Hey guys! Check it out! Another chapter has been uploaded and I've made my first photo edit for this story ever! Honestly, the credit for drawing Kayleigha doesn't belong to me, I just did the coloring. The drawing is based on a sketch made by my youngest sister, a true artist if you ask me.
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Night has fallen on the planet Arus, and a full moon has risen over the Castle of Lions. And tonight, a party is being hosted inside the Castle.
Princess Allura has decided to have a big party with the Arusians the same evening the Paladins defeated the monster that attacked us. The ballroom is full of the smaller aliens, it's almost tricky to move around without stepping on them by accident.
The Arusians mingle with the Paladins, except for Shiro as he stands near the castle entrance. He looks kind of troubled from what I can see.
"The monster fell from the sky!" The Arusian King shouts as a small group of Arusians displays the battle that happened earlier today on the stairs, "It was an epic battle, but Voltron was victorious!"
The Arusians pretending to be the monster knock down the other Arusians pretending to be Voltron.
"No. I said, Voltron was victorious!" the king repeats. The performers quickly correct their little errors and make 'Voltron' victorious.
The Arusians cheer and Allura walks up to the king.
"Thank you, Your Majesty, for that... wonderful production." She says as she turns to face the room, "It saddens me that we must leave tomorrow, but we must continue our battle with Zarkon and spread peace throughout the universe."
Allura turns back towards the king and hands him a small communication device.
"Your Highness... please accept this gift. This will allow you to contact us anytime you need help. Arus will be the first planet in the Voltron Alliance." She says.
"Hoorah!" The Arusian King cheers. His cheer is followed by the rest of the Arusians.
I smile as I watch everyone from a distance. I don't know what I'm supposed to do with parties, and I'd rather be spared from any nervous glances, so I'm just standing by the wall and seeing the Paladins mingle around the smaller creatures in the room and small hovering trays of food and drinks floating around.
Lance is making these weird motions with his hand while talking to Hunk and Keith, before taking a sip of a drink in his hand. He seems to regret it immediately as he struggles to swallow and not gag at the same time.
I am curious to know what happened, so I focus my hearing on him and listen.
"Coran, what is this?" Lance asks the Altean.
"Oh, this is Nunvill, the nectar of the gods." Coran replies.
"It tastes like hot dog water and feet."
"Yeah, makes a wonderful hair tonic as well." Coran sprinkles some Nunvill on his mustache, making it fluff up and shiny.
I lightly grimace when I hear Lance retch. My eyes follow the orange-haired Altean as he walks over to Shiro. He's still standing near the castle entrance with a puzzled look on his face. I wonder what he is thinking about.
"Not feeling well? Try some Nunvill. Settles the stomach and brightens your smile." Coran offers Shiro as I walk over to them.
"I'm not sure we should be letting everyone wander in and out of the Castle like this. It doesn't seem safe."
"Oh, these Arusians won't hurt anything..." Coran tries to reassure him, while at the same time, he sees a couple of Arusians playing with a hover platter, "Much."
Coran cringes and I wince at the sound of them crashing.
"Besides, it's only fair to let them see the inside of a Castle that's been sitting on their planet for so long."
"But who knows when Zarkon will attack again?" Shiro argues.
"He has a point." I say, alerting them that I'm here too.
"Kayleigha, didn't see you there. Are you not enjoying the party as well?" Coran asks.
"Well, this is the first party I've ever been to and I don't exactly know how to enjoy myself at one, so I'm not sure." I say before returning to the important subject, "But I would like to agree with Shiro. If there was ever a time when the Galra could plan an ambush, now would be more than an opportunity for them to attack."
"Kayleigha's right. I'm going to do a perimeter check, just in case." Shiro says as he starts walking towards the exit, "Kayleigha, you want to come with me?"
I'm slightly surprised about him asking me for help, though I still comply, "Sure."
I walk alongside Shiro as we head outside wondering what exactly he has in mind for me.
"So, what is it that you want me to do?" I ask him.
"Well, I figured you could help me keep a lookout by doing aerial surveillance over the castle. It would help a lot if you were to get a better view from the air, see if you might spot something strange." Shiro explains.
"Oh, yeah. Sure, I can do that."
He continues, "And if you do see anything strange, I want you to report back to me in case we need to alert the others."
"Wait, 'report back?' Why?" I look at him confused, "Wouldn't it be better if I just handled the problem myself?"
"Well, it's not that I doubt you can handle anything on your own." Shiro says as we stop to face each other. "But if there is an ambush and you don't know what can happen if you try to engage, you can get hurt or killed. That's why I want you to take precautions and let me know if there's a problem. It's not a good idea to be going around guns blazing. Or fire blazing in your case."
I groan in annoyance at his pun while rolling my eyes, though I agree with his statement. I want to play a more important part on the team that doesn't involve me sitting around and watching the others do the fighting and hard work. But at the moment, I guess I should just focus on keeping the castle secure, and it wouldn't help if I ran straight into trouble.
"All right. I know I can't argue with you on that, and I definitely shouldn't be denying orders from the leader of Voltron."
Shiro smiles in approval of my agreement. I turn and walk ahead of him on the bridge.
"I'll be sure to let you know if I see anything as soon as possible." I say as I start to trot a little faster.
"Be careful!" He calls as I move further away from him.
"You as well!"
I break into a sprint and run across the bridge as I flap my wings, lifting off the ground and into the air.
I don't have any experience with how to do a patrol in the air, but I do think that the idea is to circle the castle and make sure that there isn't anything suspicious in the area. Seems simple enough. And I am a dragon. I have a stronger vision than the humans and Alteans. If someone is trying to infiltrate the castle, I will not have any trouble spotting them.
I fly in circles around the castle and have my eyes open for any movement I may see on the ground. After every second circle, I loop over the bridge at the front of the castle and fly the other way just to make sure there isn't anything that I missed.
As I'm patrolling, I've been keeping track of how many circles I do. So far, I'm up to 8 laps and as I'm about to turn around again, I pause because I think I just saw something move by the rocks on the cliff. I hover and look directly at the place where I saw it, but there's nothing to see. I carefully move closer to the cliffside to get a better look and there's still nothing.
Maybe it was just my mind thinking that I was supposed to spot something, or it could be because I might be a little dizzy from flying in circles.
I continue my patrol and nothing else catches my attention for a while. I think I lost count but I'm sure I've flown up to 20 laps by now.
I have to be honest, this is a lot more boring than I thought it would be, but it is better than being cramped in a cell. At least here I can stretch my wings.
As I glide over the bridge once again, my mind is focused on the ground below me, when suddenly, the silence in the air around me is broken by the sound of a whistle. I stop and hover to look in the direction the noise came from. Down on the bridge, I spot two people standing next to each other and looking up at me. I realize that it's Pidge and Shiro, the latter is waving his arms at me.
He looks like he's trying to get me to come down there. I flap a couple of times to adjust my trajectory before I glide down toward Paladins.
"Shiro, Pidge, is something wrong?" I ask as soon as I land in front of them.
I notice that Pidge has his backpack on, with Rover hovering right beside him. What is that all about?
"I need to talk to you guys about something and I need to tell everyone about it." Pidge replies.
"Then we better head back inside and grab the others." Shiro says.
We head towards the castle and I start to think of different questions to what Pidge wants to tell us. But I stop frozen in my tracks when I see something move at the corner of my eye. My ears perk up, my eyes constrict, and I feel my blood start to turn cold as I turn my head to the right while growling softly.
Now I'm very sure that I did see something, but there's nothing but some bushes and rocks, and the only ones that are moving are the Arusians wandering around the place. I have a bad feeling that I might be missing something and I don't like it.
"Kayleigha?" Shiro's voice snaps me out of my thoughts and I look at him and Pidge, the two of them looking back at me. "What is it?"
I glance back at the rocks again suspiciously, before turning back to Shiro.
"It's nothing. I just thought I saw something." I tell him.
I ignore the feeling and continue to follow the humans inside, but I still feel nervous that something could happen and I have been missing it the whole time.
After grabbing the other Paladins and the Princess, we are standing in the middle of the hallway near the exit, except for Lance and Coran who weren't in the ballroom when we came looking for everyone else. But that doesn't matter to Pidge, because he really wants to talk to us about something. But what the Green Paladin says makes my chest start to ache.
"You're leaving?" I ask shockingly.
"Pidge, no." Shiro says.
"The download from the Galra ship was enough to at least get me in the right direction to start my search. I have a pod all ready to go." Pidge says.
"You can't leave." Keith says, stomping in front of Pidge and looking down at him with a furious expression.
"You can't tell me what to do!" Pidge yells back.
"If you leave, we can't form Voltron. And that means we can't defend the universe against Zarkon. You're not the only one with a family. All these Arusians have families. Everyone in the universe has families."
"Yeah, I have a family. They live on Earth." Hunk interjects, "I want to be with them. Is that-- Is that, like, a thing that can happen?"
"You want to leave, too?" Allura asks, worried about losing another paladin.
"Of course I do! Look, Voltron is super-cool, don't get me wrong, but I never signed up for a lifetime in space fighting aliens."
"You're putting the lives of two people over the lives of everyone else in the entire galaxy!" Keith shouts as he stomps closer to Pidge. The smaller human backs away from his explosive anger. Shiro quickly grabs Keith's arm and pulls him back a little.
"Keith, that's not how a team works." He tells Keith sternly, "People have to want to be a part of it. They can't be forced."
Keith becomes quiet and calms down a little. Then our attention is turned back to Pidge.
"If you want to leave, we won't try to stop you." Shiro says calmly, "But, please, just think about what you're doing."
I look at Pidge sympathetically, he seems to be in a hard place at the moment. Although Keith is right, the universe needs Voltron, and without even one Paladin, we won't have much of a chance at fighting the Galra without Voltron. But then, if I was in Pidge's place and I found even the slightest clue of where I could find my family, I would be willing to take it.
Pidge seems conflicted about his decision but remains firm.
"I'm sorry." Pidge apologizes, "You're going to have to find someone else to pilot the Green Lion."
Pidge leaves us with Rover following close behind. We all stare at him as he walks away.
"I can't believe it." Allura says in disbelief, "This team is falling apart. How will we ever form Voltron?"
We stand in silence, unsure of what to do. I almost wish I could pilot so I could fly the Green Lion. Then again, my intellect doesn't even begin to rival someone's like Pidge.
Suddenly, the sound of an explosion erupts through the halls and the castle starts shaking, causing dust and small debris to fall from the ceiling. The Arusians scream and run outside in panic.
We all gasp in shock as soon as everything becomes chaotic. Everyone begins running towards the bridge, I run ahead as fast as my four legs can carry me, I even flap my wings from time to time to add more speed.
I find myself running into a cloud of smoke as I get closer to the entrance to the bridge. While coughing from accidentally breathing in some of the smoke, I pause when I find Coran lying down on the floor, barely conscious.
I stand beside him and nudge him, "Coran? Coran, are you okay?"
The Altean groans as he glances up at me.
"I believe so."
Seeing that he's not injured, I return my attention to the bridge. I walk through the doorway, which is now damaged from the explosion, but can't see anything with the smoke.
I carefully sniff the air to check for anything that might be in here and my eyes widen when I pick up a familiar scent.
I look back when I hear the others coughing as they walk through the cloud of smoke and find Coran on the floor.
"What happened?" Shiro asks.
"I'm not sure." Coran groans.
I look forward again and begin flapping my wings, hard but steady enough to push away the smoke and clear the room. Even in the dark, the whole place is a mess and the crystal on the ceiling is destroyed. But then, my heart skips a beat from what I see on the floor. Or more really who.
"The crystal!" Allura gasps.
"Lance!" I exclaim.
Lance is on the ground unconscious and he looks more injured than Coran. I stare at him worriedly as Shiro runs over to him and carefully holds him up.
"Lance? Lance!" Shiro says to try to wake him, but Lance only groans in pain.
"We have to get Lance to the infirmary!" Pidge says.
"Without the crystal, the Castle has no power." Allura states.
"He doesn't look good." Shiro says.
Nervous about Lance's injuries, I nearly miss hearing rapid footsteps behind us. The Arusian King suddenly comes running onto the bridge, his eyes filled with terror.
"Lion warriors, our village is under attack!" He cries, "We need help!"
"Let's get to the Lions!" Keith says.
"You can't." Allura says, "They're sealed in their hangars. There's no way to get them out. We're defenseless."
"Will you not help us?" The Arusian asks in worry.
"We'll help you. We just..."
Lance groans, stopping us from saying anything else.
"This is bad." Hunk says.
"We have to get a new crystal to get the Castle working again. But, to get a new crystal, we need a ship." Coran says.
"The pod I was loading, we can use that! I left the bay door open." Pidge says.
"I can use the scanner in the pod to see if there's a Balmera nearby. Hunk, you come with me. I'll need someone big to help me carry the crystal."
"A Balmera?" Hunk questioningly repeats.
"It's where the Crystals come from. I'll tell you about it on the way!"
Coran, Hunk, and Pidge run down the halls to the pod bay to get to the pod and hopefully retrieve a crystal to power the castle.
"I'll go see what's happening at the Arusian village." Keith says.
"I'll go with you, Keith." Allura says, "I brought this on the poor Arusians."
"I'll tend to Lance and stand watch over the Castle." Shiro says.
"What about me? Is there anything I can do to help?" I ask.
"Go with Keith and Allura." Shiro says, "If this is an attack, they need all the help they can get on whoever is behind it."
I nod to him and leave with the Red Paladin and Altean Princess. We wait briefly for Allura to change into her battle suit before we head out.
I'm the first one to move when Allura stops me.
"Kayleigha, wait. I have something that you might need."
I look at her curiously as she holds out her hand in front of her, revealing two small devices in it.
(Imagine them as Altean)
"What are these?" I ask.
"They're earpiece communicators. They will allow us to contact each other if we need to from a distance." She explains, handing me the devices.
I place them over my ears without hesitation. They fit perfectly and I smile at Allura with satisfaction.
The three of us leave and head to the Arusian village. We don't even have to get any closer to see smoke rising from the place.
We stop at the edge of a cliff where the Arusians are gathered and see their village has been set ablaze.
"What's happening?" Allura asks.
"Look! Attackers!" The Arusian King says, pointing down at the village. We find that he's pointing at a group of Galra sentries standing in the middle of the flames and explosions.
"I'll go in for a closer look. Kayleigha, you're with me." Keith says. I nod to him, then he looks at Allura.
"Stay here with them." He tells Allura.
"Keith!" Allura shouts as he jumps and slides down the slope towards the village.
"It's okay. I got his back." I reassure her before I, too, head towards the chaos ahead.
Keith and I move carefully around the flaming buildings as we get closer to the sentries. We stop behind a broken house and peek through the window, getting a better look at the robots. They're just standing there, not shooting at anything or searching for victims to apprehend.
Something's not right.
When a tower falls, so does one of the sentries.
"What?" Keith mutters, confused.
I focus hard on the robots, only to become shocked when I see that they are actually broken, seeing that they have detached limbs and even another drone falls and knocks off its head.
"They aren't functional. This was a trick!" I say to Keith.
"Oh, no! They've tricked us! It was just a diversion to separate us and thin the Castle defenses." Keith tells Allura. We return to her and we immediately hurry back to the castle.
We make it to the bridge that leads towards it when the Castle suddenly lights up, only instead of a bright blue color, it's dark violet.
The particle barrier starts lowering over it, urging me to run faster, hoping to make it inside. As the shield nearly reaches the ground, I immediately jump from the ground and flap my wings as fast as I can, adrenaline rushing through my whole body as I get closer.
I think I'm able to slip under the barrier--
BANG!!!
Pain erupts through my head when I crash into the barrier jaw first. I screech in pain as I fall back onto the floor.
"We're too late... No!" Keith cries as he hits the barrier.
"They have control of the Castle." Allura looks up at the Castle with fear in her eyes, "They're taking Voltron!"
"Are you alright, Kayleigha?" Keith asks, I groan as I stand up and rub my jaw.
"I'm fine." I reply before looking at them, "Is there any way we can get in?"
"I'm afraid not. Not from here." The princess replies.
Keith brings out his sword, "Can we break through the barrier?"
"No. And whoever has taken the Castle has a Crystal, which means they'll be able to fly the ship. We have to stop them."
"How are we going to do that?" he asks.
"Keith, can you hear me?"
I perk up when I hear a familiar voice in my ears.
"Pidge! Is that you? Where are you?" Keith says, hearing his voice in his helmet.
"I'm inside the Castle. Sendak has taken over and he's preparing for launch. He's got Lance and Shiro." Pidge replies.
"Sendak?" I repeat nervously.
Sendak survived the explosion? He must've gone into an escape pod before Voltron took out his cruiser and defeated him.
I feel my body become stiff from hearing the Galra commander's name, fear runs through my body as I recall the memories of the terrible things he did to me when I was his prisoner.
"Pidge, listen." Allura says, breaking me out of my thoughts, "If they've started the launch sequence, then we don't have much time before liftoff to stop it."
"What do I have to do?" Pidge asks.
"You have to get down to the main engine control panel and disconnect the primary turbine from the Central Energy Chamber. If you can do that, Sendak will have to reset the whole system. That might give us enough time to find a way to stop them."
We wait for Pidge to find that room and ask for more instructions.
As I sit quietly next to Allura and Keith, I start to think about the things that can happen if Sendak isn't stopped, which worries me.
Voltron cannot get to Zarkon, otherwise, we will have failed as the Defenders of the Universe and nothing will stop the Galra from conquering and destroying planets. Shiro just got out of Galra prison, he shouldn't go back again. And Lance is still hurt badly! Who knows how soon he'll get the attention he needs, if the Galra even considers that?
"Kayleigha."
I gasp and look at Allura and Keith, his voice snapping me out of my thoughts.
"Are you alright? You seem to be shaking a little." Allura asks.
"I-I'm fine." I stammer, pausing for a moment to take a few deep breaths.
"I understand, I'm scared, too." Allura says.
"Me, too."
>>>--->
"Okay, Allura, I'm near the turbine. I think it's started." Pidge says.
"Then you'll have to hurry. Cross the catwalk to the main column in the center." Allura instructs.
There is a brief silence, then he speaks again. "Okay."
"Now, open the hatch. Find the central computer control hub and enter the following sequence..."
"Wait, wait, wait, wait! Which one is it? All the labels are in Altean!"
Uh-oh. How's Pidge supposed to follow Allura's instructions if he can't understand them?
Our problems get bigger when the ground begins to shake and the castle powers up more.
They're about to launch!
Allura tries to contact Pidge, but there is no response from communication.
"I've lost connection with Pidge!" Allura yells. We back away from the particle barrier when the shaking grows and look up at the castle.
"Oh, no! It's taking off!"
Just as the Castle is about to lift off the ground, it suddenly stops. Everything goes still.
Pidge did it! He stopped the launch!
I let out a sigh of relief. That was way too close.
Now we have time to figure out what we have to do to stop Sendak from taking Voltron.
But I hope we can do that soon. I do not doubt that Sendak has figured out now that Pidge is somewhere in the Castle. Who knows what he'll do to Pidge if he catches him?
I stare up at the downed, purple-illuminated Castle with hopeful eyes.
"Be safe, Pidge."