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Chapter Text

When Allura called in to tell The Coalition that Voltron was back there was an overwhelming expression of relief.

She was not prepared however, for the sudden influx of situations with which Voltron seemed to be needed. The rebels wanted help freeing a new planet whose medical resources would be a huge asset to the resistance. The Kygari wanted help with a group of rebel insergents who supported the empire. There were still more planets to be freed and many worlds wished for a personal visit from Voltron to re-assert their place as members of the alliance. The number of planets in the coalition may still have been small but there was certainly no shortage of things in need of doing. Surprisingly, the only member of the Coalition not to respond immediately to her message were the blades. Kolvain had yet to respond. Even when the others had bid her farewell after assuring her that Voltron was not yet in dire need in any of their situations, the blade had not returned her call.

She shared a look with Coran. The blades were not talkative allies, but such clear silence meant something. And it was unlikely that it meant anything good. So, they left the line open for the blade's response.

Allura and Coran put together a short overview of the planets with the most urgent need. A basic idea of what the missions would entail, and called the paladin's to the bridge. It was important, she thought, that they get used to working together again. Their separation had certainly changed things, the changes may have been more drastic for some than for others but they were changes nonetheless and they would alter how the team worked together. The best way to start was by having them make decisions together and in the current case, whatever they chose would be fine.

Once again, she was caught unprepared though, when Kolvain finally responded.

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Keith was training when Allura called them down.

His blade sliced through the last of the bots and he made his way back to the bench for some water and to turn off the program. He was probably going to have to talk to Pidge or Hunk about getting some sort of remote for the training room. It was awkward to have to keep returning to the system controls to start the next level or end the sequence. The voice recognition software was useless to him now. The thought evoked a bitter sort of laugh, but powerless as he was to express it he just scowled down at the pad in his hand; a handheld attachment from the control room. It was pointless, he knew, the anger he felt. Pointless, and unhelpful and destructive but, there was really not much else he could do at this point. There were some battles you could never really walk away from.

The red paladin carefully swallowed some water before closing down the program and replacing the pad. He tucked his own pad under his arm and made his way as quickly as he could up to the bridge. 

Upon arriving he was met with a peculiar sight, strange more because the presence of the blade commander would usually warrant a more urgent summons than what Allura had sent. He tilted his head curiously and gestured to the screen as he entered. The question clear in his motions. Pidge shrugged back and Keith focused his attention on the screen. Kolvain was just finishing some sort of report. "...Voltron is greatly needed." He said with more emphasis than Keith had heard him use since they'd met.

Allura nodded. "Of course. We'll be there as soon as possible. You just need to hold them off until then."

The screen flickered and a explosion echoed through the tunnels behind the blade. Kolvain activated his helmet and disabled the transmission just as the last two paladins arrived. Allura wasted no time in barking out orders. "Coran, prepare to wormhole. We need to be at the Balmera as soon as possible. Paladin's, get to your lions. The Balmera is under attack by an unknown enemy."

Keith nodded quickly and made for his zip line as the other's did the same, rushing to follow the princess's orders. Red's comforting growl greeted him as he entered the cockpit and he immediately opened his comm line. Only Hunk was online just yet. The yellow paladin looked nervous and worried, more so than was usual. Taking his seat, the red paladin knocked abruptly on the console to get the other boy's attention. Hunk looked over with surprise. What's wrong? Keith signed.

"Besides the fact that our allies are being attacked by an evil empire?" The yellow paladin replied in a surprising show of sarcasm. It was funny how Hunk continued to show new and interesting sides of himself as Keith got to know him. What was that quote? Like an ogre? Wait, why an ogre? That made no sense. Ok, figure out reference later Keith, he admonished himself, help your friend now. After all Hunk had done for him, the least he could do was try to help. No matter how bad he was at it.

Yes. Besides that...

Lance appeared as he finished the statement and opened his mouth to ask but Keith glared and signed Hunk. It seemed the blue paladin got the message because he turned his focus on the yellow paladin as well.

"I'm just," Hunk sighed, "I really hate all this fighting and stuff you know an the balmera's had it the worst. And I mean, we have friends there and we don't even know what we're attacking and what if-"

Lance cut him off. "Whoa, Whoa, Whoa there buddy. Hunk, Hunkles, my very best friend, calm down a sec."

Hunk looked up as he suddenly realized he wasn't just talking to Keith anymore. Lance continued, "First off. yeah the fighting sucks but think of all the good we're doing! We've saved a lot of people, a lot of planets. We can save the Balmera again, right Keith?"

Keith sort of looked at him for a moment before responding. Right. We can beat whoever this is. Together.

The comment seemed to placate the yellow paladin and he began to calm as the other paladin's came online. Lance gave him a smirky thumbs up that Keith really didn't understand and so was ignored. He wasn't really quite sure how but he seemed to have said the right thing so he resolved to stay quiet to avoid messing it up. Lance seemed more than happy to fill in his silence. 

"We're Voltron, man. We'll save the Balmera," Lance got a mischievous look in his eye, "and your girlfriend."

"Lance no! She's not my girlfriend. Shay's just a friend..."

"Oh! I never mentioned Shay~"

"It really wasn't that much of a stretch. we don't know any other female Balmerans." Pidge pointed out.

"Well-"

"Guys, please. I need you focused on the mission. Gossip later, save the planet now." Shiro interjected as the bright blue of the wormhole faded. The Paladin's attention returned to their lions as the princess' voice came over the comm. "Paladin's, We've reached the Balmera." 

Chapter Text

The balmera wasn't in good shape when they arrived.

On the ground troops swarmed out of a transport, heading in droves for the tunnels. In the air, a fleet encircled the planet. The central battleship was broadcasting as they approached, "or!...This planet is to be reclaimed in the name of Prince Lotor! Surrender and he will be merciful. Resist and die. Verepit Sa! All hail Emporer Zarkon! All hail Prince Lotor!...This planet-" Pidge cut off the broadcast as it began to loop.

"Who the quiznack is Prince Lotor?" She tried to ask, but her question was drowned out by Hunk and Lance's exclamations of worry.

"Oh no. What happened?!"

"No! Shay! The Balmera!"

Shiro cut in voice authoritive and calm. "Calm down you two. We can still turn this around." The yellow and blue paladin's turned their attention to their leader. "Lance and I will provide assistance for the ground troops," he commanded, "Pidge, Keith and Hunk. You guys take care of the fleet. The castle can help provide cover. We don't have to destroy them, just do enough damage that they'll retreat."

The paladin's nodded quickly voicing their understanding. Pidge shifted the controls, pulling her lion up towards the fleet. Fighters poured out and she watched with satisfaction as the red lion tore through them in a fiery spiral. She activated her cloaking just before she moved into sight. A deft movement on the controls had her arching over the fighters as Hunk barreled through them, a war cry torn from his throat. Though, she thought in amusement, it could just have been a scream of terror. The Green lion made an amused sound in her head as Pidge took in the battleships before her. They were different then the normal ship, modified for planetary conquest. She opened her end of the comm. "Guys! You have to stay out from underneath these things. We need to take them on from above."

"What?" Hunk grunted as he blasted another round of drones.

Pidge fired on the battleship closest to her, aiming for the engines."The ships are modified for conquest. Most of their weapons are on the base." She explained.

Spark says you and yellow's cub should focus on the battleships. He will handle the fighters. Green told her.

Hunk frowned over the comm. He must have received the message as well. "Keith! You can't handle all those ships by yourself."

The red paladin scowled and the screen shifted as he pulled red into a deadly dive. He's saying something about snake heads? It was fairly amusing how confused Green sounded. A group of fighters moved on her position. Pidge cursed as she let her cloaking go. Focusing the power on her weapons instead. "Hunk! Keith's right. We'll just be dealing with an endless array of fighters if we don't take out the battleships!" Her tail cannon blasted the fighters apart. "Focus on the engines and main weapons."

"Just so you know, I hate this plan." The yellow paladin replied.

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Shiro and Lance were close to finished with the grounded ships when their comms burst to life.

"Guys! Keith needs back up yesterday!" Pidge sounded stressed.

Shiro's brows furrowed and worry overcame his expression. "What's going on?"

"He was drawing fighters away so Hunk and I could work on destroying these battleships-"

"except now they've got him cornered! Pidge! On your right!" Hunk cut across his friend. The green paladin quickly shifted the controls.

"Lance!" The blue paladin turned from the battle for a moment, "I'm going to help Keith. Can you take care of things here?"

"Absolutely! Just leave it to me." He ended with his trademark grin.

The black paladin was off like a shot leaving Lance to take out the last ship with a few well placed shots. Blue purred in pleasure in his mind as the ship went up in flames. "Yeah, take that! Lancy Lance just wreaked your asses!" He shifted the controls and brought the lion back up to survey the battlefield. With the now limited soldiers the blade and balmerans seemed to be doing a perfectly good job of defending their home. As he watched one pick up a boulder roughly the size of a fighter and toss it at some oncoming droids he swore to never underestimate these rock people again.

Someone shouted staticky over the comm and Lance directed his attention to the firefight above them.

My sister is in trouble. There is something strange on one of those ships. Blue sounded worried. Lance couldn't blame her. He gunned the engine.

The other paladins were attempting to multitask in the worst way. Shiro was trying to cover Keith who was trying to cover everyone else while still avoiding being shot down by every ship in a ten mile radis. Pidge was nowhere to be seen but things kept randomly blowing up so he assumed that was her. Hunk was trying to take out the battleships. No one was communicating. Lance realized why as he got closer. His comms only got more staticky as he went up. He couldn't even hear Blue as well as he should be.

Suddenly the lions roared. An image projected to each of them. The Paladins cheerfully agreed.

The lions brute forced their way out, flying in formation for a moment before something else took over. A roar of energy as they bonded, united into the universes greatest weapon.

Voltron stood silhouetted in a backdrop of crimson fire as the battleships burned.

The paladin's cheered. Even Keith couldn't help but smile.

"Yeah! Voltron's back baby!"

Chapter Text

The prince frowned as he considered the footage. Reports had stated that Voltron was damaged, possibly mortally wounded in it's battle with his father. None but the yellow and red lions had been seen for movements. Yet here they were, a team that worked nearly seamlessly. He'd installed the prototype on the flagship on the off chance Voltron actually came. It seemed to have worked initially, but he'd need to refine it. Lotor turned to his generals.

"Axca," He began, addressing his most trusted advisor, "I want you to find out where these paladin's have been for the past few movements."

The woman nodded but said nothing.

"Why aren't we just killing them then?" Zethrid asked for what seemed the hundredth time that quintent.

"I still have plans for them." He replied with a wicked grin. Oh, yes, did he have plans.

Ezor shrugged. "Wanna go throw things at the crew?"

Zethrid grinned and they left the bridge. Axca barely glanced back but Narti watched them go. The prince's eyes narrowed. First things first, he had to figure out if the leak was in Narti or Kova. The witch could not be privy to these plans.

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"Zarkon had a son?!" Lance exclaimed in surprise.

"Yeah, why are we only hearing about this now?" Pidge put in irritably.

The princess looked embarrassed. "Well, to be honest. I had forgotten that we had not informed you three already." She glanced at Hunk and Keith. The former shrugged helplessly and looked apologetic while the latter just leaned back against the wall, seemingly ignoring the rest of them.

"But like...Who'd Zarkon have a kid with? Oh, was it Haggar?"

Pidge leveled the other with an unimpressed glare. "Seriously Lance? You want to gossip about Zarkon's love life?"

Hunk wrinkled his nose. "Um, guys, maybe lets just not think about that."

A voice from the back of the group spoke up. "Perhaps it is not the best use of your time."

Hunk gave Shay an appreciative look. "Exactly, let's just drop the topic and move onto something else. Like how awesome it is that we freed the Balmera again!"

Pidge smiled at her friends mood. It felt good to be back. Really back. As she looked at her fellow paladin's she knew they felt it too. Even Keith had the ghost of a grin playing on his lips. It was good to be home.