The New Paladin

57: Delving Deep

Lance frowned at the ice planet that came into view. There weren't any Galran's coming up on his scanners and he couldn't see any life on the planet either.

"Are we in the right place?" He asked hoping Hunk would be able to answer.

Hunk however was silent.

"Hunk? Hey man you okay?" Lance asked worrying now. Maybe he should call Shiro-

"Huh? Oh, no, I'm okay." Hunk replied appearing on his screen. "The mer people live under the ice."

"Mer? Like mermaids?!" Lance asked excitement bubbling up. "Like real mermaids?"

"Yeah? Wait you've never met a mer?" Hunk frowned. "You've met like everyone."

"I met a half mer but I was told that real mers were nearly extinct." Lance shrugged. "So this is a new thing to me."

Hunk gave a soft chuckle. "Where did you meet a half mer?"

"In the mines."

Hunk's smile fell. "Oh."

Lance shrugged. "Hunk I was in the mines for most of my life, that's where I met nearly everyone."

"I know, but... Still." Hunk frowned.

"I'm gonna cut a hole in the ice." Lance explained moving the blue lion into palce. "Let's go see the mermaids."

Cutting through said ice was trickier than Lance had anticipated, it was thicker than he thought and so it took a while.

"4 years later." Lance sighed rubbing his face.

"Huh?"

"Huh?" Lance parroted with a frown.

"You said something that didn't make sense." Hunk explained appearing on his screen.

"Oh, the 4 years thing. Yeah I'm just saying this is taking a while." He shrugged. "I'm hoping we won't be here for 4 years."

Finally the ice cracked, not exactly where Lance had wanted it to buy they were soon pulling into the icy depths.

All of Blues controls shut down and Lance clutched at the arm rest of the seat as darkness surrounded them.

With a heavy thud he found himself at the bottom of the deep, dark, cold, frozen oceans.

He shivered. "Great."

Finally the lights flickered back on and Lance found the yellow lion laying not too far away.

Snapping his helmet shut he was quickly heading out of his lion.

The yellow lion was all closed up so now Lance was out here alone in dark and potentially dangerous waters.

Something moved in his peripheral vision making his blood run cold.

Oh boy.

His Bayard came to his hand as he pressed his back against the yellow lions snout. He wasn't going to have anything sneak up on him.

The lion behind him moved and Lance bumped into Hunk who frowned slightly at him.

Lance met his gaze before Hunk was moving his hand to flick Lance's com on.

"Oops."

Hunk chuckled. "I thought you were unconscious or something."

"Nah just an idiot." Lance smirked. "You okay? I didn't mean for the ice to break."

"I'm good." Hunk assured, then his eyes flickered. "There's something out there."

"Mers?" Lance asked lifting his Bayard.

"Possibly." Hunk nodded lifting his Bayard. "Stay close."

"Yeah I didn't plan to wonder off." Lance said eyes flickering to the shadows around the lions.

Then something gripped his ankle.

He jerked backwards latching onto Hunk as he fired blindly. It was a stun blast and he was relieved it missed when big blue eyes blinked up at him.

The mer offered a smile tilting her head. "Hello."

Lance just stared at her.

"Hi, we're the paladins of Voltron." Hunk smiled offering Lance's hand a squeeze. "We're here to-"

"Of course." The mer beamed finally letting go of Lance's leg. "I'll take you to our queen."

"Queen?" Lance frowned. "Okay I'm not sensing much like fear. What's going on here?"

"I don't know." Hunk admitted as their jetpacks kicked in allowing them to follow the mer. "But I don't like it."

"Yeah, there's something fishy going on." Lance said glancing to Hunk to await his reaction.

Hunk stared at him. "Did you just crack a joke?"

"Yeah." Lance nodded.

"I don't get it."

"Nevermind." Lance sighed shaking his head. "Let's just go an find out what is going on."

The mer led them towards bustling coral coves where fish the size of Lance just rushed past with so much ease.

He found a steady smile coming to his face as he watched with awe. This was a planet he was going to enjoy being on. He knew that much.

But then again, he knew that like all the planets in this universe there was often a problem with them and so he knew it wouldn't last forever.

"Whoa." Lance breathed when the castle came into view.

It looked exactly how Lance would imagine a mermaid castle.

"Looks like Ariel's place." He admitted quietly.

"What?" Hunk asked with a frown.

"Disney princess."

"You know a princess?" Hunk asked tilting his head.

"I know Allura, she's the only real princess I know." Lance smiled. "Ariel is a-"

"Ariel's a planet." Hunk said matter of factly. "It's where the paladins of old used to train."

"Wait really?" Lance asked catching Hunk's arm.

"Yeah."

"No way, that is awesome." He beamed.

Lance would admit this was nice. The planet seemed peaceful and with a sever lack of Galran's but Lance wasn't about to complain about that.

There were real life mermaids and he was learning more about the others.

It was actually pretty awesome hearing about their pasts, about the adventures they had before he ever entered the scene.

"Our queen protects us all." The mer explained as she slowed down. "She may be defensive against you until she learns your intentions and indentitys."

"Right." Hunk nodded. "As expected."

Lance offered a shrug. He had no idea what the norm was for these sorts of things. And yes, he had been a paladin for a while now but still.

He was still very much out of his depth.

"Let's find out what's going on." He said mostly to himself as he stared up at the tall coral like structures of the mer's castle.