You were sitting in your seat in the control room. You were finally on your way to Balmera to save Shay and her people from the Galra. You had wasted enough time on the detour with Rolo and Nyma, so you were all eager to get to your next destination. But for some reason the detour had gotten you a little nervous. And for some reason you had a hard time focusing.

You looked at the others as they were talking together. Pidge was the only one absent at the moment. Then you let out a deep sigh as you leaned back on your seat. Your mind felt such a mess. You couldn't think straight. Something was bothering you.

Then you glanced at Keith. You couldn't get him out of your mind. When you were flying in your Lions, trying to get the Blue Lion back, you had noticed that you kept thinking of him. More than you probably should. For some reason your heart kept racing like hell and you felt somehow nervous in the pit of your stomach. You had realised that you might...like Keith?

You took a deep breath and rubbed your eyes. Your mind was just a muddy mess at the moment. Why would you like him? He was hot-headed, stubborn, not very talkative and socially awkward. But at the same time he could be so warm, safe, intriguing, intuitive, a mystery to you.

You shook your head, trying to think of something else to get those thoughts out of your mind. But when that didn't help, you decided to go for a walk before you'd get to Balmera. You needed to clear your thoughts and ease the nervousness in your body.

As you walked through the hallway, you tried to force yourself to think of anything but him. And that's when you remembered the look Rolo had in his eyes when you left them on the moon. It kept haunting you and suddenly you felt yourself insufficient.

For a while now you had been able to bypass your insecurities, but again they were starting to surface. You felt like you needed fresh air. And that you couldn't get in there. Maybe you were just tired? Maybe that's why those strange thoughts kept circling in your mind?

After walking awhile, you ended up to a room where Pidge and the Green Lion were. She was clearly working on something. And she immediately heard you coming as you stomped to her with slouched shoulders and grim mind.

"Hey (Y/N). Tired of waiting?" She asked you. "You could say that." You said as you sat down on the ground. You looked curiously at what she was working on, even though you weren't even sure if you wanted to know what that was. You usually didn't even understood all her technical projects. That was the one thing that separated you most. You'd rather put your hands in soil than to some microchips. But you still asked, because maybe you were just a masochist.

"What are you doing?" You asked. And she immediately lifted her glasses, seemingly joyful that you were interested in her work. "It's a cloaking device for the Lion." She explained proudly. And you burst out into a laughter. Finally something you understood. "Oh, I know what it is!" You cheered aloud. And Pidge snickered at you.

"Why are you doing that?" You asked after calming down. "You never know when you're going to need one." She answered a bit cheeky. "Okay, sweet." You just answered a little halfheartedly. And that's when your mind started to wander again. And you shook your head as you crossed your arms, pouting. Why couldn't you get him out of your mind!? It really started to irritate you.

"Something the matter?" Pidge looked at you while you kept on pouting on the floor. "Nah, just having a hard time focusing." You said while glancing at her, giving a tired smile. "What's distracting you then?" Pidge smiled. But you didn't answer. Instead you covered your face with your hands and let yourself fall on your back.

"I need a day off." You mumbled. "Then you should have chosen another career." Pidge snickered. And you couldn't help but laugh. Pidge was the best at cheering you up. If you ever felt down, you could just go see Pidge. Just to see her smirking made everything better.

"I should have become a cook!" You playfully declared, lifting your hand in the air. "You can't cook!" Pidge laughed. "Well an accountant then!" You declared laughing, lifting your other hand up too. "You can't count!" Pidge laughed more. And you were almost rolling on the floor laughing. You needed that, badly. You needed to empty your mind. "Thanks Pidge." You said through your laughter. And you almost wished you didn't have to go back. You just wanted to stay there and laugh with her.

But you had to go. So, a bit later you were standing in the control room again. You had all gathered around a holographic screen. And you were so glad that you had spent some time with Pidge. You felt yourself a bit better and could at least concentrate on the mission ahead.

You were looking at a thermal image of Balmera from the holographic screen. And it really didn't look good. You could almost see how it weeped. Why would Galra do something like that? Why would they even follow someone as evil as Zarkon?

"Liberating these Balmerans from Zarkon's grasps will not be easy." Allura outlined the mission. "So, what's the plan? We go in there and just pow, pow, pow!?" Lance asked excited, making some shooting gestures.

And you couldn't help but laugh as you looked at Lance pointing his fingers up in the air. He had quickly gotten over his humiliation from letting Rolo and Nyma take the Blue Lion. It might have helped that Keith hadn't made any snarky comments about it. And you were glad that Keith had kept his promise.

That's when you realised that Keith glanced at you as you laughed. But as soon as your eyes met, he immediately averted his gaze, turning to glare at Lance. "What was that noise?" Keith asked a bit feisty. And you looked at him and frowned. Why was it that sometimes you could actually talk to him easily, while other times it seemed like he was just trying to avoid talking to you, or even looking at you.

But Lance wasn't minding Keith's tone a bit. "Laser guns." He smirked proudly. "No Lance, I think you mean Pow!" Hunk said while showing how to shoot with an imaginary weapon. "Isn't it more like pew, pew?" You said, trying to focus again on the others while doing your best shooting interpretation, even though you had never even held a gun in your hand.

"No (Y/N), technically they're more like ba-choo, ba-choo!" Pidge stated while making shooting motions. "Okay okay, enough of the bad sound effects." Shiro demanded. And everyone glared at him annoyed. He should loosen up once in a while.

"Besides it's more like blam, blam!" Shiro stated while showing how to do it. And you immediately giggled. Go Shiro! He surprised you time after time. When you thought that he would do something, he did the other. And slowly you were really starting to feel better, trying to push all the other thoughts aside.

But Keith wasn't still into the fun and games. "What? Really?" Keith questioned, sounding a bit irritated. "Well, do better." You glanced at him, trying to defend Shiro's bad sound effects. But Keith just looked at you unamused. "No." He said with his arms crossed. "Come on, we've all done it. What's your interpretation?" You tried to dare Keith, smirking. But he just averted his gaze. "No." He said. "Come on Keith." You tried to plead. "No." He just bluntly stated again.

Just then Allura interrupted you. "Paladins, focus." She said strictly. And you all got quiet. And that's when Hunk got serious too, like he had just remembered what you were going to do. "Besides we can't just shoot at the Galra. This Balmera is like alive." He explained, clearly worried. The closer you came to Balmera, the more anxious he was becoming.

"Okay, so we can't go into the tunnels guns blazing. Plan B. We figure out how to draw the Galra up to the surface and battle them out there." Shiro came up with an alternative plan. Then Hunk suddenly exclaimed aloud. "Wait, I know! If we attack all of this big mining stuff on the surface, the Galra troops will have to come out to defend it. Then we beat them up, head down to the tunnels and Voltron saved the day!" He explained excited, clearly proud of his plan. And it sounded good enough for you.

Planning or strategising had never been your strong qualities. And for some reason you started to wonder what your strong points even were. Sometimes you felt like you were just a silly and mediocre Paladin. And while thinking that, you wanted to slap yourself. What was wrong with you that day? Why were you feeling so down? You really needed to concentrate.

"How will we know how many are left in the tunnels?" Keith asked. "We can track the Galra and Balmerans using Biothermal Life Indicator Point Technology." Allura said proudly. "A what?" You snapped out of your thoughts, looking at her confused.

"Oh BLIP Tech!" Pidge immediately yelled excited while raising her hands. And everyone just looked at her silently. Allura glanced at her with a questioning expression, but still continued. "Yes...One of you will have to fly around the Balmera and drop sensors into shafts on each side."

"I can do it. I just modified the Green Lion with the invisible maze's cloaking ability. I should be able to fly around unnoticed." Pidge said, proud of what she had done. And she really was amazing. You had never really figure out how come she was that smart. "That's true, she just did it. I saw her." You said while pointing at her. And at the same time you couldn't help but think that you would never be as good as her. Then you let out another sigh. What was wrong with you that day?

"I'll take out the power generator. Keith, Lance, Hunk and (Y/N), you take out those big mining rigs." Shiro gave you orders. And Hunk immediately got excited. "Yeah! Let's do this! Let's go kick some alien butt!" He cheered. He was ready to go. But you just looked at him with a blank stare, lost in your thoughts. You were really having a bad day.

Then you realised that Shiro was looking at you. He had probably noticed that something was wrong. But you immediately gave him a small smile to hide your messy mind.

Soon you all made your way to your Lions. As you sat on the seat of your Amber Lion, you took a deep breath. And she growled questioningly. "I'm fine, girl. Just having a bad day, that's all." You petted her console. "Don't worry about me. Let's just get this mission done." You still added, leaning against the seat. Then you took another deep breath and playfully slapped your face. "Come on, pull yourself together!" You said frustrated.

Soon Lance's enthusiastic voice was heard on the intercom. "You think the Balmerans will have a parade for us after we've freed everybody?" He asked. "It's not about the glory, Lance. It's about freeing prisoners from Zarkon." Keith answered him. And he sounded exactly like Shiro. Lance just mumbled something in response. But whatever it was, it probably wasn't anything good. And then your Lions soared out of the castle and towards Balmera. Your mission had started.

As you breached through Balmera's atmosphere, the Galra started to immediately shoot at you. But everyone dodged the lasers quite easily as you started approaching the ground level.

"Remember, the Balmera is a living creature. Make sure you pinpoint only the Galra installations and not its surface." Shiro reminded you. "Right." You just answered, trying to concentrate. "Initiating cloak." You heard Pidge say as her Green Lion disappeared from your sight. Shiro separated from you, flying towards the power generator. And you others started to make your way towards the weapons and mining rigs while evading the shots coming at you.

But as you were approaching Balmera, you started to have this strange feeling in your body. Your head started to slightly throb as you approached it. And as you looked at the surface of the Balmera, you could have sworn that you saw it suffering. The day was getting better and better, you sighed.

Then you remembered what Allura had said when you first heard about your Lion. She had told that the Lion needed a pilot who could read living beings and their feelings. And Balmera was alive. So what was that feeling? Did you really feel the Balmera too? You shook your head as you tried to ignore the strange feeling for now and concentrate on the mission.

You soon approached the Galra weapons and pulled the handles of your Lion. She opened her mouth and shot some lasers from it. And it hit straight into a Galra weapon on the surface, making it explode, shattering into pieces.

Then you evaded a shot as you tried to maneuver towards one of the mining rigs you had to get rid of. And you saw as the others were shooting at them too. Well except Hunk, who was slamming his Lion in to the structures. And then you heard Pidge's voice through the intercom. "All sensors delivered!" She said proudly.

Just then you suddenly saw as a fire beam hit straight into a big cannon on the surface, melting a hole through its structure. And you gasped as you realised that it had come out of the Red Lion. You didn't know it could do that. Was that some kind of an upgrade? "Whoa! Did you guys see that? I got fire power!" Keith's excited voice was suddenly heard on the intercom. And you couldn't help but smile at his excitement.

"Hey! I want that!" Lance whined on the intercom. And you heard Keith chuckling quietly until you realised what was happening. The cannon structure that Keith had shot, started to fall down, towards Balmera. "It can't hit Balmera!!" You yelled hastily.

Hunk immediately took action as he flew his Yellow Lion under the collapsing structure, using his boosters to keep it from falling down. He tried his best, but not even his strong Lion could hold it for long. "I'll come and help!" You said, even though you didn't know how much help your smaller Lion would be. But you had to try.

You flew your Lion under the structure too and tried to help keeping it up. But you cursed as it didn't seem to help at all. Some parts were starting to crumble down. And on top of it, the strange feeling in your head tried to surface again.

But just then Lance's cheer was heard on the intercom. "Oh, I think my Lion knows what to do!" He said as he flew the Blue Lion towards the structure. Then he suddenly shot an ice beam at it from the Lion. And the whole structure froze to its place, keeping it up.

The structure was now covered in glistening crystal ice all through it. And if you wouldn't have known that there was a weapon inside it, you could have called the sight beautiful. "Aaw, snap! These rays are super cool! Just like me!" Lance cheered excited.

"Great job team!" Shiro stated proudly. But you just let out a frustrated sigh. It felt like you had done pretty much nothing to help the others. You wondered if your Lion could do anything like that. And even the throbbing in your head had now become a constant background noise you couldn't get rid of. You were really having a bad day.

The only good thing was that you had now destroyed everything you needed to. Now you just had to wait for the Galra troops to start appearing and attacking. But after a moment of wait, nothing happened. "So, shouldn't something happen now?" You asked a bit uncertain. "Where are all the troops? They're not coming to the surface." Keith wondered too.

Just then you heard Allura's voice on the intercom. "We've located a hangar full of Galra fighters just below the surface. Someone has to take those out before they can launch." She explained. And suddenly you had a bad feeling about the whole situation. And so did Shiro. "They're luring us down. But we have no choice. We have to go." He stated determined.

"Keith, Lance, you guys hit the hangar. Hunk, (Y/N), you head to the prison to rescue Shay and the others. Pidge and I will track down the Galra soldiers, where ever they are." Shiro gave orders like a true leader. And you all obeyed him. "Everyone be safe." You said to the others as you all started heading separate ways.

You and Hunk flew down to a mine shaft together. Then you got into your speeders and drove to the tunnels. "Hey Hunk!" You said. "Yeah?" He asked. "Soon you'll see your girlfriend again!" You just couldn't resist, even though you weren't feeling that good. "Oh man (Y/N), don't say that in front of Shay! Please!!" He whined in response. And you couldn't help but laugh.

But as you made your way forwards in the complex tunnels, you soon started to feel like you were lost. Everything seemed so similar. "Hunk, you know where we are?" You asked him through the intercom. "Ummmmm...." He just let out a hum in response. And that said it all.

"So, we're lost." You said as you immediately felt a bit frustrated. It's not like you had all the time in the world to venture in the tunnels. And for some reason you got easily irritated that day. "Allura, Coran, what's our location? All these tunnels look the same. I can't remember where's the prison." Hunk contacted the castle when he was ready to face the truth that you were lost.

"You're on the right path. Turn right at the next tunnel. Once you get there, you'll have to disable the energy doors. Be careful, both of you. It looks like it's heavily guarded." Coran said. "Okay, thanks." You stated as you made your way forwards.

Like Coran had instructed, you turned right on the next intersection, getting closer to the prison. "Okay, we're near." You said to Hunk as you both started to slow down your speed. And just then you saw as some Galra sentries were running away up a head. "What the hell Hunk, do you see that? They're escaping. There's just a couple of them." You said confused. "Yeah, weird." Hunk mumbled.

And as you stopped your speeders, the few sentries that were left, started shooting at you. You got out and crouched behind your speeder. Then you took out your bayard, letting it turn into your fighting staff. Hunk also took out his gun. "Okay Hunk, cover me." You said, ready to leap out. "Got it (Y/N)!" Hunk said determined, starting to fire back at the sentries.

When the sentries started taking cover behind some boulders, you immediately started to run. This time you couldn't wait for them to charge at you. But as you were running, you saw one of the sentries aiming at you. "Hunk!" You notified him. "Got it!" He yelled as he shot the sentry before it could act.

As you ran to the other side, you saw one of the sentries trying to hide from Hunk's shots. You immediately jumped up, swinging your staff fiercely in a large arc. That sentry didn't even see what hit it as it fell on the ground.

"(Y/N), behind you!" Hunk suddenly yelled. And you immediately turned around, seeing one of them trying to hit you from behind. But you quickly spinned around, letting your staff fly to its chest. And as it stumbled back, you aided it with another hit. The sentry fell down and didn't get up.

Just then the last one started charging at you. You readied yourself, but before it could get to you, it fell on the ground. Hunk had shot it. And when all the sentries were down, you relaxed a bit. "I think we're fine Hunk." You said. "Good job!" Hunk encouraged you, appearing from behind his speeder.

And as you looked at one of the sentries lying down on the ground, you couldn't help but think that something was off. "Why were there so few of them?" You wondered. "That was way too easy. I definitely don't have a good feeling about this." Hunk said as he walked to you. "You and me both." You answered him.