning of the fight, but quicker than it did after the first cord was severed.
"Alright, the orb's gone!" Neville shouted out to the others.
"Yeah, but that thing is still standing." Draco said in a frustrated tone.
"It must have some kind of emergency power to keep it from completely shutting down." Hermione announced to the group.
"Anyway to disable it?" Cedric asked as he kept an eye on the mech, which was still recovering.
"Unlikely. It is most likely inside that thing's chest, and we've had no luck cracking it open. Good thing is, due to emergency power being generally less than normal, it can't use its weapon." Hermione explained.
"We need a way to build up more force to open it up." Cedric said in frustration.
"Or a way to cut into it. Huh." Harry said before the red lion started to communicate with him. He then noticed a part of the console rising up, revealing a pair of slots that look like they were intended for a bayard. "Guys, I think I have an idea." Harry told the others as he took out his bayard and put it into the slots and turned it like a key. Then, from the red lion's mouth, formed a single edged sword with red accents.
Seeing the new weapon, the other paladins were amazed, but before they could say anything on the matter, they noticed that the mech was moving towards them. At first, it was taking a few slow strides, but was slowly picking up speed for a charge. As it charged forward, the mech raised its club arm in a clear indication that it was going to attack.
"Ok, we have a sword and a wild beast. Let's put it down." Cedric said in a serious tone.
Voltron then, quickly ran into a sprint, charging at the also charging mech. Voltron raised its arm back as it charged and as the two mechanical beings came close to each other, they swung. The two quickly passed one another and took a stand still. Until the mech fell over and blew up.
(SCENE)
In the Galra command center, Hagar's eyes fly open while she is kneeling.
"NO-O!" She yelled out in fury until she calmed down. "I will build another one. One strong enough to defeat Voltron." She said with a slight tone of desperation.
"No need." Zarkon says from near by in an emotionless tone. "I have been in contact with Sendac, he survived and is currently on planet Arus."
"Can he be trusted?" Hagar asked.
"I trained Sendac myself. He fights in the name of Galra, only victory or Death will stop him." Zarkon answered as he looked outside a view port.
(SCENE)
Back on Arus, Sendac and his lieutenant were on a hill looking over the Arusian village with a few sentry drones pushing crates.
"Commander, what are our orders?" The lieutenant asked Sendac.
"We have been given a chance to rise from the muck and redeem ourselves. We have been ordered to capture the Castle of Lions and the lions within." Sendac announced.
"But sir, how are the two of us and four damaged sentries supposed to accomplish this?" The lieutenant asked in a bit of shock.
"Because the paladins have revealed one crucial weakness." Sendac replied.
"A weakness, sir?" The lieutenant asked in confusion.
"Yes, the worst weakness of all. They value the lives of others." Sendac says in a malicious tone as he looked upon the Arusian village.
(SCENE)
Back at the castle, Hermione is sitting down and looking up at the sky from the outside, while in her regular clothes.
"Thinking about your brother?" Cedric asked, also in normal clothes, as he walked up.
Hermione looked over to look at him before sighing. "Yeah, I just…I just fell like I am so close to his trail now…but also so far." Hermione said sorrowfully.
Cedric, with a compassionate look, sits down next to the bookworm and says. "Hermione…I can't promise that we will find your brother, not with everything going on, but I think I speak for everyone when I say this. I promise that we will help in your search. There is no one on this team that wouldn't help you. Even Draco, despite your strained history with him, would help you if you simply ask."
Hermione turns and stairs at Cedric before she starts to tear up. She then lunges and hugs the eldest paladin as tears stream down her face. Cedric, mildly surprised by this action, smiles comfortingly at Hermione and hugs Hermione as she just lets everything out. They sit like this for awhile until Cedric's and Hermione's handheld communicators go off.
"Hey, guys, you should come inside. The Professor is here." Harry called out to them from the devices.
(SCENE)
A little bit earlier in the shuttle pod bay.
All of the former prisoners from the Galra ship were loaded into the back of a shuttle pod. With the de-facto leader of the group, the same one who was speaking with Hermione and Cedric earlier, was standing on the ramp of the pod, looking at the rest of the paladins and co.
"Alright, the pod is programmed to take you to the nearest safe planet with planetary travel capabilities, and is loaded up with plenty of supplies." Harry said to the leaving group.
"Thank you," the leader of the group said. "You have given us hope. You have given the universe hope."
The next scene shows the shuttle pod taking off and leaving the castle. The paladins that are there, the princess, and everyone else were just watching as the former prisoners took their leave. However, before any of them decided to leave they heard a loud 'POP' behind them.
"Oh-h… That was far more uncomfortable than normal." A familiar elderly voice said to no one in particular.
Everyone quickly turns in the direction of the noise and voice, but the next thing anyone knew Harry was being attacked by his owl, Hedwig.
"HEDWIG, PLEASE CALM DOWN!" Harry shouted out as he shielded himself from the pecks and scratches from the angered bird with his arms.
Harry then retreated to try and calm down his angered familiar. The others were either chuckling, or staring at the situation in confusion in the case of the Altaens. They then turn their attention back to the group that first caught their attention. The three figures, that were still struggling to recover, were Dobby, a female elf that could only be Winky, and Professor Dumbledore. Who was wearing periwinkle robes and a hat with star designs on both. Surrounding the three was a cat carrier, that most likely held Hermione's cat Crookshanks, several different traveling trunks, one for each of the humans plus three extra's, and a stack of letters held together by twine.
Seeing as the professor and elves were still struggling a bit, Sirius decided to yell over his shoulder at Harry. Who was now trying to placate his familiar, who had flown off and was giving him the cold shoulder. "Hey, Harry, when your done having trouble with your lady friend, why don't you contact Hermione and Cedric. Tell them that the professor is here."
Neville, who had approached the professor to help him up, said. "High there, Professor Dumbledore. We didn't expect you for a few more days."
"That is alright, Mr. Longbottom. I didn't actually intend to come so soon myself, but the minister herself sent me ahead." Dumbledore said as he held his stomach.
"Why don't we all head to the dining room, and get comfortable." Allura said as she picked up Winky, who was doing worse than the other two.
The group then left the shuttle bay for the dining room, transporting all the luggage with levitation charms, letting Crookshanks out of his carrier, and having Hedwig follow them but was still giving Harry the cold shoulder. During which time Hermione and Cedric joined them, with Crookshanks taking his place in Hermione's lap. Everyone was sitting in their normal positions; the empty seats being taken up by the elves and Dumbledore sitting across from Allura. Winky having bonded with Allura once she become coherent enough to do so. Allura having to insist that she sit and rest from her long journey before she could perform any of the task that the little elf insisted upon doing.
"It is nice to meet you Professor Dumbledore. The others have told me much about you." Allura said as a way of greeting.
"It is my pleasure to make your acquaintance, your Majesty." Dumbledore said, giving a small bow of his head. "The letters I received did not give an accurate account to the majesty of your castle. Though I must say, I didn't expect the younger members of this group to look so haggard upon my arrival." Dumbledore replied as he noticed just how tired the paladins were.
"Yeah, there was a bit of a…a Galra issue that popped up earlier today. One that required us to form Voltron to stop." Cedric said a bit nervously in front of the old man.
"Before we get into that, Professor, you said something about a new minister." Remus cut in, wanting to know exactly who was in charge back home.
"Yes, the day all of you left an emergency Wizamgamot meeting was held. During which Amelia Bones was elected as the acting Minister for Magic until a proper election can be held." Dumbledore explained.
"Amy's the Minister?!" Sirius asked in surprise.
"Yes, she even sent a letter for you specifically in that little bundle. Which, by the way, also holds a few shrunken care packages from your families and loved ones." Dumbledore said to the group. "But before we get into that, Amelia sent me some instructions for all of you. She wants all of you to continue what you are currently doing. Though, she did state that she doesn't like it. If she didn't read your explanation on how those lions choose their pilots, she likely would have sent an elite team of auror's to relieve you. She hopes that with these Galra focusing on you, they will ignore Earth, for a time at least. During which, me and Amelia will be working on having the Statute of Secrecy repealed, both locally and internationally, so that we can properly organize a defense in such an eventuality."
"That's good. The last thing we need is to worry about the response we would get back home from all of this if we kept it in the dark." Draco said assuredly before gaining a contemplative look. "Though that does beg to question, what is the cover story for our disappearance. I mean, I can get the Daily Profit ignoring most of us disappearing, either thinking that we want to fade away or just not caring, but they should at least care about what is happening with Potter."
"Yes, well, the minister and I have come up with a cover story of Harry, and an elite auror squad, quietly leaving the country to track down Voldemort while also going through rigorous training. This should placate the public for a time. However, to ensure that this rues can hold up I expect all of you to continue your schooling. So I have entrusted a number of teaching materials in one of those trunks I brought. I trust your elder guardians to continue your schooling, at least in the case of Remus." This getting chuckles from most in the room except Sirius, who just looked annoyed. "I also included the final bits for your animagus project. So there is no worry there." Dumbledore said to his students.
"At least I don't have to go through that anymore." Cedric said with a chuckle.
"Yeah, instead you get to go through auror boot camp with me big guy." Sirius said with a vicious smirk which wiped the smile off the young man's face.
"There is also one other matter I should inform you all of, or to be more specific, your alien allies." Dumbledore said before he focused on Allura and Coran.
"What is that Professor?" Allura asked in a confused tone.
"After reading of your descriptions from the others, which included some copies that were taken of your language and stylizing, it reminded me of something. After looking over some of my more ancient tomes, and I have come up with a theory. I believe, at some point after the fall of your home world, Altean survivors made at least one, maybe even several, hidden colonies on Earth." Dumbledore said to the shock of everyone.
"WHAT!" Everyone shouted in stunned surprise.
"Are you sure professor?" Asked a stunned Hermione.
"Am I sure, no. I have no concrete proof beyond some dusty books that have largely to be considered outdated and false, but I do believe it's a possibility." Dumbledore responded to the girl before returning his attention to the Alteans. "After reading about your physical features, combined with the included language sample, is very similar with ancient accounts of the elvish people, which is only reinforced by my seeing you for myself. However, I can neither prove nor disprove this theory, currently, due to the elves pulling back from the rest of the world about the time Hogwarts was being founded, about a thousand years ago. Many consider them to be not but myth, nowadays, with only house elves being considered proof that they existed at all. I can attempt to look into this further in my free time, but that may not be much in the coming days." Dumbledore said somberly to the Altaens and others.
Everyone sat in silence for a moment until Allura looked towards Coran. "Do you know what this means Coran…We may not be alone after all." Allura said with a teary smile, which also brought a small smile to Harry's face.
Sorry this has taken so long to get to you. A combination with the holidays and school really took away a lot of my time to do this. But that is not really important at the moment.
In this chapter you may have noticed that certain questions were brought up that, honestly, should have been asked in the show. I mean, despite all of the silly aspects of the show, there was also plenty of serious points and logically asked questions on certain actions or reasons. However, one that was never answered, and always kind of bugged me was how almost every species knew the same language, or at least understood it. I think there may have been one instance were actual translation tech was used, but that was it.
Another thing that bugged me, about my story's predecessor not the show, was the huge amount of effort to make Hermione more like Pidge at times. I know that they are the Harry Potter and Voltron equivalents of one another, but certain aspects of Pidge's personality just does not mesh with Hermione's. She may be headstrong and stubborn, but unless she is being set up to be bashed in the story, she is also loyal and practical.
Other than these things that I wanted to get off my chest, there is one thing I wanted to ask you, my audience. As can be seen in the latter end of the chapter I am setting up the team to become animagi. What I want to ask is, what do you think the paladins should become? I already have an idea for Harry, and Allura for later down the line, but the others are kind of up in the air. Here are some of my ideas for the different paladins, (Harry's will be a surprise.) please tell me what you think each one should become, be it on the list or not.
Hermione: Great Horned Owl, Giant Prehistoric Owl, or a Wolf
Draco: Komodo Dragon, King Cobra
Neville: Bear (undetermined breed), wolf, Buffalo
Cedric: Badger, Wolverine, Wolf, Panther, Leopard
P.S. There will be no doubles of an animagus form, and this is not a poll. I will have final say in what the team will become.