The Sixth Paladin

Chapter 5

After who knows how long, the particle barrier came down and we ran inside the castle. We put our lions back and all lied on the long couch in the lounge area. I was sprawled out, my legs next to Lance's and my head near Keith,who was sitting normally, when Allura and Coran entered the room.
"You did it! You formed Voltron!" She said.
"No, the shooting stopped and the particle barrier came down so we just flew in." Keith said.
"What?" She said, not looking so happy.
"Oh right, sorry princess I had to turn off the castles defenses to test the fire suppressors." Coran said.
"What are you guys doing? We're supposed to be training." Shiro said when he entered the room.
"Shiro's right." Allura agreed.
"We've been training, when can we go back to earth?" Hunk complained.
"I'm not going back until I find my family." Pidge said.
"Guys, there won't be an earth if we don't figure out how to beat Zarkon." Shiro said.
"How are we going to fight? We can't even form Voltron." Lance said.
"Well I'm not surprised. You know the original paladins fought hundreds battles together, side by side. Their like a pack of yelmores  linked to the ears." Coran said, tugging at his ears.
"Wow, yeah that's definitely not us." Lance said, and fell back on to the couch, laying one of his legs on mine.
"During the last attack, your survival instincts kicked in, and made you work as a team. But that'll only get you so far. You need to become a real team of you want to beat Zarkon. You should try working out on the training deck." Coran said.
"There's a training deck?" I asked, sitting up.
~~~
And now we're on the training deck, in full armor, and in a circle. Coran is in the control room, testing out the microphone.
"Okay listen up guys, the paladin code states that you put your teammates safety above your own. As drones attack, each of you need to do everything you can to protect the others. " His voice echoed through the room. Little drones flew out and shields from our armor came out.
"Whoa, did you guys get one of these?"
"Get ready." Shiro said.
Then the drones started shooting. Hunk ducked and caused Pidge to be shot in the back and fall down a hole. Then Hunk got hit and, literally, dove in the hole. Shiro, Lance, Keith and I all went back to back, and Coran made the the drones go faster.
"You keeping up over there Keith?" Lance asked, making roll my eyes.
"Just concentrate on keeping me safe." Keith responded.
"Me? I own this drill, you're the one that needs to concentrate." When Lance said that, he lifted his leg to avoid getting hit, only to for it to hit Keith. Which made me look down, as he fell, and got me hit, I screamed as I fell, Lance and Shiro following not long after.
~~~
Now we're all in the control room with Coran, except Lance who's in the training deck with a hologram of a maze surrounding him that he can't see.
"In order to form Voltron, you must trust each other. This ancient paladin maze will ensure that trust. You're teammate can see the walls but you can't. So listen carefully, if you touch the walls you'll receive a slight shock." Coran explained.
"Wait, who's guiding me through?" Lance asked.
"Take two steps forward." Keith said, standing next to me, looking at the map of the maze.
"Oh no not Keith. Why does he have to the man of the mic? Why can't Korra do it?" Lance complained.
"You and Korra have know each other your whole lives, so have trust in each other, but you need trust in the other teammates too, that's why she can't do it. Now just sit tight you'll get your turn." Coran said.
"Like I said take two steps forward, turn right and take three steps that direction." Keith said. Lance walked the wrong way and got shocked by the wall, making him scream(in a funny way) and me laugh.
"You did that on purpose!" Lance yelled at Keith.
"You're not listening."
"You said turn right."
"But before that I said take two steps forward." Keith said, clearly getting annoyed. Lance grumbled and started walked only to get shocked, and I laughed again.
"We're switching places right now."
~~~
Now we're back in our lions flying through the air.
"You'll never form Voltron unless you have a strong bond with your lion." Coran said through the speakers.
"No problem. Me and blue are best friends for life." Lance said, smugly.
"Perfect. Then you won't have any issues with this exercise. Every one put your lions in a nose dive." Coran said. So we all put our lions in a nose dive.
"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." After Coran said that, the lenses on my helmet went black, I couldn't see anything, which caused me to panic a little.
"Coran what's happening I can't see!" I screamed.
"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! " I tightened my grip on my controls, and took a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves.
"Mine feels scared!" Hunk said and flew off. Another deep breath.
"You still going Keith?" I heard Lance ask. Oh boy that's not good.
"You know it, you?"
"Going? I'm speeding up!"
"Lance don't do anything stupid." I said, but I'm pretty sure he ignored me. Then Keith had the bright idea to speed up with him. Then a loud crash sounded. I sighed, those idiots crashed.
"I win." I heard Keith said, making me giggle and loosen up a bit.
"What was that noise? Did they crash?" Pidge said, then he left. I took another deep breath and closed my eye.
"Come on girl, we can do this." I said to my lion. I relaxed and felt everything get quiet. A deep rumble came through the lion, as if she was purring. The I opened my eyes, and saw what my lion was seeing. I kept going for a second then, using the jets, I stopped my lion from crashing into the ground and went back into the air, with Shiro.
"Excellent Shiro and Korra!" Coran said.
"Good job Shiro."
"You too Korra."
~~~
We're back in the castle, in the training deck sitting in a circle with a head device on our heads, that reads what we're thinking and puts it on a hologram screen in front of us.
"Now the most important part of paladin training is being able to meld your minds and and focus on one thing. Voltron. Everything else has to fade away. This technique will be essential every time you form Voltron."
Keith's screen showed his home. Lance had his family. Hunk was thinking of food of course.
"So relax and open your mind. No walls. No secrets between paladins."
I thought of my parents and younger sister, even our dog. I was trying my best to keep away the thought of Keith, since they all could tell what I was thinking, but ever once in a while, my screen would flicker to a picture of Keith, making me frown and blush, and push it away.
Pidge's screen was flickering on and off, as if he didn't want anyone to know what he was thinking. Shiro was thinking of some building. 
"Know everyone think of your lion." All of our screen changed to your lions.
"Now everyone bring your lions together and form Voltron." We all moved the lions to the middle, except Pidge, who was still flickering.
"Come on almost there! Only one to go!"
"Pidge! Stop thinking of your girlfriend." Keith said, making me open my eyes and look at Pidge.
"I wasn't! Hunk was digging through my head."
"I thought we were open! You can look in my head hole."
"Every one has too look in each other head holes. Clear your minds!" Coran exclaimed.
We all closed our eyes again, and tried to from the holographic Voltron. We brought the lions together forming Voltron. Until Pidge tried to put his lion on, only for the screen of him and the girl to show up again.
"Pidge!" Lance exclaimed. Pidge stood up and threw the head device down in frustration.
"I'm done with this! Look I don't like you grubbing around in my head." He said.
"Come on Pidge we're starting to get the hang of it!" Shiro said.
"I'm just...Just tired. Okay."
"Okay. Let's take a break."
Coran came down and handed us all pouches with some liquid in it. I took a sip, it didn't taste weird so I kept drinking.
"We have been working hard, maybe we relax a little." Coran said.
"What are you doing lying around? You're suppose to be training." Allura said when she came in the room.
"Just resting a bit. You know you can't push too hard." Coran said, as I watched Keith cutely drink from the pouch in the corner of my eye.
"What do you mean can't push too hard? Get up you lazy lumps. It's time you face the gladiator."
Lazy? We've been training all day thank you very much.
~~~
We're all standing in the training deck, with our bayards out.
"In order to defeat the gladiator, six paladins must fight as one." After Coran said that, a robot fell from the ceiling and ran towards Hunk. Hunk tried to shoot it, but could get the gun to aim right, like it was heavy. The robot knocked his feet out from under him and he fell to the ground, the robot shocked him and he lied still.
Pidge then ran up to it only to be hit with its staff multiple times and be knocked to the flood next to Hunk.
Next was Lance, who tried shooting it but it knocked his gun out of his hands and hit him on the head with his staff. The robot turned around attacked Keith, turned back around and hit Lance on the head again, and used Lance to knock Keith down.
Then I ran up to it and swung my axe at it. Every time I tried to hit it, it just blocked it. It then used its staff to his my stomach, making me double over, then hit me on the back and throw me and I landed on Keith making him groan from impact.
I looked over to see Shiro freeze up with his cyborg arm glowing.
"Sorry Korra." Keith said and pushed me off of him and he ran and blocked the staff from hitting Shiro. Only for him and Shiro to be knocked down.
The robot powers off and Allura walked up from behind it.
"That combat simulator was set to a level fit for an Altean child. You're not even close to working as a team, let alone beat Zarkon."
~~~
We're all now sitting at the long dinner table, with the weird food in front of us. I sat with Lance on my right and Keith to my left.
"Attention paladins! I put together a big batch of focusing food. After this meal you'll be forming Voltron six times the movement, and twice on the astroconflux."  Coran said, quite proudly.
"Smells great Coran, thanks." Shiro said and we all reached for the food. Coran pushed a button on a remote, and these weird bracelet things appeared on our wrists, then they stuck together like magnets. So my right wrist was connected to Lance's, while my left to Keith's.
"Whoa hold the phone."
"I saw a lot of solid individual performances today, but you're still struggling to work as a team. So welcome to the final bonding exercise of the day." Hunk tried to move his hand away from Lance, only for them to connect and Lance to move with him. He tried the same with Shiro on his other side, only to get the same thing.
"Coran. I want you to think about what you're doing." You don't get in-between Hunk and food, I learned that the hard way.
"Oh this one's a classic. You get to feed each other! Like a pack of yelmores!" Coran said. Which made all of us growl in frustration and slightly glare at one another.
I guided Keith's hand, which had the spoon in it, to have his hand move up to his mouth. When he was about to take a bite, Lance moved and made me hit Keith with the spoon.
"Keith I'm so sorry! Lance!" I turned to him.
"It wasn't me, it was Hunk!"
"Was not! You just hit me with it!" We all continued to argue while Allura was eating.
"Do earthlings ever stop complaining." She said.
"Can't you just give us break? Every one has been working really hard today." Shiro said, getting annoyed.
"Yeah." Keith stood up. "We're not some prisoners for you to toy with, like, like."
"Like a bunch of toy prisoners!"
"Yes thank you Lance!"
"You do not yell at the princess!" Coran yelled.
"Oh the princess of what?" Pidge asked.
"We're the only ones out here. She's no princess of ours." I finished, I never thought I would say that, but I'm getting mad right now. Next thing I know goo landed on my face. I look over to see Allura standing with her spoon, so she flicked it at me.
"You don't do that to Korra." Keith said and threw his plate at Allura, only to have Coran block it. I blushed when he said that. Coran swung a giant spoon and landed food goo on all of us.
"Oh its on now." Hunk then put some in his mouth, and spit it out at Allura and Coran.
This then started a food goo fight. Allura and Coran where on one side of the table, flinging the goo with there spoons. While we all worked together to get the goo thrown at them.In the end we were all covered in goo and stared at Allura who sat down. We all looked at each other and began laughing.
"Enough!" Allura yelled making us stop and look at her.
"Do you see what you're doing? You're finally working together as one!" She said.
"Hey she's right."
"I actually don't hate you right now." Lance said to Keith.
"You guys thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Let's go form Voltron!"
"Yeah!"
"Actually I was thinking dessert but yeah let's do it!" Hunk then fell backwards, making us all fall with him. We then all went to our lions, the same way we did earlier.
"Every one ready to do this?" Shiro asked as my lion powered on.
"Roger that!"
"It's on!"
"Yes sir!"
"I was born ready!"
"Let's do this!"
"Then let's go!"
"Yeah!"
We all flew into the air and repeated the same process as yesterday, forming Voltron.
~~~
"Man that was so cool! I'm so charged up I don't know if I'll be able to sleep tonight!" Lance said. We're all back in the lounge area, sitting on the long couch.
"Not me. When my head hits the pillow, I'm going to be lights out." Keith said.
"I just want you to know then when we were in Voltron, I realized we're brothers man, you know we're totally connected, no secrets, no nothing." Hunk said as he squeezed Lance and Keith in a hug.
"Has the force been messing with your head?" I asked.
"I don't know maybe, it's been a tough few days." He said, and we all got up and head to our rooms. I yawned and stretched as I walked down the hallway with Keith, as his room was next to mine.
"Good work today, Korra." He said.
"Yeah, you to Keith." I said, and gave him a smile and went into my room.
_______________________________________
Ahhh and it's finished. I honestly wasn't expecting to put the whole episode in one chapter but I did.