"Thank you again for having this wonderful reunion." Said Allura as she bowed slightly to the head of the Irnulian's.

"Please! We owe this and much more to the defenders of the universe! The ones who brought down Zarkon himself!" He shouted letting his people hear followed by their cheers and glasses raised high into the sky, their colorful clothes shining brightly under the moonlight.

Allura only responded by raising her glass with a slightly awkward smile knowing that that statement wasn't entirely true.

"We hope to unite with others and help each other out to bring down the rest of the Galrans who go against this new era of peace." Added Lotor as he walked into the scene with a glass of something sparkling blue in his hand.

Allura gave him a wordless' Thank you' and left him with the head of the clan and walked over to Shiro.

"How are you doing Princess?" He asked politely, knowing that representing Voltron would be a big task. She looked tired and if you looked close enough, you could see the bags under her eyes.

"Fine..." She said looking down at her cup, avoiding eye contact. Shiro could clearly see she wasn't exactly 'Fine'.

"I'm worried about her too." He said with a sad smile, trying to let Allura know that she wasn't alone and that he knew how she felt.

"I just wish we could have talked to her before she ran off." She sighed.

"I know, we all do, but right now we should trust in her decision and keep moving ahead. At least the blade gives us updates on her every once in a while" Shiro placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. Allura turned to look at him and smiled gratefully that he was by her side and laid her hand on his in response.

"That is true, I just hope she's doing well."

"So how did it happen???" One of the Irnulian's came up all of a sudden to the Black Paladin with her friends in hopes of hearing the great fight of Voltron Vs. Zarkon.

"Oh! Um, hello, nice to meet you all." Allura began. "Actually, the one who tells the story the best is that fellow over there." She pointed towards Lotor who was having a conversation with Pidge and Hunk. The girls' eyes sparkled and they dashed over to them in a second. Allura and Shiro tried to stifle their laughter and walked away slowly, not wanting to make eye contact with 'Prince Lotor'.

As they continued their walk, they noticed a certain red paladin standing alone, far away from the dancing and festivities like the emo boy he was.

"Why don't you join us?" Asked Allura.

Keith shrugged. "Parties aren't really my thing." He said honestly. "Plus they won't stop asking me to 'Tell the great tale of Voltron Vs. Zarkon!'." He tried to mimic one of the Irnulians.

"Yeah, we needed a bit of air too." Shiro said somewhat embarrassed.

"They're just enthusiastic since they don't have to worry about Zarkon anymore." Allura tried to sympathize with them.

"Yeah but we're not the one who defeated him." Keith added with his arms crossed at his chest.

"I know, but we can't tell them the truth, not yet, not until she comes back." Allura said with determination. She knew in her heart that you had every right to leave after what they did to you but it's been three months, and they missed you dearly.

"She'll come back, i'm sure of it." Keith started to walk back over to where the crowd was so he could get some snacks from the food table.

Keith tried to make the trip as quick as possible, hoping no one would ask for him to tell the story again.

"Did you hear what happened on planet Tralis??" Keith heard a little boy that looked no older than 14 whisper yell in excitement. This caught his attention and decided to stay a bit longer to eavesdrop.

"What! What!" Another older looking boy exclaimed in a hushed tone.

"They got more prisoners! I took that communicator my dad stole from that Galran and it's all over their scanners!" He showed the odd-looking diamond-shaped communicator in his small round hand. "They said they get about 20 people daily!"

"No way!" A little girl shouted in concern. "Shouldn't we tell the Paladins of Voltron this?"

"Eslen!" A man called over to his son. The three kids turned in fright towards the authority. "What have I told you about taking my things!" He scolded.

"Hey," Keith said suddenly, catching their attention.

"Paladin!" The man spoke. "Forgive me, my son was misbehaving, I should not ruin such a joyful event." He apologized by bowing and grabbing his son's head forcing him to bow too.

"Oh, no no it's okay, um..." Keith scratched the back of his head awkwardly not knowing how to go about the situation. "Can I see that transmitter?" He asked pointing towards the object.

"Of course!" He immediately handed it over to the red paladin and Keith started to inspect it. "If you'd like you may keep it, maybe it will help in your travels?" The man offered. Keith looked back at the dad and smiled.

"Yes please, this would help us a lot." Keith then looked over to the young boy. "Eslen right?" He asked. The boy just nodded his head, suddenly feeling a bit shy.

"What more can you tell me about what happened at that post?" Eslen's face changed and smiled brightly.

"Told you we should have told them." the older looking boy gave his friend a nudge.

"They say it's one of the most well-guarded places and they constantly get prisoners from different planets!"

"Is that what you've been hearing with this thing?" His father asked.

"Yeah! But we only get information every once in a while, usually, the things that they say come in a bit late, like a few 'movements' or maybe even a 'Phoeb' off." His tone sounded somewhat disappointed as if the information he just gave wasn't enough but Keith ruffled his head to try and reassure him. Suddenly, Keith remembered a time when he would do the same to you when you were a child. He pushed that thought away and straightened his posture.

"You've helped us out a lot with this new intel Eslen. And thank you, sir, for giving me the transmitter. I'm going to head back to my crew and show them this." Keith gave them a small wave and walked back.

Time to get back to work.

-

"This is great!" Pidge shouted. Lance chuckled seeing her get excited over what he would call a walkie-talkie. "Hunk hand me those wires!" He immediately went for said cables and Pidge started attacking the holo-screen.

"So what's stored in that thing?" Asked Lance with an eyebrow raised and looked over Pidge's shoulder to look but found it pointless since all there was were codes.

"It looks like they've got a bunch of audio recordings, this is the most recent one."

"This is the main guard at the prisoner's station on planet Tralis, I report a new shipping of prisoners from station 5342 on-" The transmission ended followed by static.

"How long ago was that?" Keith spoke up. Pidge hummed to herself as she looked through the log.

"About a week ago."

"Planet Tralis he said correct?" Asked Coran as he stroked his orange mustache. "I don't think we're too far from there!" He then took out a see-through tablet and opened up a map. "Yup! We could get there in about." He started counting with his fingers. "2 Vargas!"

"Than let's set course for Tralis and get ready." Said Keith.

"Hold on." Began Allura taking a closer look at the planet. "Tralis is one of the biggest Prisoner facilities Zarkon ha ever had."

"And that means...?" Hunk urged her to finish.

"It means it's heavily guarded and has one of their best soldiers, we must be cautious when getting there." She instructed.

"But that transmission was sent a week ago, how do we know if they just got the shipment?" Asked hunk.

"There's a village of people somewhere on that planet, they must know something about it." Allura started researching as much as she could about that planet for the upcoming battle.

"Looks like we've got some work to do." Lance smirked and cracked his knuckles feeling pumped for the mission.

If they only knew what was waiting for them.

~Celestial-Red~