Lance walked into red as he looked around in awe, he's never been in the red lion before, it was so much smaller than blue, it was almost to tight for comfort. But red was warmer, it relaxed him when the lion purred to his presence, the small space almost felt more like a blanket than a stern shield like blue as she felt more like cool water surrounding him. Only word that could come to his mind was warmth due to the lion.

He sat in the seat and his hands softly took the controls as he felt the bond. He sighed closing his eyes. Keith.

"This doesn't feel right, after everything even with Keith, why me?" Lance roughly let go of the controls and looked at the lion.

"Why wasn't Allura enough? She's the fucking princess! Why not Matt? He's just as good of a pilot as Keith!" He shot harshly at the lion and felt red grumble in a low growl.

"My feelings for Keith in the past have nothing to do with our bond," he crossed his arms pouting and remembered how he and Lotor were at first. Reds stubbornness and personality in general where very similar to Lotor it seemed.

"I so have a fucking type," Lance grumbled as he grabbed the controls.

"Let's see who's the replacement now mullet," he whispered to himself remembering Keiths words at one time. A harder but easier time. The calm before this storm no one could see.

------

Lance flew down to the planet and gasped softly seeing the other lions follow through as he remembered they weren't here to attack him. They were ally's again.

"Welcome back," hunk said with a happy grin to see his friend back in action.

"Let's see how rusty I am," Lance smiled back at him and Pidge smirked at them. They saw a monster which they all started blasting at after the black lion was already battling the beast they aimed for.

"Ryner, what are we looking at here?" Pidge asked quick as the monster roared from the shots that did nothing.

"I don't under stand, the monster resembles one of our tree mechs," Ryner gasped to herself as she looked at the screen that detected the monster. "Its like the forest is being corrupted,"

"It must have something to do with whatever is emanating from the impact site," Shiro stated looking ahead.

"It looks like some sort of invasive plasma," Pidge pointed out pulling up a screen.

"It can't be a robeast," Lance whispered to himself. "Hagars dead..."

"Acxa, Lotor-" "Lance what are you doing?" Allura asked raising an eye brow.

"Contacting the generals, Matt and Lotor, I'm not sure if it's galra robeast like on Arus," Lance said looking at the scans as well.

"Hagars dead, that's not possible," Shiro glared at him.

"I get that but-" "Lance enough we have to stop it before it hurts anyone else, leave the galra out of this," Shiro cut him off and Lance glared silently but nodded.

"Coran have Matt analyze the data I'm sending," Pidge cut the tense silence as they got back into the fight.

"On it,"

The beast began to shoot back but the lions ducked quickly.

"Alright team, let's form Voltron," Shiro commanded.

They flew back to form the weapon as Voltron to only see purple blasts of orbs shooting at them. Shiro commanded the shield as Pidge created it to defend themselves.

They flew at the beast with the shield and slammed the front of it against the beast to push it back with force and Voltron flew back as well but skidded its feet against the forest grounds.

"It's strong.." Lance whispered to himself. He tried thinking of a strategy in his head but Voltron had to move again.

"Let's finish him!" Shiro yelled.

"I can't move my leg! I mean my Voltron leg," hunk grunted as they tried to move.

"Neither can I! These vines are restricting our movement," Allura replied frantically.

"We need to get airborn now!" Lance told them. "Pidge can you get free, we'll need both hands,"

"Negative, they're everywhere," Pidge snarled frustrated as she couldn't get free.

"God dammit they're surrounding us!" Lance hissed. Every time. This happens every time. He knew Voltron wasn't as powerful to defeat this thing or anything new, they can't handle.

"Separate into lion!" Allura tried.

"We can't, we're seized up, trapped!" Shiro struggled as well.

"Lotor what's the outside looking?" Lance looked at a screen but it was glitching out.

"Lan- Lance- can't hear- what's going-" Lotors voice was cutting out as a large shell wrapped around Voltron as there was no way to contact the castle.

"Shiro can you reach ryner?" Lance asked with a serious look on his face.

"Ryner can you hear me? Can you get that ion canon working?" Shiro asked quickly into his helmet.

"No it's still not finish, at best it could manage one shot," Ryner typed into the system.

"Then make it count. That things headed right for you I think," Shiro told them.

Ryner set up the canon as she targeted the beast quickly while the canon charged up as fast as it could.

"Canon charge at 30%," Ryner told them.

"Power at 70%! Target acquired,"

"Power At 95%, prepare to fire!"

They waited a quick second for the ion canon to fire but instead it powered down the green light until it was gone.

"No, we're losing power, what's happening?" Ryner gasped with wide fearful eyes.

The vines crashed through the glass and the building as the room darkened and ryner felt sweat drip down the side of her face as her systems went down as well as the ion canon.

"Lotor? Lotor come on! Can you hear me?" Lance spoke through his helmet knitting his eye brows together.

"I'm here, lance what's happening?" Lotor replied sharply.

"These vines..." Pidge stepped in quickly.

——

"They're like a computer virus," Matt frowned as Lotor stood behind him and coran with a frown.

"From data you sent, it appears the plasma substance is self replicate organic wetware," he explained to them. "Which creates a single expanding system, giving it the ability to interface with nature the way the Olkari do,"

"It's like a computer and a virus into one," Pidge responded as the computer glitched then was gone.

"No, dammit Voltron is offline," Lotor glared as he was left with the two men.

"If the plasma has the properties of a computer then there must be some way to hack into it and shut it all down," Lotor turned to Matt as the human jumped seeing the large galra was speaking to him.

"I mean conceivably... if we just figure out how to interface with it," Matt gulped turning to him pursing his lips.

"We need to get to the Olkari," Lotor nodded.

——

"I-I can't move," hunk panicked as they all where griping the controls in their lions as there was no light to see except from the controls and lights in the lions.

"There's always a loop hole, Pidge got anything?" Lance asked looking to the side, speaking into his head set as he could barely see the green lion.

"The virus is affecting Voltron on a sub mochas level, go drive it out we have to tap into the quantum energy that bonds us all to Voltron," Pidge told them and lance let out a deep breath.

"The bayards! They amplify each Paladins life force," Allura gasped looking at her blue bayard.

"They might provide enough power to drive out the virus," she looked at her controls and then at the device that the bayards unlock of their lions.

"Well its all we got, let's do it," Lance nodded but they grunted when they where moved aggressively and fumbled a little.

——

Lotor and Matt ran to ryner quickly as she turned to them and began to explain.

"I'm trying to interface with the vines to stop their growth," ryner told them frantically. "B-But I can't communicate with the nano cellulose,"

"We don't need to stop it, we just need to reroute it," Matt said and ryner told them to grab a head piece and show her.

"Alright follow our lead," Matt put on head piece as Lotor hesitated with it but did so as well.

They all put a hand on the vine and closed their eyes as the vines soon turned green instead of purple with a low hum.

——

Lance growled as he held his bayard feeling the heavy weight of being pulled by some beam and unable to move.

"Three two one!" He counted down and the five Paladins slammed their bayards into the device quickly and turned it to the side.

Then it went white.