We're back in the lounge. Keith is standing against the wall, I'm sitting on the floor, my legs dangling down the back of the seats. Everyone else is scattered around the curved seat.  

"I wish Shiro were here to tell us how to go on without him." Lance spoke up.

"Allura, when we came here, you told me I would fly the Green Lion right away, I thought there was no way. But then I found it, and flew it. And then Hunk flew the Yellow Lion, and he's not even a pilot. In fact, you told everyone who would pilot which lion." Pidge said. Hunk jumped up beside her.

"Yeah, how did you do that? Did we ever find out how you did that? Can you do that now?" Hunk asks with big eyes.

"Sadly, no. When you arrived at the castle, I immediately recognized the special qualities of each of you. But I don't know how to search the entire universe for a new paladin." Allura said. 

"Keith, you piloted the Black Lion when you had to save Shiro. Perhaps you're the one." Coran spoke up. Keith looks away.

"Keith would be the worst leader of Voltron." 

"Lance." I say warningly.

"Yeah, we all have our thing. Keith's the loner. I'm the brain. Hunk's the nice one. Allura's the decision maker. Korra's the pretty one. Coran's the old wise guy. And Lance's the goofball." I blushed at Pidge's words. 

"Mm-hmm. Yeah, exactly. Totally right-wait a minute. I'm not a goofball! I'm the cool ninja sharpshooter." Lance says while crossing his arms. Keith scoffs from behind me.

"Are you joking?"

"I'm being completely serious when I say, I do not want you to lead me any where." Lance says while standing. I go to scold him but Keith speaks up before I could.

"I don't want to be leader! That's just what Shiro wanted." He said. His eyes widened when he realized what he said, and looked away.

"What are you talking about?" Hunk asks as I get up and stand next to Keith, wrapping a comforting arm around him.

"Nothing." He says.

"Shiro wanted you to be his successor, didn't he?" Asked Pidge.

"Well, I never heard Shiro say that, and how convenient that you're bringing it up know, when Shiro is gone." Lance says. Keith walks out of my arms and glares at Lance.

"You want the job so badly, you can have it."

"Now, now, hang on. I've called the head from the very beginning." Hunk says.

"What about me? I picked up the radio waves that lead us the Voltron in the first place." Pidge says while standing up. 

"Don't look at me. I have no intention of being leader." I say and put my hands up.

"Hold your gazurgas, everyone! It's not out decision to make. We must allow the lion to decide." Coran says.

"Coran is right." Allura stands. "We must all present ourselves to the Black Lion to see who will bear this glorious burden."

"What? You, Princess?"

"My father created Voltron. How can I allow others to risk their lives in battle and not be prepared to do so myself? I must try."  

~~~

"So, who goes first?" Hunk asks when we reach the Black Lion's hanger.

"Should we draw straws?" Pidge suggested.

"I have it!" Coran said. "I'm thinking of a number between one and fifty." He snaps his fingers. "Allura, you go first, Pidge is second, then the others."

"Wait, don't we get to guess the number?" I asked while frowning.

"But I already knew the number."

"Allura, just go."

Allura goes inside the Black Lion, and we wait in silence. When the Lion doesn't respond, Pidge goes in after her. Pidge comes out when the Lion still doesn't respond, complaining about how the seat is too big. Hunk walks in after, only to immediately turn back around.

"What are you doing? You didn't even try." Coran says to him.

"Yes I did, I sat down." Coran gives Hunk a look. "I don't wanna leave the Yellow Lion, okay? I mean, it's big, it's got this super armor, it's safe."

"But you called the head."

"Yeah, I know. I wanted to form the head with the Yellow Lion." Coran doesn't budge. Hunk grumbles out a "Fine." and walks back into the Lion. I could hear him yelling orders from inside the lion. Coran tells Hunk to get out of the lion. 

Now it's my turn. I reluctantly went inside the Black Lion. Wow, Pidge wasn't lying when she said the Black Lion was big. My feet barely touch the ground, whereas in the Pink Lion my legs are sprawled out in front of me. With a bit of struggle, I reach and grab the controls. I sigh and close my eyes. I think to myself, I can't be leader, I'm not meant to be. Please show Keith this is what he's meant to be. I open my eyes and walk out. Lance goes in next.

"So, how long are we going to let Lance sit in there?" Pidge asked after a while of waiting.

"Yeah, it's been like half a varga."

"It's useless. The Black Lion hates all of us!" Lance sulks as he sits on his helmet that he placed on the ground.

"Keith, the Black Lion hasn't responded to any of us. You have to try." Allura tells him. Keith sighs and goes inside. I feel kinda bad, he doesn't want this, but he has to do this.

We wait a few seconds, then the Black Lion lights up, and stands up letting out a roar. It's head lowers to let Keith walk out. I could see Lance looking sad in the corner of my eye. 

"I'm proud of you Keith." I say in hopes in cheering him up a bit. It doesn't seem to work.

"I wish you were getting the job under better circumstances, but congratulations." Allura says.

"Congratulations, Keith."

"Yeah man, ditto."

"No, I don't accept this." Everybody gasps, except for me.

"You must, the Black Lion has chosen you." Allura argues.   

"I can't replace Shiro! You guys were right, I'm the loner. I'm not the leader Shiro thought I was." Lance approaches Keith and puts a hand on his shoulder.

"Keith, nobody can replace Shiro. But the Black Lion wouldn't choose anyone it didn't feel was worthy to lead Voltron. I respect it's choice. You should to." Keith looks away, and turns to the lion.

"But who's gonna fly the Red Lion?"

~~~

We sit in the lounge, waiting for Allura, who went to see if the Red Lion would accept her. She walks in looking disappointed.

"I'm sorry Princess, I know how much you wanted to pilot the Red Lion." Coran tells her. Allura suddenly puts a smile on her face.

"I'm fine. Let's move on. We need to find a new paladin. Again."

"A new paladin? I mean, where would we even start looking?" Pidge asked after Allura sat down.

"Well, I vote for getting some alien diversity on the team, and I know some cool mermaids who could be good at it." Lance said.

"You just want to see them again." Hunk tells him.

"Yes, exactly." 

"What about the Blades?" I asked.

"Or the Olkari." Pidge pipped up. The sound of static made us turn to see a screen pop up with the Puig leader on it.

"Voltron, we need your help. The Galrans have returned. Once you left we were defenseless. My people are trying to hold out, but the Galra are too powerful."

"The lions are on their way." Allura said while standing up. "Hold your ground and protect your people until we arrive. Voltron stands with you."

"Thank you Princess." The video cuts off. We get to our lions and start the fly towards Puig.

"All right guys, we're not about to let the Galra take back this planet, so follow me." Keith says. 

"Wait, wait, wait." I say when I notice something. "Where's Lance?"

"What?"

"Lance, where are you?" I ask in the comms.

"My lion is not responding to me." He answers with a groan.   

"Well, figure it out and catch up to us as soon as you can." Keith says. We continue on, until a flash of purple and a ship appears in front of us. A voice is broadcast from the ship.

"Attention, Paladins of Voltron, this is Prince Lotor, son of Zarkon, Emperor Pro Tem of the Galra Empire." Fighter ships start to fly out of the ship. "Surrender now, or you will be destroyed."

"We've been set up!" Pidge says.

"Zarkon has a son?" I say, still in shock. The fighter ships come at us.

"Evasive maneuvers! Everyone, watch your back!" Keith says as we avoid the ships. We shoot at the ships. More fighters fly out of the ship. I can hear Hunk and Pidge screaming in my ear. I shoot at ships that were flying towards Hunk as he protected Pidge.

"Where is Keith?" I hear Pidge ask. I start to look for the Red Lion. Oh wait, he's in the Black lion. I'm going to have to get used to that.

"Guys, I'm having trouble here. These controls don't respond like the Red Lion's. I need some help." Keith says.

"I'm already on my way." I say and fly to where he is and start shooting.

"There's too many for the four of us."

"Look out!"

"Lance, get here now!"  

I let out a yelp as the side of my lion was hit. I turn and shoot the ship. I stick next to Keith, we fly around and shoot near by ships.

"Keith, what should we do?" I ask him. Pidge and Hunk fly next to us.

"We need to attack the ship."

"Can you be more specific. We need an actual plan." Pidge says.

"How much more specific can you get, just shoot the dang ship." I yell, getting real annoyed with these fighters right now. The ships ion cannon suddenly shoots Keith back.

"Keith!" I yell. I hear his ragged breathing.

"I'm okay, but we can't fight this guy alone."

"You won't have too." I turn and see the Red Lion flying towards the fleet and shooting ship.

"Lance! You're in the Red Lion?" I say, though it sounds like a question. I see a familiar blue beam, Coran starts shooting the ships.

"Thanks Coran. All right. Let's see if we can turn our attention on that ship." We turn towards Lotor's ship, only to see it shoot it's cannon at the castle. It shoots again, and we are occupied with the fighter ships once more.

"Whoo-hoo! Boy, this lion can move!" Lance says as he flies past while shooting. Lance almost runs into Lotor's ship, just barely missing.

"Hey! Be careful with Red."

"Oh, fly your own lion, Keith." Lance retorts, he's flying backwards and runs into a ship. 

"I meant to do that!" He says while the Red Lion flips away.

"Wow, we are really kind of a mess." Pidge says.

"That's an understatement." I say, we fly close together to think of a plan.

"We need to get organized. Keith, what should we do?" Pidge asks.

"I don't know. We need to form Voltron, but we're short a lion."

"Not anymore." Allura suddenly says. We turn to see the Blue Lion flying towards us. So Allura is now in the Blue lion. This is going to take some getting used to.

"Allura?"

"Yes, Awesome!"

Lotor and the fighters suddenly fly away.

"We did it!"

"I mean, it was a little touch and go for a second there, but, yeah we made it."

"Allura you and the Blue Lion? How cool is that?"

"Yes, it was a bit of a surprise, but a happy one."

"Now, we know that Zarkon has a son." Keith speaks up.

"This is...deeply disturbing." Allura says.

"Yeah, who would want a kid with Zarkon?" I say.

"We need to find out more."

~~~

I approach Lance, who is staring up at the Blue Lion.

"Well, Old Blue, we sure had some fun adventures, didn't we?" Lance says when I stand next to him. "I wanted to stay with you, but, sometimes what we want isn't necessarily what we get. I'm gonna miss you." I sniffle.

"Are you...crying?" Lance asks.

"No! It's the space dust." I say and wipe my eyes. The door opens and we turn to see Allura in paladin armor. Pink, paladin armor. My eyes flicker back and forth rapidly between our armor. Her armor is a lighter shade of pink than mine.

"Wasn't expecting that." Lance says. 

"There can only be one." I whisper.

"Sorry Korra, this is just the color I chose. On Altea, we wear this color to honor our fallen warriors. I wear it to honor the paladins of old. And Shiro"  

"So, you're saying I've been wearing a special color without knowing? Now I feel kinda bad." I say and rub my arm. Allura lets out a weak chuckle.

"The color is more this shade anyway, so you don't have to worry." I sigh. Lance gets out his bayard and hands it to Allura.

"This belongs to you now. If I had to lose Blue to anyone, I'm glad it was you." I take a step back and let Lance have his moment.

"Princess, the Black Lion is leaving the castle!" Coran's voice echos in the hanger.

"Keith, where are you going?" Allura asks. 

"I put a tracker on Lotor's ship. Tell everyone to get to their lions. We're going after them. You wanted me to lead Voltron? This is how I lead."

"Oh Keith, what are you doing?" I whisper.

_______________________________________________________

So I went to the dentist yesterday. Let me tell you something, I am 18 years old, and I am still scared of the dentist. I don't know what it is, I just about have a panic attack every time I walk through that door.