Hey, so sorry for the long wait. Like I said, I've been caught up watching Dan and Phil and I haven't had the time to update. But now I have come BACK to LIFE! (Night at the Museum reference. This is why I'm still single).

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The Castle flies towards Balmera. I gape this is not what I was expecting. It's a small planet, maybe the size of Pluto, with large holes and spires visible from our position. I see some white clouds, but everything else is just yellow, and green, and maroon, and burgundy. It's actually pretty, in a way. I focus on my sketch again.

"We'll be arriving at the Balmera soon," Allura tells us.

I look up from my sketchbook. I'm sitting cross legged in my seat in the control room. I've been sitting here for the past few hours, sketching, only getting up for one bathroom break and to get myself some snacks.

I've been sketching a drawing of Keith holding a kitten in his arm, looking delighted. That's the face he made when I offered him that kitten on his sixteenth birthday, two years ago. I smile at the memory. For days I pestered him to tell me his cat's name, but he would blush every time I mentioned it and avoided the question. Eventually, I learned that he'd named him Supernova. I found it so adorable, but it also made me blush whenever I think about it.

I smile at the memory as I darken Keith's hair a bit more. I finished the drawing a while ago, but I'm still hung up on the small details. Hunk had left a few hours earlier to hang the picture of Shay that I drew him in his room, but he hasn't come back. Lance is sleeping, drool dripping out of the corner of his mouth, Keith is reading the Mark of Athena, which I'd given to him when we came back on the ship after the Rolo and Nyma incident, and Pidge is typing away on her holographic screen. When I asked about it, she said that she was trying to make a Rover 2.0, which I'm excited to see.

Alien Weasley, Allura, and Shiro are the only ones who have been paying attention all throughout the five hour flight.

"Uh-huh," I say, not really listening.

Just then, Hunk walks back in and takes his seat, while a sudden jostle makes Lance wake up.

"Liberating these Balmerans from Zarkon's grasp will not be easy," Allura says.

"When will it ever be?" I ask.

I stand when Shiro beckons us to stand in the center of the control room with him and Allura. I set down my sketchbook and charcoal pencil and walk over, wiping my blackened fingers on my jeans.

"So what's the plan?" Lance asks, his arms crossed. "We just go in there and just- pow, pow, pow!" He makes finger guns. "And free the prisoners?"

"What was that noise?" Keith asks.

"What the heck was that?" I ask at the same time.

"Laser guns," Lance replies.

"No, Lance, I think you mean-" Hunk imitates what I can only place as a cannon.

"That sounds like fireworks." Lance crosses his arms.

"Try cannons," I say.

"Technically they're more like- ba-choo, ba-choo, ba-choo!" Pidge puts her two hands together to make a gun.

"No way," I say. "If anything, it'd sound more like-" I smoothly imitate the sound of a machine gun, while I pantomime holding one and spraying it in a semi-circle.

"That's a machine gun," Keith says with a deadpan expression.

"Okay, enough with the bad sound effects," Shiro cuts in before crossing his arms over his chest. "Besides it's more like - blam, blam, blam!" He gets down to one knee and pretends to shoot.

"What?" Keith asks, spreading his arms out.

"You're crazy," Pidge says.

"No way," Lance adds.

"Wrong," Hunk also says.

"Paladins, focus!" Allura snaps.

"Besides, we can't just shoot at the Galra. This Balmera, it's, like, alive. And from what we're seeing, it doesn't look very good."

Oh, well there goes that plan.

"Yes, it's an atrocity what the Galra have been doing to this grand beast," Alien Weasley says sadly. "Stealing its crystals, it's very life force, without even performing the energy rejuvenation ceremonies to heal it."

"After seeing Shay's people enslaved, it made me realize how bad Zarkon really is. And we're the only ones who can stop him."

"Okay, so we can't go into the tunnels guns blazing," Shiro says. "Plan B. We figure out how to draw the Galra up to the surface and battle them out there."

"I know. If we attack all of this big mining stuff on the surface, the Galra troops will have to come out to defend it. Then we beat them up, head down to the tunnels, Voltron saves the day."

I'm not sure about Hunk's plan. There are a few loopholes, but it's better than nothing.

"How will we know how many are left in the tunnels?" Keith asks.

"We can track the Galra and the Balmerans using Biothermal Life Indicator Point Technology," Allura says, a hologram appearing in front of her.

"Ooh, BLIP Tech," Pidge exclaims excitedly, rushing forward and readjusting her glasses. "...It's an acronym," she tells the confused Allura.

"One of you will need to fly around the Balmera and drop sensors into the shafts on each side. Then we'll be able to see where the Galra and Balmerans are." A hologram of the tunnels of Balmera appears in front of us. "There are already sensors built into your suits."

"I can do it," Pidge speaks up. "I just modified the Green Lion with the invisibility maze's cloaking ability. I should be able to fly around unnoticed."

An image of some sort of dam made of black metal that had glowing magenta veins appears on the screen. "That's their main power generator," Alien Weasley says. "If you take that down, it will severely weaken their defenses."

"We'll stay in cloud cover and give tactical support," Allura says, pressing some more holographic buttons making a small hologram of the Castle appear. "With the Castle's defenses weakened from Sendak's crystal, we won't be much help to you."

"I'll take out the main power generator," Shiro says. "Keith, Lance, Hunk, Nova, you take out these big mining rigs around the area."

"YEAH!" Hunk cheers so loudly that I have to cover my very sound sensitive ears. "Okay, let's kick some alien butt!"

We all hurriedly change in our armor and get to our lions. I prepare to depart.

"You think the Balmerans will have a parade for us after we've freed everybody?" Lance asks on the coms.

Really? That's what he's thinking about right now?
"It's not about the glory, Lance," Keith says to him, beating me to it. "It's about freeing prisoners from Zarkon."

"No, I know. I know. But still. When they-"

He's cut off when our lions are ejected of the Castle. Thank you, Castle. Or Allura. Or Alien Weasley. We fly down in formation beneath the olive yellow clouds only to immediately get shot by the Galra generator. We avoid the shots, and I almost get bored.

"This is it," Shiro says over the coms. "Get your heads in the game. Remember, the Balmera is a living creature. Make sure you pinpoint only the Galra installations and not its surface."

I don't think that's a very forgetful information.

We all fly our own way and I see Pidge vanish. Now, that's cool. I'm gonna have to ask her if she can install that cloaking ability on my lion. Maybe I can help her install it. Yeah, that would be cool.

I fly towards the big generator and start taking down the rigs by pushing buttons. I like pushing buttons. One of the buttons that I pushed activated my tail's lasers, and I vaporized a few cannons. Then, I found the one that enlarged my lion's claws. Let's just say that the rig isn't standing upright anymore. It was cut in half because it was being annoying. Now, it's in the canyon. Don't annoy me, kids, or you'll end up in the canyon, cut in half.

Finally, Shiro flies in and blows up a good half of the generator with some wicked jaw blades that he'd activated.

I fly up and zero in on the massive, three-petaled flower shaped blast thingie. So does Keith. He flies in next to me.

"You take the front, I take the side?" I say.

"Yeah," he replies.

I fly away, avoiding getting shot, and stand off to the side, blasting my beam of light from my lion's mouth. Man, I love that red button. Red blasts the flower blaster with some wicked fire power.

"Whoa! Did you guys just see that?" Keith asks. "I got fire power!"

"Hey! I want that!" Lance whines.

"Okay, now that's cool," I reply, amazed.

I get interrupted by the flower blaster, which starts collapsing. I fly in on reflex and brace the flower blaster, but my lion is too small.

"Some help?" I say. "Honestly, the fact that I have to ask..."

Hunk flies in and stops the flower blaster from falling.

"We can't let this thing hurt the Balmera," he says over the coms.

We both try to pull the flower blaster upright. I pull so hard on my handles that my fingers go white from the strain. I try to use my lion's paw boosters, but that only gets me so far.

"I think my lion knows what to do!" Lance exclaims.

"Well tell it to go faster!" I yell, sweat dripping down my face.

I grunt as I struggle to keep the thing from falling when Lance flies in and shoots ice out of his lion's mouth. Hunk and I fly away as Lance freezes the thing in place.

"Aw, snap!" Lance says.

"Yay, Lance!" I say happily.

"These rays are super cool, just like me."

"No, Lance," I groan.

We all land on top of the frozen flower blaster to catch our breath.

"Great job, team!" Shiro congratulates.

I smirk as I consider something. "Hey Lance," I say.

"Yeah?"

"That was a pretty cool trick you did there. Reminded me a bit of Elsa." I snort, trying to keep my laughter down so I can say the next part. "You're a Disney princess, man."

"Very funny."

I laugh. "Why thank you, Your Majesty."

"Where are all the troops?" Keith asks. "They're not coming to the surface."

I frown as I look ahead. Everything's quiet. There's nothing and no one.

"Guys," I say on a level tone, trying to stay calm. "I may be mistaken- I really, really hope I am- but I think this is a trap."

"I think Nova's right," Hunk says. "I remember seeing a lot of Galra guys down in the mine."

"We've located a hangar full of Galra fighters just below the surface," Allura tells us over the coms. "Someone has to take those out before they can launch."

"They're luring us down, but we have no choice," Shiro says. "Keith, Lance, Nova, you guys hit the hangar."

I look over. "I have a very very bad feeling about this," I mutter to myself.

"Hunk, head to the prison to rescue Shay and the other Balmerans. Pidge and I will track down the Galra soldiers."

"Aye, aye, captain," I say, making a two fingered salute, taking off with Keith and Lance.

"Yes, sir," Keith says.

"Ten-four," Lance says.

"On it," Pidge says.

"Let's do this!" Hunk says.

We all go our separate ways. Lance, Keith and I go down a tunnel and get out of our lions, flying in our hover jets- I have no idea what their names are, but 'hover jet' sounds so cool- and go down tunnel after tunnel. Apparently, we all got a map, but I suck at technology, and I'm useless when it comes to maps, so I have to trust Keith and Lance, who are bickering.

Finally, I snap.

"If one of you bozos starts arguing about which turn to take again, I will hunt you down and kill you slowly," I say.

The two shut up, and we continue our way quietly. We finally reach the hangar, and we jump off our hover jets and slide down behind a large rock to get a closer look, while remaining hidden. I activate my bayard and peek over the rock. I frown. There are only, like, five Galra soldiers.

"I'm liking this less and less, guys," I whisper.

"Me too," Keith whispers back. "Look. The entire hangar's only being guarded by a few sentries." He stands and activates his bayard. I do the same, minus the bayard activation. "Let's go!"

Lance grabs both of our arms and pulls us back. "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" he whisper-yells. We both stumble and fall down with a grunt and glare at Lance. "Cool your jets, Keith! Nova, you too." He crouches down next to us. "Don't you remember that stuff about this Balmera thing being a sensitive animal?"

"Oh, yeah." I scrunch my nose up. Guess information like that can be forgetful.

"Oh, right," Keith says, before putting one hand on his chin in a thoughtful manner.

"Yeah, so we can't just blow things up like a psycho."

"High-functioning sociopath," I say, unable to resist. "Do your research."

Lance gives me a deadpan look and I remain as emotionless as Sherlock.

"You got a better idea?" Keith asks, used to tuning out my comments.

"I do," Lance says, pointing ahead to one of the walkways. "We sneak into the control room to shut down the bay doors. That'll trap the ships in."

I glance at Lance raised eyebrows. "That's a smart idea."

"That's..." Keith starts with a frown, but I watch his eyes grow wide, looking just as surprised as me. "... actually a better idea."

We stand, and Keith and I follow Lance.

I nudge Keith. "Looks like Elsa's got better ideas," I say.

He sticks his tongue out at me. "You were going to follow me, you know. He bested you, too."

I smirk. "Who says I regret following you?"

I slide down after Lance, a confused Keith after me. I blush a bit when I realize what I just said, but quickly focus back on the task at hand. We tiptoe down the catwalk as quietly as we can to avoid being seen. We quickly reach the control room and climb in one of the ventilation shafts. We start crawling through, Lance still guiding us.

After a few minutes, my arms start getting tired just as my patience is running thin.

"Are you sure we're going the right way?" I whisper to Lance.

"Yes," he replies.

Lance turns a corner. I sigh exasperatedly as Keith turns to me and I give him a small shake of my head. He smiles. I point down with my hand.

"I think it's here," I tell him. He stops.

"Here," Keith says, tapping Lance's shoulder. "I think we're above the control room."

"No, no," Lance assures us. "It's over there."

"I know what I'm doing," Keith replies, cutting out a circle in the ground with his sword.

I ready my bayard. Lance drops down with the cut-out of the floor that Keith made us. He lands with a clank and I drop down a second later.

"Keep an eye out for those guards," Lance says. "I'll see if I can find a way to shut the hangar doors."

Keith walks away to crouch in front of the window, but I walk towards Lance.

"Here, let me help you out," I say. "My dad was a mechanical engineer and has taught me a thing or two. I know my stuff." I crack my knuckles.

I look at the console and groan. Of course it's written in alien. This isn't a cheap 80's alien movie where everything's in English for no other reason than 'it's needed to facilitate the characters' struggles'.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Lance asks.

I bite my lip but don't answer as I crouch down and pull off the main control panel. I observe the inside for a second. It looks familiar, so that's good. I think.

"Okay," I finally say. "I'll tell you which buttons to push, and you push only the ones I tell you to push, when I tell you to push them, otherwise there might be a small chance that things could go horribly wrong, capiche?"

Lance nods. "Of course." He hesitates and frowns. "Then why are you letting me do this?"

"Because there's a small chance that things could go horribly wrong," I deadpan as I take out some wires and switch them around before flipping a switch.

Keith chuckles from his position.

"Hilarious," Lance mocks.

"Try pressing those two buttons one top left corner and the one one that looks like the omega sumbol," I tell him, focusing on connecting two ripped wires.

Lance does as I tell him, but all that does is open the door behind us before closing it again. I groan and bang my head against the console.

"You okay?" Keith asks, his eyes glued to the sentries below.

"I don't know what I'm doing here," I say. "It's all Galra gibberish."

Keith walks over. "Let me see."

"I'm sorry, but I'm pretty sure that I know more than you in engineering," I retort.

I still scoot to the side as he takes my place. I do know more than Keith is engineering, but not much. I can fix an engine, but that's about it. Hacking into an alien control room is out of the question. But Keith is hopeless when it comes to stuff like this. I'm usually the one he calls when his hover craft breaks down.

Keith looks around, and his eyes land on the hand recognition pad. He raises his hand, ready to press it.

I furrow my eyebrows. "Are you sure that's not going to set off alarms?" I ask.

He turns to me. "Why?"

"Because you probably have to be Galra for it to work," I reply. "And that maybe it sets off alarms if you aren't."

"I'm taking the risk."

"Of course you are," I mumble under my breath.

He places his hand on the pad and the computer beeps before I hear whirring. I look up and see the bay doors shutting. I frown in confusion and then look back at Keith.

"Whoa! How'd you do that?" Lance asks.

"I just put my hand on the handprint," Keith replies, equally confused as the rest of us.

I run possible scenarios in my head. I try to tell myself that maybe it's just a malfunction or something. But I linger on another. Keith could potentially be half Galra. Now that I think about it, it seems plausible. His dad was always so secretive about Keith's mother, and no one knew anything about her except Keith. And what he knew was limited. No physical description, no pictures, and no reason as to why she left so suddenly. And that strange knife that he told me belonged to his mom. That doesn't look like any normal knife. I jump to a memory from when I was seven, and he was nine. It was right after his father had died. He was very sad about it, and we ended up have some stupid argument when he said that he was going to run away. I knew he wouldn't but he looked so scared and grief-stricken... and angry. He told me that he was angry that his mother abandoned him and that his dad had died. He'd looked at me, and I'd seen the whites of his eyes have a yellow tinge to it, and had what appeared to be fangs. But a second later, it was gone.

My seven year old mind hadn't understood it then, but now I think do.

Galra look like cats, and maybe have some feline instincts. That would honestly explain a lot about Keith's behavior towards people. How wary he is at first, and how protective and caring he is when he's known them for years. Like me and Shiro and my whole family. And maybe he didn't take after his mom, but maybe in a way, he did. Maybe when he feels strong emotions, like mixes of anger, sadness and fear, his Galra features pop out.

I'll admit, that would be so cool.

Maybe Keith already knows about that, though, and doesn't want to tell us yet. Or maybe he doesn't. Either way, it's my job as his best friend to protect him until he feels ready.

"Paladins, are you there?" I hear Allura over the coms. "The Galra troops are moving down the tunnels. It looks like they're going down toward the center."

"They must be headed to the core of the Balmera," Hunk exclaims. "That's where they're holding Shay."

"They're drawing us into an ambush," Shiro speculates. "But we don't have a choice if we want to save Shay. We have to follow. Lance, Keith, Nova, get to the core. I think we're going to need everyone together to get through this firefight."

"Copy that," Lance says. "We're on our way."

I stay crouched where I am, staring at the console, my mouth slightly open. I'm still in the middle of my thoughts when Keith taps my shoulder. I shake my head and turn around.

"Nova, we gotta go," Keith says, giving me his hand.

I look up at Keith and his violet eyes. I'd expected to feel... I don't know, something upon learning that my best friend is half-alien, like, excitement, or something, but I don't. I don't feel any differently towards him. I smile and grab his hand as he hoists me up. Who cares what he is? Deep down, he's still Keith, who is a sucker for kittens and cheesy comedies. And he's still the same boy I've been madly in love with for three years.

Keith slashed at the console and we take off.

"Are you okay?" he asks me. "You seemed a bit out of it."

I nod. "I'm fine." It's the truth.