The last thing Kanna remembered was jumping into a wormhole.
Now, she found herself with a huge headache and an unresponsive lion.
Kanna jumped out her lion, rubbing the back of her head.
"What just happened?" she wondered.
As she looked around, she saw Pidge hopping out of the green lion.
"Kanna! You're here too!" said Pidge.
"Hey Pidge. Where the heck are we?"
"I have no idea. Seems to be some kinda space junk-yard. I think the wormhole was damaged and we got sent off to different places."
"Wonderful. How are we gonna find everyone?"
"I'm not sure... I was thinking of using all of this stuff around us to build a satellite and transmit our location." said Pidge.
Kanna was once again dumbfounded by Pidge's intelligence. She realized how screwed she would be if she was stuck here alone.
"Oh man, I'm SO glad you got stuck here with me." Kanna said, hugging Pidge.
Pidge smiled and readjusted her glasses.
"Okay, so I think we should start by-"
"Um, Pidge?" interrupted Kanna.
"Yeah?"
"Turn around." Kanna said, with a terrified expression on her face.
Pidge turned around to find dozens of scary glowing eyes staring at them from inside a dark, open turbine.
Pidge yelped and jumped behind Kanna.
But before the girls could panic, the eyes started moving towards the light, and revealed themselves to be adorable, furry potato-looking aliens.
"Oh my goodness! You guys are so CUTE!" said Kanna, holding about five of them in her arms.
"Aw, hey little guys!" said Pidge, petting the fluffy aliens. "Can you help my friend and I build a satellite?"
So they began gathering parts. The two paladins flew around the junk-yard, scouting for parts and moving things around.
With the help of the furry creatures, Pidge and Kanna built a massive satellite off the back of the green and white lions.
"Pidge, you're a genius." said Kanna, admiring the work.
"I know. Now, we gotta turn it on."
The two attempted, to no success, to turn the lions on to power the satellite.
"They aren't coming back on! What are we gonna do now?" complained Pidge.
Kanna thought about it for a second, and then she had an idea.
"There's something I can try." she said, walking towards her lion.
Once she approached, she touched its face and closed her eyes.
"Endari blessings and incantations are essentially just a transfer of energy. Maybe if I try it on the lions, it can kickstart them."
Then she began to sing:
(Song: Dreamcatcher by Secret Garden)
"Hear my silent prayer
Heed my quiet call
When the dark and blue surround you
Step into my sight
Look inside the light
You will know that I have found you"
Kanna's incantation worked: the lions' eyes lit up, and the satellite began working.
"YES! Kanna, I'm so glad you got stuck here with me!" said Pidge, and the girls commemorated with a hug.
Not long after, the castle of lions emerged in the horizon.
Once it landed, Coran and the princess ran to meet the girls.
"Girls! You saved us! We were stuck in a time loop, but your signal gave us coordinates to set the castle to and we managed to escape!" said Allura.
"It was all Pidge. She built this satellite." said Kanna.
"Which I only managed to start because Kanna brought the lions back to life." continued Pidge.
The two paladins exchanged a smile. It looked like the start of a great friendship.
"Alright guys, let's go get the rest of the team." said Allura.
---
The castle went to get Shiro and Keith next. They were stranded on a rocky planet, and Shiro was in pretty bad shape. He had been shot while running from the Galra guards in the collection station.
"Shiro needs help." said Keith, helping the Voltron leader into the castle.
"You need to get him to a healing pod! Here, I'll help you" said Kanna, as she grabbed onto Shiro's other arm.
Next, the crew received signals of the yellow and blue lion's coming from a water planet, so they traveled to rescue the last two paladins.
Once they were all back on the ship, the paladins stood around waiting for Shiro to recover.
"Paladins, you should all go get some rest. Shiro will need time to recover, and all of you need sleep. Who knows what tomorrow brings." said Allura.
One at a time the paladins began to head to their rooms for sleep. When Keith got up to leave, he noticed Kanna was still sitting by Shiro's healing pod.
"Hey, you coming?" asked the red paladin.
"Yeah, in a bit." responded Kanna.
"Are you okay?" inquired Keith.
Taking a deep breath, the white paladin responded:
"I don't know. I mean, I'm okay. But with Shiro in there, I have a lot in my mind. Just the idea that he wouldn't be around anymore makes me panic."
Keith's face was full of sadness.
"I know what you mean."
Looking at Shiro, Kanna got up and said:
"I guess I should go get some sleep" and walked away.
---
A few hours later, after a long nap, Keith was walking towards the training deck.
On the way, he noticed Pidge was in the lab, and popped in to talk to her.
"Hey Pidge."
"Whats up, Keith?"
"Not much. Find any info from what we managed to get from the collection station?"
"Not yet. This is trickier than I thought it would be."
After a few moments of silence, Keith finally asked:
"Hey Pidge, you and Kanna talk, sometimes... right?"
Caught off guard, Pidge responded:
"Uhhh, yeah. Why do you ask?
"Has Kanna ever mentioned anything about having, um..." he cleared his throat. "Feelings for Shiro?"
Pidge had a surprised look on her face:
"No, not really. Why?" she knew why, but she wanted to see if Keith would tell her.
"No reason. You know, I just noticed some things... it doesn't matter, really."
Feeling bad for the red paladin, Pidge decided to reassure him:
"I think Kanna thinks of Shiro more like an older brother."
Keith's face instantly lit up, but he attempted to hide it.
"Yeah, probably." he said. "Anyway, good talk Pidge. Good luck with your... stuff."
Keith then walked away.
Pidge chuckled, shaking her head.
---
Kanna had been sleeping for the past couple hours. She was exhausted, and was looking forward to a deep, dreamless sleep.
Unfortunately, like most nights, her sleep was haunted by memories from her past:
Kanna was in one of Lotor's hideouts, training the new recruit: a little girl named Akia.
She was just a child, but Lotor saw potential in her, and decided to train her into a member of his elite team.
Being so young only made her more promising, because she could be molded into a blindly loyal killing machine, like the rest of his crew.
Kanna's orders were to teach the girl to handle battle weapons.
Akia was excited and hopeful, but Kanna wished she wasn't. Akia was too young and too naive. She wasn't ready to choose a path like this.
In the end, however, prince Lotor always got what he wanted, and despite Kanna's protests, this little girl's path was already paved.
"Being a good fighter means being able to fight with whatever you've got. That is why you must strive to master all weapons." explained Kanna.
"However, if you want to become an excellent fighter, you must also have a weapon of choice to fight flawlessly with. Prioritizing that weapon will get you to the point of excellency faster, and Lotor will expect nothing less from his crew." she continued, while standing on the training field with the child.
"What is my signature weapon?" asked Akia, enthusiatically.
"You must choose your signature weapon. You must feel which one matches your energy and compliments your skills best."
Akia walked towards the weapon rack, and immediately picked up the bow and arrow.
"I'll be an archer, Master Kanna!" said Akia, smiling.
This broke Kanna's heart. This girl should not be learning to fight. No child should be.
"So be it." said Kanna, initiating the training.
A few hours later, Kanna could see why Lotor chose this girl. She was a natural. She had a lot to learn, but her drive and aim were impeccable.
Akia shot an arrow at a Galra robot, hitting it perfectly on the head, causing it to fall back.
"Gotcha!" jumped the girl, full of excitement.
Kanna then put a hand on the child's shoulder, looked her in the eye, and said:
"It is easy to kill with a bow, girl. Its easy to release the bowstring and think, it is not me, it is the arrow. The blood of that person is not on my hands. The arrow killed him, not me. But the arrow doesn't dream anything in the night. Remember that."
Kanna then woke up from her dream.
"Akia." she thought, with tears in her eyes.
Kanna and the child had become very close, and Kanna was extremely protective of the girl. It hurt her heart like nothing else to remember what had happened.
Lotor took the girl along in one of his conquering missions, despite Kanna telling him Akia wasn't ready. She never made it back.
For Kanna, it had been the final push to get her to leave Lotor's team, since at that point, she only stayed for Akia's sake.
Then there was a knock on her door.
Kanna quickly wiped away her tears, but not before Keith could witness it.
"Hey, is everything alright?" he asked, concerned.
"Oh yeah, don't worry. Just a bad dream." responded Kanna, with a reassuring smile.
"I thought you might wanna know: Shiro is awake." said Keith.