You were really leaving Arus for good. The castle was actually going to leave the planet after 10,000 years. What a strange thought.

You had spent the last moments in Arus outside, trying to memorise the feeling of being in an earthlike planet. Now you had changed into your Paladin armour and were walking towards the control room for a liftoff

As you were walking, you couldn't help but think of Shiro, and Zarkon. How could Shiro keep his composure like that, after all that he'd been through? He truly was a perfect example of a person who didn't let his past define him. He had hope. Something that you'd lost at one point. He was truly an example, and you had the utmost admiration towards him.

You heard footsteps behind, but kept on walking forwards. And soon you realised that someone was next to you, but you were still so lost in your thoughts that you didn't react. Until you woke up to that someone staring at you. And it was Keith. He was looking at you and frowning.

"Did something happen outside?" Keith asked you. "Outside? Why?" You finally spoke as you looked at him questioningly. "I tried to call out to you just now, but you ignored it." He looked at you, like he was trying to read your expression and what it meant.

"Oh, no. I was just lost in my thoughts. Sorry." You quickly said, giving him a small smile. But he still observed your expression, like he didn't believe what you said. "No, really. I just can't help but think of Shiro." You said, trying to ease Keith's curiosity.

But just then his expression turned to a confused one. And you slightly chuckled. "And not like that. I just keep thinking of all the things he had to go through being Zarkon's prisoner. And how we could prevent that nobody would ever have to endure anything like that again." You said, trying to explain why you were so lost in thought. And that seemed to ease Keith's mind.

"There's a lot of responsibility." You still added, smiling. "There is." Keith just silently said before turning his attention to where you were heading. And then you walked in silence for awhile.

"Keith?" You broke the silence this time. And he hummed in response. "Do you think we can actually do it? Beat Zarkon?" You looked at Keith, wanting to see what he was thinking. And after a moment he answered confidently. "Yes, I think we can. Eventually." He looked at you and gave you a small reassuring smile. And as you looked at him, you wondered what a curious person he was. At one moment hot-headed as hell and next the most safest and warmest person you'd want to be around with.

"Keith?" You asked again. "Yes?" He just replied. "After you left the Garrison, did you ever feel like you lost something by leaving?" You looked at Keith's expression as you asked it. And you saw him slightly flinching and tensing up.

"I'm sorry. You don't have to answer that. I didn't mean to ask anything personal." You immediately added feeling slightly awkward. You didn't want to question him too much, so you decided to stay silent. You would soon be at the control room.

But then Keith cleared his throat. "Well yes, of course, but without it we might not even be here." He explained in an uncertain voice. And you looked at him. He was actually right. If he hadn't gotten expelled, he wouldn't have searched for the Blue Lion. And that made you smile.

"You are right. So, thanks Keith." You looked at him quite happily, even though he seemed to get a bit embarrassed. "No I didn't mean it like that." He tried to correct, but you wouldn't hear of it.

"I know, but it's true. Everything might have gone differently if you hadn't followed your intuition. And I'm glad you did." You said, stating the truth. And that's when your eyes locked with his. And at the same moment you again felt as your heart skipped a beat.

You immediately averted your gaze, baffled of how your body reacted again. And you noticed that Keith averted his gaze too. And for some reason it felt like he wanted to say something, but didn't. And for a moment you walked in silence, neither of you looking back at each other again. And when you finally arrived to the control room, it felt like your body relaxed again.

Almost everyone was there already. Shiro also arrived almost straight after you. And as he saw you standing in the doorway, he smiled at you and put his hand on your shoulder. He gave a small reassuring squeeze before he went towards the others. And you looked after him. He probably needed a moment alone after talking to you outside.

"Everyone ready to go?" Coran asked while twirling his moustache when everyone was present. And everyone nodded. Except Hunk, who yelled excited. "To Balmera!!"

Allura pushed some buttons on the holographic screen in front of her. And you startled a bit as six seats suddenly appeared from the floor, around the platform. But you chuckled as you realised that the seats were color-coordinated again. The ones who built the castle were certainly coherent with the colours.

You went to your amber colored seat on the furthest back. The seat was nice and roomy. And as you sat on it, holographic screens appeared in front of you. Everything in it seemed to be in Altean language so you didn't understand it, but you didn't mind. You tried pushing some buttons on the screen, even though you had no idea what you were doing.

But as Allura started to power up the castle, you suddenly got a bit nervous. You turned the screen off as you started to feel butterflies in your stomach. "Activate interlock." Allura ordered. "Dynotherms connected. Mega thrusters are go. We are ready to depart Planet Arus on your mark, Princess." Coran informed.

You were really going to leave. As you looked out the window and saw the beautiful Arus sky, you really realised that you were leaving. The thought that you would be spending a lot of time in space from now on made you feel somewhat unsure. But looking around at the others made you slightly better. Those people were your family now and you were quite happy with them.

"Firing main engines for launch." Allura said as the engines started. Then you felt the castle starting to shake a bit, and you took a tight hold of the armrests as it moved. To your surprise the liftoff was more gentle than you would have thought. And soon the castle made its way out of Arus' atmosphere.

"(Y/N)! There goes your future husband! Remember Klaizap!" Hunk suddenly yelled. You turned to look at him and laughed. And as he looked at you and winked, you realised that all of your nervousness was suddenly washed away.

When the castle started to settle from the liftoff, Shiro asked you all to gather around, to think of a plan for Balmera. You went to sit on the steps and Pidge came to sit in front of you. And while you were listening to the others, you started braiding her hair, just to keep yourself busy. Pidge tried to shoo you off, but you kept fiddling with it anyways.

"Okay, so when we get there, what do you think? Do we just roll up and start blasting?" Hunk asked, waiting to get back to Shay and Balmera. "Or do we land and have some kind of public address system, like, Attention Galra, this is Voltron. Turn yourselves in?" He kept on babbling while pacing around. He was clearly nervous.

"Calm down Hunk. And yes, blasting." Keith smirked at him. "He's just excited to see his girlfriend!" Pidge snickered. And you playfully slapped Pidge on the back of her head. "Come on, don't tease him. There's no shame in liking someone." You said, almost scolding her.

"Hunk, I think it's lovely that you like her." You said, turning to Hunk. And he immediately stopped pacing around, getting a little flustered. "Umm, well she's just a rock that I met and admire very much." He tried explaining while fiddling with his fingers. "That sounds to me like liking." You smiled the most sincere smile at Hunk, who averted his gaze slightly blushing.

"There's no shame in liking someone." Pidge tried to imitate you, changing her voice while repeating your line. "You sounded exactly like her!" Lance burst out laughing while she snickered. But you just rolled your eyes and slapped the back of Pidge's head again. And she tried moving away from you so you couldn't braid her hair anymore. "Come on Pidge!" You whined. "No, you're not doing my hair if you keep slapping me!" She said protesting.

And that's when suddenly an alarm started blaring, interrupting everyone. "What is it? Are we being attacked?" Shiro immediately asked concerned, clearly alerted. "No, it seems to be a distress beacon. It's coming from a nearby moon. Apparently, a ship has lost power. We should go and help them." Allura explained looking at the screen.

Everyone immediately started to debate of what you should do. Hunk tried to object going to the rescue as it would delay your arrival to Balmera. But he was outnumbered. You knew a Paladin should always help those in need. That was your mission now. And since Allura controlled the castle, Hunk really had no choice in the end. He started to pout while the castle changed its course towards the distress signal.

Soon you arrived to the moon. And as the castle landed, you all got out. And on the moon you were greeted by two strangers waiting by a broken ship. "You don't know how glad we are to see some friendly faces." A purple skinned male spoke. "Most folks don't want to get tangled up with anyone who is on the run from Galra." He immediately started to act all friendly with you.

You looked at the strangers. The purple man was tall and had some bandages around him. The female besides him was also tall, and her eyes were enchanting. They seemed friendly, but you couldn't read them. Their body language was different than humans. You felt that something was slightly off, but you decided to discard that feeling since you didn't want to judge them straight away. A Paladin's mission was to help those in need, you reminded yourself.

The male introduced himself as Rolo. The female next to him was Nyma. And the robot they had was Beezer. You immediately saw how Lance's body language changed while he looked at Nyma. He suddenly started to puff up his chest and use a lower tone in his voice. Pidge on the other hand started to fidget around Beezer. She enthusiastically ran up to the robot. "Cool robot!" She yelled excited while inspecting it. And you shook your head as you smiled to the both of them. It was just like them.

So while Lance was trying to hook up with Nyma and Pidge was trying to hook up with Beezer, you others surrounded Rolo, asking him questions. And he answered all those questions kindly, seemingly relaxed.

"Was your ship damaged in a fight?" Shiro asked. "Yeah, we've really been through it with the Galra. Luckily we were able to limp to this moon about a week ago. If you hadn't pick up our distress signal..." Rolo stopped his sentence and sighed, clearly devastated.

Seeing Rolo's mood chance, Allura tried to cheer him up by telling about the Paladins of Voltron. But Rolo seemed like he didn't know what she was talking about. He looked at you all dumbfounded. "I don't think they've heard of us." Shiro stated. Well, it had been 10,000 years since Voltron was previously active, so no wonder.

But as the conversation started to drag on, Hunk suddenly interrupted you all. "Why don't we just get to work on your ship?" He stated in a loud and determined voice. And you could see him tapping his leg and fidgeting restlessly. He seemed to start getting anxious, and you knew it was because he wanted to go and save Shay really badly.

Rolo looked at Hunk irritated, like he didn't want to be disturbed. But he finally got up lazily and opened the back of his ship. "Pretty much our whole flaxum assembly is shot. I don't know what extra parts you carry in this rig of yours. I've never seen anything like it." Rolo said as he glanced at the castle. "Give Hunk a list of what you need." Allura told Rolo. And Hunk agreed even though he seemed a bit bothered about it.

But even though Rolo was said to give a list, he still tried to tag along with Hunk to the castle. "I don't think so. You can just wait out here." Hunk stopped him with a serious tone. And everyone were slightly surprised. You hadn't seen Hunk that serious yet. He actually looked pretty threatening with that stare in his eyes.

"What's wrong Hunk?" You asked. "Yeah, mind your manners Hunk, there's ladies present." Lance said while smiling at Nyma. And it got Hunk even more irritated as he raised his voice. "Does anyone remember the last time we let our defenses down? Someone kind of set off a bomb? Remember Lance? You were almost killed." He tried to reason with everyone.

"Oh yeah." Lance answered a bit embarrassed. "Hunk is right." You said firmly. "I agree. Sorry, but we have to be cautious." Shiro said to Rolo, who of course understood. "Hey, I don't take it personal. That's how it is out here. You've got to look out for your own." He stated while shrugging his shoulders.

Beezer printed out a paper including all the parts they would need. Hunk looked at the paper almost depressed as he started to make his way back to the castle, pushing a cart for the parts. And as you looked after him, you started to get worried. He was acting so differently than usual. "Wait, Hunk! I'll come with you!" You jogged next to him, leaving the others behind.

But as you came to him, he didn't even look at you. You walked along with him for a while until the silence started to get to you. "Hunk, what's wrong?" You asked again, but he just groaned.

Then you took a hold of Hunk's shoulder and stopped him. "Hunk! What's wrong? I know your anxious about getting to Shay, but is there more to it?" You said with a demanding tone. You wanted to know what he was thinking. And Hunk looked at you frustrated. "It's not just that. I don't trust those guys. And the robot. There's just something fishy about them."

"I had a slightly bad feeling about them too when we met. But I thought that I was just being too cautious. Or judging." You let out a sigh. "That guy was way too relaxed when some random people arrived on the same moon. Especially when they were outnumbered. If that isn't suspicious, then nothing is. Right?" Hunk spread his arms as he tried explaining his reasons. And then he took a deep breath. "I know. I might be wrong. I guess we'll just have to wait and see." He still added, feeling himself beaten.

Soon you arrived to the castle and met up with Coran. "What's up Paladins?" He asked slightly surprised to see you there. Hunk handed Rolo's list to Coran. "Would you be so kind to see if you can find any of these parts?" You asked Coran. "Since you asked so nicely." He said, taking the list and looking at it.

"Hmmm. Hmmm." He mumbled while you and Hunk just waited. "Okay!" He suddenly declared and started making his way out of the room with the cart. "Just a tick!" He said as he left.

You let out a deep breath as you leaned against the wall, waiting for him to come back. Hunk on the other hand was pacing around nervously, again. "Stop it Hunk. You're making me nervous too." You told him. "Oh man, I just can't relax." He said with an anxious voice. He was so tense.

As you watched him acting all nervous, you tried to think of something to distract him. "Hunk. If you could have anything for dinner now, what would it be?" You asked with a cunning voice. You kind of knew that it would work. And Hunk stopped pacing around and started to think.

"Oh man, tacos!" Hunk soon declared excited. "I miss them so much." He said, getting lost in his thoughts. "Oh man, I want one with everything!" He still added. And you smiled. That was easy.

Coran soon returned with the parts and you started wheeling them out of the castle. And as you came back to the others, you saw that they were all just gathered around and talking. You saw that Rolo clearly noticed you coming back, but didn't move a muscle. And it just made Hunk get angry again.

"Hey, sorry to interrupt, but I think you guys are kind of keeping Rolo from working." Hunk said as calmly as he could. You knew he really wanted to say that he didn't trust Rolo, but he kept his composure. Allura would have probably scolded him for being rude, or not acting like a Paladin.

But nobody seemed to pay any attention to you. Everyone were just listening to Rolo almost enchanted. Then Hunk raised his voice more. "Guys!" He yelled and everyone finally turned to look at him. "I don't want to be rude, it's just that we're in a hurry. A hero named Shay saved my life, and I swore I would return to do the same for her and her people." Hunk explained slowly, emphasizing every word, like he was talking to a bunch of idiots.

Rolo couldn't ignore him any longer so he finally got up. "Sure. Sorry." He said as he walked to the cart. He patted Hunk's back when he passed him and you saw Hunk grinning at the gesture. He was really tense at the moment. Especially when he heard Rolo's voice again.

"Hey bud! Sorry, but do you think you could still hunt down a length of thermal pipe about this long?" Rolo still asked. And Hunk let out a deep sigh while slouching his shoulders. "On my way." He said beaten while walking towards the castle again. You glanced at Rolo and realised that he was looking at Hunk a bit amused. And you decided to keep a close eye on him.

You looked at the others and wondered if they really didn't see anything wrong with Rolo. And just then you realised that Lance wasn't with the others. And neither was Nyma. "Where's Lance?" You asked with a bad feeling in your gut. "He left with the Blue Lion." Keith said to you, kind of rolling his eyes at the same time. And you immediately realised what he meant. "Stupid Lance." You said aloud what you thought. And you heard Keith sneer at your comment.

Suddenly Rolo came next to you. "Hey. So you're also one of those....what did they call you, a Paladin?" He asked, glancing at you like he was appraising you. And you looked back at him. You felt a bit reserved, but still answered surely. "Yes, I'm a Paladin of Voltron."

Rolo smirked at your serious response. "That's good to hear, but I've got to warn you. You don't know what you're up against." He turned serious. "Oh, why is that?" You frowned. "Sorry, I didn't mean anything bad with it. It's just that it's pretty bad out there, even for a someone like me, let alone someone like you." He tried to explain what he meant.

But that just made you turn to him while crossing your arms. "Oh, and what's that supposed to mean?" You asked him strictly, glaring at him. And you realised that everyone was looking at you, and you thought that you saw Keith even smirking.

"No, well, you're...you know..." Rolo tried to come up with an answer a bit baffled. "What am I? A Paladin? A master at staff fighting? A female? Pick your choice." You said staring at him strictly. And he smiled an awkward smile back at you.

That's when Hunk came back with the last parts Rolo needed. "Thanks man, I appreciate it. I'll help you. We'll be done sooner." Rolo said as he quickly made his way to Hunk, getting out of the situation. And you were left there irritated, glaring at his back. If looks could kill, he'd be dead already.