After several days of drifting in and out of consciousness, Serenity opened her eyes and saw that she was back inside the soft bed from before.

When she turned her head, the young woman with the long white hair fiddled with something on a table across the room.

Serenity gasped lightly and backed up towards the wall.

The woman turned at the sound and quickly held her hands out. "It's okay, it's okay," she said gently. "You're okay. The worst is over. Just relax."

Serenity ever so slowly rested her head back on the soft pillow.

For the first time since she'd been brought here, she hesitantly reached up and touched the top of her head.

Her heart sank when she only felt flattened stubs.

She covered her face with her hands to hide her inky tears from the woman.

But Allura knew.

Though she had never come in contact with any of them before, she was familiar with this particular race from the planet Taizenith.

Taizenthians were most noticeable by their brilliant horns.

But this girl's horns had been sawed off.

It must've been excruciatingly painful, and as far as she knew, there was no way to grow them back.

"I'm so sorry," Allura said softly. "That never should've happened to you."

Serenity didn't look at her, but she was confused. Why would Allura be apologizing? Shouldn't a member of Voltron be happy she'd been through something so awful?

She kept her guard up, knowing that they would eventually betray her once they believed they had earned her trust, but it felt difficult to remember that when her words were so gentle and sweet.

"What is your name?"

Serenity looked away from her.

Seeing that she wasn't going to answer that question, Allura then offered, "You've been out for a long time. How does a hot bath sound?"

A hot bath? When was the last time she had been able to cleanse herself? And with liquid that wasn't below freezing?

Was this a trick?

"Once you're all nice and cleaned up, we'll go about getting you something to eat."

Serenity bit her bottom lip nervously. Then she slowly nodded.

After a beautiful hot bath that Serenity never wanted to end, Allura brushed her tangled hair out and then helped her into one of her purple and white Altean gowns. Serenity hadn't worn an actual dress in so very long. The material felt foreign to her skin, and as much as she wanted to deny it, she really liked how much more comfortable it was.

If only she had her horns, she would feel so much better.

"It looks wonderful on you," Allura smiled. "I hate to admit it, but I think you wear it better than I ever did."

Serenity gave her a small smile.

"Come on, the rest of the team will be waiting for us."

The girl pressed her lips together and crunched the dress beneath her hands.

Allura gently touched her nervous fists. "It's all right. I'll be right there the whole time."

Serenity still didn't trust her, so that wasn't very much comfort. But nevertheless, she took a nervous breath before following Allura out of the room and down the many hallways.

Six heads turned when the two women entered the dining hall. And six pairs of eyes widened when they saw that their newest addition looked remarkably different since the last time they'd seen her.

"Whoa…" Lance said, his face reddening at the girl's beauty.

Shiro started towards them which immediately caused Serenity to step closer to Allura.

Serenity may not trust any of them, but she was more inclined to be near another woman than any of the other members of Voltron.

Realizing she was still afraid of them, Shiro immediately stopped and gave her a gentle smile. "I'm glad to see you're feeling better."

Despite her feelings towards him, he had the most reassuring smile Serenity had ever seen.

She wished he wasn't part of Voltron. Every part of her wanted to put her trust in him.

"Is no one going to mention anything about that energy that—" Keith started.

He was silenced by Lance's elbow hitting his gut. "No, we are not."

"She hasn't eaten in quite a while," Allura said in an attempt to cover up Keith's unfinished question. "Hunk, I'm sure she'd love to try some of your signature dishes."

Hunk's eyes filled with sparkles. "It's been so long since I've gotten to cook for a guest!"

He dashed off to the kitchen to make everyone some dinner.

"Come," Allura smiled. "Let's go to the table."

Sticking closely to Allura, Serenity followed her and the others to where they dined. Pidge, Lance, and Coran sat on one side while Keith, Shiro, Allura, and Serenity sat on the other.

Shiro decided to put an empty chair in between him and Serenity since he guessed the distance between them might help put her just a little at ease.

Allura asked what each Paladin had done with their day. Pidge started gushing endlessly about some new programs she was fiddling with and her progress on attempting to learn Altean, Lance went into detail about a video game he'd played, and Keith didn't say anything.

Allura realized that everything they'd done today had been individually and made a mental note to make sure they did more things together to strengthen their bonds.

Soon enough, Hunk started bringing out various trays of food.

All of the dishes were bursting with colors that almost made Serenity's eyes hurt.

"Everyone dig in!" Hunk exclaimed proudly.

Serenity nervously took some of the food and put it onto her plate. She waited for everyone else to eat first to ensure that there wasn't any drug or poison in it.

Once she'd confirmed that everyone at the table was still alive and healthy, she hesitantly took a bite.

It was the most amazing thing she'd ever put in her mouth. She hadn't known that food could even taste this incredible.

While with the Galra, everything was bland and flavorless. Kyzik would deny her dinner if she ever messed up during her training or if she didn't go as long as she should've. And on several occasions, they had given her as little as possible so that it was enough to keep her alive but weakened.

She now realized just how starved she was.

She began to take bite after bite of each of the dishes Hunk had made, feeling like her stomach was never going to be satisfied.

"Slow down," Shiro said as he reached for her.

Serenity flinched at his movement and her fork fell onto the floor. Her face burned when she felt all eyes on her.

He quickly recoiled. "Sorry, it's just…you can't eat so much too quickly like that. You'll make yourself sick."

He was…concerned about her getting sick? Wouldn't her getting sick be ideal for them? Then they would be able to easily bend her to their will. Why wouldn't they want that?

Hunk slowly slid a new fork across the table for her. "Here you go."

Serenity took the fork and looked down at her plate as she took very slow bites.

The girl hadn't spoken a single word since Coran had knocked her out with his shoulder pinch which confused all of them. They knew she could speak and that there wasn't a language barrier since she had spoken clear English when Shiro had first brought her here.

But since then, she wouldn't even tell them her name.

Most people saw the Lions of Voltron and immediately began to sing their praises. Everyone knew the Paladins of Voltron to be the heroes of the universe.

So why was she so afraid of them?

"Uh, Hunk, what is this particular dish made of?" Allura asked in order to get attention away from Serenity.

"Oh, it's this kind of sauce I found when we visited Cerzal," Hunk answered, realizing her intention.

Serenity was thankful no one was looking at her, but the food didn't taste as good anymore.

She wished all of this was over. She wanted to go home.

Allura peeked inside the small med bay room. "Do you want to watch the Paladins train? It can be pretty entertaining sometimes."

Serenity looked at the young woman and decided to step out of the room. Even if she'd rather not be anywhere near any of the members of Voltron, this might be the perfect opportunity to find out more about the ship and figure out how she might be able to communicate with Kyzik.

"Wonderful! I think I'll put them through the 'blind fight' training. They haven't been through that yet, and I expect it will go quite poorly at first."

Allura rejoicing in their pain seemed much more in line with what Kyzik had warned her about.

The Altean princess led her to a room situated above the main training deck where all the Paladins stood waiting for her to tell them which exercises they would be doing today. She put on a headset and pulled up a holographic pad from one of the panels.

"Paladins, are you ready for your next exercise?" she called out.

"Ready as we'll ever be," Shiro replied.

"Good. Pidge, Hunk, come up to the deck with me. The rest of you, wait for my instructions."

The Green and Yellow Paladins shrugged their shoulders and went up to the small room with Allura.

She handed them both headsets. "Put these on."

Once the headsets were secure, Allura addressed the ones down in the training area.

"Paladins, I will be participating as well so that everyone has a partner. Activating training helmets."

She pushed a button on the holographic projection.

Down below, Shiro, Keith, and Lance's helmets went dark.

"Oh, not again," Lance groaned.

"You will be fighting the Gladiator, but this time, you will not be able to see it. One of your fellow teammates will be instructing you when and where to strike. Pidge, you will guide Lance. Hunk, you will guide Keith. And I will guide Shiro. Are you ready?"

"No!" Lance cried.

"Good."

She pushed another button and a massive robotic soldier landed in the middle of the training deck.

"Where is it, Hunk?!" Keith demanded.

"Uh, turn left and then hit directly in front of you."

Keith turned and hit the air before the robot came up behind him and hit him on the back which sent him flying.

"Hunk!"

"Sorry, I meant my left!"

"Then say right!"

"Right, right, got it."

Keith turned right and hit nothing.

"No, I was just agreeing with you. Turn left!"

"Left?"

"Right!"

"Wait, turn right?"

"No, right, turn left!"

"What?!"

"TURN LEFT!"

Keith got hit again.

Pidge looked down at the training deck. "Okay, Lance, it's coming up behind you. Wait one—"

Lance turned around with a triumphant yell and hit the air, but he was too early. The robot then arrived and hit him on the chest.

Pidge sighed. "I was going to tell you to wait a second, and then turn around."

Lance weakly held up an OK sign from his downed position on the floor. "Got it."

Allura rolled her eyes. "Shiro, it's approaching your left. Wait two ticks, use your arm to block its staff, and then sweep at its legs."

Shiro waited a moment and then turned left as he held up his robotic arm. He felt metal hit metal and then he used his foot to knock its legs out from beneath it.

"Take two steps forward and slice right in front of you to split it in two."

He took two confident steps and then brought his arm down. Metal split directly in two and the Gladiator was defeated.

"Everyone, I hope you all realize how pathetic that was," Allura announced. "We're going to switch now. Keith, Lance, it's your turn."

Hunk and Pidge shot each other embarrassed looks and bashfully went down to the training deck.

Serenity could not believe what she was seeing.

These guys were…the Paladins of Voltron? They were nothing like Kyzik had described. He had always made them out to be fearsome warriors.

But these people were a dysfunctional team at best. Were they really the legendary people who were going to bring down the Galra? The people described as the Defenders of the Universe?

These people were the ones who wanted to mercilessly torture her?

Serenity looked at Allura in confusion.

Allura smiled at the unspoken question. "Yes, it is always like this."