By the time everyone got back, I had updated the map and helped get the defenses up and running. Who knew that taking a Fleetwing tech course would've been useful.

"Oh look, the idiot is back," I muttered under my breath. Keith snickered a little at this, and I grinned.

"You made it!" Allura said joyfully.

"Barely, I almost puked, I felt like Hunk," Lance said, groaning.

"Think how I felt, I am Hunk," Hunk pointed out. I snickered slightly at this.

"Yeah, we had a tough time too," Pidge gave Shiro a knowing smile, and I grinned mischievously at him. He looked a little worried at my grin, the last time I'd used it was when I helped us escape.

"Did we find the red lion yet?" Shiro asked, getting back on topic.

"Yeah, we found it a little while ago. It's on that evil Galra ship orbiting this plant." I said before Coran could get anything out.

"They're here already?" Shiro asked, looking a bit panicked.

"Yeah, Coran was so wrong," I volunteered. "As he put it, finger counting isn't an exact science."

"Which it isn't," Coran chimed in.

The viewscreen on the wall glitched, a call from some galra showing up.

"Princess Allura, this is Commander Sendak of the Galra Empire." Well, at least we knew what to call him. "I come on behalf of Emperor Zarkon, Lord of the Known Universe." The other people reacted with varying degrees of shock and horror. "I am here to confiscate the lions. Turn them over to me, or I will destroy your planet." With that, his fuzzy face disappeared.

"All right, let's not panic." Shiro said, straightening.

"Not panic? The scary purple alien thing is driving his battleship toward us, we only have four lions-" Hunk began, counting on his fingers.

"Technically, only three working lions," Pidge interjected, folding their arms.

"That's right, thank you Pidge," Hunk said, patting the small human on the back. "Three working lions and a castle that's, like, 10,000 years old."

"Actually, it's 10,600 years old. You see, it was built by my grandfather-" Coran started, fluffing up his collar.

"Thanks, Coran." Hunk interrupted, stopping Coran's lecture with a well-placed finger over his mouth. "Thank you for that. See? Now is the perfect time to panic!"

"Wai,!" Allura said, realizing something. I tracked her thinking, realizing the same thing. Probably.

"This castle has a particle barrier we can activate." Allura and I said together. She gave me a dirty look, and I shrank back.

"Girl, you've already activated my par-"

"Lance," Shiro interrupted, glaring at Lance.

"Okay, so the particle barrier won't hold forever, but it will provide some defense. This tech is old, and Galra technology had advanced quite a bit since then." I said. "No, Hunk, we aren't panicking now," I said quickly before he had a chance to ask.

"We have to figure out our plan of action, and figure it out quickly," Shiro ordered.

"I say we pop through a wormhole and live to fight another day." Lance proposed.

"I second that," Hunk offered. "We tried to find all the lions, right? We gave it the old college try. Couldn't do it. We only have three. We can't form Voltron."

"I'm going to stop you there," I said, interrupting him. "We can't just run away, the red lion is at our talon tips."

"And we can't just abandon Arus," Pidge said. "The galra will keep destroying planets and capturing prisoners until we stop them."

"If we run, Sendak might follow us and leave this planet alone, like when we left Earth." Hunk volunteered.

"The Galra don't give one moon about Earth, right now, it's not important. When the blue lion left it, it was basically dead weight. I think with this planet, they'd just destroy it and come after us." I replied.

"Staying is our only option." Keith agreed.

"Here's an option: shut your quiznak." Lance shot back. I grimaced, flinching away from him. Alteans and humans were really the only species with cuss words, and that was one of the worst ones.

"I don't think you're using that word correctly," Keith said icily.

"What do you know, Mullet?" Lance argued.

"He is correct, you aren't using it correctly," I said. "Also, please refrain from using it, I don't know what the cultural equivalent for you is, but that is a seriously bad cuss word."

"We're staying," Keith shouted.

"Leaving!" Lance shouted.

"Staying!" Pidge argued.

"Leaving," Hunk decided.

They all stood there for a moment, Keith and Lance literally butting heads, Pidge staring up at Hunk menacingly.

"Guys, stop!" Shiro yelled. The all immediately turned away, folding their arms. "Princess Allura, these are your lions. What do you think is the best course of action?"

"I... I don't know." She finally answered, looking kind of lost.

"Perhaps your father can help." Coran offered when she looked to him.

"My father?" Allura asked, turning to face him fully.

While they walked off to who knows where I turned to Hunk. "Hunk, do you think you can cook to some degree if I tell you what is poisonous and what is not?"

"Maybe," Hunk said doubtfully. "No telling whether it'll be good or not though."

"But it'll be edible, right? And you all could probably use some food," I said, gesturing to everyone. "And maybe, just maybe, it'll smooth all the ruffled feathers."

"Orchid Gold is right," Shiro said. "Maybe some food would benefit us all."

"And while Hunk is working, you can help with my feathers. They have to come out if new ones are going to come in." I said, beginning to lead them to the kitchen, which I had found by accident while they'd been gone.

"Won't that leave you flightless?" Keith asked skeptically. "Leaving you unable to fight well?"

I snorted. "Only for a few days, Fleetwing feathers grow back in faster than most of the other avian or air type species. You coming or not, Mullet."

"Don't call me that," He snarled.

"Yep, sure, just come on," I replied, following the path I'd memorized to the kitchen.