The Sixth Paladin

Chapter 23

~~~

Everyone dispersed through the hallways and went to their own rooms. I collapsed on my bed, not bothering to take my shoes or jacket off. I was close to falling asleep when a bang at my door made me jump up.
"Who is it?"
"It's me." Lance said. The door slid open and he had on swim trunks and a towel over his shoulder.
"I heard there's a pool here and wanted to know if you wanted to come with?" He asked while leaning on the door frame. I thought about it then nodded.
"Why not. Give me a minute." He nodded and yawned as he stepped away from the door to let it close. I sat up and went over to the small closet. There wasn't much in here, since we didn't exactly get the chance to pack anything, Allura gave us some simple clothing. I shuffled around the clothes until I found a dark pink one piece with the string design in the back that makes you question which one you put your head though. After a minute of struggling I managed to get it on. I debated whether I should take my jacket or not but decided against it. It's just going to be me and Lance. I went out into the hallway and saw Lance leaning on the wall next to the door. He tossed me a towel and we went over to the elevator. I went in first, Lance following. The doors were about to close when a hand stopped them.
"What the heck do you think you're doing?" Lance asked Keith who stepped in with red swim trunks on.
"Allura said there was a pool and I'm going the check it out, what do you think you're doing?"
"The same thing." I said. Keith perked up as if he just noticed I was there. He turned, his eyes widened as he looked me up and down.
"What are you doing?"
"Nothing." He turned red and looked at Lance. "You stay on one side of the pool and I'll stay on the other. We'll be far away from each other. Very. Far. Away." The elevator shook and I grabbed Keith's arm to keep from falling. The elevator suddenly turned dark, the lights went out. I heard the boys sigh.
~~~
After some arguing and panicking, me doing all the panicking. Keith and Lance came with the oh so great idea of climbing out the elevator and going up the tunnel with their backs to each other and climbing.(idk how to describe it but you know what they did.) That left me wondering, what am I supposed to do? And that's how I wound up clinging to Keith like a koala and he and Lance climbed up. (I don't think that could actually work irl but oh whale)
We made it pretty far when they suddenly slipped making me let out a loud yelp.
"It's right, then left. Your off." Keith said when they stopped.
"You're off and shoving too hard."
"You're not shoving hard enough."
"Can you guys please shut up, you're not helping my situation." I said.
"What situation?" Lance asked.
"BEING TERRIFIED. I'VE FOUGHT ZARKON AND WASN'T AS SCARED AS I AM NOW." I took a deep breath and tightened my grip on Keith.
"Okay."
"Look!" I forced my eyes to open and look up. Keith had pointed out a hatch. After some climbing and some panicked yelling, we made it. I scrambled in first when Keith kicked it in. We slid down the hatch and landed harshly on the ground. I think my back is bruised. I noticed the boys where looking up so I did to.
Oh.
The pool is up there.
"Stupid Altean pools." Keith grumbled. The castle suddenly rumbled. The water came down and dragged us up. Then let us fall back to the ground. I gasped when the water took us up we all groaned when we landed and I coughed up water.
~~~
We ran to the main control room and ran to our seats. Zarkon's ship was right above us and hundreds of fighter ships are shooting at us.
"They found us? Again? How is it possible? Is it possible? It doesn't seem possible!" Lance rambled. I pulled up the holographic computer at my seat and began working on keeping defenses up.
"Right now we must figure out a way to get out of here." Allura said.
"Or we can stay and fight. Now's our chance. Form Voltron, no more running." Keith said.
"It's too dangerous." I stated, still frowning at the stats. I could feel Keith's gaze but I didn't bother to look up.
"The girls are right. We can't take on Zarkon and his entire fleet." Shiro yelled over the blasts. Coran appeared on the giant screen.
"The turbine's up. Begin the worm-" Coran cut himself off with a yelp as he slipped again.
"Uh guys, I think I do in fact of the slipperies. I'm sorry I yelled at you Pidge, I may need you down here." Coran said with a sad face.
"I'm coming down."
"Clear a path!" Shiro ordered. The ship flew forward, the fighter ships following. I could feel the rumble of the ship as it shot at the fighters, and them fighting back.
"Lance there's a fighter on your nine." Keith spoke up.
"Thanks! Get the one going for the lower barrier." A few seconds later.
"What's going on? I lost control of my defense drone!" Lance said. I peeked up and saw that his controls and holographic computer disappeared.
"I got you!" Keith's disappeared as well. "Okay I don't got you. There must be a system failure. Korra?"
"There's no power to your drones." I said while frowning.
"That was us." I looked up to see Pidge on the big screen with Coran screaming in the back.
"We're diverting power from non-essential systems to get the wormhole generator working."
"Shooting bad guys is pretty essential!" Lance yelled and jumped out of his seat.
"We lost secondary controls." I said.
"Thermal regulators offline!" Hunk said right after.
"Oh there goes the particle barrier." I stressed. Not good, not good not good.
"Okay try it! We should be able to make a small jump, I hope." Coran said. Allura closes her eyes, and powered up the generator. The familiar black and blue ring appeared.
"The wormholes open!" We flew threw, the ring closing immediately after. We came out in front of a brown planet, with what looks like giant dust clouds. We all sat back. I leaned back in my seat and closed my eyes, taking a deep breath to try and calm my racing heart. Just as I dozed off I realized.
I'm still in my swimsuit.
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Random Korra fact of the day: As you could probably tell from the chapter, she has a slight fear of heights. And clowns *shudders*