Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

So a few quick things you need to know about this AU:

Lions are rumored to be extinct. ALL lions. The last time any were seen was with the original Voltron crew (who died).

Here, Voltron isn't a robot, and Defenders of Voltron is a team name. It's still made of five main members bonded to individual lions, but the lions are normal sized, if not a little larger.

There's an Altean Kingdom and it's neighboring kingdom, the Galran Empire wants to take over the world. Pretty much, every planet they visit in the show is a different kingdom. Groups like the Olkari live on a different continent.

For the beginning, the story line kind of follows that of the show. There may be parts where I just skip over a few weeks/months and it's just because I don't feel like rewriting that episode(s), or it doesn't work with the AU plot.

Chapter Text

"Father, this is an outrage!"

Princess Allura stormed after her father, following him away from the conference room where they had just finished a fairly worthless meeting with the leaders of the neighboring kingdoms. "We can't continue to work with the Galran Empire after such accusations!" 

"We must my daughter," Alfor turned to face Allura and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Actually, King Alfor, I have to side with the princess on this one," Royal Advisor Coran twirled an end of his mustache. "What they said was a complete disgrace and an obvious threat on both of you and the lives of our citizens."

"If he's trying to collect the lions of the old Voltron force," Allura pressed on, "then he will pose a true threat to all of our people. It is our duty to protect them from any threats, and that includes Zarkon! And I don't trust that rotten son of his for a second!"

"Allura, please calm yourself. I have known Zarkon for a very long time, and been in many arguments with him before. He may be temperamental, and says many things, but he will not follow through on his threats to hurt innocents."

"Then you do not know Lord Zarkon at all."

The three Alteans turned to face the owner of the new voice, only to be met with a blast of purple electricity. Allura felt herself fly back until she hit the wall, and fell to the floor where she lay stunned and winded. Beside her, she felt Coran lying face down, but breathing. Pushing herself up slowly, Allura looked around for her father. Her heart stopped. 

"No, no, no, no!" She crawled over to her father's still form, laying a hand on his chest where a dark stain was growing. "Father please!"

There was a humorless laugh behind her. Turning, she saw a hooded figure with long white hair hanging from it. The figure turned and disappeared into the shadows, her words floating back over her shoulder.

" Zarkon sends his regards Princess."

-----*---*---*-----

Lance closed the door softly and made his way downstairs. His mom was on the sofa watching some sort of drama show. He came up behind her and rest his chin on her head, dropping the story book about lions beside her. "Miguel and Sara are asleep."

"Gracias mijo. Did you finish your homework?"

"Of course mama! When have I ever not done my homework?"

"There was that time in third grade you threw your homework into the water and said the ocean ate it."

"That was one time mama."

"There was the time in fifth grade-"

"Ok, ok, ya, you made your point. Yes, I did my homework. I'm going to head out for a walk on the beach."

"Be careful, mi amor. It's late."

"Don't worry mama, I'll make sure I don't get jumped by any crabs. Maybe I'll see a mermaid!"

His mom shook her head as he stepped out the back door and breathed in the salty sea air. He loved the beach- the sound of the crashing waves, the soft cool sand between his toes, the slightly sticky humidity being blown away by a gentle night breeze. He hummed softly as he made his way down to his favorite spot. 

He was lost in thought until he felt something roll beneath his toe. Glancing down, Lance saw a brilliant blue and white seashell. He picked it up and brushed off the sand, inspecting it for any cracks. Sara would love this in a necklace. But so would Miguel. Maybe if I can find another, they can have matching sets...

Lance couldn't exactly describe what happened next. At first, it felt like a tug in his gut, but when asked to describe it later, he'd say it could've been a whisper in the wind, blowing his hair in the direction he had to go. Later still, he'd say it was the shimmer of a shell like the one in his hand hidden in the waves of the ocean.

Whatever it was, he picked up the next shell, and spotted another. He followed the trail in a trance, heading much farther out than he usually would. After about half an hour, he had taken off his shirt and was using it to carry all the shells he was collecting- spirals, waves, twists, all in different sizes and colors, along with some sea glass chunks. So far everything seemed to have a pair except for the first shell he'd picked up.

It was then that he heard the distressed squeak.

Turning in a circle, he tried to figure out where it came from. The squeak sounded again to his left. 

Following the sound, Lance decided that whoever- or whatever- was making it, was more frustrated than anything. Turning the corner to a large pile of rocks, he stopped at the sight before him.

Sitting on the ground looking up at a rock that was about shoulder level with Lance was a blue lion cub. 

I must be hallucinating. There are no lion cubs.

But there was one, turning at the sound of Lance dropping his makeshift bag. Perking up its ears, it trotted over to Lance and began nudging him towards the rock. When he didn't move, it gave another small mew, and threw its full force against the back of his legs. It didn't do much seeing as the cub didn't even reach his knees, but the contact was enough to get him to move.

When he reached the rock, he paused. Bending down, he gingerly scooped the cub up onto the rock. It gave a happy mew and picked up something in its mouth. Placing it in front of Lance on the rock, he felt his breath catch. Lance reached into his pocket and handed the cub the first shell he had picked up. The blue and white one. The one that matched perfectly to the one the cub had just picked up off the rock. 

The cub took the shell from his hand at the same time he picked up the one from the cub.

He felt a jolt and his world shifted as he felt another mind merge with his. He became aware of the push and pull of the ocean, the sound of the shifting sand in the wind, but most of all, he became aware of himself- the star-struck look on his face, the messy dark brown hair, the wide blue eyes, and the thoughts that weren't his.

Hello. I'm Blue.

-----*---*---*-----

Hunk yawned as he walked out of the shed, arms filled with soil, seeds, and shovels. Man, I wish Lance were still in town to help out. Guess I'll see him when he comes home from break. In the meantime, I need to get these spices planted if I want them to grow in time.

Picking his way through the carefully tended rows, Hunk made his way towards the back of his garden where he was planning on digging new spots for his spices. Setting his equipment down under the apple tree, he tied his hair back and surveyed the ground before him. Already planted was thyme, rosemary, cilantro, basil, and. . . What happened to my mint plant!

Under closer inspection, Hunk found a trail of small leaves leading away from the half of the plant that remained. Grabbing his trowel, he slowly made his way through his garden. Now I really wish Lance were here.

He stopped when the trail curled around the orange tree and he could hear a slight munch. You can do this Hunk. It's probably just a chipmunk. It's not like it's going to be a lion or anything.

Jumping around the tree, Hunk promptly dropped his trowel and leaped back, huddling in on himself. Sitting on the ground and munching on a leaf was a thick furred golden-yellow lion cub. It regarded him with bright eyes before giving a small, mint scented burp.

"Oh my god. You're a lion," Hunk whispered. "Please don't eat me."

The lion gave another burp and looked up at where a late orange was growing. Moving slowly, Hunk reached up and plucked the orange from the branch. Setting it down between him and the lion cub, he backed up a few steps. The lion cub pawed at the orange until it was cut in half. Taking a half in its mouth, it waddled? padded? (Hunk wasn't sure how to describe it, but it was definitely cute for an apparently nonexistent creature) over to Hunk and held it out expectantly.

Trembling slightly, Hunk took the half from the lion and felt a jolt of energy. He instantly felt connected not only to the lion in front of him, but to the earth beneath him and around him. There was a shift in his vision, and suddenly he was staring through the lion's eyes, looking at himself with half an orange in his hand. 

A soft voice sounded in his head.

I'm Yellow. Who are you?

"I'm Hunk," he said. 

Do you want help with your gardening? I can help dig. And sorry about your mint plant.

"I- yeah, sure. Don't worry about the mint, it needed trimming anyways. How good are you at digging holes, because I have a lot to plant and oh my gosh I'm talking to a lion cub about gardening." 

So where do we start? the lion asked cheerfully.

They started with fixing up the mint plant. Then they moved on to measuring and digging holes in the open space for all the new herbs. Yellow was a fast digger- it seemed like the earth simply moved for her, rocks and all. It also helped that neither of them minded getting dirty, to the point that by the time they had finished Hunk had dirt on his face, hands, and hair, while Yellow was now a Yellow and brown, spice scented blob.

It was midday when they finished, a good few hours earlier than what Hunk had been expecting. The two of them were under the apple tree munching on some fruit. When his apple was halfway done, Hunk grabbed his phone and sent a videochat request Lance. He picked up on the first ring.

"HUNK! YOU'LL NEVER BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED TO ME!!!!"

Hunk extended his arm in an attempt to save his eardrums. "Whatever it is, I bet what happened to me is cooler." 

Lance moved the camera to show him sitting on the beach next to a blue lion cub. They were wearing matching seashell necklaces. Yellow tipped her head curiously and spoke in his head. Blue. She's picked a friend of yours. 

He glanced down at Yellow. "You know her?" 

"Know who?" Lance asked from the other end. 

"Oh not you. I was talking to," Hunk shifted the camera to focus on Yellow. "We just finished gardening." 

"YOU HAVE ONE TOO! Hi Yellow!"

Tell your friend I say hello.

"She says hello. Dude, what should we do with them? I mean, if we really found lion cubs, then we're like legends."

"What if we took them to the Altean Castle?"

"You mean the one that's been on lockdown and isn't accepting any visitors?" Hunk raised an eyebrow. "Least of all two teenagers?"

"Two teenagers with lions, Hunk! We have two of the rarest animals ever, they'd have to let us in. Besides, Blue is saying that it's most likely the place where they'll be safest." 

"Fair enough. I guess I'll have to tell my mom that I'm going on a field trip with you. She knows us well enough by now to know we'll be up to no good."

"Whatever man," Lance scratched Blue behind her ear. "I'll get the car and pick you up in a couple hours."

"I'll pack up lunch." 

"Deal. Hey, can you bring some of those snickerdoodle cookies?"

-----*---*---*-----

"What the fuck?"

There was a disapproving beep from Rover. 

"Shut it Rover. I'm going to figure out how to get rid of that censoring program Matt installed eventually. But for now," Pidge said crossing her arms, "Let's figure out what this is."

Her robotic companion began running scans on the area while Pidge began to dig through the extreme undergrowth. If she could rewire the systems to the machine she'd found she could get it up and running again and make it into a helper like Rover. If not, she could salvage it for parts. She was just about to get through the final layer of vines- there were so many it must have been here for years- when there was a rewarding beep from Rover. Pausing, she glanced at the robot's reports. "So we're looking at a type of tracker and identifier thing from the Olkari kingdom. . ."

Her brow furrowed in confusion as she skimmed further down the report. "It's the newest model? Then how is it so overgrown? This thing looks like it's been here for years, not a couple weeks."

Rover beeped in agreement and pulled up the part of the report where he scanned for life. There was usually insects, small animals like squirrels and chipmunks, and in a place with vegetation this thick, there should be all sorts of herbivores. But the latest report said that there was no life whatsoever. 

"Rover. . . something's not right."

He clicked out a series of dots and dashes that spelled out, we should leave. Not safe.

"Normally I would agree with you Rover, but I don't think we should go yet." She waved off his series of angry clicks. "Something's pulled me out here and I plan to find out what. You know it's serious- I almost never come out this far into nature. There's so many plants, and insects, and," she shivered, "and people. Usually."

Rover gave a resigned beep that was the equivalent of a sigh. There was a slight whirring noise before his flashlight clicked on and he hovered ahead of her into the thickest of the vines. "That's the spirit Rover!"

He clicked out a message- I'm only doing this because Matt installed a program that requires me to say within a twenty foot radius when you're in a suspicious area.

"Well I guess Matt's installations worked for once." Pidge pushed on, pulling away the branches and vines that Rover cut through with his laser. It took about two hours to get all the way through the undergrowth, Pidge and Rover arguing the whole time. When they popped out of the hole they'd made in the thick wood of a tree, it was into a dark clearing lit by fireflies and bioluminescent flowers. Above them the ceiling was a dome of thick branches, blocking out all light.

"This is incredible," Pidge whispered, turning in a circle. "Are you get this Rover?"

A small red light blinking confirmed he was recording everything for documentation. 

"I wonder what kind of tech might be around here. There's no way that this clearing naturally grew like this. It's like we're in a giant orb." Pidge began digging around the edges of the clearing, searching for anything that might resemble the equipment necessary to build a dome like this.

She was bent over when there was a loud beeping and a sharp heat skimmed her neck. 

Jerking up, she glared over at Rover, only to freeze and take in the scene in front of her.

A small green blob was hanging off Rover pawing at the camera light while Rover fired lasers to try to get it off him. "Rover! Turn off camera and use laser pointer." If whatever that thing is is attracted to the camera light then maybe. . .

The red camera light went off and a bright blue dot appeared on the floor. The blob hanging off Rover dropped to the ground and pounced on the dot. It chased it around while Rover moved it in circles. "Bring it this way Rover."

When the blob- now a streak- was close, Pidge dove in and swiped it up, holding it in both hands at arms length. Large emerald eyes blinked back at her, and Pidge registered what she was holding.

A lion cub.

A very small, bright green, lion cub, who was currently interested in squirming out of her grasp to get back to Rover.

Pidge let the lion go and watched as she jumped onto the drone and balanced on the top. What the hell did I just find? She went still as she ran her fingers through her hair. Her considerably shorter hair. Spinning around, she found the majority of her ponytail laying on the ground.

"Fuck!" Rover's laser blast must have cut her hair. 

There was a beep behind her. Rover shifted to hover in front of her, displaying the small green cub flying the drone. Pidge gave a small laugh. The cub dropped a flower onto Pidge's head.

Her world shifted. For a split second, she was looking down on herself, and had thoughts of keeping her balance on the fun flying machine that wasn't made of the same things that she was used to, and then a voice-

Hi angry child! My name is Green.

Angry child? Really? Pidge thought. 

Well you certainly seem frustrated. 

"Wait, you heard that?"

Obviously.

"That's. . . really terrifying."

You'll get used to it. What's this thing that I'm on called? Is it called Fuck?

"He- no! He's not called fuck. Why would he be called that?"

You shouted that and he beeped. If he's not called Fuck what's his name?

"Rover."

Hmm. Fuck is more fun to say.

Pidge grinned. "We're going to have a lot of fun together. The name's Pidge. Now come on Green. We have a field trip to go on."

-----*---*---*-----

What am I doing out here? Keith wondered. A pulsing tug to his right reminded him. That's right. Following a tug in my gut. Just like I did when I was 13 and ended up in juvie for two weeks. I almost got shanked there. Picking his way carefully over the rocks, he contemplated what this feeling could be. He sometimes got feelings like it, but nothing this strong. And none of them landing him on the edge of a volcanic ring. This better be worth it, he thought grumpily. I've been many places, but this is not one of them. 

Despite the harsh conditions, Keith didn't mind the terrain. The heat had never really bothered him- he did live alone in a desert shack for a year and a half and counting- and having lived in the mountains with a previous foster family, he had learned some rock climbing. The thing that bothered him was not knowing if one of the volcanoes was going to erupt- far away they may be, but he wasn't keen on being burnt. He also didn't want one of the rocks he was on to give way and discover it was hiding a tar pit or lava pool. This is what I get for following my instinct.

The tug in his gut grew stronger and he thought it was growing warmer, but it could've easily been the steam floating over from the lava pool a couple hundred feet away. The lava pool in the same direction that the tug was coming from. Great. Just fucking peachy.

Sliding down the side of the rock he was on, Keith made his way towards the lava pool, slowing slightly to make sure the ground ahead of him wasn't going to give out. Glancing up, he noticed something moving at the edge of the lava pool. It was red, but more of a ruby red instead of the angry amber-red of the lava. Whatever it was, it was getting closer to the pool edge, clearly interested in something. A pebble slipped off the edge and plopped into the lava. Keith felt a spike go down whatever was tugging his stomach, and slowly began to pick up his pace. 

Just as he got within a few feet of the red thing, the ground beneath it cracked. There was a distressed sound from the thing as it scrambled to back up, but it couldn't get a grip. Its eyes, large and the color of a fiery sunset locked with Keith's as it slid backwards.

A second before it hit the lava, Keith grabbed the thing's back pulling it away from the lava. He hissed in pain as the lava droplets that splashed up from the rock landed on his hands. Scurrying away from the pit a short distance, he dropped the thing and curled in pain over his hands. Shit, shit, shit.

Through his pain, he registered soft, squishy paws pulling on his forearms. He kneeled down and looked at the thing he rescued. A red lion cub.

It gave a distressed noise and gently began licking the burn spots on his hands. A fiery jolt ran through his mind and he heard a voice purr. Thank you for saving me. My name is Red. Who are you?

Keith, he thought. He stared at his hands as the burns faded as though they had already been there for a week. Not healed, but better. Thank you.

The lion cub balanced on his knees and licked the tears off his face. Thank you Keith. Now, let us get out of here.

-----*---*---*-----

White.

All he saw was white. 

Blinking, his vision cleared slightly, and he realized that everything seemed blurry because of the fluffy snow. That's right. He was on top of a mountain after two days of constant movement with limited food and water.

He shivered and felt his legs give out. Come on. There's an overhang just ahead. You can bunk out under that. With a groan, he dragged himself under the overhang and pulled his knees up to his chest.

Reaching into the pocket of his rags, he pulled out a small ration of food. Before he could eat, he noticed a small black shape pushing through the thick snow. As it got closer, he realized that it was a. . . lion cub?

But those went extinct. . .

But here was one in front of him. A black, female lion cub, looking as thin as he did. It sniffed the air and locked eyes with him. Shaking, he tore his ration in half and held out half in his hand. The lion cub came up and ate it tenderly from his hand. When he finished his half, the cub walked around him and leaned into his back. 

"What do you want me to do?" he snapped. The lion growled back at him, pushing again. With a huff, he got up and followed the lion out of the overhang. It led him around the bend, and he froze when he saw the sight before him.

The mountain sloped downwards, and sitting in a valley before him sat a huge white and blue castle.

A growl sounded inside his head.

My name is Black. And that is home.

He looked down at the lion. "My name is Shiro. Let's go home Black."

Chapter Text

"This place is huge!" Lance turned in a circle staring up to where the ceiling ended. "How long did it take to build it?"

"I'm sure that it says somewhere in the records. Of course, the library is one of the largest rooms so it might take a while to dig through everything," Coran said, dusting off a light fixture as they walked past. "Though I suppose we're going to have to do some digging if we're to find the original records of the lions and how to train their bond with their paladin."

"Why would we have to look at the original records?" Hunk looked up from where he was examining the futuristic light. "Couldn't we just, you know, ask the previous paladins?" 

"Well, about that. . ." Coran fiddled with his mustache nervously. "The previous paladins-"

"-Can't be contacted!" Allura cut him off. She stood a doorway to their right. "Come in here! You can meet your new companion."

Lance and Hunk followed Coran into a large sitting room. The center part was sunken down and lined with white and blue sofa cushions. Sitting on the cushions with a laptop was a short girl with cropped hair. She looked up and did a double take. "Hunk?"

Hunk almost dropped his lion in surprise. "Pidge? What are you doing here!"

There was a loud crash, and then a drone floated in with a small green lion cub on it. The cub jumped down beside Pidge and began pawing at her laptop screen. "This," Pidge said nudging the cub away, "Is what I'm doing here."

"How do you guys know each other?" Lance asked. He set Blue down to let her go say hi to the green lion. 

"Oh, remember when I was telling you about my online tech buddy?" Hunk said. 

"The one who cursed you out because you downloaded a virus to your computer while trying to buy seeds for your garden?" Lance raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. It turned out that we had a lot in common and she needed help building her drone, so we kept in touch and ended up being pretty good friends." He turned back to Pidge. "I didn't expect for you to be here though. Isn't this kinda far from your house? And wasn't your hair longer?"

Pidge shrugged. "Yeah, but I wasn't about to pass up a chance to see the Altean Castle. Plus Green kept bringing insects into my house and they were eating through the wires to all my tech. And yes, my hair was longer. I don't want to talk about it. Also, you never did tell me, why were you buying seeds from such a shady website?" 

"They were premium mint seeds! I'll have you know that they grew into a very nice plant that Yellow liked very much."

There was a loud beep from Coran's pocket from where he and Allura had been whispering off to the side. Pulling out a device, he skimmed through the alert. "Well, if we can trust you three to not destroy anything, Princess Allura and I have another visitor at the door."

"No promises Coran!" Pidge watched as Green jumped onto her drone- she'd modified Rover to better suit the lion- and activated the laser pointed, directing around and watching Blue chase it. Sucker.

The three of them watched the lions reconnect with each other. Blue and Yellow were good friends as were Yellow and Green. Blue and Green seemed to have a sibling like relationship shown by Green trying to shoot at Blue with the lasers and Blue trying to knock Green off the drone. It was about ten minutes before Coran and Allura walked back in with a third person. 

Lance shot to his feet. "Oh hell no! What is he doing here?" 

Keith crossed his arms glaring. "I could ask you the same question, but I have a feeling I wouldn't like the answer."

There was a loud laser blast, a shout from Pidge, and Blue skidded around to take refugee in front of Lance's legs. He bent down to pick her up. "I am here because I found Blue. What, did you get caught trying to break in?"

Keith raised an eyebrow. There was a streak of red and there was a lion cub, jumping to Keith's belt, pushing off from there, and then it was balancing on his shoulders. She gave a small growl at Blue, who in return, stuck out her tongue. Lance felt his jaw drop. "You have got to be shitting me right now. You found the red lion?"

"I take it you all know each other," Coran smiled. "It's always good to have paladins who have history."

"I don't think we have the type of history you want," Lance huffed, eyes following Keith as he went to sit beside Pidge. She looked up and broke into a grin. "Kogane."

"Holt."

"It's actually Gunderson now."

He raised an eyebrow. Pidge went back to her computer. "I got caught by Iverson again so I took up an alias to keep on the down-low. Not very keen on going to juvie again."

Hunk paused from where he was playing with Yellow. "You've been to juvie?"

"Yeah, it's where Keith and I met. Turns out our brothers were also partners in school so we hung out more."

"Ok, but why were you in juvie?"

Pidge shrugged. "Hacking into the school system to change my friend's grades."

Lance perked up. "You know how to do that?"

"Yeah. What do I get in return?"

"What do you want?"

"Fifty bucks per grade."

Lance turned towards Hunk. "You make friends with terrible people."

"Hey! That's a discount! I usually charge seventy five per grade, but I'm willing to make an exception since you're Hunk's friend." Pidge watched as Green dropped from her drone to greet Red. The two quickly began roughhousing with each other.

"Attention all!" They turned to face Allura who was standing in the doorway. She must have left a short time after Keith had come in. She looked a little flustered but cleared her throat and stepped to the side to let someone behind her in. "I'm happy to present our black paladin!"

Red instantly stopped playing with Green and began staring at Keith with a confused expression. Keith and Pidge both looked shocked. "Shiro?"

Shiro blinked in surprise. "Keith? Katie? What are you guys doing here?"

"They're the paladins of Red and Green respectively," Coran said at the same time that Lance asked, "Who's Katie?"

"Enough talking paladins! Allura and I have found some of the records on paladin training and feel it's best if we get started straight away!" Coran clapped his hands together. "First up is, well it's actually talking- but in a different way! Now if you'll follow me, let us head to the Connection Room!" 

They followed Coran and Allura through the twists and turns of the castle. Keith and Pidge talked with Shiro the whole way. Lance and Hunk peppered Coran with questions about the castle. The lions followed a short way behind all of them, for the most part staying out of trouble (there was only two broken light fixtures, and one damaged vent by the time they got to the Connection Room.)

The Connection Room itself was a large white room with gold accents. There was a wide blue circle in the middle of the floor where they all sat. The room was empty otherwise. 

"So what exactly is the point of this room?" Pidge asked looking around.

"It allows us to speak with all of you verbally instead of only with our bonded person mentally," a new voice said. They all whipped their heads around to look at Shiro, who was looking down at Black. She kept speaking. "It makes planning easier when we can all speak."

"Black is right," Allura said from where she was standing. "And planning is what we need to do." 

"Planning for what?" Hunk asked nervously.

"Defeating Zarkon of course."

"The leader of the Galran Empire?" Hunk shook his head. "No, no, no."

"What do you mean no?" Allura asked mystified. "You brought us the lions!"

"Exactly! Why do you need us? Don't get me wrong, I'd love to stay with Yellow, she's amazing, but I didn't sign up for a war. Zarkon is literally invincible and all of his people are savage. I'm not trying to die today!"

Coran placed his hand on Hunk's shoulder. "Don't worry Hunk! You wouldn't die today. Most likely tomorrow or the day after, but not today nonetheless!"

Yellow lifted her head. "Not helping Coran." 

Allura began to dig through her pocket. She pulled out a small orb and tossed it into the center of the room. It expanded into a 3D hologram of their planet, Voltron. "Look, I understand that you might not want to fight against the Galran Empire, but you don't have a choice. Not only have the lions chosen you five as their paladins, but the time was bound to come." The hologram began to change colors. A small purple blob took up part of a continent. "This is the land that the Galran Empire ruled ten years ago." The purple spread, covering just over half of the planet, land and sea alike. "This is the land that the Galran has taken up in the past ten years. Should they keep this up, the entire world will be under their tyrannical rule in a few years. That is not something that any of us want. But with the lions, you can become the Defenders of Voltron, and begin to free the world from the Galran's control!" 

"So let me get this straight," Pidge said. "You want four teens, three of which are untrained-" 

"Three?" Lance asked. 

"Keith got sent to juvie for dropkicking someone three times his size off a third story balcony. It may not be official training, but it's something," Pidge pointed out before continuing. "And one adult who disappeared two years ago, to fight an empire with five lion cubs."

"We'll grow over time. Now that you've been bonded, we'll start growing to match our actual ages at a rapid pace," Blue said from beside Lance.

Allura glared down at them. "Listen to yourselves! You're all a bunch of cowards!"

"Sorry that I don't feel like dying!" Lance shot back.

"You don't feel like dying?" Allura demanded. "What about all the innocent enslaved by Zarkon? All the people dying at this moment as test experiments, or slaves? You'll leave them to suffer because you're scared! If they're willing to fight, then you should be too! I hate to break it to you, but if Zarkon takes control of the planet, you'll be dead anyways! You may as well die fighting to try to do something good instead of sitting on your lazy butts crying about how poor of a condition the world is in without lifting a finger to help!"

A heavy silence hung in the air after Allura rant. It was broken by a resounding "well, fuck" from Green.

"Pidge!" Hunk groaned.

"What?"

"Why'd you teach your lion how to curse?"

"Hey, stop it right there," Pidge pointed her finger at Hunk. "I didn't teach her that! I may have taught her how to use shit, damn, and about three variations of ass, but that one she learned on her own!"

"Three variations of ass?" Lance asked. "How do you know so many?"

"That's what you're focusing on!" Hunk rubbed his face with his hands. "I'm done."

"I taught her ass, asshole, and asshat. The basics." Pidge crossed her arms proudly. "Oh yeah! She made one up too!"

"Assbrain," Green said proudly.

Blue swiped at her head. "Watch your mouth. You're too young to be saying those things!"

Green ducked the blow and jumped back. "Look here fuck!"

"Actually you'd probably want to use 'fucker' in this case," Pidge chimed in.

"Thank you. Look here fucker!"

"Pidge!" Shiro glared at her.

"What! I'm making sure she's using proper grammar!"

Allura clapped her hands loudly. "Enough! Did none of you listen to what I just said?"

"We'll stand beside you princess," Shiro said cutting off the others. "I've been the Galran's prisoner for the past two years, and I refuse to let anyone else suffer that fate if I have the ability to stop it. I think the others all agree with me when I say that." Everyone nodded, a few more reluctant than others.

"Wonderful." Allura smiled at Shiro. "In that case, we have business to attend to! But first- Coran!"

"Yes princess?"

"What does fuck mean?"

"It translates to 'quiznak' in our language."

Allura gasped. "Such words are unfit for a lion to utter. I'm more curious about how you learned those words Pidge?"

"Don't we have business to attend to?" Black's deep voice cut through the chatter.

"Indeed we do Black. I believe it's time for us to start paladin training!" Coran rubbed his hands together. "And since we don't exactly have time to spare, we'll have to start at a much higher level than usual."

"We don't want to kill them Coran," Blue warned.

"Speak for yourself," Red yawned. "There are a few here who I wouldn't mind offing."

"Red," Black growled. "Watch it."

Red rolled her eyes. "Yes, mom." She got up and Keith followed her. "So are we training or what?"

-----*---*---*-----

Chapter Text

"The bayard is the weapon of the paladin. We made it with the help of the Olkari and a very rare substance that they found. It is very powerful and dangerous, and will take skill to learn how to use." Coran said.

"Are you sure about that?" Lance glanced dubiously at his bayard. "Because it just looks like a bracelet to me."

"Yeah, this doesn't really look very effective," Hunk squinted at his. Lance wasn't wrong when he said it looked like a bracelet. A white, circular, band of metal, with a different colored stone for each paladin in the center, the bayard looked more like an accessory than a lethal weapon. "Are we supposed to like, beat people to death with the bracelet?"

"If you let me finish my explanation, it'll make sense." Coran huffed. "Each paladin will get a bayard, respective of their lion. The bayard will morph into a different weapon for each paladin depending on how they fight. To activate it, swipe downwards on the stone. The more you use it, the easier it becomes to access up to the point that you'll be able to summon your weapon with just your mind."

As each paladin swiped down on their bayard stone, Coran made his way to stand beside Shiro. "Apologies that we don't have the black bayard. The previous paladin took it with him."

Shiro gave a wry smile. "I think I can manage with this." He lifted his right arm and his hand began to glow purple. "Galra prosthetic. I may have lost my arm to them, but I can at least use their tech against them."

Coran started to inspect Shiro's hand from all angles. "Absolutely fascinating!"

"Dude check this out!" 

Coran and Shiro both turned to see what Lance was shouting about. His bayard had formed a blue long range rifle. Hunk's bayard had shifted into a yellow mix of a grenade launcher and a machine gun, and it was taking both of his hands to keep it off the ground. Keith was sporting a red double sided sword, and Pidge had a green futuristic looking handheld weapon. Lance pointed his gun at Pidge's weapon. "What is that supposed to be?"

Hit him with it, Green said in her head. I wanna see what happens. 

Pidge shrugged. "Ok." 

Before Lance could finish asking, "ok, what?" she had flicked out her bayard letting the pointed end wrap around his ankle and send a shock through his leg. "OW!"

Hahaha. Ah, that was funny.

Pidge grinned and winked at her lion. 

"Ah! Before I forget, we also have armor for you, and a shield bayard." Coran scanned his hand over a panel in the wall and let the room open up to show five suits of sleek, formfitting armor. "The armor is also a gift from the Olkari. It's meant to be lightweight but protective so you can move easily in the bulk of battle but still be well protected. The shield bayards are built into the armor. They, like the bayards, form a shield when prompted. Well, go on and suit up!" he said when none of the paladins had moved. 

"It's just that," Hunk started, "putting on the armor makes it so much more real. I don't know if I'm ready for that."

"In case Princess Allura didn't make it clear, you don't really have a choice, so you may as well put on the armor now so that you have more time to train so that you're less likely to die while fighting!" 

Hunk sighed and trudged over to where the yellow paladin armor lay. White with gold-yellow accents, it was like climbing into a full bodysuit. He felt it adjust to cover his stomach and adjust to his height. Smart armor. Pretty cool.

Isn't it, Yellow thought back. They once tried to make armor for us, but it didn't go so well. Since we don't always stay the same body size, the armor they tried to make didn't fit after one or two battles, and the Olkari didn't have any more of the substance they found to make armor for us.

Isn't it dangerous out there for you though?

We all have rapid healing and increased durability to wounds. Factors that'll be shared with you once our bond gets stronger.

So let me get this straight- you're pretty much invincible and the closer we get, the stronger I get?

Yep!

That's awesome! Hey, if we have time, do you want to have a movie night tonight?

Can I help you make popcorn?

"Definitely," he said aloud. He picked up his helmet and pushed aside the darkened sliding door that had given him privacy to change. The others were all dressed in their armor, but Pidge was waiting for her helmet to adjust to it's proper size. "How big was the person before me? This helmet covers my entire face!"

"The previous green paladin was quite small actually- I believe that your helmet is only that large because the last head it was on was Yellow's," Coran said stroking his mustache.

"Why was my helmet on Yellow's head?" Pidge asked as her helmet changed to fit her head.

"I believe the previous paladins were trying to see how large the helmets could get," Coran chuckled. "They were quite the mischievous bunch."

Keith narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean were?" 

"I simply mean that they're not the paladins anymore," Coran said a bit too quickly for Keith's preference. "Now that you have your armor, should we get going? You aren't going to train yourselves by standing around here!" 

-----*---*---*-----

Lance ducked the laser blast. "I thought you said you weren't going to kill us!"

"We aren't trying to kill you! We're training you!" Coran shouted cheerfully from behind the window above them. "Keep moving now!"

"You and I must have very different definitions of the word 'training'!" Lance shouted back.

Allura walked up beside Coran. "So. How's it going?"

Coran stroked his mustache. "Well they're all still alive. Whether or not they'll stay that way when going against Zarkon with technique like this, that's debatable."

"What do you mean 'technique like this'? They can't be that bad can they?" 

Coran pulled up the reports from the training simulations that the new paladins had been going through for the past few hours. "Well they can't fight as a team, or trust each other despite knowing each other. The only ones who can somewhat hold their own in a fight is Mr. Keith and Mr. Shiro, but even then the bot was at too high a level for them."

"And the lions can't help them until they've grown out of their cub state," Allura finished looking over to where the cubs sat in a line against the wall. Shouts brought her attention back to the paladins where Keith and Lance were facing off. Coran followed her gaze. "And that's the fourth time that that's happened."

Allura sighed. "I suppose we should go talk to them."

When the two Alteans reached the paladins, Keith and Lance were still arguing. "I'll stick you in a wormhole!"

"Cool it you two!" Shiro snapped, stepping between them. "I know you're both tired and frustrated, but taking it out on each other isn't going to help us." 

"Maybe what you need is a good meal and a good night's sleep," Coran suggested. "You've all been working very hard today."

"But-" Allura started before a nudge from Coran had her looking at the paladins. Pidge and Hunk were both on the floor, Pidge leaning against the wall and Hunk almost passed out on his back. Lance was glaring at Keith over Shiro's shoulder with his arms crossed, but Allura could see that the boy was tired. Shiro was still standing between Keith and Lance, looking at her for directions. Allura glanced away quickly, feeling her face heat up a bit. She sighed.

"Coran is right," she started. "While I'd love to have you train more, pushing you while you're tired will only make your results worse. Besides, you can't even practice with your lions yet. If you follow us, we'll show you your rooms so you can change and then come to the kitchen for some food."

-----*---*---*-----

Once all the paladins had changed, and met in the kitchen Allura made her way to Coran. "I know I said no more training, but they have to learn how to work as a team." 

"Fear not princess! I was thinking the exact same thing." He held up a small remote between them with a proud smile. "Ah, paladins! Before you begin to eat, could everyone please place their hands down on the armrests? It's an, ah- an Altean tradition!"

"Sure thing Coran," Shiro said, placing his hands down. "After all, we are in your castle." The others followed Shiro's example. When all of their hands were down, Coran pressed a button on his remote. Blue and white handcuffs appeared around each paladins' wrist and connected to each other. "Haha! Success! Now, before you ask what's going on, allow me to explain!" Coran set the remote down and picked up an Altean fruit. "You all have trust issues, so the princess and I figured that you could build it by feeding each other!" 

"I thought you said no more training," Lance groaned.

"This isn't training! It's a game!" 

"It is not a game when it interferes with my food," Hunk huffed.

Before Coran could respond, Allura had grabbed the fruit out of his hand and chucked it upwards. There was a loud series of beeps from where the fruit had hit Green and her drone. The lion cub fell onto Yellow who was trying to get to the remote as well. "Nice try, attempting to use your lions to reach the re-GAH!" Allura put a hand to her head where green food goo was sitting in her white hair. She glared at Keith and Pidge who had a bowl of food goo and a spoon held between the two of them.

"Keith! Pidge!" Shiro groaned. "What are you doing?"

He never got an answer. Coran had grabbed his own spoon and was flinging a pink tinted paste at Keith's head. Keith ducked, but dragged Lance- who was sitting to his left- along with him, causing the blue paladin to get hit. From then on, a full on food fight ensued. Even the lions got in, taking hits to protect the paladins or ambushing Allura and Coran from behind. 

When all the food was gone, Allura threw back her head laughing. "You're finally working as a team!"

The paladins looked at each other and began laughing too. Everyone was covered in multicolored goo and paste. The lions were shaking food out of their ears and whiskers, and licking some off the walls. Coran picked up his remote and uncuffed the paladins. "Allow me to go and get some more food."

Once Coran had brought out the extra meal he had prepared, the paladins sat down and ate, happily enjoying the Altean cuisine. Allura left to go clean out her hair. When she went to wipe down the walls, she had to insist to Shiro that she did it herself. After they had all left to go to their rooms for the night, Allura sat down beside Coran. "There may be hope for them after all Coran."

----*---*---*-----

"Are you sure you don't want to come watch movies with us?" Lance looked down at Pidge. "Hunk and Yellow are making popcorn!" 

"How do you even have the energy?" She grumbled. "Look, you two have fun, but I'm going to get some sleep."

"And by sleep you mean trying to hack into one of the Altean practice drones so you can download and look at their code?" Lance asked with a raised eyebrow. "Oh yeah. Hunk told me all about your little tricks." 

"Whatever Lance. Tell Hunk I said goodnight." She let the door slide shut. Lance sighed. "C'mon Blue. Let's go see if Yellow and Hunk are done with the popcorn." 

They found the pair in Hunk's room with a bowl of what looked like pink marshmallows. "So they didn't have anything in English, but through deductive reasoning and some help from Yellow, I found the closest thing to popcorn."

"Wait a second," Lance said, picking up one of the marshmallows. "If all the ingredients are in Altean, are they going to have any movies in English?" 

No, probably not. Alteans didn't get many visitors from Terraria, so there wasn't much of a point in having things in any of your languages, Blue stated. Hunk shook his head. "Yellow just told me no." 

"Blue said the same. Guess we can do that thing where we make up words for what we think they're saying." 

They made it through half a movie before they got too tired to keep going. Blue and Lance said goodnight and left for their own room. Lance changed into his robe put on his nightly facemask while in the bathroom. When he came out, Blue was digging under his bed. "What're you looking for girl?"

She wiggled back with a pair of blue lion slippers in her mouth. These. Try them on!

Lance slid on the slippers and lay down on the bed. Blue flopped down on his chest and looked at him. Are you ok?

"Yeah, this is all just so," he waved his hand around, looking for the word.

Different?

"Exactly."

It's hard for everyone. You just have to keep pushing. I know you're strong enough to do this- otherwise I wouldn't have picked you!

"Good point." He smiled. "Night Blue." 

Night Lancey-Lance.

-----*---*---*-----

When he woke up that morning, Lance couldn't breathe.

Groggily moving his arm, he pulled off his night mask to look at what was crushing his chest. All he saw was blue. "Hey Blue, where are you?" 

The large blob of blue he saw in front of him shifted around until a pair of familiar sapphire eyes were staring down at him. What do you mean?

"Blue."

Yes?

"I can't breathe." 

Oops. She rolled off his chest and lay beside him. Lance took in the view.

Overnight Blue had gone from being a lion cub to being a full grown lioness. Her fur was a richer shade of blue and thicker now. Not only was she heavier, but she was a lot larger. Stretched out with her front paws by his head, her back paws touched just below his knees. Her tail lay across his ankles. When she yawned, her claws extended, looking a lot sharper than normal cat claws.

Blue looked at him. Why are you so confused?

"When you said you grew quickly, I didn't imagine you meant this fast!"

Surprise. Should we go see the others?

"Have their lions grown as well?"

Probably. Though I doubt Green will look very different. She's always been tiny.

"Like paladin like lion I guess. Let's go see the others."

-----*---*---*-----

A bit of a filler chapter, but now the lions have grown! Next chapter will probably be based off of 'Return of the Gladiator' and 'Fall of the Castle of Lions' or episodes 3 and 4 from Season 1. Hope you liked the chapter! Vote and Comment! <3 <3

Chapter Text

"Come on paladins! You need to learn to work with your lions!" Coran slid the dial to the training simulator up. "The Galra will have no mercy for you!"

"Though we could probably take them out while they're laughing at how badly these paladins fight," Allura huffed crossing her arms. "Honestly, it's like they've never had a class on how to fight before!" 

"We haven't!" Hunk shouted, ducking a blow from one of the bots. 

"Well you're getting a lesson now. And uh, you're all failing," Coran said before shutting off the speaker. "Should we maybe do tests where it's only the paladin and their lion?" 

"Good idea Coran! They need to learn to fight alongside their lions before anything else. I just hope it helps."

"Oh, don't be so worrisome princess! Just give them some time to adjust. You have to remember, the lions are very experienced and will no doubt help the paladins learn to fight."

"You're right Coran." She looked down into the arena. "We should probably stop the simulation before we don't have any paladins left to train." 

-----*---*---*-----

Hunk groaned in relief as Coran passed out water packs. "Thank you!" 

There was a pitiful meow from Yellow. Hunk leaned over and let some of his water dribble into his lion's mouth. She'd grown ridiculously and was the second largest lion apart from Black. Her thick, sunset golden fur was damp with sweat, and she purred as she stretched out over the cool metal of the floor. 

"Attention paladins! We're going to start a new training simulation," Allura paused. "After you finish your break. You'll be fighting bots alongside your lion independently. This exercise is meant to teach you to deepen your bond with your lion, and learn to watch each other's backs. You should trust no one more than your lion. Now, who would like to go first?"

"I'll give it a try," Shiro said. He and Black stood up and made their way out into the arena. Allura started the simulation, and three bots dropped from the ceiling. 

Shiro was out after two minutes when the bots tagged teamed him and a third held Black back.

Hunk went next saying he'd like to get it over with, and didn't last long either- he and Yellow were both too tired to do much, though Yellow did have a good time sitting on a bot.

Green and Pidge lasted the shortest time. One of the bots had picked up Green from her scruff and held her at arms length. Like Blue had predicted, Green was still the smallest lion, and couldn't do much about it.

Blue and Lance held out for almost the same amount of time as Shiro until communication went wrong and the went the same direction instead of opposite ways. 

"Alright Keith. It's your turn." Allura looked over to the red paladin where he and his lion had been sitting quietly. The two got up and made their way to the center of the floor. 

"How long do you think they'll last?" Lance whispered to Blue, rubbing his shoulder.

If Keith is good at taking orders and quick to respond? Probably a while. Red's the best out of all of us in combat as long as she keeps her head cool.

"Keith taking orders- they won't last long."

Three bots dropped from the ceiling in a circle around Red and Keith. Keith tapped his bayard and stood back to back with Red. The bots lunged and the fight started. 

For the most part, the two held out fine. Staying close, they kept each other's backs safe. Though the others couldn't hear what they were saying, it was clear that there was a lot of communication passing between their minds.

Keith was currently blade to blade with a bot, each pushing with as much force as possible, and ending at a standstill. Red was pulling at the arm of another bot off to the side when she saw the third bot- knocked out a second ago- coming up behind Keith. Hold your bot steady! 

Keith pressed back against the bot. Hurry up. I can't hold it much longer.

Red took a running start, launched herself off the back of the bot Keith was fighting and landed on the shoulders of the bot behind him. Her weight knocked it off balance and it lost its weapon as it fell. Placing one paw on its head, and another on its shoulder, she began tearing at the wires in its neck with her teeth. 

Smart move, Keith thought. Taking a risk, he lifted a foot quickly and kicked the bot from beneath their blades. It sent the bot stumbling back, but it was still able to block his next move. A quick glance around for any options revealed that the third bot was no longer laying on the ground. Looking over his shoulder, he saw that it was going for Red. 

He acted off instinct. Ducking a blow from the bot he was fighting, he shoved his blade at the bot's shoulder, leaving it there when it fell to the ground. Spinning around, Keith focused on the bot headed for Red. He grabbed the bot's upper arm, kicked out one of its legs so it was kneeling, and pressed his left hand against its back. 

For a split second all he saw was red and all he felt was a burning heat.

Blinking, the red faded from his vision. When he looked down, he saw that his left hand was on the other side of the bot's chest. Pulling back, he stared at the hand-shaped hole he'd burned in the bot. What the-

There was a sharp pain in the back of his head and he felt himself hit the ground. Grunting and looking up, Keith saw that the bot with his sword in its shoulder had just backhanded him. It powered off as Coran shut down the simulation.

Red made her way over to Keith, as did the other paladins and the Alteans. He sat up and rubbed the back of his head. "What exactly just happened?" 

"You got bitch slapped by a robot," Pidge said. 

Keith shot her a look. "I know that. I'm talking about the-" he waved a hand toward the burned robot. 

Allura was the one who answered his question. "You just unlocked one of the Red Lion's powers!"

"One of?" Pidge asked at the same time that Lance huffed, "I want fire powers!"

"Yes," Allura went on. "Each of the lions has special powers that are unlocked over time. I can't say for sure what they are for the other lions, but I know that Red has the ability to create and control flames, and not be burned."

"You can create flames too?" Keith looked over at Red. She brushed a flaming tail against his arm. 

"While this is great progress, it's more work on your part," Allura said. "You need to learn how to control the flames and not the other way around. They can be very dangerous to your enemies in battle, even more so to your allies if they get out of control. Red should be able to help you, but just in case, spend time practicing in here. The room is fire resistant and shouldn't burn."

"Shouldn't?" Hunk asked. "What do you mean by shouldn't?"

"Well the Red Lion's flames are incredibly hot, and if mastered, can reach a point that it'll burn through any material," Coran explained. 

"Including humans?"

"Especially humans! It's why the Red Paladins are given the gift of being fireproof. Now Keith will never burn no matter how high of a temperature you put him in."

"So if we dropped him in a volcano," Lance started. "He wouldn't burn?"

"Theoretically, no. While the previous paladins were going to attempt something along those lines, I was able to stop them before they made any reckless decisions. So no dropping anyone in volcanoes!" 

Lance huffed and crossed his arms. "Fine."

"Well you know what I say," Hunk started. "This calls for a feast!"

"You just want to cook with the weird plants here," Pidge said.

"That's true. But is anyone going to stop me?"

-----*---*---*-----

It'd had been a few days since Keith had discovered his fire powers, and they were still finishing off the leftovers of Hunk's feast. Lance and Blue were heading towards the pool that Coran had pointed them to on a map of the castle. On their way there, Lance peeked inside the training room and found Red showing Keith how to make throwing knives out of his fire. He moved on before they caught him staring- Keith didn't like it when people watched him train. Lance learned that the hard way when Keith almost burned his foot telling him to stop watching.

You wanna talk about it?

"I don't know what you're talking about." 

C'mon Lance. We share a mental bond remember? 

He shrugged. "What do you want to talk about?"

Your powers will come soon enough. We just need to find them. 

"You can't just tell me?"

I'd love to, but I don't remember them either. When we go an extended period of time without new paladins, we begin to lose memories of who we were before, including our abilities. Now that we all have you guys, it's like digging for something in the dark- you know it's there, you're just not able to see it.

"Well maybe a swim will help clear your mind. I've always loved the water- it's so calming and soothing," Lance shut his eyes as the door in front of him slid open. "I can almost hear the sound of the waves back home."

Uh, Lance.

He opened his eyes.

There was no water. 

A drip on his head had him looking up into a huge body of water.

On the ceiling.

"Oh come on! What am I supposed to do with that!"

There was a sudden roar of excitement from Blue. Lance look! 

He turned around and saw Blue standing on her back paws. Following her gaze up, he saw a spiral of water slowly making its way down. As it neared them, it wove its way between Blue's front paws and around her neck like a scarf. Then it hit him. "You have water powers!"

Blue flicked her tail and sent a splash of water into his face. WE. WE have water powers. You just need to learn to control them.

"How'd you remember?"

Feeling how you felt about water. Understanding what you weren't saying.

"I'm not getting it." Lance rubbed the water out of his eye. A sudden wave of feeling crashed into his brain.

It was the sound of the sand hissing in the wind, mixing with the rustling of the palm trees and the crying of the gulls. But mostly, it was the sound of water. From the crashing of the ocean waves, to the sound that ripples on a lake make, to the sound of the calmness from the bottom of a river. It was pure joy, but also a bit of sadness, a sweet taste of friendship. Lance blinked himself back to reality, and focused on the water above him.

A braid of water made its way down and settled into a bubble in his hand. He grinned. 

Blue gave a loud rawr of joy and fell backwards onto Lance. Before he hit the ground, a large bubble of water came down and scooped them both up. Between the two of them, they managed to keep themselves floating in the upside down pool. He made eye contact with Blue. 

Pretty awesome powers right?

The best, he thought back.

-----*---*---*-----

Plants.

"Yes Green, those are plants. Very observant. Now how do you suggest that we get past the plants to the machine we want? I came all this way and I'm not turning back now. Even if I do hate the outdoors." Pidge put her hands on her hips.

No, I mean you can control plants.

"I don't think that's the way it works, but I suppose if I rewired Rover, I could-"

NO. You can control plants. Like, as your power.

"Really?"

Yeah! I just remembered. My previous paladin loved going on hikes through the forest, and we found her power when she almost fell off a cliff and had to use vines to form a bridge.

"Ok, about that. It sounds like your previous paladin loved nature. I don't. I can't stand plants, and I've already burned twice over. How do you propose that we solve that problem?"

First off, stop complaining. You know how to work machines, nature is similar. You must have a deep connection with nature. And before you say "not really" remember that you have a connection with me, and I'm connected to nature. Think of it this way. You, me, the others. We're all made of the same essence. 

Pidge closed her eyes and exhaled, focusing on the bond between her and Green. Keeping her eyes closed, she lifted a fist and slowly opened her fingers. There was a shifting noise, and then a purr from Green. Good.

She opened her eyes. All the vines and plants that had previously been covering the machine she was looking for had peeled back and folded away. Pidge and Green made their way towards the machine. What do you think it is?

"Looks like some kind of tracker," Pidge waved her hand and the branches in front of her curved to make an archway. "I wonder what for though."

Let's find out.

It took a few hours to get the tracker up and running. When they did, bright green lines glowed along the dark brown of the wood-like metal. Olkari then.

Pidge looked at the screen on the tracker. A green X marked where they were standing as did a white dot. Pidge zoomed in to try to get a better look at the white dot. "Do you think it points to some sort of plant?"

Green looked at the screen. I have no idea. You're the tech girl here.

Pidge walked around a little to see if she could find what the tracker was pointing to. Glancing back, she saw that the white dot had moved a little as well. A sudden thought came to her mind. She unhooked her bayard from her wrist and tossed it a short distance away.

The dot on the screen moved. Green tipped her head. It's tracking your bayard?

"I think it's tracking the metal that made the bayard," Pidge picked up her bayard and zoomed out on the screen. More white dots appeared in clusters all over the map. "Do you know what this means?"

We can build armor for all the lions.

-----*---*---*-----

"Hey Yellow, I've been thinking," Hunk said while placing down the pot he was carrying. "You know that day when we first met and you helped me with gardening?"

Yeah. Those were some good oranges.

"Agreed. But I can't help but remember that it seemed like the earth just. . .  I don't know, moved for you."

You think that our power is controlling earth?

"Well, you know, it could be. I mean, it'd go with the theme."

Keith and Red are both hotheaded and fiery-

"Lance and Blue are calm and playful-"

Pidge and Green-

"Ok, so they don't really follow the theme."

They like complex things?

"Yeah! There we go. But you and I, we're both down to earth. We enjoy being able to get our hands- or paws- dirty."

We also seem to be the voice of reason when it comes to asking questions.

"That's true." Hunk shivered. "Honestly, Lance challenging Keith to a water versus fire battle was just not a good idea."

Well let's try it out. Try to move that rock over there.

"That's kinda a big rock though. . . and why that one?"

Because we need a place to plant the apple tree. Beside, that rock is no bigger than Green and I promise you that as long as she's sleeping, you'd have no problem moving her.

"Fair point. Ok, but you have to help me."

Deal.

"Here goes nothing." Hunk set his attention to the rock and imagined it rolling off to the side. He felt Yellow doing the same thing. Slowly, the rock made its way out of the spot for the apple tree. When it was fully out of the way, Hunk let his focus drop. "We did it!"

Only now it's in the spot where we were going to plant the basil.

Hunk groaned and lowered his head. "I don't know whether to be excited that we moved a rock with our minds, or sad because now we can't place basil."

How about happy because us finding our powers totally calls for another feast?

-----*---*---*-----

And feast they did. After the meal, Shiro left to go train, and Allura left with Coran to go and run tests on the castle. Pidge stayed to help Hunk do dishes while Keith and Lance talked outside in the dining room.

"Are we sure it's a good idea to leave them alone out there?" Pidge asked, passing Hunk a plate.

"No, but if something gets set on fire or drowned, we can say it's not our fault because we weren't in the room."

"Good point."

A faint roar echoed down the hallway. Lance poked his head in the kitchen. "Did you guys hear that?"

"Yeah, what was it?" Hunk asked setting down the plate he was drying.

"It sounded like it came from the training room."

The eight of them jogged down to the training room and found Black sitting in the middle of the floor. She tipped her head upwards when they walked in.

Sitting on the ledge that held the light fixtures was a very confused looking Shiro.

They all stared dumbfounded for a minute until Pidge made a megaphone out of her hands. "How the hell did you get up there!" she shouted.

"I have no idea!" Shiro called back. "I jumped to avoid a bot and landed up here. It was like I flew." He went quiet for a moment. "Black says that it's because her power is controlling air. I must have floated myself up here."

"Well can you get down?" Keith asked. 

"I don't know. Let me try," Shiro said. Stepping off the ledge, he slowly floated down. There was a faint swirl of white around him. When he landed on the ground, he gave a small laugh. "Glad I'm not afraid of heights." 

-----*---*---*-----

"I'm just saying," Lance held up his hands. "A team sleepover is not a bad idea." 

"Debatable," Shiro said. He ran his hand through Black's fur. "You and Keith can't go more than twenty minutes without killing each other on a good day. Now you guys have powers too." 

"We're not that destructive!" 

"You almost destroyed the entire garden," Hunk pointed out. 

"That was Keith's fault!"

"How was it my fault?" Keith glared at Lance. "You're the one who started it." 

"Well if you learned to watch your temper, then maybe I wouldn't have had to start it!"

"That doesn't even make sense!"

"You don't make sense!"

Red gave a soft growl from where she was laying half-asleep in Keith's lap. He scowled, but bit back whatever reply he was about to spit back. Lance crossed his arms behind his head and leaned back. "Look. Even Red agrees with me." 

The red lion flicked her tail and sent a mini-fireball in Blue's direction. Blue gave a yowl and leaped back, glaring indignantly at Red. A second later, a small wave of water hit the sleeping red lion in the face and soaked Keith's lap. "Lance!"

"Hey, that wasn't me this time!" 

Red gave a snarl and hopped off the sofa to stand in front of Blue, who snarled back. Before anything could get any worse, a low growl from Black stopped the two in their tracks. Shiro raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, maybe a sleepover isn't the best idea." 

Hunk looked around. "Has anyone seen Pidge?" 

They all shook their heads before Yellow pawed at Hunk's leg. "She says that she saw her and Green leave a while ago from their room looking like they were going for a hike." 

There was a slight crackle from the overhead speakers. "Paladins, please report to the main room. We need to talk." 

They all made their way over to the main control room. Once there, they found Allura, and Coran standing in front of Pidge, Green, and a short foreign looking person. Allura turned when they all entered. "Good, you're all here. Pidge has some. . .  disturbing news." 

"How disturbing?" Lance asked. "Like, there's a spider in the room disturbing or-" 

"There's a giant Galran monster coming to kill us disturbing," Pidge cut him off. "It's almost here too. The Arusians were in a temporary refugee camp while travelling to a safer land since their homeland was taken over by the Galra. The monster destroyed the camp and injured lots of innocents."

"We're going to let the Arusians stay in the castle for the night before they leave to continue their journey," Allura said. "In the meantime, I hope you all are ready. This monster won't stop until it finishes its goal or is stopped. I suggest you suit up." 

"One quick question though," Hunk said raising his hand. "What exactly were you doing out in an Arusian refugee camp Pidge?" 

She looked down at Green. "Should we tell them?" 

The lion shrugged. Pidge dug around in her backpack before handing something to Coran, talking while she moved. "Green and I found some sort of Olkari tracker in the woods. We got it up and running and found out that it tracked-"

"The same metal that your paladin suits and bayards are made of! Fascinating!" Coran turned the piece of metal that Pidge had given him over, inspecting it. "In perfect condition too." 

"I have a lot more of it back in my room," Pidge said. "I was thinking that if we could gather enough-" 

"We'd be able to make suits for the lions!" Hunk finished. 

Pidge clenched her backpack straps. "Will you guys stop finishing my-" 

"Sandwiches?" Lance asked, pointing finger guns in her direction.

"If you wake up strangled with vines, don't you dare say that I didn't warn you. You know I hate Frozen." 

"Focus paladins," Shiro gave them both a look. "How much more metal do you think you'll need to make the suits Coran?" 

"Ah, it depends on how much Pidge already has. I suppose that even if I do have enough, it'll still take me a while to build it. You won't have it ready by the time that you have to fight the monster." 

"Speaking of," Allura interrupted. "Are we just going to wait for it to get here and kill us, or are you going to go and fight it!"

They all stood still for a moment, until Keith said, "Go fight it I guess." 

Allura pinched the bridge of her nose. "Yes. Go fight it. Now!"

The paladins left to go get suited up and met back together outside the castle. Allura was waiting for them with bands that looked like their bayard bands. "These will create hoverbikes for you to use to travel long distances. They can change form too, but that's a lesson for another time. The connect to the boot of your armor. Tap it when you need your bike." 

They each took a band and hooked it onto their boots before spreading out and activating the bikes. Five identical hoverbikes appeared. Keith gave a small grin as he climbed onto his. Red jumped on behind him. I trust you won't kill us.

Please, he thought back. I had one of these before. I stole it from my old school after I got expelled. 

You are definitely telling me that story later tonight.

Lance looked up from where he was sitting on his bike. "Are you sure these are safe?" 

"And do they come with an instruction manual?" Hunk looked nervously at the buttons on his bike. "Because I don't exactly know how to make this thing work." 

Pidge stood beside hers for a moment before turning around. "Nope. Not trying this. Move Kogane, I'm riding with you." 

"What?" Lance narrowed his eyes at her. "You're riding with hothead over there?" 

"First of all, my feet can't even reach the pedals. Second of all, Keith's driven a hoverbike before. I trust him." Pidge climbed up behind Keith and Green joined Red in the back. "I should've taken you up on those lessons."

"Watching conspiracy theories was fun though," he said back before revving the engine. "So are we going or what?" 

After Hunk and Yellow switched to sit with Lance and Blue, they set off. With Pidge's directions, it didn't take them long to reach what was left of the Arusian camp. Standing in the center was a large monster with thick purple armor. In his hand was some form of torch with an orb in the carrier instead of fire. At the moment the monster was kicking at a cart that was holding Arusian supplies. He turned his head when he heard the hoverbikes approaching. 

"Uh, Shiro?" Hunk looked over Lance's shoulder. "What exactly do we do?"

Shiro was staring at the monster with a pale face. Black gave a concerned rumble and nudged his shoulder until he blinked and shook his head. "I remember this monster. I fought him when I was a Galra captive."

"What do you mean you fought him?" Lance asked. 

"Guys look out!" Keith jerked his hoverbike to the side to avoid the orb that the monster had shot at them. Hopping off, he tapped his boot to recall the bike. "Looks like we're going to have to talk and fight at the same time." 

"His name is Myzax," Shiro called out. "I used to fight as a gladiator in a Galra arena." 

"Do you remember how to beat this guy?"

"Well he was a lot smaller last time!" Shiro covered his head as dust rained over him.

"Improvise!" Pidge shouted ducking behind a broken wall. "We don't exactly have time to sit and chit chat!" 

"I was in a team last time," Shiro started. "It was me, some foreigner, and my exploration partner, Matt."

Pidge froze. "My brother?"

"Pidge look out!" Hunk pointed to where Myzax was throwing his orb in her direction. Green leaped in front of Pidge and a thick weave of tree branches, vines, and other plants made a cover between them and the monster. This won't hold forever Pidge. Move! 

"We tag-teamed him!" Shiro continued, dodging another blow from the orb. "One person distracted him by drawing his attention with the orb, and then another attacked from behind while he was distracted. When he turned to attack that person, the third person would come from the other side and hit him. We kept going like that until we broke his weapon."

"I don't know if this'll help or not," Hunk said over the mic. "But I've been counting his attacks, and every three times, he waits before attacking again. It's like it needs to recharge or something." 

"Hunk you beautiful genius!" Lance watched Myzax. "You're right! So how do we want to do this?"

"Keith, you and Red are the fastest out of us all. You keep Myzax distracted. Pidge, Green, Lance, and Blue, you attack Myzax from behind while he's focused on Keith. When he turns, Hunk and I will take him out."

You ready girl? 

Let's do this, Red growled back.

"Here goes nothing," Keith flicked his bayard out and darted out from hiding. "Hey ugly!" 

Myzax turned around and focused on Keith at the same moment that a fireball hit him in one of his eyes. He gave a furious roar. His orb flew towards Keith. Keith jumped off to the side and rolled into a kneeling position. Red jumped off his back, bounced off a crumbling wall, and slashed a flaming paw over Myzax's face. The Galran monster screeched in pain and recalled his orb, sending it towards Red this time. Keith stepped in and cut his bayard over Myzax's arm. Keith duck!

He dropped to the ground as the orb flew back over his head. We need him to try to attack us one more time, Red huffed. 

I don't know how much longer we can keep dodging attacks.

Red body slammed him out of the way as Myzax launched another attack. When the orb landed back in the cradle, he held it up to let it recharge. Before he could actually do anything, vines shot out from behind him and dragged his weapon arm back. More coiled around his neck. Blue lasers peppered the back of his head. 

With a loud grunt, Myzax broke free of the vines and turned towards Pidge, Lance, and their lions. He pulled his arm back to fire. GUYS!!!! Blue shouted. 

A huge boulder crashed into the back of Myzax's head and sent him reeling. Hunk and Yellow lifted another boulder for Shiro and Black to blow towards him. This one landed on his back and a crackle of purple lightning started to form. "Guys hit him again!" Pidge looked closer at his armor. "I think if we hit him enough times in the back, we can damage his system and cause him to blow!"

"Hunk, can you find something sharp?" Shiro suggested. 

Let's try that one, Yellow nodded towards a medium sized, yet sharp, piece of stone that had broken away from a structure. Hunk nodded. Let's do this!

"Pidge hold him still!" Lance shouted dodging a blow. Green and Pidge lashed out with their vines and tied Myzax's legs together. "I can't hold him forever!" 

Yellow and Hunk lifted the stone and aimed it for Shiro and Black. While they shot it towards the struggling Myzax, Keith and Red jumped back in the fight, coating the tip of the shard with white hot fire. Myzax lurched forward and fell to his knees. A high pitched whine started to form. "Everyone down!" Pidge called over the com. 

Everyone ducked behind something as the Galran fighter exploded. 

When the smoke faded, there was nothing left of the monster expect a pile of ash. 

"Alright!" Lance pumped his fists. "We did it!"

"Not too bad you guys," Shiro smiled.

"Not too bad?" Hunk shook Shiro's shoulders. "We just totally blew up an enemy monster in our first battle! That's awesome!"

"Alright, alright," Shiro lifted his hands. "Settle down paladins. Let's get back to the castle and we can celebrate there." 

-----*---*---*-----

And celebrate they did. 

Allura opened the castle to the Arusian refugees and Hunk and Coran got to cooking in the kitchen. The paladins mingled with their guests and joked around.

"I think we should have some sort of team cheer," Lance said swirling his cup. "How about, I say 'Vol' and you say 'Tron'. Vol!"

"Uh. . . Voltron?" Keith raised an eyebrow.

"No. No, no, no. You gotta follow the instructions. I say 'Vol' and you say 'Tron'. Vol-"

". . . Voltron?" 

"You know what, we'll work on it," Lance sighed and took a deep drink from his cup. A second later, his eyes went wide and he spat whatever was in his mouth back into his cup. Keith snickered.

"What's this?" Pidge asked mischievously, coming up behind the others. "Is the brooding, emo, Kogane. . . laughing?" 

"Shut up," Keith shoved Pidge. "I'm not always dark and mysterious." 

"Whatever. I'm heading outside for a while." 

Keith gave her a quick two finger salute in return. When he turned back around, Hunk was eating one of his cake pops and Lance was gone. "Where'd Lance go?"

Hunk looked up. "Left with Coran. Something about having questions for him."

Red gave a soft growl and tugged Keith's sleeve. He looked down and saw her nod towards Allura who was walking outside. She's looking for something.

And?

Let's go see what it is.

Why?

Because I'm curious. 

Curiosity killed the cat.

And satisfaction brought it back. Now stop being an ass and come on.

Keith rolled his eyes, but followed Red outside. "Looking for something princess?" 

"Coran actually," she turned and gave Keith a surprised look.

"Red made me. Last I heard, Coran was with Lance." 

Allura nodded before turning to look back up at the sky. Before she could say anything there was a loud rumble behind them and the lights in the castle went out. 

"Allura," Keith started. "What was that?"

"Nothing good," she began running towards the castle, but before she could get there, a bright purple barrier dropped over the doors. 

-- 5 minutes ago --

"You know, this is fun and all, but I miss my family," Lance stretched out. "Is there any way for me to contact them?" 

"We could probably send them a letter," Coran looked up from his computer. "Oh, hello Rover."

Lance did a double take. That's funny. . .

What? Blue rolled over and glanced up.

Pidge isn't here, and Rover never leaves her side. . . "Coran get down!" 

Just as he jumped up to cover the Altean, the drone exploded, shattering the main crystal. The castle went dark as the power shut down. 

When Blue recovered from the shock of the blast, she saw that Galrans were replacing the main crystal with a Galran one. Moving slowly, she made her way to where Coran and Lance were sitting against the back of the main console, still unseen by the Galrans. She splashed a little water in Coran's face. With a toss of her head, and an intense stare, he got her message- get out.

After he slipped out, Blue settled beside Lance in a defensive position. "Well, well, well. What do we have here?" 

Blue lunged at the officer in front of her, clawing at its chest. As she turned to take out another sentry, there was a clicking noise. A commander was holding a gun to Lance's head. He gave a wicked grin. "Now let's be a good kitty and put on your collar."

A thick metal ring on a chain was hooked around her neck and she was dragged to the wall. She tried to summon some water and found herself helpless. Even her strength was depleted. There was a series of loud snarls and four sentries came in with Black in similar chains and her paladin handcuffed.

"Sir! A pod just left from the garage! Cameras show that it was an Altean with the Yellow Paladin and the Yellow Lion," a sentry reported. The commander who had held the gun to Lance shrugged. "No matter. We still have two of the five lions, along with their paladins. Easy leverage. Now then. Let's get the transport started. And contact Zarkon." 

"Yes Commander Sendak."

Sendak smiled. "Things just got a lot more interesting."

-----*---*---*-----

Chapter Text

Hey guys! Quick author's note: This story is going to be on hold for at least the month of November because I'm participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and trying to finish my book is my top priority.

My goal though is to try to be finished re-writing seasons one and two by the time season 5 comes out (whenever that is). 

Comment and let me know if you'd read my NaNo book- it's called Dollhouse- if I posted it on a different website like Wattpad or another original book website. 
Thanks guys!! <3

Chapter Text

*waves* Hi! I'm not dead!
So despite my promise to only put this on hold for about a month, it's been like, three (oops).
I'm going to try to get on some sort of schedule soon, but winterguard competitions just started up, and I have very little time with school. Hopefully I'll be posting every other Sunday for a while, and when I have more time, I can post every Sunday.

I refuse to abandon this AU. It may take me forever to write, but I'll finish it!
Bye!! <3