𝚂𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝙰𝚜𝚜𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚕𝚢 𝚁𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚍 (𝙿𝚝 𝟷)
Hunk is asleep in bed, snoring. He's wearing yellow pajamas and is covered by a blue blanket. Suddenly, an alarm blares and Hunk screams, falling out of bed and landing on his stomach. He groans and tries to stand up, but his legs get tangles in the blanker and he falls asleep again as the door automatically again. Shiro, in full Paladin outfit, does push-ups in his room.
"Everybody up!" Allura shouts over the loudspeaker. Shiro looks to his left and begins to stand up "Zarkon's attacking!" Shiro runs out of the room as the doors automatically open and close behind him. Lance lays on his bed in a pale blue pajamas and covered by a navy blue blanket. His face is covered with a green facial mask and his eyes hidden by a black sleep mask. Headphones over his ears, which blocks out the alarm. Y/N, who is also in full Paladin uniform, is sat on the floor of her room, cross legged. Her eyes are closed and she meditates. Soul is sat in front of her, doing the same "The ship's coming closer!" Y/N opens one eye before standing up, picking Soul up and runs out of her room. Keith is sat upright in bed as he examines his knife "The Castle's about to be destroyed!" Keith gasps and throws off his blanket, jumping out of bed and grabbing his jacket - running out. Pidge was sleeping in the room with the healing pods, rover hovering beside him. Until Allura started shouting over the loudspeaker again. Pidge jumps awake, Rover besides him. "Go, go, go! We need Voltron now!" Pidge jumps up and rushes out of the healing room, Rover by his side
==
"Hurry! We can't survive much longer!"
" You've got to sell it a little bit more" Coran takes the speaker from Allura; clearing his throat "Oh, no! Allura is dead! Aw, it's horrible! Her head fell off! Wait! What? Her severed head is trying to speak to me! What is it, Allura's head? What are your final words?"
"Coran"
"Oh, yes, Princess, I'm listening"
"It's over" Allura says sweat dropping. Coran turns around, still on his hands and knees.
"Oh, I know! If only Voltron had been formed" He continues. He looks over noticing the Paladins, excepted Lance. He jumps up "Oh! Time!"
"I guess this isn't an actual attack." Shiro says. Pidge rubs his eyes.
"And it's a good thing it wasn't because it took you... Coran?" Allura says, looking at him.
"Seventy-five degrees. Oh" He says as the "Timer" dings "Sorry. No, this is a meat thermometer"
"However long it was, it was too long. You must always be ready to do battle with Zarkon. Look at you! Only Shiro and Y/N are in uniform. But Y/N doesn't have her helmet. Keith, Pidge, Hunk, where are you bayard? And where is Lance?"
"Keith, Pidge, Hunk, where are your bayards? And where is Lance?" Allura said. The door behind the group and Lance enters wearing a Blue and Yellow dressing gown, Blue Lion slippers and a mug in hand. He yawns.
"Good morning, everybody. What's going on?" Lance said, and his face sparkled. He walks over to them.
"Coran and I have been up for hours getting the Castle back in order. We had to run a test on the alarms, and we decided to test you as well. Guess which one failed." Allura said.
"Hey!" Hunk yawns "You got to sleep for 10,000 years, man. Monday night, I was on Earth. Now, I've flown through space, fought some evil alien named Zarkon, eaten goo in some weird castle." Hunk counts "That's a lot to process in, uh... I-I don't know. What day is today?" Hunk continued.
"It's the third quintant of the Spicolian movement. Hump day!" Coran answers.
"It's a lot to process." Hunk says.
"You must understand the stakes of our mission" Allura brings up a map of the universe from the Castleship's computer and displays the amount of distress beacons "Over the last 10,000 years, the Castle picked up distress beacons from the following locations." Allura says."So, we have to assume that Zarkon has conquered almost the entire known universe" Allura moves the map to the Milky Way where is appears barely out of Zarkon's reach "Earth is here. An attack on your planet is inevitable"
"Oh, no..." Hunk said.
"Exactly. Our mission is to free all those planets. Coran and I are getting the Castle ready to leave Arus. During that time, you have to learn to form Voltron, so we can begin fighting Zarkon." Allura said.
"The Princess is right. Let's get to our lions and start training." Shiro said. Pidge turns to look at him.
"Wait. But I want to talk to the prisoners we rescued from the Galra ship." She said. Coran puts his hands as the size of Pidge.
"Ah, negative, Number Six! I have you ranked by height, okay? The prisoners need to remain in the cryo-replenishers until tomorrow"
"That's right. Now get to your Lions. The Paladins head to their Lions, donning their armour before traveling by zip-line. Hunk's zip line stops.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What's going on? What's going...?" Hunk falls from his own weight and the zip-line continues without him. Hunk slides down the shaft slowly "Aw, come on. You've got to be kidding me" The Paladins jump through a hole, landing on their speeders that take them to their Lions. Hunk is late to arrive and drop from the zip-line hole, so his speeder takes off without him. He groans in frustration.
==
Outside the Castle of Lions, the other Paladins wait for Hunk.
"...Should someone go in after him?" Lance asks.
"Let's, uh, let's give him a moment" The Yellow Lion finally arrives.
"Hey, sorry, everybody. Seriously, though, can't they park these things, like, a little closer to the bridge?" He said. "
All right, guys. Let's just fly in tight formation until we're totally in sync" Shiro says over the comm. Allura appears on Shiro's screen.
"Feel the bond with your lions and your fellow pilots until five become one unit and you form Voltron!" The Lions take off, flying in sync.
"Yeah...!" They all shout "Yeah...!" They do the formation again "Yeah...!" The Paladins become less enthusiastic "...Yay..."
"Whoo. Am I the only one who's still pretending to be excited?" Hunk said. Everyone has a tired look.
"Clearly, this isn't working. Let's set down for a little bit." Shiro says.
"Maybe we should be building Voltron from the ground up." Keith said.
"What do you mean?" Shiro asked.
"I mean, let's try literally building Voltron, like, stacking on top of each other." Keith answered.
"Like a cheerleader pyramid?" Lance says.
"You got a better idea?" Y/N says.
"It's worth a try"
==
The Paladins stack their lions on top of each other. The Blue and Green Lion on the bottom with the Red and Purple Lion on top of them, facing the side. The Black Lion stands on top of them and the Yellow Lion is at the top.
"Hunk, what are you doing?" Shiro sweatdrops
"What do you mean?" Hunk asks
"You're supposed to be the leg over there" Y/N says.
"What? No. No, no, no. I'm pretty sure that when we did it last time, I was the head. Right?" Hunk said.
"You yelled, 'I'm a leg!'" Lance says.
"Yeah, I was yelling a lot of things." Hunk says/
"Shiro's the head." Keith says.
"All the time?" Hunk said.
"Let's just try it my way for now." Shiro said.
"Okay, but next time I call head." Hunk said. The Paladins stack the Lions properly. The Blue and Yellow on the floor, the Red, Purple and Green Lion on top of them, all facing the same way.
"Okay. Arms and legs... and I'll form the head" Shiro carefully hovers the Black Lion above the others until it stands on top of Pidge, Y/N and Keith's lion's "Feel the bonds with your Lions. Now, channel your energy into forming Voltron. Focus...Focus" Everyone has their eyes closed. Nothing happens "Is everyone bonding and focusing?" Shiro asked.
"Why was this so much easier before?" Lance asks. Shiro sighs.
"Let's take a break" Allura appears on everyone's screen from the Cammand Room.
"Sorry to interrupt, but I may be able to help. Yesterday, you weren't able to form Voltron until you were in the heat of battle." She said.
"Yeah" Pidge says.
"I'm listening." Lance says.
"You're right." Shiro says.
"You've got a point" Y/n says.
"Yeah, I guess" Keith says.
"Perfect. Because I need to run a diagnostic test on all of the Castle's defences. This should help!" Allura said. The Castle of Lions fire blasts as the Paladins.
"This can't be good" Y/N says. The Paladins are then bombarded with fire blasts and they scream and flee.
"Okay, go, go!" Lance shouts.
"Allura, what are you doing?" Allura smiles at Keith from his screen while he's running from explosions.
"Running a diagnostic test on the Castle defences and inspiring you! I believe in you, Paladins! Let fear be your guide! Form Voltron!" She said excitedly.
"Oh, forget this! I'm heading back to the Castle!" Lance says. He pilots the Blue Lion towards the Castleship, dodging the attacks, but is thrown back by the particle barrier. Hunk dodges the bombardment.
"Please stop! Please! Have mercy on us!" Hunk cried. Allura appears on Hunk's screen.
"You think Zarkon is going to have mercy on you? He's probably on his way right now to destroy us all!" Allura says.
"Auto-lock-on engaged"
"Uh oh" Y/N says. The Castle of Lions auto-fires at the panicking Paladins.
==
The Paladins, except Shiro, lay exhausted on the couches of the Castle Lounge. Allura and Coran enter.
"Are we at full power on condenser number five yet?" Allura asks, looking down at a device.
"No, still just 84 percent." Coran answers. Allura looks up and sees the Paladins.
"You did it! You formed Voltron!" Allura says. Lance is laying down, taking up a whole seat. Hunk has his arms up on the back of the couch. Y/N is layed across the couch, her back bending with the shape of the couches, faced down, feet in Keith's lap. Soul rubbing her bruised head. Pidge and Keith are sat upright, Keith having his arms crossed.
"No. The shooting stopped and the particle barrier shut down, so we just flew in." Keith says.
What?" Allura asks. Coran looks at her, wide eyed.
"Oh, right. Uh, sorry, Princess. I had to turn off the Castle defences to test the fire suppressors." Coran says. Y/N lifts her head, looking to Coran.
"Thank you Coran. Thank you" She says, placing her head back down on it's side. Shiro enters and they all look at him.
"What are you guys doing in here? We're not taking a break." He says.
"Shiro's right. You should be training." Allura said.
"We've been training. When are we going back to Earth? " Hunk sasks.
"I'm not going back until I find my family." Pidge says, leaning forward.
"Guys, there won't be an Earth if we don't figure out how to fight Zarkon." Shiro said. Lance sits up.
"How are we going to fight? We can't even figure out how to form Voltron." He said.
"Well, I'm not surprised. You know, the original paladins fought hundreds of battles together, side-by-side. They were like a pack of yalmors linked at the ears." Coran said.
"Wow. Yeah, that's definitely not us." Lance said, and laid back down, putting his foot on the back of the couch.
"During the last attack, your survival instincts forced you to work as a team, but that will only get you so far. You'll have to become a real team to have any chance of forming Voltron and then beating Zarkon next time" Everyone looks to Coran "You should try working out on the training deck." Coran said. Y/N lifts her head, pushing herself up with her arms.
"There's a training deck?" Y/N says.
==
The Training Deck illuminates; Coran clears his throat to check his microphone as the Paladins are standing on the training deck in a circle.
"Two, two, one, two. Okay, listen up guys. The Paladins code demands that you put your team members' safety above your own. A swarm of drones is about to attack. It's up to each of you to do everything you can to protect the other members of your team" Altean drones appear; Keith, Pidge and Y/N form shields.
"Wait, wait, wait. What's going on?" Hunk says as his shield forms "Whoa. Did you guys get one of these?" He said. Lance and Shiro form shields.
"Get ready" The Altean drones fire lasers. Hunk dodges and Pidge is struck, dropping into a hole that opens up underfoot.
"Hunk your supposed to protect, not duck" Y/N shouts, putting her shield in front of her face as a fire laser shoots at her.
"Protect your teammates or no one will be there to protect you!" Coran said. Hunk then went down. Y/N, Lance, Shiro and Keith huddle back-to-back to defend themselves "Time to increase intensity" The drone fire becomes rapid.
"You keeping up over there, Keith?" Lance said.
Just concentrate on keeping me safe" Keith said.
"Me? I own this drill. You're the one who needs to concentrate" Lance says. The drones fire at their heads. Shiro, Y/N and Keith dodge, but Lance is distracted and does not. He lifts his foot to avoid being shot, and Keith is shot instead, disappearing into the floor. Y/N takes Keith's place.
"Really Lance!" She shouts. Lance tried to defend Y/N and Shiro but it struck himself, leaving Y/N and Shiro who stand back-to back.
"You good shiro" Y/N says.
"Yeah, you" He replies.
"Good" Shiro doesn't notice the drone to his left so Y/N shields him, leaving her back open. She gets shot and the floor beneath her opens and she falls. Shiro, being the last one left, has no way of protecting himself and shortly ends up struck. He falls through the hole in the floor. Coran facepalms but continues to the next test: an invisible maze. Lance stands inside the maze.
"To form Voltron, you must trust each other. This ancient Paladin maze will teach you that trust. Your teammate can see the walls, but you cannot. So, listen carefully. If yo touch the walls, you'll get a slight shock" Lance puts on his helmet.
"Wait. Who's guiding me through?"
"Take two steps forward" Keith says through Lance's helmet using a microphone.
"Oh, no. Not Keith. Why does he get to be the man on the mic?"
"Now, just sit tight. You'll get your turn"
"Like I said, take two steps forward, turn right, and take three steps that direction" Lance only turns right and hits a wall, getting shocked.
"You did that on purpose!" Lance says, looking up at Keith.
"You're not listening"
"You said, 'Turns right'"
"But, before that, I said, 'Take two steps forward"
"Two steps--" Lance steps in the wrong direction and gets shocked again "We're switching places right now!" Later, it was Y/N and Pidge's go. Y/N was in the maze, while Pidge was guiding her.
"Turn left, three steps forward. Stop!" Y/N does so "Back 1" Y/N moves back "Turn left then 2 steps forwards then make a left turn then 3 steps forward" Pidge says. Y/N follows the guide.
"Nice teamwork you two, no wonder the Green and Purple lion have such a good bond, they trust in each other" Coran said with a smile. Y/N looks up at Pidge, smiling.
"I guess we do, huh"
==
The team are flying their Lions through the sky for the next test. Coran speaks to them from the Castleship's Bridge.
"You'll never be able to form Voltron unless each of you has a strong bond with your Lion" Coran said.
"No problem. Me and Blue are best buds for life, for real." Lance said.
"Perfect! Then you won't have any issues with this exercise. Everyone, put your lions into a nosedive!" Coran said. All the lions growled and went into a nosedive.
"This is an expert-level drill that you really shouldn't attempt until you've been flying for years, but uh, we're in a bit of a rush, so here we go. Activating training helmets!" Coran said. Dark visors appear over each Paladin's helmet. Lance screams.
"Coran, what's happening? I can't see!"
"You must learn to see through your lions' eyes. The goal is to pull up right before you crash into the ground. Feel what the lion feels!" Coran explained.
"Mine feels scared!" Hunk panic and pulls out of the dive right away.
"You still going, Keith?" Lance asks.
"You know it. You?"
"Going? I'm speeding up!" Lance shouts, speeding up his dive.
"Oh, yeah?" Keith said.
"Must be getting close." Lance said.
"Must be." Keith said.
"You getting scared?" Lance taunted.
"I'M NOT SCARED" Keith shouted. Keith loses his temper and speeds ahead; both crash into the ground with their Lions half-buried. The Blue Lion rolls away.
"Ow..." Keith groans.
"...I win" Shiro, Y/N and Pidge are still in a nose-dive.
"What was that noise? Did they crash?" Pidge panics and pulls out of the dive, but hits a cliff. Shiro and Y/N remain in a dive.
"You still there, sis?" Shiro asks.
"Yea, I trust my Lion no matter what" They continue to nose-dive. Y/N begins muttering to herself "Come on lion, show me what you see" Shiro and Y/N closes their eyes and are able to connect with the Black and Purple Lion seeing what they see. They pull out of the dive last-second and the two flies through several rocky areas without using their own eyes.
"I think I'm getting this." He said.
"Me to"
"Excellent, Shiro! Y/N!" Coran praises over the comm.
==
The Paladins sit in a circle in the Training Deck with special headsets. Coran speaks to them over the intercom.
"Now the most important part of paladin training is being able to meld your minds and focus on one thing: Voltron. Everything else has to fade away. This technique will be essential every time you form Voltron" Coran said. A screen depicting the thoughts of the Paladins appears before each one. Y/N thinks of the photo that Hunk found of her and Shiro. Keith thinks of the desert shack. Lance thinks of his family. Hunk thinks of food. Pidge things of the photograph Hunk found of "Pidge" and a girlfriend, but the image is obscure. Shiro thinks of the Kerberos Mission launch "So, relax and open your mind. No walls, no secrets between paladins. Come on, everyone, clear everything. Now, focus on forming your lion" The Paladins, minus Pidge, form their image into their respective Lions and move them to form Voltron. "Bring your lions together and - and form Voltron." Coran says "Keep your minds open, work together. Good! Keep focusing! Only one to go!" Coran said. The Green Lion has not appeared. Pidge's mental image remains static-filled; Keith notices.
"Pidge, stop thinking of your girlfriend!" Pidge's mental image disappears.
"I wasn't! Hunk was rooting around in my head!" Pidge said. I opened my eyes, and the hologram of the lions coming together to form Voltron is gone.
"I-I thought we were open. You can look in my head hole." Hunk said.
"Everyone has to be able to look in everyone's head holes! Clear your minds!" Coran shouted from high up. The Paladins try again. This time, Pidge is able to manifest the Green Lion. The mental Lions move together. "Good! Almost there" The mental Lions begin forming Voltron "Now, form Voltron. Yes!" Coran shouts. The Green Lion attaches to the mental Voltron, but becomes the same static-filled image as before.
"Pidge!" Lance shouts. Pidge snaps in frustration and throws the headset off.
"I'm done with this! Look, I don't like everyone grubbing around in my head!" Pidge shouts.
"Oh, come on, Pidge, we're starting to get the hang of this." Shiro said.
"I'm just... I'm just tired, okay?" Pidge says.
"Okay. Let's take a break" Shiro says,
==
Coran hands all the Paladins packs of fluid to drink as they sit and relax.
"You have been working hard. Maybe it's time to relax a little" Coran says. Allura stomps over, the mice on her shoulders. Soul, who was besides her, runs over to Y/N. She sniffs the pack of fluid and takes a sip.
"What are you doing lying around? You're supposed to be training!" Allura says
"Just resting a bit. You know, you can't push too hard"
"What do you mean, 'can't push too hard'? Get up, you lazy lumps! It's time you faced the Gladiator!" Later, The Paladins stand with their Bayards formed in the Training Deck.
"In order to defeat the Gladiator, six paladins must fight as one" Coran says over the speakers. The Gladiator robot drops from the ceiling wielding a polearm staff.
"Hmm? Whoa!" Hunk panics and shoots, hitting Keith's shield. The Gladiator knocks Hunk of his feet and onto the ground, shocking him. Pidge fights the Gladiator robot but is also knocked away, falling over Hunk. Y/N swings at the Gladiator but it deflects her hit, knocking her scythe out of her hands and zaps her before pushing her away with its staff. Lance starts shooting at the Gladiator, before his gun is also throws out of his reach. The Gladiator hits Lance on his head before turning around to deflect Keith's sword, hitting Lance on the head again before picking Lance up with its staff and tossing him into Keith who both fall onto Y/N, who was nearly stood up. They groan in pain, Y/N mostly since she's under the two.
"Ow..." She groans. The Gladiator rushes Shiro, triggering a memory. Shiro freezes. Keith launches himself from the floor to black the Gladiator's attack on Shiro.
"Shiro, are you okay?" Keith grunted. Shiro does not respond. The Gladiator knocks Keith into Shiro, sending them both to the floor. The Gladiator then turns, blocking Y/N's attack. Y/N smiles sheepishly.
"Uh...hehe. It's not what is looks like?" The Gladiator slams its staff into her stomach, electrocuting her. She flies back and lands back on Lance and the two groan in pain.
"Oww"
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