You ignored the throbbing in your head as you ran as fast as you could into your Lion. You jumped into your seat and the Lion let out a loud roar. "Okay, here we go girl!" You encouraged her. And she soared up the mine shaft and out of Balmera. You were on your way to help the castle.

"Did everyone make it to their Lions on time?" Shiro asked on the intercom. "Come on Shiro. Who do you think you're dealing with, a bunch of amateurs?" Lance said amused just before crashing into a mining structure. And everyone chuckled. "You really want me to answer that?" Shiro asked laughing before he got serious again. "Let's go." He then commanded.

As your Lions flew up towards the space, you saw a large fleet of Galra fighter planes surrounding the castle. You immediately pulled the handles and your Lion shot lasers from her mouth. And everyone else did the same. Except Hunk who rammed his Lion to the planes, destroying them along the way.

Everyone just concentrated on getting as many planes as possible, to stop them from attacking the castle. You were even certain that Lance and Keith were counting the numbers to see who got the most. Competing idiots. But soon the numbers started to decrease.

You evaded a couple of planes, turned around and shot them from behind quite skillfully. You were slowly getting better all the time. And you couldn't help but smile, even though you saw exploding and crashing Galra planes all around you. You loved flying with your Lion.

"Paladins, I need you immediately! Five more ticks and we're finished!" You heard Allura's panicky voice through the intercom as it took too long to get rid of all the planes. "Okay, let's form Voltron!" Shiro ordered. And you all agreed.

The Lions soared upwards in total unison. They started to transform, everything clicking into its place as the magnetism pulled you together, eventually forming Voltron. And with Voltron, you went to save the castle, firing lasers at the rest of the planes that were harassing it.

And pretty soon they were all done for. You really were that much powerful as Voltron. And as the last fighter planes were cleared, you landed back down on Balmera. "Yeah! The parade's back on!" Lance cheered happily. And you all were quite happy about the outcome.

But your joy didn't last long. Suddenly you saw something breaking through the atmosphere. And your eyes widened. "Oh no!" You gasped aloud. Even though you weren't sure what it was, you knew it couldn't be anything good. It reminded you of the robot you battled with in Arus.

Soon the large object, a carrier of some sorts, came crashing down on Balmera. And a huge pressure wave erupted as it hit the ground. The Balmera groaned in pain, and immediately the throbbing in your head came back. You had almost forgotten it already, but now it was back worse than before. You cursed as your eyes blurred from the pain. Your Lion growled at you, wanting to know that you were alright. And you took a deep breath. "It's nothing." You said to her, feeling somewhat dizzy.

"What the heck is that?" Lance asked horrified. "Please tell me there's not a giant monster in there too!" Hunk sounded worried. "Please tell me it's empty! Or full of space candy! One of those two. Either one is fine." He then started to babble.

"I don't think it's a pinata, Hunk!" Lance said. And you weren't amused at all. "Come on, of course it's a monster. Why would anything ever be easy..." You said, almost to yourself, a bit irritated as the dizziness didn't seem to fade away.

"If it's the same kind of monster that attacked us on Arus, we already know how to beat it." Keith said confidently. And you sighed. Oh how you wished you had his confidence. "I don't think he'd be stupid enough to send a similar one." You said to everyone annoyed.

And even though you didn't know what was coming, you still readied yourself. Voltron formed the sword and the shield. And you were ready for whatever would come out of the carrier.

You stood your ground. You felt like you couldn't even breathe as you were so tense. And then the carrier finally started to open up, letting you see what was inside. And you gasped. It was a huge red creature with long arms, green eyes and a chest cannon. "It's not candy!" Hunk yelled. "And it's not the same monster!" Lance yelled straight after. And you took a deep breath. Why did they have to shout something so obvious?

Then something started to form on the creatures chest cannon. And suddenly a huge green beam started to head towards you. "Watch out!" You yelled. And at the same time you mentally slapped yourself for joining the 'stating the obvious' club.

Voltron just barely blocked the beam with the shield. The force pushed you back as it was so powerful. And you all grunted from the pressure. Straight after another beam tried to hit you, but you evaded it. And instead it hit the Balmera.

You let out an audible grunt as the feeling in your head felt unbearable again. "We need to draw its fire away from the Balmera!" You yelled at the intercom, not really sure how loud you actually were. The throbbing in your head made everything blurry.

Lance and Hunk used their boosters and Voltron soared up to the sky. You were already struggling with the creature, and the fight had only just begun. It just kept shooting at you over and over again, and you were struggling with evading all of the shots.

Then the creature shot again, and you were too slow to evade. Voltron got hit to the side. It just missed your Lion, but you still felt the immense power the hit had. Then you blocked another attack with the shield, and was pushed back by the force. You were really struggling.

"This is useless!" You yelled. The pain and the constant evading made you really frustrated. "My Lion's weakening! If the shield sustains structural damage, we're done for!" Pidge yelled, her voice distressed. Something you rarely heard from her.

"Okay, Team Voltron, disband!" Shiro ordered. "Right!" You all said in unison. And you disbanded back into your Lions, just as the creature tried to strike again. "How the hell are we supposed to beat that thing..." You said quietly, mainly to yourself. And your Lion roared, as baffled as you were.

"Everyone, evasive maneuvers! It can't shoot us all at once." Shiro ordered, coming up with a new plan. And you did what you were told. Everyone flew all around the creature, evading the beam and trying to figure out what to do at the same time.

And then, to your horror, the creature suddenly spread its huge arms. And you saw that the arms were full of things that resembled green eyes. And suddenly all those eyes flashed in green, and the creature fired lasers from every one of those. It was like a rain of arrows as they were fired towards you. And you looked at it with horror, almost forgetting to evade. "Okay, it can do that too." You heard Shiro's fed up voice on the intercom.

You barely evaded all the beams as you suddenly saw the creature getting hit with a massive blast. You gasped and looked up. And you saw that the castle had arrived to Balmera's atmosphere. It came to help you.

But before you could do anything, the creature shot back at the castle. It was so fast that you didn't even have time to react. Luckily the castle had the particle barrier up, otherwise it would have been goners. And then it started to fire back at you.

It seemed like the creature saw every single move you made. All you could pretty much do was evade. And it was getting frustrating. You couldn't figure out its blind spot. It probably didn't even have one. The castle tried to cover you so you could try to maneuver near the creature to figure out what to do, but it just shot back at the castle, weakening its particle barrier. Until it eventually gave out.

"Princess, pull back! Get out of its range, now!" Shiro ordered Allura. "We will not abandon you!" Allura yelled defying his orders. "You're not abandoning us. We're about to pull back anyway." Shiro informed them. And you were left silent. Pull back? Did Shiro think that you couldn't defeat it, at all?

"Lions, to the mine shafts! It's the only place the monster can't get us." Shiro then ordered you. And everyone of course obeyed without questioning. Nobody wanted to be voluntarily around that creature anyways. "Heading into orbit!" Allura stated as the castle also disappeared above the atmosphere.

You still evaded a last beam as you flew your Lion to the mine shaft and descended down. Hunk, Keith and Shiro were coming down to the same mine shaft and Lance and Pidge were somewhere else. And as you got out of your Lion, you saw Shay and the others approaching you.

"What is happening?" Rax, Shay's brother, asked you, seemingly anxious. "There's a monster up there that Zarkon sent to destroy us." Keith explained to them, as calmly as he could. "A monster? Will Zarkon's savagery never abate? Perhaps our people were never meant to be free." Shay said defeated, looking down at the ground.

But you immediately stopped her. "No, don't say that! Even if there's a slight change for that, you should hold on to your hope." You said, maybe a bit more forcefully than intended. And Shay looked at you questioningly. "Aren't you tired of the fear Shay? Enough is enough!" You tried to give her courage.

"Zarkon's power grows with every planet he conquers, but he's weakened by every being that fights back." Hunk explained, taking Shay's hand into his and looking at her in the eyes. He was trying to make her see what they had to do. "Fight back? Against a monster like that? How?" Shay still asked, seemingly hopeless.

"I don't know, but we can beat it. Tell her Keith." Hunk said looking at Keith, asking for his reassurance. But Keith didn't really understand. "Can we?" He asked, shrugging his shoulders. You glared at him, wanting him to say something encouraging, but he just looked at you questioningly. So you quickly turned to Shay. "Of course we can. We are the Paladins of Voltron. We will beat that thing." You said what Keith should have said. And you smiled at Shay, at the same time trying to convince yourself.

"(Y/N) is right. This is our first mission and we're not going to fail. We just have to come up with a plan." Shiro said to everyone. "See? I told you we can." Hunk said confidently while still trying to reassure Shay.

Just then suddenly the Balmera groaned in pain and the ground started to shake. And the throbbing in your head, which you had almost forgotten in the midst of everything, reminded you of its existence. And you put your hands on your head, trying to get over the dizzy feeling.

"(Y/N), what's wrong?" Keith asked you worried. "My head is throbbing like hell." You answered him. And then you turned to Shay. "It's the Balmera, isn't it?" You asked her with a shivering voice. And Shay came to you and put her hand on your head. "I am sorry for you. We do not even feel that anymore, like you. We are used to it." Shay tried to comfort you.

"That great noise comes from the Balmera itself. Our home crumbles beneath our feet. The Balmera is dying." Rax explained. And Shiro immediately contacted the castle. "Coran, Allura, are you there?" He asked hurriedly. "Shiro, we're here." Allura answered. And you could hear sadness in her voice. "Balmera..." Shiro started, but Coran interrupted him. "We know. Our scanners are showing the life energy draining from the Balmera."

A holographic screen appeared on Shiro's hand console, showing a thermal image of the Balmera. An immense amount of heat was building up inside of it. "Removing crystals from a Balmera is like removing a vital part of the mighty beast. The Balmera needs time to regenerate itself to stay healthy, but the Galra greed may have cost this noble Balmera its life." Coran explained to you what was happening. Balmera was really collapsing. You only had hours before it would happen. And you looked at the others in shock. "What about the people? This is their home." You said, feeling helpless again.

You had to do something, so you decided to evacuate the planet. You had to get all the Balmerans in the castle. They were losing their home. It was really dying.

You decided to distract the creature with the Lions while Coran would land the castle and get the Balmerans in. Your mission was to provoke and evade. And despite you all objecting, Allura decided to head down beforehand to lead the people out. You knew she was brave, but you were still worried. You hoped nothing would happen to her.

And as you started running back to your Lion, you still glanced at the Balmerans. You saw Shay waving at you. And you smiled back. You had no idea how this would turn out. And the thought that this might be the last time you saw her almost brought tears into your eyes. These things you were involved in were no laughing matter. It concerned a whole civilization. They deserved to be free. It was their time to be free.

Your Lions soared out of the mining shaft and immediately the creature spotted you. You started shooting it with your lasers, trying to lead it away from the mines. And soon the creature started to follow you. "Princess, we've lured the monster away. It's time." Shiro said calmly.

"I'll contact you all when I'm on the ground." Allura said back determined. And just as you were evading the creatures beam, you saw a pod flying out of the castle. It was Allura.

But the creature wasn't fooled. It turned its eyes towards the pod and started to shoot. "It saw her!" You yelled. "We got to protect the Princess!" Hunk yelled and flew his Lion straight in front of the beam, stopping it from reaching Allura, while getting hit himself. "Hunk!?" You yelled, concerned for your friend. "No, I'm fine!" Hunk said with a strained voice. His Lion got hit badly, but it endured it.

You tried drawing the attention of the creature as well as you could. But every time you even tried getting closer, it just shot one of those beams towards you, forcing you to evade. What a frustrating enemy. Everyone was just shooting and evading, with no outcome.

At least Allura had made her way down to Balmera now without distractions. So you just had to endure. Shooting and evading, over and over again. And you closed your eyes for a moment as the frustration made the throbbing in your head a bit worse.

Just then your Lion got hit. You grunted from the impact and opened your eyes quickly. But then you realised that the impact hadn't come from the beam. It was Lance, who had rammed your Lion away from the incoming shot.

"You owe me twice now!" Lance's proud voice was heard on the intercom. And he was referring to the explosion at the castle. "What about the time I came to untie you from a tree?" You just said back at him, not amused. "Oh yeah..." You heard him shut up.

Just then you saw the castle landing on the ground, near the mines. The creature wasn't paying any attention to it, and that was good. And you fired a laser again, but the creature ended up evading it, again. And you started to get really annoyed. The throbbing in your head made everything worse for you.

"That is just a Quiznaking Quiznak!!" You cursed aloud, accidentally. And you heard Lance gasp. "Wow...that was...wow." He said baffled. And you heard Keith laugh. And it made you laugh too. "Well it is!" You said, raising your voice, feeling slightly better. But just then you evaded a shot again. And to your horror, the beam you evaded ended up on Balmera.

Suddenly the Balmera rumbled violently. And you gasped. It felt terrible. And immediately you heard Coran's voice on the intercom. "It's on the verge of collapsing! The Balmerans are trapped. Just keep distracting the beast!" He yelled. And nobody said a word as you kept on distracting the creature. And when everyone was quiet, it was a bad sign.

But then Shiro's calm voice was heard. "Team, do you remember when I said we didn't have to beat it?" He asked. "Yes." Everyone answered a bit hesitantly. "Well, we might have to beat it." Shiro just stated, no panic in his voice whatsoever. And then it was silent again. You shook your head. You felt helpless again, and you hated it.

Just then you heard Pidge gasping. "Look down there!" She suddenly yelped. You looked down and saw that Allura and the Balmerans were gathered near the castle. And the ground underneath them was glowing. "What is going on?" You asked baffled.

But you had no time to wonder as the creature again fired beams towards you all. And suddenly Keith's Lion got hit. And immediately you heard his frustrated voice on the intercom. "Guys, this isn't working! We'll never take this beast down in our Lions." He said, irritated and tired. "Well, forming Voltron didn't work either." Pidge stated, also tired of the constant evading.

But just then Hunk gasped. "Guys! Guys, something's happening here! I think there is a way to take down all those laser eyes at once." He raised his voice, clearly unsure of what he was saying. "What is it Hunk?" You asked him. And then you just heard grunting and Hunk yelling. "Form thingy!!" And then silence.

You were puzzled, but then started to chuckle. "Hunk, did you just use your bayard to try to summon the thingy?" You said as you couldn't help but laugh, even though the situation wasn't funny. "Yeah! It didn't work!" Hunk said disappointed. "Because we didn't form Voltron yet." Shiro said, a slight amusement in his voice too. "Oh right. Yeah, I know." Hunk tried to act like nothing happened.

Just then the creature suddenly turned its attention to the castle and the glowing Balmera under it. It turned around spreading its arms, ready to shoot. "We need to defend the castle! Form Voltron!" Shiro commanded immediately in a firm tone. And again, the Lions soared upwards in total unison. They started to transform as the magnetism pulled you together. And as Voltron, Hunk immediately inserted his bayard and a huge shoulder cannon was formed.

You landed in front of the castle and started to shoot at the creature just as it started to shoot at the castle. The beams clashed and Hunk's cannon was eventually able to deflect the shot. "It's not enough!" Hunk yelled as the creature wasn't affected by it.

And suddenly an image appeared on your screen. The image showed how Voltron locked its aim into all of the laser eyes the creature had in its arms. "Are you seeing this?" Hunk asked confused. But Shiro wasn't baffled at all. "Let's see what this thing can do. Engage!" He ordered.

And just then Hunk's shoulder cannon shot out multiple beams at the same time, hitting all of the creatures laser eyes, making it stop. The creature was pushed back by the impact, falling to its knees. "Wow Hunk!" You sighed aloud. And everyone cheered.

But the joy didn't last long. The creature immediately stood up, readying its chest cannon again. "Look out!" Pidge yelled, warning everyone. But Keith quickly hit the creature hard with his Red Lion. And the creature was pushed back again, now falling to the ground. And this time it seemed to stay still.

You stopped and waited. But nothing seemed to happen. It was still. "Did we really do it?" You asked carefully. And when it seemed like the creature really wasn't getting up again, you all started to cheer. You were happy. You actually did it. "Good work team!" Shiro told everyone. And you just smiled. Though you struggled, you worked well as a team.