"Everybody up! Zarkon's attacking! The Castle's about to be destroyed! Go, go, go! We need Voltron now! Hurry! We can't survive much longer!"
Sophie shot into the air and smacked her head on the console above her.
"Damnit. This early?" She complained as she got up and ran for the control room, tool belt and all.
"You've got to sell it a little bit more." Coran was saying before he stole the mic from Allura.
"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?"
Shiro, Keith, Hunk, and Pidge ran in and stood with the grease covered Sophie.
"Coran." Allura tried.
"Oh, yes, Princess, I'm listening."
"It's over."
"Oh, I know! If only Voltron had been formed. Oh! Time!" Coran finally stopped having noticed the force.
Mani and Alsac snickered from beside one of the consoles.
"I guess this isn't an actual attack." Shiro sighed.
"And it's a good thing it wasn't because it took you- Coran?" Allura was furious.
"Seventy-five degrees."
There was a pause.
"Oh, 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 is in uniform. Keith, Pidge, Hunk, where are your bayards? And where is Lance?"
The doors slid open and Lance walked in wearing a bathrobe and tea in his hand.
"Good morning, everybody. What's going on?" He greeted.
"Mani, Alsac, Jacob, Sophie, 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 explained.
"Hey! 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. That's a lot to process in, uh I don't know. What day is today?" Hunk argued.
"It's the third quintant of the Spicolian movement. Hump day!" Coran smiled.
"It's a lot to process."
"You must understand the stakes of our mission. Over the last 10,000 years, the Castle picked up distress beacons from the following locations. So, we have to assume that Zarkon has conquered almost the entire known universe. Earth is here. An attack on your planet is inevitable." Allura told them.
"Oh no." Hunk breathed.
"Oh." Sophie blinked as she stopped rubbing her head.
"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."
"The Princess is right. Let's get to our lions and start training." Shiro ordered.
"Wait. But I want to talk to the prisoners we rescued from the Galra ship." Pidge interrupted.
"Negative, Number Five. I have you ranked by height, okay? The prisoners need to remain in the cryo-replenishers until tomorrow." Coran said as he bent over and measured Pidge.
"That's right. Now, get to your lions." Allura commanded.
The guy ran off to do as ordered.
"That fricken hurt by the way." Sophie commented as she walked over to Allura.
"Sorry Sophie. I didn't think you'd be up yet or else I would've warned you." Allura apologized.
"I'm always up before the sun. I don't sleep well so usually I'm up working on something. I believe I've almost stabilized the particle barrier." Sophie replied.
"Good to know. And that's great, please let me know when it's finished."
"Hey, what did you mean by leave Arus exactly?" Sophie asked.
"We'd be leaving to travel around freeing planets. Doing our job." Allura explained.
"But what about the other royals? And Arus itself? And what if there are other survivors? We can't just leave them behind Allura!"
"I understand Sophie but the rest of the universe needs us more." Allura smiled as she placed her hand on Sophie's shoulder.
"No. They don't. Everybody needs us and that includes Arus and its people." Sophie glared as she batted Allura's hand away and stormed out of the control room.
"Sophie!" Alsac called out as he ran after her.
"She's right you know. We need to stay here and just send out the lions. We can still prepare the castle in case we ever need to go back up Voltron but Arus is still the safest place for us." Mani spoke up.
"That's not up to you or her." Allura told her cousin sternly before she turned her back.
<><><><><>
"You did it! You formed Voltron!" Allura cheered as she walked into the room and saw the guys sitting on the couch.
"No. The shooting stopped and the particle barrier shut down, so we just flew in."
"What?" Allura exclaimed.
"Oh, right. Sorry, Princess. I had to turn off the Castle defenses to test the fire suppressors." Coran apologized.
Shiro walked in from the opposite side of the room.
"What are you guys doing in here? We're not taking a break." He questioned.
"Shiro's right. You should be training." Allura agreed.
"We've been training. When are we going back to Earth?" Hunk asked.
"I'm not going back until I find my family." Pidge glared.
"Guys, there won't be an Earth if we don't figure out how to fight Zarkon."
"How are we going to fight? We can't even figure out how to form Voltron."
"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 told them.
"Wow."
"Well, that's definitely not them. Or any of us lately for that matter. Have Sophie and Alsac returned yet?" Mani commented as she and Jacob walked in.
"Returned? Where did they go?" Pidge questioned.
"I'm not sure. Allura and Sophie had a bit of a... disagreement after you all left earlier causing Sophie to storm off in anger. Alsac followed her and I haven't seen either since then." The blonde princess explained.
Keith jumped to his feet, "Why are we still sitting here then? We need to look for them!"
"Keith, Sophie isn't exactly a little girl anymore. She doesn't always need her big brother to save her all the time. And Mani, Alsac couldn't be safer than he is with Sophie. They're probably just cooling off somewhere." Shiro spoke as he tried to calm the worried older siblings.
"It's been like five hours since they disappeared, Shiro. I don't ever remember Sophie being gone for that long even when she's angry. She knows Keith worries about her too much so she never goes far for long to cool off." Hunk informed the older man as he stood from the couch.
"And Alsac knows to not be away from me for so long without telling me first or checking in quite often. I nearly killed a man to find him last time he was gone longer than three hours with no contact." Mani added.
"Then it's settled. We'll split up, Allura, Coran, and I will search the castle while Mani and you Paladins search Arus using the lions." Jacob spoke up as he walked over to Mani and placed his hand on her shoulder.
"What are we looking for?"
"Ooh! Can Sophie and I help?"
Everyone turned to find Sophie and Alsac standing in the doorway wearing huge grins.
"Sophie!"
"Alsac!"
Keith and Mani exclaimed as they ran over and all but tackled their younger siblings.
"Can't breathe, Keith." Sophie squeaked out as she tried to wiggle free.
The older siblings pulled away at the same time.
Mani's hands grasped Alsac's shoulders so he wouldn't disappear on her again, "Where have you been?"
"I showed Sophie to the next closest kingdom, Mani. Relax, we we took the tunnels so we were safe." Alsac explained.
"May I present to you, Princess Romelle of the Water Kingdom and her advisor Laic." Sophie introduced as she stepped to the side for their new guests.
A girl around the age of the other two princesses walked in followed by a man only a few years older than her. She had the same blonde hair and pale skin as Mani but she look more like Allura otherwise. The man was also pale and blonde but his pale green eyes held a similar distrusting gaze to Mani's blue eyes. Where Romelle's were a soft blue that Sophie had earlier commented reminded her of the spring inside Blue's cavern.
"Welcome Princess Romelle and Laic." Shiro greeted them for the team.
Romelle shifted uncomfortably under their gazes, "I trust Blue is in safe hands." Was her only response.
The Earthlings shared a look before Sophie laughed to end the silence.
"Please don't worry. I'll keep her pilot in line, Romelle." The blackette smiled.
Lance shot the mechanic a look as if to challenge her.