"Alright the next time that door opens, overwhelm the guard," krolia peaked out the window of the cell as ezor and zethrid exited to see what the problem was. The Paladins and others lined up on each side for a surprise attack with their wrists still joined together.

But instead there was a cry and a thud from the outside that came from the guard catching them by surprise. And a moment later the door slowly opened.

There lied the guard on the ground with the four space mice sitting on him happily.

"I don't understand altean anything at all.." lance whispered loudly as they were all confused.

"Hello little friends!" Allura gasped sitting in front of the mice happily. They squeaked at her as Allura listened and looked confused again.

"What?" She cocked her head to the side. "Where?"

"What are they saying?" Hunk peaked over.

"Corans trying to rescue us, and he's got help," Allura told them as the mice continued to squeak.

"Axca!" She gasped looking back at lance.

"My grumpy girl!" Lance gasped happily as he clasped his hands together.

"Aw I hope she's not all piratey like my other girls," he whined remembering the other two.

"Alright so where's Coran?" Allura asked the mice smiling.

——

"Alright gotcha right where I want ya," Coran fought against a giant galra robot as he used his altean abilities to turn himself purple but by the looks of it... he was loosing terribly.

Until Allura came up using her altean ability to grow and take out the galra.

Coran slowly fell to the ground on his knees as lance and Keith came up and took his arms and slugged them over their shoulders for support.

"See? You got lucky," Coran slurred at the robot.

"Coran, where's Axca?" Lance asked as keith helped them back up.

"I don't know, where am I?" Coran looked at keith like he asked the question.

"Are.. you okay?" Shiro blinked confused.

"Never better, now let's get our belmards and hayards," Coran leaned against the boys as he almost made them fall.

"Don't worry we got you," Keith smiled softly at him and gave lance a nod.

"Aw thank you princess Allura," Coran smiled back.

They ran as fast as they could down the halls to find their weapons, they passed a window to space and lance saw their lions floating in space. Axca. He smiled. He wasn't alone anymore.

They found the room as two galra stood near the weapons checking them out, chatting as one held the green bayard.

"They have our weapons and we don't, any suggestions?" Pidge hid behind lance a little as he narrowed his eyes.

"I mean I have my stuff," lance reached in his boot and pulled out a small device that shifted into a blaster he had as a general.

"Unhand those bayard you scallywags!" Coran yelled making lance jump and drop his blaster in the middle of the doorway. He grabbed Coran and shoved him back as hunk and krolia held him while Pidge covered his mouth.

"So much for the element of surprise," Pidge growled.

In a flash of red Keith suddenly had the red bayard in hand after concentrating his energy on it.

"I got it," Keith went ahead and attacked the two galra as everyone watched wide eyes from the door way.

"Well that didn't take long," lance walked in as keith was putting on his helmet and had two unconscious guards at his feet.

"Lance lead the way, keep them together," Keith looked back at him.

"Where are you going?" Lance looked at him confused as keith went to leave.

"Axca saved our asses, I'm not leaving her behind," Keith turned back to him.

"Good, bring her back," lance slowly nodded. "Don't fall behind,"

They geared up with their helmets on and regaining their weapons. Lance stood at the door grabbing his blaster again and looked at the others.

"The lions are out, get to your lion and stay sharp," Lance looked at them and they followed him out as lance took the lead.

His heart pounded. His girls were here, but he couldn't be with them, he missed them, he wanted ezor back, wanted zethrid to make fun of him and Axca to comment at their ridiculousness, he wanted Lotor back to look like a disapproving Parent.

He wanted that life back.

But he took charge and blasted a door open to space and leaped out into the air, activating his boosters and looked back making sure everyone was here. He flew to his lion with Coran following him and Romelle going with Allura as shiro and krolia went to the black lion.

Until soldiers followed them out and started blasting.

——

Axca backed up as ezor ran along the wall and spin kicked at her old friend as she used her hair like a whip, with zethrid running up and rammed into the smaller galra.

Axca looked up as ezor flipped and went to attack her again just as keith slid in front of Axca to block the foot.

"Red Paladin?" Axca panted.

"Axca right?" Keith looked back at her.

"Oh look, Axca's favorite Paladins," ezor smiled at the two as they stood side by side.

"So do you guys like actually know each other?" Zethrid asked.

"Yea don't you remember how she never wanted to kill him?" Ezor smirked.

"Aw I guess it is true love," zethrid cooed sarcastically.

"Can't we just fight?!" Keith yelled as neither of them looked amused.

Ezor charge at keith as zethrid went for Axca, grabbing her by the throat and slamming her to the wall as ezor kicked Keith across the floor and flipped after him.

She was about to slam her heel against him but Keith rolled out of the way as Axca kicked zethrid in the chest to drop her. She ducked zethrids paw and upper cutted the large woman and without hesitation she swung her foot high to kick her across the face as zethrid grunted in pain.

Axca jumped to spin kick zethrid again but the large galra hybrid put her arm up to stop the foot and punched Axca again to send her flying.

Keith growled as he had his sword up to block ezor but he used his boosters to push back against the galras strength and ezor was slammed against the wall and fell down. Only for zethrid to slam her shoulder to send Keith against Axca and the two rolled along the floor.

They landed into a dark room as they laid against each other. Keith saw tubes of a chemical rolling around from their impact and identified them quickly.

"Is that what I think it is?" Keith asked in a low tone.

"Synthian nitrate," Axca confirmed with a narrowed look.

"Guys, zero in on my location and fire on the ship," he said into his communicator in his helmet with a glare seeing zethrid helping ezor up.

"Are you sure?" Allura asked.

"Just do it!" He pushed Axca away as they rolled out of the way from the two girls attacking them again.

Keith grabbed axcas wrist and used his boosters to fly them out of the room and as fast as they could as the lions hit where they once were and caused the room to blow up from the chemicals of the tubes. As ezor and zethrid cried out from the explosion but were left behind.

They flew out of the ship as keith held onto Axca and went straight for the black lion to escape as the cruiser ship was left to flames.

——

The lions landed on a deserted planet to charge as everyone took shelter to rest up and collect themselves again while Axca exited the black lion with shiro, Keith, shiro and krolia followed behind her.

"Axca!" Lance raced out of his lion and Axca smiled relieved and pulled lance close as he wrapped her in his arms tightly.

"Your alive," she whispered softly as lance hugged his friend smiling. She didn't show her soft side often or to physical with showing affection but he didn't dare let got of her.

"Are you okay?" Lance asked as they where almost the same height but Axca was a few inches taller due to being galra.

"I'm fine my friend, but we have much to talk about," she looked down at lance and the two walked into a small cave where everyone huddled together.

"I just looked at the lions and they're in worst shape than ever," Hunk came in to make a fire for them all.

"We should probably give them time to recharge before we head back on our way," shiro nodded standing next to lance.

"Things have really changed in the past couple of weeks," Lance looked back at Axca as she sat near him. Her hair was in a short bob as she wore her own armor rather than her general gear.

"Weeks? What are you talking about?" Axca asked confused.

"The last time we saw you, you fought us alongside Lotor," Allura explained confused.

"That was three years ago," Axca said softly and everyone felt their stomachs go sick.

"No one has seen you since your fight with Lotor," she told them.

"That's impossible," Keith whispered next to her.

"It's true," she looked back at him.

"After Lotor jettisoned us we managed to make it to cover on a meteoroid, there we saw both voltron and Lotor disappear, then voltron re-emerged... alone," Axca looked at lance sadly as he frowned.

"There was an explosion and after that... nothing," she sighed and everyone's eyes were on her.

"That was three deca phoebs ago,"

"So as far as everyone else in the universe is concerned, voltron has been gone for three deca phoebs?" Allura gulped a little.

"That explains the discrepancies in the star charts in our lions," Pidge looked down in realization.

"I thought they were off because of our inter dimensional jumping," she brought up her screen to look at the charts. "I guess they were in a way, cause if you think about it that must have been the cause of the time slippage between our experience and that of the rest of the universe,"

"So how did you end up here? Helping us?" Keith asked.

"What happened the zethrid and ezor..?" Lance asked quietly looking down.

"Ezor, zethrid and I were marooned on the meteor for days, finally a galra ship came to investigate Lotor and Lances last known whereabouts, we took it over. With Lotor gone and his second in command missing it was clear that there was a power vacuum in the empire," Axca explained to them calmly.

"Your saying lance would've led the galra if he wasn't in the field with us?" Allura asked feeling sick about the idea.

"Yes, when Lotor became emperor, it was in his will as lance was the first to bow at the kral zera, claiming his loyalty to not just Lotor but to the empire, and as second in command, human or not, he would be the leader until someone else rose up if he didn't want the position," Axca said simply and lance pursed his lips and almost smirked.

"But with both of you gone, ezor and zethrid wanted to exploit that for their own gains... I wanted to find my own path, and it led me to you," she looked at lance.

"I'm so sorry that things ended that way with Lotor, I never knew Lotor would be that kind of man," Axca gulped taking Lances hand.

"Me too," lance looked down. He checked, Lotor wasn't awake yet.

"Thank you, for saving us," Keith nodded softly.

"I trusted Lotor, I never saw this coming, he preached unity but in the end he sought only power," Axca looked at lance again and then the others.

"I understand how you feel, I fell for the lies as well," Allura blushed a little embarrassed as she didn't look at lance.

"That wasn't Lotor," Lance glared at Allura. "You didn't fall for lies, you fell for a misconception,"

"I'll do everything I can out here to help the voltron coalition," Axca gained Lances attention again seeing there was something dark between the two.