It felt as if my head was on fire. My eyes struggled to open, but I forced them to open.
When they did open, I saw the blurry scene of my lion's cockpit. I raised my head and held my hand to my brow.
"What the happened?" I asked myself.
"Princess! Help us!"
That cry for help echoed in my mind. Who was calling for me? And why did they need my help?
"Zurine, you okay?" I heard Pidge ask.
I smiled as she appeared on screen with Matt behind her.
"I'm alright, just a little drained from this trip." I replied, deciding not to tell Pidge about the cry for my help.
"Okay, you should probably get some rest when we get back, Aiko- I mean, Zurine." Matt said, I chuckled softly at his name mistake.
We flew for a little whule longer until we reached Olkarion. Our lions roared as we landed and the other paladins ran up to greet us.
Pidge and I exited our lions, with Matt following his sister.
"Hey, everybody. This is my brother Matt." Pidge said gesturing to the bky behind her.
Matt smiled and walked up the the group, "Hey, everybody."
"Matt, this is Hunk, Lance and Coran."
Everyone gave their greetings, and even Allura smiled happily at Matt. I blocked out his flirting, I get enough of that with Lance.
The group parted to show Shiro, smiling at Matt.
"Shiro?" Matt asked in disbelief, running up to the Black Paladin, "It's so good to see you, um, sir."
Matt held our his hand respectively, Shiro grabbed his hand pulled Matt into a hug.
"Pidge never gave up on finding you." Shiro said as they parted.
"Yeah, she can be pretty stubborn at times." Pidge smiled brightly behind Matt.
"And I want you to know that all of us will help find your father."
Matt thanked him.
Pidge turned Matt's attention to the large castle behind us, "Matt, this is the Castle of Lions." She said, grabbing his hand and pulling him into the castle for a tour.
I followed them into the castle, as we were walking, a familiar roar echoed thriugh the halls.
I smiled and called out her name, "Luna!"
Matt and Pidge turned towards me. Pidge was smiling, but Matt was confused.
"Who's Luna?" He asked. His question was answered when he was thrown to the ground by my lion.
Luna rushed to me and snuggled under my arms, "I know, I know, I missed you too, Luna."
"Waht the heck is that?" Matt asked from his place on the floor.
I laughed as Luna licked my hands, "Her name is Luna, a white lion born to be my friend and helper in this battle. She doesn't have special abilities, but she provides helpful support."
Matt stood up and smiled, reaching his hand out towards Luna.
"She won't bite, ya know." I said as he pet Luna on the head. She purred and pushed her head further into his warm touch.
"She likes you, Matt." I yawned, "Well, I'm going to get some rest. Have fun with your brother, Pidge."
I waved goodbye as I went to my room. Once I got there, I changed into my sleepwear and snuggled with Luna under the covers.
But my sleep was not peaceful.
~~Dream~~
I was surrounded by white, floating in a sea of nothingness. I stayed like that for a little while, until a strong pull forced me down.
I slammed into an invisible force, stopping me from moving any further. I forced myself back up to my hands and knees.
I opened my eyes and saw figures standing below me.
They we're blurry, but I could clearly see their hands reaching towards me.
"Princess! Help us!" They begged.
"Send us back home!"
"Free us!"
I stared at then for what felt like hours, until a black spot appeared. I squinted my eyes to try and see it more clearly, but the more I concentrated, the larger the dark spot grew.
Before I knew it, the black spot engulfed me, swirling around me like rough waves in the ocean.
"Beware the Dark One!"
"Shine upon the dark!"
The second voice echoed the same things over and over, when finally, I couldn't take it anymore. I screamed until it felt like my throat was going to rip open.
~~Dream end~~
I woke up with a start, half screaming and panting as I tried to gather my breath.
Luna immediately woke up and rubbed her head against my waist.
I sighed, getting up and changing into my royal garments.
I walked out of my room with Luna by my side, trying to get my mind off of my dream.
I walked around and found myself next to the Green Lion hangar.
"This is a pretty sweet algorithm for locating Galra targets within a statistically accpetable margin of error." I heard Matt say.
I smiled, walking into the hangar and spotting the siblings watching the Galra locator that Pidge created.
"And I love that you color-coded it, because what are we, animals?"
I laughed alongside them, "Pidge has always been like that, remember?" I said.
The two turned around and Hunk, who was sitting in a seat near them, smiled at the sound of my voice.
"Yeah, Zurine, those two are definitely related." Hunk said as he ate his bowl of snacks.
"Hunk, using the Fraunhofer lines to track Voltron, anf then the comet... I mean, that's genius." Matt said.
"It wasn't just me. Zurine helped too, she has this strangr connection with Voltron, being its heart and all." Hunk added.
"They say Fraunhofer eas the greatest classmates in Europe and that when he died, he took all his greatest recipes to the grave with him." Matt said.
"I want a Fraunhofer glass." Hunk said. I smiled and created a beautifully crafted crystal glass.
"Why have that when you can have one of my crystal glasses?" I joked, making the glass vanish.
"Check this out." Matt said, pulling a data stick out of his sleeve, "This has all the relevant data from my time with the rebels. I think if we plug this info into the setup you guys have here, it might fill in the gaps."
Pidge gasped in surprise, "Then, we just might have the best anti-Galra intelligence mining operation in this or any reality."
"This one time, we went to another reality. It was pretty lame." Hunk said, shocking Matt.
"Wait, you what?" He turned to his sister, "You were in a different reality?"
Pidge shrugged it off as no big deal. We started to get to work. I sat in a chair near Pidge as she and I worked on adding in the data Matt gave us.
Luna purred in my feet, sending comforting vibrations throughout my legs.
After a while, we had finally completed our work.
The larger screen pulled up multiple hidden Galra bases.
"This is unbelievable. We're tracking Galra fleet movements almost live." Hunk said.
"I think I know a few tweaks we can make to extend our range." Pidge said.
"Hold on, Pidge." Matt said, walking up to a smaller screen with symbols of a different language.
"What's up?" Pidge asked.
"It's scrambled message. I've collected hundreds of 'em. I never crack 'em."
"Let me and Zurine see." Pidge said. Matt transferred the messages to our screens.
I almost immediately recognized the Galra codes.
"In guessing this isn't just a simple number-for-letter swap." Pidge said.
"I've run these through every kind of decryption technology I can think of, and I've spent days with just the numbers and a Galra language log. Nothing."
"Maybe they're not words. Maybe they're just numbers." Hunk suggested.
"No, Hunk. The Galra are too smart and advanced for that." I said, "if they used only numbers, it would be easy for someone familiar with the Galra and their codes to figure it out."
"Maybe it's a frequency." Pidge said.
"A quantum signal that broadcasts other frequencies to go to?" Matt asked, "It's too high. These are more than 3,000 gigahertz."
I looked over at Pidge, she looked over at me amd smiled, the two of us thinking of the same thing.
"Invert it." We said, confusing Matt.
"For every wave we receive, there's only partial transmittance, right?" Pidge asked.
"Son what do we do with a situation like this?" I added.
"We figure out the transmission coefficient..." Hunk said.
"And tune for the frequency if rhe reflected waves." Matt finished.
Pidge and I typed away, overlaying frequencies of the codes. We cheered as the message came in clear as crystal.
"Members of the seventh, 11th, 12th, and 14th Fleet, assemble to rally point trox-lyte immediately. Engage targets at coordinates in next transmission by order of Emperor Zarkon."
The transmission repeated and repeated. My skin and blood ran cold.
"Zarkon is alive?" Hunk wondered aloud.
Pidge and I looked up at the larger screen above,
"Guys, look at this." Pidge said. The screen showed one of the largest troop mobilization we have ever seen.
"What are they attacking?" Hunk asked.
"That's just it. As far as I can tell, nothing." Pidge answered, "There are no planets, no rebel ships, no Blade of Marmora bases, nothing."
"There must be something if the Galra are mobilizing their troops in such a mass quantity." I said.
We ran to Allura and told her what we had found. Without a single sign of hesitation, she ordered us to go and help.
"I don't like it." Shiro disagreed, "We should be gathering intelligence, not diving into a fight without knowing why, especially now that we know Zarkon is alive."
"We could go check it out." Pidge said.
"I think they'd spot us." Lance said.
"Not if we're cloaked."
"You have cloaking? Who are you?" Matt joked.
"I'm not sure it's safe for just the Green Lion." Shiro said.
"I'm pretty sure I can upgrade Voltron with cloaking." Pidge informed.
"And with my sapphire giving me the ability to turn invisible, I can hook it up to Voltron and increase the effect of cloaking." I added.
Lance playfully bumped Pidge on the shoulder, "Were you just waiting for your big brother to show up before you rolled that one out?" He asked.
"It's something I've been working on, but I can't pikot the Green Lion and operate the cloaking at the same time. But if I had a co-pilot..."
"Absolutely." Matt happily agreed.
"And what about you, Zurine?" Allura asked.
"White can pilot herself as long as I give her the necessary energy for her to fly and attack." I said.
Shiro nodded and ordered us to get to our lions.
We quickly formed Voltron and I changed into my moon form, keeping us protected in case things went wrong.
When we reached the coordinates, we saw something being attacked by a large number of Galra fleets.
"Were getting close. Everyone, get ready." Shiro said.
I focused on my necklace and added its power to the cloaking effect.
All of a sudden, I felt something cold wash over me, my skin crawling as the cold chilled me to the bone.
"What's happening? What is this feeling?" I thought as we flew closer.
I hasped when we saw that a Galra ship was being attacked.
"What the cheese? It's Galra-on-Galra violence, again." Lance said.
"Oh, these people just do not like each other." Hunk commented.
I held myself and rubbed my arms as smaller ships appeared out of the attacked one.
"Who's ships are those?" Pidge asked.
"It's Lotor." Allura spat out.
"Lotor and Zarkon must be fighting for control do the empire." Shiro said.
"Guys, those ships are getting awfully close." Hunk said in a panicked tone.
We dodged them, but as they passed us, not even my sapphire could help keep the cloaking up.
"Uh-oh. The trails from Lotor's ship drives messed with out cloaking spectrum. Even Zurine's crystal was knocked out." Matt informed us.
"Can yoy find a work-around?" Pidge asked.
"It's too late. Our cover's been blown. We may have to engage." Shiro said.
Voltron turned around and flew back as the Galra fleets fired.
"Hunk, use your bayard!" Shiro ordered.
Hunk did as he was told and formed the large shoulder cannon and fired at the enemy, knocking out most of the fleets in a one large shot.
We wasted no time in escaping.
As we flew farther away, the cold feeling disappated and I fell back at ease.
However, my mind was still racing at the intense feeling of cold I felt earlier.
What was all that about?
I want answers. To my dreams. To these strange feelings.
And I want answers to the future and what was in store for us.