Stars In Our Hearts

Part 5

"Well this place looks....nice" I said as I got out of the pod. "That's a way to describe it" Keith followed me out. Everything around us was nothing but rock, it was dark and gloomy. "It says that it's this way" I pointed in the direction. It didn't take us long to get to a cave with lion carvings on it. The carvings started to glow a gray color as I walked past them. "This is amazing" I stated. "Yeah, it is, hey, look over there" Keith pointed to a large spot on the ground that was glowing. "So it's kind of like Lance's lion, great" I walked to the spot with Keith next to me. As I expected, we fell through. Keith and I yelled as we fell. However, this time instead of water, we landed on grass. "That wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be" I grabbed Keith's hand as he held it out to me. We turned and saw the Gray Lion. "It's beautiful" I walked up to it, it's forcefield coming down as I placed my hand on it. I could now understand what Lance was talking about when he said he felt like it was staring at him. The lion moved its head down and Keith and I went in. All of the controls turned on as I sat down.  "Okay, now to get this thing flying" I started messing with the controls, the lion stood and let out a roar. I pushed the controls forward and we went flying through the cave walls. "This is totally awesome!" I cheered as we soared through the air and back to the wormhole. We went through the wormhole and soon enough we were back at Altea. "Are you ready to see if she's found the Red Lion?" I asked Keith as we made our way inside the castle. "I'm a little nervous" Keith answered. "Hey, you'll be okay" I smiled at him. We walked into the room where Allura, Coran, Pidge and Shiro were. "Have fun?" Pidge asked. "It was awesome" I grinned. Right behind us was Lance and Hunk. The two of them groaned as they walked in. "You made it" Allura smiled. "Yeah, just barely, that was nightmare, I almost puked out there, I felt like Hunk" Lance stated. "Think how I felt, I am Hunk" Hunk replied. "Yeah, we had a tough time too" Pidge and Shiro smiled at each other. "Yeah, a real hard time" I crossed my arms and looked away from them. "Did we find the Red Lion yet?" Shiro asked. "Allura just located it, there's a bit of good news and a bit of bad news" Coran said. "What's the good news?" I asked. "The good news is, the Red Lion is nearby" Coran twisted his mustache. "And the bad news?" I raised a brow. "The bad news is, it's on board that Galra ship now orbiting Arus" Coran crossed his arms. "But wait! Good news again! We're Arus" Coran grinned and threw his arms out. "They're here already?" Shiro questioned. "Yes, guess my calculations were a bit off" Coran answered. "A bit?" I put my hands on my hips. Suddenly a screen appeared in front of us with someone, who I assumed was the Galra, on it. "Princess Allura, this is Commander Sendak of the Galra Empire, I come on behalf of Emperor Zarkon, Lord of the Known Universe, I am here to confiscate the lions, turn them over to me or I'll destroy your planet" he said, then he disappeared. "Over my dead body" I crossed my arms. "Alright, let's not panic" Shiro instructed. "Not panic? The scary purple alien thing is driving his battleship towards us, we only have five lions" Hunk said. "Technically, only four working lions" Pidge corrected. "That's right, thank you, Pidge" Hunk patted Pidge's arm. "Four working lions and a castle that's like 10,000 years old" Hunk continued. "Actually it's 10,600 years old, you see it was built by my grandfather-" Coran was cut off. "Thanks Coran, thank you for that, see? Now is the perfect time to panic!" Hunk shushed Coran. "Wait! This castle has a particle barrier that we can activate" Allura said. "Girl, you've already activated my par-" I cut Lance off with a slap to the back of the head. We then began discussing a plan. "I say we wormhole out of here" Lance suggested. "Yes, I second that" Hunk agreed. "The Galra will only continue to destroy planets and continue to capture prisoners" Pidge butted in. "Maybe they'll follow us and leave this planet alone like they did back at Earth" Hunk said. "The Galra will only continue to go after us, staying is our only option" Keith butted in as well. "Here's an option, shut your quiznak!" Lance turned to Keith. "I don't think you're using that word correctly" Keith replied. "What do you know, Mullet?" Lance and Keith got in each other's faces. Then they started arguing with each other. Then Pidge and Hunk started arguing too. "THAT'S ENOUGH!" I shouted; my short fuse was quickly dwindling. They all turned to me. "We were chosen to pilot these lions that are obviously meant to be used to save people, so it's up to us to live up to that, stop being a wuss and man up" I narrowed my eyes at them. "We are going to stay here and protect this planet" I stood my ground. Shiro put his hand on my shoulder. Lance and Hunk stood on one side of Shiro with their arms crossed, glaring at Pidge and Keith, who were standing on the other side of Shiro doing the exact same thing. "Princess Allura, these are your lions, you've dealt with the Galra Empire before, you know what we're facing better than any of us, what do you think is the best course of action?" Shiro asked the princess. "I-I don't know" Allura looked at the ground. "Maybe your father can help" Coran suggested. Allura instantly looked at him. We waited for Allura and Coran to come back. Allura came back in a battle outfit. "You six paladins were brought here for a reason, the Voltron lions are meant to be piloted by you and you alone, we must fight and keep fighting until we defeat Zarkon, it is our destiny, Voltron is the universe's only hope, we are the universe's only hope" Allura spoke. "We're with you, Princess" Shiro stated. I nodded in agreement. She brought us into another room. "These are your suits of armor" Allura said. I walked up the gray armor. "Boys, and Melody, it's time to suit up" Shiro smiled. We all put our armor and we looked good, if I do say so myself. "Wow Cutie, I never realized armor could look this good on you" Lance smirked at me. I rolled my eyes. Then Allura placed her hand down and the spot revealed some items. "The bayard is the traditional weapon of the Paladins of Voltron, it takes a distinct shape for each paladin" Allura stated as each bayard came to its respected paladin. Mine turned into a staff with bladed ends. "Oh this is neat" I smirked. Hunks turned into a canon, Keiths a sword, Lance's a gun, and Pidge's a blade that could also shoot out with a green string attached. "Aw, you got a cute little bayard" Lance laughed at Pidge. She then hit him with it and it shocked him and he fell. I held back my laughter. "Yeah, it is pretty cute" Pidge smirked. We then made our way back to the main room. "You'll need to retrieve the Red Lion from Sendak's ship" Allura displayed the image in front of us. "That's a pretty big ship, how are we gonna know where the Red Lion is?" Keith asked. "Well, it's not really a matter of we, it's really a matter of you" Pidge crossed her arms and smiled. "Pidge is right, once we get you in, you'll be able to feel its presence and track it down" Hunk stated. "Yeah, you know how you felt that crazy energy when we were in the desert? " Lance asked, his arms crossed. "Yeah and you made fun of me for that" Keith answered. "And I'm proud of that, but turns out it's exactly like that mumbo-jumbo" Lance said. "Keith, remember that the Red Lion is extremely temperamental, you'll have to earn its respect" Allura instructed. Shiro placed his hand on Keith's shoulder before we went over our plan.