The New Paladin

6: The Glow

"Whoa." Lance breathed out slowly. "This is so cool."

He was stood in the cockpit of the Yellow lion, it was huge. There was room to have several people in there alone and they were only in the head.

The cargo hold in these ships must have been massive.

As he was thinking the floor seemed to vibrate and Lance jumped back surprised before he looked at Hunk who was smiling as he affectionately patted the controls.

"She likes you." Hunk informed with a smile. "Now let's head back to the castle."

With the speed that they suddenly left the atmosphere of the planet, Lance nearly fell over, only managing to stay upright by latching onto Hunk's chair.

The screen then flahsed before Pidge appeared on one side of it.

"Hey Hunk." She smirked. "Guess what."

"Two lions down two to go?" Hunk asked with his own smile.

"Yep!" Pidge said excitedly. "I'm so happy to have Green back."

"Yeah, Yellows happy to be out of that cave."

"How you finding it Lance?" Pidge asked looking directly at him.

"Um, yeah they're cool." Lance nodded fidgeting slightly under her gaze. "But didn't you say there was five lions?"

"Yeah, there is. Shiro's working on what to do about it." Pidge sighed. "Hey Hunk when we get back we need to land in Shiro's hangar, it's the only way to wake Black up."

Lance frowned at that.

Why would they have to wake a lion up? It seemed an odd phrase for the green paladin to say.

"Alright, see you there." Hunk nodded before he glanced back at Lance with a smile. "You okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine." Lance nodded.

"Just checking cause you were bleeding earlier."

Lance shook his head. "Nosebleeds aren't really an issue, honestly I wouldn't worry about me."

Hunk frowned, he looked like he didn't like that idea. "What happened while I was getting Yellow?"

"I got caught in a tractor beam, but I shot at it and it dropped me. Thanks for the catch by the way."

Hunk smiled before he looked back at where he was flying too. "I have a question, how did you know that shooting the tractor beam would work?"

"I didn't, I just hoped for the best." Lance admitted quietly.

Hunk nodded. "Fair enough."

The rest of the flight there was silent.

Lance was still examining the inside of the lion, it was incredible. The design was unlike anything he had ever seen before and quite honestly he loved it all.

There was a sort of hope now that nestled into his heart.

He felt as though finally the Galran rule might end and there might actually be a chance for someone like him to get back home.

Home.

That seemed light-years away.

When they landed back in the castle the clattering sound of the lion landing made him flinch. He hadn't expected it to be so loud.

Then the whole area was tilting.

Lance stumbled only being caught by Hunk who smiled at him.

"Come on." He smiled directing Lance out the door behind him.

Lance thought the inside was big.

He stood there jaw dropped as he stared up at the green lion it was huge.

"What?" Pidge asked when she stopped next to him.

Lance just pointed. "It's big."

Pidge laughed shaking her head. "Green's the smalles out of all of them."

Lance stared at her eyes wide.

Pidge, still laughing pointed past him to where the Yellow lion stood, and wow.

Lance had the crane his neck back to look up at it. "Wow."

Hunk chuckled. "Yeah, I guess they are pretty big."

"How do you fly them?" Lance asked almost breathlessly. "How do they even have the power to get off the ground?"

"They're one of a kind." Shiro explained as he walked over. "Alfor made them to protect the universe from threats, they're unique and more powerful then even we realise."

"Neat." Lance nodded unable to wrap his mind around the lions and their creation. "Yeah okay I'm very much muddled."

Pidge laughed again while Shiro patted his arm.

"It will make sense when we have all of them."

"We have a problem." Keith grumbled as he walked in. "Red is captured by the Galra and we don't know how to get her free."

"It's alright Keith, we'll think of something." Shiro promised. "At least now we have two lions, it's 100% better then when we started."

"Yeah I know." Keith sighed. "It's just that I can feel her restlessness."

"I know you can, I can't feel black, she's trying to wake up fully but can't." Shiro said gently. "Let's get a better look at Sendak's ship, maybe a plan will present itself."

Lance frowned to himself sending on last glance up at the giant lions sat in the hangar.

They had two, surely they could just break through the ship and rescue the red lion easy peasy.

But he kept his thoughts to himself and followed the others towards the control room.