The New Paladin

12: One fine day

"Being a paladin is of the upmost importance." Allura explained. "The lions are so valuable that those who are able to communicate with them and pilot them are of a similar worth."

Lance was stood in a room they called the training deck wearing blue and white armour.

He knew it was the same as the others and he had to be honest it was a little outdated, bright colours and strange shaped chest plate which hurt when you leaned too far forwards.

Yeah this suit wasn't doing anything for him and the chat he was currently having with Allura wasn't much fun either.

"You mean bad guys are going to come after me now?" Lance asked raising an eyebrow. "Yeah I'm not really up for that."

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice."

"If you want to be a paladin so much, here." Lance said handing the Bayard that she had given him to her, apparently it was vital for a paladin to have. "I don't want this, so please."

Allura shook her head with a heavy sigh. "I cannot just replace you, the lions have to choose. Blue chose you."

"Can she unchoose me?"

Allura's expression made Lance cower slightly.

Yeah there's no getting out of this.

~~~

"Training as a team helps us to trust one another and it strengthens our fighting skills all in one." Shiro smiled. "We do lots of different training, we work with gladiators and simulations, we also do some work with mind melding headbands, these allow us to build a knowledge about one another."

Lance glared at the headband in his hand. "So what does it do exactly?"

"Put it on."

Lance carefully pulled the band on feeling a sort of buzz in his head.

Shiro then pulled his own on and suddenly Lance could see and feel aspects of Shiro's emotions and past.

He frowned. "You're okay with this?" He asked slightly puzzled.

"I have to be." Shiro smiled before Lance felt something prodding in his mind.

"Whoa, no." Lance said quickly shaking his head as he pulled it off. "No, you don't want to be in my head."

Shiro frowned. "But I let you in."

Lance felt the guilty punch to his gut, why was Shiro so nice?

"You can control what you share." Shiro continued. "I don't need to see everything, just something small."

Lance span the headband around in his hand for a few quiet seconds before he slipped it back on.

He closed his eyes channelling his energy into only letting Shiro see certain things.

A face appeared in his mind and he wasn't quick enough to stop it.

"Who's that?" Shiro asked softly.

"My dad." Lance whispered as he opened his eyes, he felt the tears well up but quickly scrubbed them away. "Can we stop?"

Shiro nodded removing his own headband. "Yeah, whatever you need."

"Thanks." Lance mumbled quietly.

~~~

"Shiro's the leader." Keith explained his voice hard. "So in battle you need to be able to follow orders at the drop of the hat, even if it doesn't make sense to you."

Lance frowned looking across the training deck. Keith had decided to bring him here. Why? He didn't know. But he hoped he wasn't going to die.

"There is a maze around you, you can't see it but I can." Keith explained calmly over the coms. "I'll lead you through it."