It has been forty-seven days since the Atlas has launched into space to continue the fight against the Galra and free the rest of the universe.
For weeks I have been thinking about life after this war. Of course, every time I would think about my future, my thoughts would go straight to Keith and the rest of the crew.
My heart would race at the thought of going back to my planet, freeing my people and joining in on festivities of victory.
But the part of the future I was most excited about, was the future I was going to create with Keith.
I smiled as I walked down the halls with my hand in Keith's. We walked into the cafeteria and grabbed some food, sitting next to Pidge.
"Hey, guys." She said happily as we sat down, "What's going on?"
"Nothing much. Just taking a walk through the ship and talking about what would happen when all of this is over." Keith replied.
"Cool, cool. So, you guys talk about the wedding yet?" Pidge asked, making both of our faces bright red.
"No, no, no, nothing yet. We decided to focus on the mission before planning anything like that." I said.
Pidge pouted, "Really? You guys haven't talked about it at all, yet? You guys are engaged, how have you not talked about your future wedding yet?"
Keith shrugged, "We're not really sure about that ourselves, but we'll get to it when it comes and all this is over."
I nodded and smiled in agreement. Suddenly, from the entrance of the cafeteria, Kinkade and Rizavi appeared with a camera in hand.
"Hey, guys," Rizavi said holding up the camera, "We're making a documentary about life on the Atlas. You wouldn't mind a little interview, would ya?"
"Not at all." I replied, while the others agreed to the idea.
To me, it was a wonderful idea to document life on this ship. What better way to prove something and to mark us down into history than a documentary?
Rizavi and Kinkade sat down in front of us and set up the camera.
"Okay, we're set." Kinkade said.
"So, catch us up on what's going on." Rizavi said.
Pidge smiled and began, "Well, the Atlas is headed to the Grei-Aye system where we've identified the remains of a disabled Robeast."
"Oh! Those things are pretty dangerous, right?" Rizavi asked.
"Do I explained that the Robeast was one of the ones used in Honerva's intergalactic ritual?" Pidge asked Rizavi off camera.
"No, it's okay."
"Okay. Um, so, once the Atlas arrives in orbit around the planet, the other Paladins and I will head down to the surface to secure the Robeast and hopefully find its Altean pilot."
Rizavi groaned and went on, "Ugh, okay. Keith! Zurine! Why dont one of you tell us about the dangera of this mission?"
Keith stared at her confused by the sudden change in film subjects, but continued on anyway.
"Well, every mission has some inherent dangers." He said, "For the first one, we have to be especially diligent about the Robeast. Even though it's not fully functional, it can still pose an extreme threat. Combine that with the hostile Altran that's probably still in the vicinity, and you've potentially got threats on multiple fronts."
"Hey, guys, what's up?" Hunk suddenly said from behind, "You making a movie? Cool. Can I be in it?" He asked before frowning, "Now, wait, if this is an action movie... is it? I dont wanna be in it."
"Hunk, were trying to do an interview, here." Rizavi said.
"Oh, sorry. Yeah, my bad." Hunk apologized, "Just came to see if you wanted to try this new recipe I've been experimenting with."
Kinkade moved the camera to hover over Hunk as he revealed his new dish.
"This is just the first pass. The final version will be coming soon." Hunk explained. Then, fron out of nowhere, Bebe appeared and tried to eat the dish.
"No, Bebe! Not for you!" I giggled at the funny actions of the dog below.
"I'm sorry I yelled at you. I'll make you some doggy treats later."
"What's the recipe? Can we watch you work?" Kinkade asked.
"Well, yeah! Yeah, this'll be great! Behind the scenes of the great feast preperation for the wedding of the century!"
I almost choked on my food when I heard Hunk's announcement.
Kinkade and Rizavi seemed confused by the announcement as well.
"What do you mean by that?" Rizavi asked, "Who's getting married?"
Keith's face and ears were dusted pink and my entire body felt hot and turned red.
When Kinkade and Rizavi noticed our change of colors, their jaws dropped to the floor.
"You two are getting married?!' The shouted loud enough for the entire ship to hear.
"W-Well, yeah. Once everything has settled down that it." I said.
Rizavi immediately sat down in front of me with stars twinkling in her excited eyes.
"You have to tell me the details of the wedding. How did Keith propose? What did he say? How did you two fall in love? Can I see the ring?" The questions went on and on.
I laughed at her amusing excitement and lifted my left hand to show her the ring. She quickly grabbed my hand and gasped at the beautiful ring on my finger.
"Oh my god, this is gorgeous! Keith is a lucky guy to have such an amazing fiancee!" She gushed over us until Kimkade finally made her leave to continue the documentary.
We continued eating in peace, at least unitl the alarms blared and Iverson was yelling over the speakers for everyone to report to their battle stations.
Suddenly, the ship rocked. We didn't hesitate to run to our stations and change into our armor. I sat in my white lion waiting for further instructions.
Soon we a go for launch and quickly formed Voltron. In front of us was a large creature in the dense fog of the planet we were stuck in. But then, it disappeared.
"Voltron, do you have a visual? I repeat, fo you have a visual?" Shiro asked.
"Not yet. We're going in now!" Keith said as Voltron flew further into the dense fog.
Our sword was in hand as we flew through the fog. All of a sudden, we were hit from the side by the creature.
"We can't see a thing in this atmosphere!" I said. We continued to fight and fire as the creature continued to evade our sights.
Finally, the fog cleared a little and we were able to see it. It was a quick job after we had visual on it and soon, we were back on track to the Grei-Aye system.
A few more hours passed and us Paladins were called to our hangars when we reached the targeted planet.
Rizavi and Kinkade camr to interview us, but there wasn't very much time to do so as we had to go as soon as possible to the planet surface.
We launched our lions and exited onto the planet surface.
The planet was green and barely covered in any signs of life.
"Pidge, come in. Do you read me?" Sam called in.
"Okay, we've just touched down on the surface." Pidge said.
"We're at the crash sight now." Keith said.
The crash sight in front of us was a large crater with the Robeast sitting lifelessly inside it.
"That's the Robeast. It looks disabled, just like our intel reported." Pidge said, "The Altean should be nearby. Zurine, do you sense him or her nearby?"
I looked around, trying to feel for any signs of Altean life, when all of a sudden, the chest piece of the Robeast detached itself from the machine.
It flew off towards us and attacked.
"I didn't know it could do that!" Hunk shouted.
"Take cover! Zurine, your powers over the moon!" Keith shouted.
"I'm on it!" I transformed and created a barrier around us.
"We need to go on the offensive!" Lance shouted before he screamed in fear.
"Hunk, use your blaster!" I yelled. I let part of the shield go and Hunk ran out with his transformed bayard and began to fire at the strange ship.
Suddenly, another attack came from the sky, shooting the craft down.
"Nice shot, Atlas." Lance said.
"Yeah, thanks for the cover!" Hunk asked.
I let down the shield and changed back to normal as we went to investigate the fallen ship.
"Stand by, Atlas. We're approaching the ship." Allura informed the Atlas.
We looked inside, but there was no signs of a pilot inside.
"Guys, there doesn't seem to be a pilot inside." Hunk stared.
"That's strange, then where did the pilot go?" Lance asked.
I walked over with Keith to find anythung out of the ordinary and sae a piece of the ship unharmed.
We flagged over our friends to the strange glass and metal object.
"Give me a second." Pidge said as she typed on her holo-keys, "Just reconfiguring to this barrier's isometric frequency." The barrier beeped, "There! That should do it."
The barrier dissipated and the Altean pilot was found inside.
"Atlas, target acquired." Keith informed.
"Great job, everyone." We heard Shiro say aming the overlapping voices expressing their joy.
We quickly escorted the new pilot to the Atlas to join the other five pilots we've acquired from broken Robeasts.
I entered the interrogation room with Allura and Romelle, hoping to gain any information on Honvera that we could.
"Hello, my name is Allura from Altea. This is Romelle and Zurine from the planet Arisa. Can you tell us your name?"
The Altean man didn't say anything for a few minutes until he finally introduced himself as Tavo. We tried to get information out of him, but he wouldn't comply. After about twenty minutes of silence, Romelle finally took a chance to speak.
"Please, Tavo." Romelle begged, "You and I grew up alongside one another. You must trust me, trust me. We're here to help."
"We were told you are a traitor who took the Child of Sun and Moon for this war, and I can see now that it is true." Tavo said.
Allura stood up abruptly, "I'm done talking to him. I'm dome with all,of them."
Allura and Romelle left the room, but I stayed behind to speak with Tavo a little more.
"Tavo, you do understnad what you have been doing to the planets you've attacked, don't you?" I asked in a calm tone as to not sound demanding.
He looked away from my gaze.
"What do you hope to gain from following Honerva?"
"Honerva told us about Voltron destroying Lotor." He said, "She told us that our savior was killed by Voltron and that we must take our revenge for Lotor."
"I understand that you are hurt. Lotor was indeed the one who brought the Alteans back together, but I could see darkness inside of him. There is something inside of Honerva that is dangerous, and unless we stop her, the universe and all realities could be lost to us forever. Torn apart by dark magic, destroying everything we hold hold dear in any reality."
I stood up, walked around the table and placed my hand on his shoulder.
Tavo looked up at me with a confused expression as he stared into my mismatched eyes.
"Please, consider what I have told you." I said before leaving the room.
I sighed as I walked to my room. Allura must have been feeling even worse than I was. These were her people, but they won't speak with her
It must be painful for her.
I decided to rest in my room for a while. As soon as I felt the pillow on my head, I was out like a light.
I slept for a couple of hours before I opened my eyes and felt even more rested than ever.
I yawn, stretched my arms and legs and quickly got dressed in my garrison uniform.
Just then, I heard a knock at my door. I went over to open it and I saw Rizavi and Kinkade at my door.
"Hey, Zurine, do you think we could have a private interview with you?" Rizavi asked.
I smiled and nodded, letting them into my room.
I sat on my bed and they sat in the extra chairs I had in my room.
Kinakde turned on the camera and got ready for the interview.
"So, Zurine, we've heard a lot from the others about the Alteans and the battles we'll be facing, but we've never really heard much about you and what you bring to the battle." Rizavi said.
I chuckled, "I guess after all of this commotion about the Alteans, you would want to know more about something else, huh?"
"Yeah, not so much about what you bring, but more of who you are." Kinkade said, "We've heard about you almost dying when you were little, being one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful, being in the universe. Can you tell us what that is like?"
I looked down at the diamond ring on my finger and smiled.
"If I had to be honest, the first time I had ever found about me having this amazing power, I was overwhelmed and confused. But over time, I grew to see these powers as a blessing."
"So, you wouldn't change anything about yourself?" Rizavi asked.
I shook my head.
"Even with all of this going on, how did you ever find the things you uave now? Being a future Queen, being engaged? All of that must've been a little too much to handle at one point."
I once again shook my head, "I've been preparing to rule my planet ever since I was able to understand how to be a person. And if I wasn't the holder of these powers, I would never have been sent to find the Paladins nor have met the love of my life. Nothing about my life has been regretful to me."
Rizavi seemed to be almost in tears at my words and Kinkade was smiling at me.
"You really are something else, Zurine." Kinkade said, "So,what's your plans after this war is over?"
I blushed and looked down at my fidgeting hands.
"Well, I want to free my people and take over my planet as Queen. Then, I want to make the greatest decision of my life. I want to walk down the isle hand in hand with my soon-to-be husband, Keith Kogane."
"That must be really exciting for you and Keith. I can't even imagine what that must feel like to be love as much as you and Keith." Rizavi said with hearts in her eyes.
I smiled softly, "I'm sure you'll find your special someone one day."
We talked for a while longer about what could happen during our mission, then they said their goodbyes and went on their way.
It wasn't very much later that Keith walked into my room, for which he was always welcome.
He sat next to me and held me in his arms.
"What are you thinking about?" He asked.
"Mostly about our future." I said.
"You mean like what Pidge was talking about? Like the wedding and such?"
I chuckled, "That too, but actually, I was thinking farther ahead. You, know, my planet, our future family."
"So, you mean kids?" He asked. I nodded.
He chuckled and pulled me closer into his chest.
"I'd never imagined myself to have such a wonderful and beautiful woman as my future wife. And who knows, I hope when we do have a family, they'll be amazing."
"Of course they will. They'll be our children."
He smiled and held me close for hours until we finally fell asleep in each others arms.