It takes me less than five minutes to put on the suit, which fits surprisingly well, being made of some very stretchy fabric. I take more time with the helmet part, but I find an orange hair tie on my wrist and tie my hair up in a loose braid, a few strands escaping my excited hands. Then, I put the helmet on. It feels weird and tingly at first, but is surprisingly comfortable, and the uncomfortable feeling subsides soon enough.

Then, Allura leads us to the other end of the room and activates some sort of table. It beeps and then the top vanishes to reveal five 'h' shaped objects, curving inward at the top, with our corresponding color, yellow, red, purple, green, and blue, but there's no black.

The objects all float up when Allura speaks.

"The bayard is the traditional weapon of the Paladins of Voltron," she says.

Wait. That's a weapon? Forgive me if I'm not trembling at the sight of them. They float up and towards us.

"It takes a distinct shape for each paladin," she continues.

Oh.

I tentatively reach out and grab mine. Immediately, it morphs into a dagger in my hand, adjusted to work with my left-handedness easily. I toss it in the air and catch it, then I twirl it around my hand expertly. Perfectly balanced, too.

"Whoa," I hear Hunk say. "Nice moves."

I look up. He's staring at me, or at my dagger more specifically.

I observe it myself for a minute. The handle is white, the pommel consists of a purple jewel encased in white, the cross guard and the blade is also white. On the blade, I observe purple swirls and circles forming a pretty cool design. I like this thing already. I smirk and try a few jabs and parries with the dagger.

"Awesome," I say, grinning from ear to ear.

"A dagger, huh?" Keith asks.

I look up, smirking. "Yup."

I throw the dagger and Keith ducks as it sails over his head. The blade hits the wall and sinks up to its hilt, inches from Lance's face, who'd stopped moving— and breathing too, I'm pretty sure. Years of practice at chucking knives in Keith's backyard has taught me a thing or two. For example, I'd actually meant to hit the wall very close to Lance just for kicks. I'm crazy that way.

"Hey!" He calls.

"This is awesome!" I exclaim, going to retrieve my dagger. "I love this dagger."

I look at the others' bayards. Keith has a sword, Hunk has what appears to be a portable cannon, Lance has an assault rifle, and Pidge has what I recognize to be an angular katar.

Lance approaches Pidge. "Aw, you got a cute little bayard," he says.

Pidge strikes Lance in the stomach with her bayard, electrocuting Lance, who screams really high pitched. Lance falls down, smoking and twitching.

I start laughing, and Pidge glances at me with a smile.

"Yeah, it's pretty cute," she says.

I'm laughing so hard that I can't breathe and my laughter has gone silent. I calm down a bit to get some air into my lungs.

"Don't mess with Pidge or she'll mess you up," I say, and we high five.

I realize my mistake too late, but no one seems to notice, not even Pidge.

"Shiro, I'm afraid your bayard was lost with its paladin," Allura apologizes.

"I guess I'll just have to make do," he replies.

I lean towards Pidge. "We're gonna keep an eye on him, right?" I ask.

"Yep," she sighs. "Boys. Always so reckless. You're an exception, though, Nova. You're reckless too."

I put a hand on my chest. "Ow, that hurts," I say. "I believe you're an exception, too, right Pidge?"

We both stare at each other before bursting out laughing.