The Gold Paladin

Pure Starlight

It had been about five days since Novae finally woke up from her coma, and during those five days, there was nothing but celebration and adjustment. Everyone on Estellia, upon hearing the news that Novae was finally awake, gathered in the courtyard of the Palace to greet their beloved Empress to be. Novae was brought to the balcony of her room and looked down upon her people with a great big smile on her face. It was like she was walking on the clouds in the great big sky above, nothing but peace and happiness in that moment, seeing her people rejoicing and smiling.

However, while Novae was recovering from the aftereffects of her coma, the Paladins, along with her brothers and sisters began to notice small changes within her personality. She was calm most of the time, but once in a while she would laugh at something that wasn't there, as if she was recalling something funny that happened in the past. Novae would bring up small memories of her life before the war, and would even want to go to the flower fields behind the palace simply just to lay in the cool grass and feel the warm sun on her face. Just like she used to when she was a little girl. Just like the First Death.

Sometimes, she would go out and see the Estellian soldiers training and would help them with their forms, something she used to do while she was in the Blades when she was a commander in their ranks, being both compassionate and serious at the same time. She would sometimes get flashbacks to those times of war and battle she fought with the Blades, but her family and friends would help with those episodes.

But for the times that she would hide that pain from everyone, she would just smile and say that she was all right. But they could easily see through it this time, it was much easier this time to see through the mask that hides her pain. It may have worked through her time before the Third Death's creation, but it wasn't working now.

Throughout those five days, Novae even explained many things about the Voltron Lions, even some hidden talents that they all shared together when formed as Voltron or as separate Lions, all given to her in exchange for the Gifts she gave all those years ago. It amazed the Paladins at how much they didn't know about their Lions, but it was nice to see Novae open about those kinds of things about their weapons.

Even before everything that happened up until this point, everyone could clearly see that Novae was selfless. But now, she was more on focus with her life and how her actions would effect the other people in her life, becoming more upbeat. Still being there to watch over her friends while they trained with the Estellian soldiers and people, but she didn't jump in all the time to protect them if the training became a little more intense. It was a trait she had in common with the Fifth Death, but was now toning down just a little bit. She did however isolate herself within the Gold Lion for a few hours, and when she came out, all she could say was that she was having a very deep and private conversation with her Lion about their future battles.

Though she had changed slightly, she was still compassionate and sweet, thinking with her heart as well as her mind. Her smile being a light in the darkness, and her heart shining like the first born star in the universe's dark skies. That much hasn't changed one bit about her, and no one could complain about that.

On the fifth day of her recovery, Novae decided to try out her powers again, and the results were incredible. The blood to quintessence transformation time was even faster than before, and it seemed to heal even bigger wounds much faster than before. She, the Paladins and her brothers and sisters all found this out by accident. They were watching the soldiers train and one of them was hurt badly by a sharp blade to the leg. Novae rushed to heal it with her blood, and when she pricked her finger to bleed quintessence, her blood didn't come out red like it used to, it came out white and transformed to gold within a few seconds. A single drop fell onto the soldier's leg and healed not only the injury but old scars that he had from previous training in the past.