Princess Alaina of Voltron

~Bonus: Kingdom Wars~

AN: Yeah, I just thought I'd add this. It's pretty much just filler, but I wanted to explore the concept of an Altean version of chess a little. Let's see how I did.

The Paladins had all returned to the castle after eating at the nunvillary. Coran strut in proudly only to immediately face two very angry altean females, and a disproving Blade. Even with the mask, his body language made it clear that he wasn't pleased.

It turns out that Lana had called and told them what happened, and that it was just a façade cooked up by Coran. Amue herself proceeded to give the orange-mustache man the scolding of a life time, even the Paladins were intimidated.

"Like I said, an angry Amue, is a scary Amue." Lana had said. The Paladins all had to agreed. While polite most of the time, Amue was defiantly not somebody you want to piss off.

Besides that, things pretty much went back to normal. Allura was still recovering from the Balmera incident. Coran and Amue maintained the Castle, Blade was... actually no one knew what he was doing, but everyone made sure to keep a close eye on him. And Keith was currently wandering.

"Huh? What are you guys doing?" The Red Paladin asks when he walks into the lounge area to see Lana, Pidge and Hunk were all gathered around a strange table in the center of the couch.

"Oh, hey Keith. Lana was just about to show us how to play Kingdom Wars." Hunk greets then explains.

"You mean the Altean version of Chess?" Keith asks, remembering the game from back when they faced off against the Sphinx.

"Yeah, pretty much. I asked Lana if we could play. I was curious." Pidge says.

"Jaga and I managed to find a Kingdom Wars set." Lana says, her cat companion meowing from next to her. "If you want, you can join in. It's a 2-4 person game anyway." Lana offers and Keith sits down at the table.

"Really? On Earth, Chess is just a two person game." The boy asks.

"While that's true, there are a three-way and four-way versions too." Pidge says.

"And while it is like chess, it's also a little different as well." Hunk adds.

"Indeed, from the game Pidge played back at the Sphinx, I noticed quite a few differences. I'll explain, but first we need to set it up." Lana says, then pushes a button on the table which opens a hidden compartment. "So, choose your pieces and set them up. It's the same as that game back in the ziggurat." She says and takes one of the boxes. The others take them too.

In the boxes were different colored chess pieces, coincidently corresponding to each of their lion colors. The pieces themselves were pretty ornately designed, but they did look close enough to regular Chess pieces back on earth. Lana then presses another button and a chess board appears on the table.

It was a little bigger than the normal boards, and had a double row section on all sides, but otherwise was the same. The four paladins then set up their pieces on their sections of the board and parts of the board, in the shape of a triangle, lights up in their colors.

"So the game works like this," The altean princess begins. "We all start out with the same pieces on the board, but the names we have for them are different than the names that you use.

"For example: The ones that you call Pawns are what we call Footmen. The Rooks as you call them, are referred to as Towers, the Knights are the Guards, and the Bishops are called the Ministers. The King and Queen remain the same, but they are also referred to as the Patriarchy and the Matriarchy.

"The pieces all move the same way as in your chess game, and you can only move one piece pure turn. However, the main difference is you win by either capturing both the King and Queen, or all your opponent's pieces all together. or even putting the royals in a position where they can't move without begin taken.

When either the King or Queen is in danger of being taken, you say: "Point Attack", and when their left unable to move you say: "Kingdom Take Over". And In a group like this, you're eliminated from the game when you lose. Whoever's left wins." She then finishes explaining.

"Any other questions?" She asks next. The Paladins all shake their heads. "Good. Let's begin." She says and they all start playing.

Shiro sighs as he walks down the hall of the Castle. That last trip was exhausting, Coran really had them running around like crazy. He still couldn't believe the whole thing was just a training exercise that the altean royal advisor had devised. Needless to say, he couldn't be sympathetic when Amue scolded him.

"Ah! Come on! I'm out already!" He hears Keith's frustrated voice exclaim.

"Wow, you're really bad at this man." Hunk's voice said next.

"Hothead's specially is defiantly not strategy." Lana's voice states.

"That's for sure." Pidge's voice snickers and he finds the source is coming from the lounge room.

"Hey! I'm just used to real battle!" Keith retorts as Shiro walks into the room to see the younger Paladins all gathered around what looked like a game of chess.

"What's going on here?" He asks as he steps up to them, getting their attention.

"Oh, hey Shiro. Lana here is teaching us the Altean version of Chess." Pidge says while pushing her glasses, while also gaining a mischievous glint in her eye. "And so far Keith sucks at it." She jabs in a teasing manner, causing everyone to laugh.

"Well, strategy games weren't really ever Keith's strong suit." Shiro admits.

"What?! Shiro you're supposed to be on my side!" the said boy complains.

"It's the truth though." Pidge says.

"Indeed. He's better at randomly stabbing things. What's your moto? "Act first, think, never"." Lana teases.

"Oh, shut it! Next time your mine!" Keith retorts then declares and the princess just chuckles amused, along with the other two. Shiro smiled at the display. Happy to see the Paladins all getting along and having fun like this. Especially during trying times like this.

AN: That's it for the bonus chapter. Tell me what you thought in the comments below. Until then, see you all next chapter.