Chapter 8: The Ruins(Marinette's POV)

"Wake up!" Shiro's voice commands.

Sleepy, she sits up and groans. Rubbing her eyes, she thinks why now? Can't they sleep for fifteen more minutes.

"Do we have to?" groans Lance, "There's no day and night cycle here."

"We can't get soft. Once we get back to Earth Sendak and his army will be waiting for us. Routine will help us keep our skills sharp. It's how I managed my time while being Zarkon's and being on the Astral plane."

"That would make you an expert on killing time," Lance responds grouchily.

"I agree with Lance," Allura mutters, "We should sleep for fifteen more doboshes."

"Guys. We need to keep our skills sharp. We have no idea what will be awaiting us when we get to Earth. All we know is that Keith is okay thanks to that weird dream me and the rest of the Paladins shared a few weeks ago, nothing else."

Marinette sighs, but doesn't complain. She gets out of bed and yawns once again. Does that dream that when she gets back, Voltron will be composed of the same people before the switch happens. It hurts her heart, but that shared dream that she wasn't included in can't mean anything else. That Leafbranch person, or cat, whatever deliberately chose what warriors she would test.

And it didn't include her. She knows her bond with Red isn't particularly strong, but her connection with Black was a little stronger. But all of sudden now that the real Shiro is back she's replaced within an instant. Dropped back down to be the right hand of Voltron, a place she didn't feel she belonged.

Being Leader changed that, it felt she was finally making a place for herself amongst them. The people who were chosen first, not second because of an akuma. She is happy Shiro is alive, but with Kuro she felt more at home. Like she belonged.

Even if Kuro did try to take the lead and steal her thunder….it just felt different than the setup they're in. They even switched their armor again to match their lions before they headed to Earth. And soon this armor would be Keith's….

"Everyone to your stations, Krolia has come up with a new battle simulation." Shiro says, ripping her out of her thoughts.

Everyone else groans, her included.

"Can't we at least have breakfast first?" Hunk asks tiredly.

"Sorry no. But you can have it after the exercise."

Marinette chuckles, but get's out of bed anyway.

"Dang Shiro's tough," comments Adrien.

"But what he's saying is true, we don't want to dull our skills," even though mine won't come in handy since I'll be replaced anyway.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, are you? We're all finally going home, and I can't help but notice you aren't as happy as us or the paladins." Chloe comments.

"Of course I'm not. These people have become my friends, my family, but…. They'll want Keith back. To take back his position as Red's pilot and I know Red will want to since me and her don't exactly have a strong bond ..."

Adrien and Chloe glance at each other and then turn attention back to her.

"It's just. I know that going back home means I'll be seeing less of them…"

Adrien comes up to her and puts his hand on her shoulder. "That's not true. With Hawkmoth gone we can help Voltron. We handled it…."

"Which means?"

"It means that Team Miraculous is a part of the Voltron Coalition now, since our only threat to face is the Fire of Purification faction and any other Galran who have become warlords."

She hugs both of them tightly, feeling a little better at the prospect of returning home, "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

She then pulls back, "I've also been meaning to ask, how are you guys so fluent in English?"

"High School classes on the subject." Adrien answers.

She rolls her eyes not fully believing the answer, "Okay kitty."

"Now you better get to your station, I can't believe you slept in that armor." Chloe says.

"Well got to be prepared for anything."

Chloe chuckles, "True."

Marinette smiles and heads to the cockpit. Though sitting down in the pilot's chair makes her sad all over again. Eventually this will all end and Keith will replace her. She knows that doesn't mean she won't spend time with her friends. But she just can't shake the feeling.

Especially since that weird dream confirmed her fears more or less. But the person she'll miss the most when she leaves Team Voltron is Lance. He has supported her and been right at her side through the whole endeavor and she'll be forever grateful for it.

"I programmed a new battle simulation. I think this one will be especially challenging." Krolia says, tearing Marinette from her thoughts.

"Why do you sound happy about that?" Hunk mutters.

"Focus," Shiro responds.

"Here's the scenario: you're on a planet that has double gravity, thick volcanic fog and eight blovar raptors are attacking you. What do you do?"

"Do these raptors lay eggs? Cause I'm thinking we should steal some and make some breakfast." Hunk responds. Then he screams and Krolia says, "A blovar raptor just melted your face off Hunk!"

She blocks the rest of the chatter out. Dang, with the blovars and the volcanic atmosphere it's hard to focus on just one. Spews of lava spray up in front of her while a blovar attempts to shoot her. She narrowly dodges both.

"Alright Paladins spread out to see if there's a way to thin their numbers…What?" Shiro shouts as a blovar hits his lion.

"Shiro, you're out."

Marinette grunts. There has to be a way to focus on a blovar raptor long enough to avoid the elements of the volcano. But that doesn't seem possible….

"Wait, this planet has thick volcanic fog right? So the blovars must be using heat to see us."

She smiles, "Good thinking Pidge. I can use my heat rays to lure them away from us for a spell!"

"Now let's get the while they're distracted!" Lance shouts.

"But what about…." Her question gets lost when both Pidge and Lance get hit by a volcanic spray of lava, which she narrowly avoids.

"What?!"

"What happened?"

"You focused too much on the raptors and forgot about the volcano."

Nodding her head, she notices that the raptors are back. She groans, this simulation was meant to be failed, not beaten. Because if she focuses on the raptor's the volcano will kill her, but if she focuses on avoiding the lava, the raptors get her.

So she takes a shot at one of the blovars and just like clockwork a lava spray hits her, ending the simulation.

"Nice job Marinette, you managed to outlast your comrades,"

"Only because whenever I tried to focus on a blovar I noticed lava or vice versa. You made that simulation unbeatable to the point where there are too many things asking for our attention."

"That's right. I wanted to see how long you could last."

"I hope you're happy with the results," mutters Lance annoyed.

"Food incoming!"

Shiro appears inside the cockpit. "Thanks Shiro," she says, as she hands out food, enough for her current passengers, Adrien and Chloe, plus herself.

"No problem."

She heads down back into the cargo hold. "Sounds like the simulation was really tough." Adrien comments.

"It was."

Handing out the food, Chloe says, "Well at least we know that even faced with impossible odds, Team Voltron always comes up with a plan."

Marinette smiles and sits down to eat with them. Unwrapping her food she notices it's a burrito with some cups to which she assumes has something like oatmeal or cereal in. Taking a bite of the burrito, exquisite flavors hit her tongue.

"Hmm. This is delicious, Hunk!"

"Glad you like it, Marinette. I used fungus and dung from the beetles of that one planet we visited to stop for supplies a while back…"

"Hunk, I don't want to know what's in it. I just want to enjoy it and pretend it's my memaw's home cooking," Lance replies before she can respond. Well it is delicious despite it being made with the most unusual of indigents.

Chloe however looks disgusted.

"A signal!" Pidge shouts.

"How did you get a signal?" asks Lance.

"I've been running a passive scan ever since Adrien informed us that my broadcasting led to them and Ezor and Zethrid finding us so that I wouldn't give our location away again. I've been searching for any signs of communication but this is the first time I've picked up something."

"What is it Pidge?" Shiro asks.

"I'm patching it through now."

What she hears is laughing and something sounding like Bi-Boh-Bi.

Coran laughs, "That Bii-Boh-Bii sold the others flizblaznator!"

"What a flizblaz…."

"These Bii-Boh-Bii get comedy," Coran says before Chloe can finish her sentence.

He continues laughing at something, which Marinette assumes is an alien sitcom or something. Then she hears a loud slap and Coran gasping, "The drama caught me totally by surprise."

"I wonder what's going on?." Adrien questions. But instead of getting an answer Hunk says, "Wait….Sh-shh-shhh. What's that noise?"

"Sounds like some kind of interference. I can probably tune it out."

"Wait!" Krolia shouts, "Pidge, can you amplify the sound?"

"On it!"

Now she hears something like static and buzzing. "What is it?" she asks.

"Probably some deep-space interference based on the sound structure. Most likely a radiation pulse from a nearby star." Pidge explains.

"That's just what it's supposed to sound like. Can't you hear a pattern emitting from the sound in-between the pulses. There's a distinct pattern."

She closes her eyes and listens to the sound more closely. A distinct beeping comes through in-between the pulses. "Krolia's right, there is a pattern."

"This crude way of communicating was used before the Blades were unified. Now it's only used when Blades have no other means to contact each other without someone picking up on it."

"What does it say?" Shiro asks.

"It's a distress signal. Whoever is sending this must be in some sort of trouble."

"Looks like it's coming from this section of space." Pidge comments.

"Do we know anything about that sector of space?"

"Afraid not Shiro. Without the Castle's web of knowledge we'll be flying in blind."

"And that's a pretty big detour from Earth." Hunk comments.

"Hunk, we have to help them. And if we get in contact with the Blades they might help us get back to Earth without having to finish the one and half year trip."

"Yeah but…."

"No buts. We're going."

Shiro's POV

Getting out of the Black Lion once having landed on the planet, Shiro looks around. Ruins are strewn everywhere, making Pidge's scan of no life being detected earlier ring true. What exactly happened here to cause this much destruction.

Krolia comments, "The signs are all around us. There was a massacre here."

"Yeah but what could have caused so much destruction?" Shiro asks her, voicing his thoughts.

"I don't know, but some of the marks on the walls look Marmoran."

Lotor comments, "And some look like they were made with Altean Alchemy."

"Altean Alchemy?" Zoe asks, confused.

"It's a form of magic." Shiro explains in the simplest way possible. As he doesn't completely understand it either. Neither does he understand his newfound ability to teleport. He thought he could only use it to escape the Astral Plane, but that's been proven untrue. And the only reason he could teleport is because he needed to save Marinette and Kuro.

He then walks over to Pidge, "Any luck on finding where the signal originates?"

"No. But it is stronger, I just can't locate it."

"You're doing your best."

"I know. But it's frustrating…."

"We'll find the location of the signal. Everyone stay alert, we don't know who's broadcasting the signal and what type of help they need." He cautions his teammates, Lotor, Coran, Romelle and the members of Team Miraculous.

"No problem Shiro," Lance responds.

They continue to look around, but all he sees are vast ruins. He looks back to the others also focused on finding whoever sent the signal. Sighing, he looks back ahead following Pidge. Crumbled structures surround them and his breath starts to hitch. And with no sound but their footsteps it makes the area seem much more ominous than at first glance.

Breathing out he reminds himself that nothing bad is going to happen and that everything will be fine.

But when he looks back at the group he notices Adrien run off and climb over a mountain of rubble. "Adrien, come back!" Chloe shouts, but Zoe also runs after Adrien. Shiro groans but runs after them. Perhaps they noticed something he didn't. Climbing the rubble and reaching the top he sees Adrien pinning down some sort of alien humanoid creature. Descending he congratulates them, "Good job you two. Now who is broadcasting the single?" His question is directed at the strange creature. It responds, "It was me."

"Impossible. You're no Blade of Marmora." Krolia comments, distrustful. He twitches a little not realizing the rest of the group that had caught up to them.

"If you drop your weapons I will explain everything."

Shiro looks at Krolia who narrows her eyes distrusting of the creature. She sighs and says, "Let's hear what he has to say."