Nyle POV

We managed to have some time where it was quiet for us which frankly made me uneasy because it would usually mean that something bad might happen soon. Actually, it's been a couple of months since our encounter with Ulaz. And a few weeks since we last had a fight with the Galra. But we know better than to let our guard down with how long it's been without a fight. 

Though for right now we were still preparing the castle and repairing it. I'm still wondering why all of us were at this one panel if the repairs are almost done. "Let's hurry up with these repairs. Zarkon could be here at any moment." Shiro states firmly to us. 

"Okay, the panel's off. Now, what?" Hunk asks, staring at it. 

"Very simple. Just loosen the blaxums on the somoflange." Coran responded, confusing us all. 

"Could you be more specific?" Hunk asks carefully, trying to get some kind of easier explanation from the two. 

"Sorry, Hunk, he means the poklones on the agroclams." Allura corrected, though it was still confusing. 

"No, that doesn't help." Hunk said, a little annoyed already. 

"Easy, Hunk. I got this," Lance started pressing a bunch of buttons, an alarm sounding. "Uh-oh. That can't be good." He backs off immediately. 

"No, not the smalters, the poklones!" Allura yelled slightly.

"No, no! It's the blaxums!" Coran yelled out after. 

"What are you talking about?" Keith asks. 

"You guys are too confusing!" I yelled back. 

Pidge started pressing a bunch of things and backed off once the alarm stopped, sending the panel back down. "There. Fixed." She says in a proud tone. 

"Well done, Pidge!" Allura praised her. 

"The tech on this ship never ceases to amaze me. It's so mathematically elegant. Its fit is 100 times more frictionless than any exoskeleton we have on Earth. It's beautiful." Pidge says softly, her eyes sparkling. 

"It's not a sunset, Pidge," Lance told her, a slightly confused tone in her voice. 

"You're right. A billion sunsets just happen every day. Some genius engineer actually built this." Pidge says with her face lighting up more with every word. 

"Kinda looks like a big, delicious curly fry," Hunk says while tilting his head. 

While everyone was staring at the panel that was on the ship, I heard Shiro say something under his breath and looked over to see what was wrong when there were these weird-looking little squishy balls.

"All right, we're prepared for this," Shiro started while we got our shields out. "Remember your rogue projectile cluster training from the Garrison. First, we need a temporary shelter-" He was suddenly hit in the head with the soft asteroid-like things.

"Oh, sorry, Shiro. I was trying to hit Keith." Lance says, putting his hands up before Keith threw one at him. 

"Like that?" Keith responds with a shit-eating grin on his face. 

"Yes! Squishy asteroid fight!" Hunk yelled, starting to throw these things around. 

I laughed some and started throwing them back, squealing a little when they hit me. "Aw come on! Don't gang up on me!" I yelled out, still laughing. 

This was great, all of us just having a good time and letting off some steam and stress. "I don't think these are asteroids. Coran, I'm going to need a containment unit." I heard Pidge say before looking at her. 

"They appear to be some sort of hyper-resilient spore," Allura says while pulling it up on our helmets so we could see it. 

"This bio-luminescent pulsing doesn't seem natural. It appears programmed." Pidge says while taking a closer look at it.  "I think it's a code."

"A code? From who?" Hunk asks while turning to Pidge. 

"I don't know. I mean, it makes no sense. You can't program a spore." Pidge says, clearly a little confused. 

"If anyone can figure it out, it's you, Pidge," Shiro says while smiling at her. 

"Before that, everyone needs to come in for decontamination," Allura says before we fly into the decom before getting sprayed with water then washed around with bubbles, kinda little a little bubble bath. Then we were blow-dried shortly after. 

We all changed out of our armor and just hung around for a little bit, relaxing while Pidge went to sort out the spore code. I just went and chilled in the lounge, grumbling while looking down at my big ass belly. She won't ever stop moving now and I've started getting the stupid Braxton Hicks contractions. And they fucking suck. I mean like, they always suck. 

After a while of me just sitting there, Shiro comes in, a little surprised to see me. "Oh, Nyle. I thought you were gonna be in your room resting. You alright?" He said a little softly, not wanting to disturb me probably. 

I laughed and hum. "What rest am I gonna get? All this baby ever does is move and kick my insides constantly. I think I'm past sleep, Shiro." I hum and sit up, struggling a little bit. 

He let out a small laugh and rolled his eyes. "Well, you are getting closer to going into labor. You said you were starting to get the fake ones recently right?" 

I nodded and leaned back. "Yep. And boy those things hurt. If these are the fake ones I don't want to experience the real ones." 

"Well if you wanna not be pregnant anymore you're gonna have to." He said with some unreadable look. 

"I know, I know. You know I'm more surprised that Allura still had her old baby things. Did one of them ever tell you why they had it?" I asked while putting my relatively small hand on my gigantic stomach. 

Shiro shrugged. "I asked and Coran had said that her parents liked having the memories of when she was still a baby." 

I nodded some and hum softly. "Sounds like my parents. They kept everything from when we were babies." 

"Well anyways, just let one of us know if something happens with you alright? I think we're pretty much ready to deal with it." 

I raised an eyebrow and laughed some. "You make it sound like I'm gonna become some kind of monster." 

Shiro chuckled a little and rolled his eyes. "I meant it as in we're ready to help." 

I snickered and hum softly. "I don't think there's much you could do. You could try but I doubt you'd be able to help out much." 

"Well we could try, you just gotta talk to us," Shiro says with a sly little smile on his face. 

I roll my eyes and huff. "I get it, I get it. Don't worry. Besides, I'll be fine. I think my pain tolerance is pretty high up there."

Shiro shrugged and shook his head. "Whatever you say Ny. Anyway, besides that, how were you and Keith planning to actually raise her?" 

I hum and purse my lips. "Well, we just kinda found a way to co-parent, especially since Allura had all that stuff. I thank god that Alteans and Humans have almost the same stature. I probably would've been struggling to find anything for her to have on."

Shiro smiled and rolled his eyes. "I'm sure you would've found something Nyle. But yeah, probably would've taken time. Anyway, I'm happy that you have the things for her. I'm gonna go check up on a few other things. So please don't go into labor while I'm gone." 

I scoffed some and laughed. "I won't trust me. Go do whatever you gotta do alright?" 

He snickered and sent a thumbs up. "Also, try walking around and getting on your feet. That might help you out." He walked out after that, I guess he was checking how the repairs affected every room. Since one of the last repairs we did kinda turned out bad for the lions' hangers.

But I might just take Shiro's advice and walk around because frankly, I feel like I'm gonna explode. I got up and left, starting to walk around the castle while rubbing my lower back a little bit. This girl is gonna kill me. 

"Guys! Check this out!" Pidge's voice over the intercom made me jump some and I sighed, heading over to the bridge of the ship. I walked in to see everybody there, of course, I would be the last one here. 

I walked in just in time to hear something about a potato experiment, which was weird but I figured we weren't doing that. 

"I ran the bioluminescent pattern through a variety of code-breaking sequences, including this homemade virtual Turing machine. Of course, I had to make a few tweaks to the original design, because, obviously, there have been several advancements since he designed it. Although you have to admit, Turing was a shining light in the world of science in an age when far too many were still-" Pidge rambled on before she was interrupted. 

"Pidge. What does it say?" Keith asks, getting her back on track. 

"Oh, yeah. 'Under attack. Galra. Help.' And then, there are coordinates." She responds back. 

"It's a distress signal. Good work, Pidge. Get those coordinates into the castle-ship's navigation system." Shiro says while looking up at the big screen. 

"The signal came from Olkarion, home to the Olkari, a proud class of engineers, builders of vast cities that could change shape at the whim of their creators," Coran says as a planet is put up on the screen. 

"They had a seemingly magical ability to manipulate solid metal. With just a wave of their hands, they could build a computer inside a block of steel." Allura says as she stood at her podium. 

"An Olkari once gave me this!" Coran threw a black cube with a green line through it into the air making it hover. 

"What is it?" Lance asks, looking at it. 

"Uh, hello? It's a floating cube!" Coran started saying, laughing. "Oh, this guy. And watch! My name is Coran and I'm a gorgeous man." 

The cube started repeating what Coran said. "My name is Coran and I'm a gorgeous man."

"Why would a society full of literal tech wizards use spores to send a distress signal?" Keith asks, furrowing his eyebrows. 

"Who cares? When do we get to see that city?" Pidge asks excitedly. 

"Actually, Pidge, the distress signal isn't coming from the city. It's coming from the forest." Allura responded back to Pidge. 

"Oh..." Pidge's excitement left her almost immediately. We all started to leave to our Lions and Hunk nudged me. 

"This is right up your alley Nyle. You're always outside and you're pretty much mother nature herself. This should be fun for you." 

I laughed some and shake my head. "I mean that is true. But this is kinda a mission too. I'd enjoy it more if we were just going around the forest. I'm sure it's beautiful." 

"Well, maybe we can come back sometime after all this is over and stay there for a while. Maybe even bring little Mereida too. If she's anything like you she'll love the outdoors." He smiled, making me laugh a little more. 

"She's gonna learn to love the outdoors. Because that's where she might be most of the time once we get back." We both laugh before going out separate ways to our lions. 

Once we got to the planet, we went past the city undetected and I heard Pidge let out a groan. "Why doesn't anyone ever send a distress signal from a cool place?" Pidge says with a little bit of an annoyed tone in her voice. "I hate the outdoors. Nothing but sunburn and poison oak." 

I smile and lean back. "It's nice out here Pidge. I mean there's a lot to do if you know where to go." 

"I like it out here," Keith started. "It's quiet." 

Then something hit the bottom of our lions and started dragging them down to the ground. I couldn't move my lion at all. Every time I moved the controls it wouldn't budge. "What was that?" I heard Hunk break through the silence. 

"What's happening? Are we being ambushed?" I said, trying to look around for a sign of an ambush. 

"I don't know, but something's dragging my lion down to the surface," Shiro says to us. 

"Yeah, something's pulling Blue down, too," Lance replied back. 

We came down to the surface to be faced with some kind of suits. "Are those wooden mech-suits?" Hunk asked carefully. 

"Are you kidding me? We got taken down by a bunch of tree people!" Lance exclaimed loudly. 

"We come in peace!" Shiro shouted so the people could hear him. 

"We found your distress signal!" Pidge yells while holding up a container of the spores after getting on top of her lion. 

The Olkari started chanting something. I think it was 'Lubos' if I'm not mistaken. Once we were all introduced, the Olkari introduced herself as Ryner and started showing us around. 

"When the Galra attacked, only a few of us escaped the cities. We were forced to flee into the forest." She said softly, showing us their homes in the trees. 

"How long have you lived like this?" Shiro asked while turning to Ryner. 

"Many decafeebs. But, as you can see, our people are resilient. We never stopped evolving. Instead, we adapted our skills to the environment." She responded, pointing to an Olkari who made some kind of bug-looking creature out of a bunch of sticks and leaves with their hand. 

"Wow, that's amazing," I whispered under my breath. 

"Coran was right, Ryner. You really are the most incredible engineers in the universe," Pidge started saying. "To be able to switch from working with precision machinery to a bunch of sticks!"

"Nature's designs are superior to any that we could devise," Ryner responded back. 

"No offense, but I'll take my computer over a tree any day," Pidge said to Ryner. 

I heard Hunk snicker. "I think Nyle would take the tree gladly." 

I rolled my eyes and huff some. "You hush up alright?" 

He laughed some and sent me a sly-like grin. "You two can talk science later. Let's assemble Voltron and get rid of these Galra invaders." Shiro says as he stood tall. 

"It's not that simple, I'm afraid. The Galra have our leader, Lubos." Ryner responded as the Olkari around her started chanting 'Lubos' a few times. From what I'm getting is that these people see him as some kind of Messiah. "If you attack, who knows what they'll do to him?" 

"Then, we'll just have to rescue him," Shiro says sternly. 

Ryner started leading us to an open spot with bigger trees and flowers everywhere around the ground. "Um Ryner, where are we?" Keith asks, looking around. 

"This is the armory," Ryner responds. 

I looked over and saw an Olkari not far from us put their arm into a flower and a gun formed around their arm. I smiled in amazement at the works of basically magic. "Whoa." 

Ryner went over and put her hand on a tree. The lines on the tree started glowing and one of the tree-mechs we saw from earlier dropped down from it. "Cool!" Lance yelled. 

"Uh, can I get one of those?" Keith asked, pointing to the mech. 

"Of course. You can each have one," Ryner gave us all these kinds of tiaras that were made of sticks. "Now, the key to operating it is understanding that the nanocellulose responds to electrical impulses from the neural pathways connected through this." 

"Do what now?" Lance says, looking at Ryner unamused. 

I rolled my eyes and shake my head. "Put it on and touch the tree. There's your summary." 

"Mm. Mm! Makes my tongue itchy." Hunk says, catching my attention. I cringe when I see him putting it in his mouth and shake my head, face-palming. 

"That's your interface?" Pidge asks while putting on her little tiara. I put mine on as well and look at all the mechs in their trees. 

"Of course, all commands need to come as binary coded messages," Ryner responds back. 

"So, like this." Pidge puts her hand on the tree and a mech falls from it. 

"Yes! Excellent!" Ryner exclaims. 

I hum and walk up to a tree, putting my hand on it. At first, it didn't respond but after a little bit, a mech fell in front of me. I smiled widely at myself. "Great job!" I heard Ryner shout to me. 

"I think mine is just a tree." I looked over, laughing softly when I saw the boys having trouble with their mechs.

"You two must have deep connections with nature," Ryner says while turning to us. 

"I don't, know about deep necessarily but I like spending time out in nature a lot," I responded back while leaning on the tree. 

"Yeah, my allergies and pale skin don't mix with outdoor living," Pidge says while picking at her tiara thing. 

"Pidge is our resident tech expert." Shiro jumps in as the boys make their way over to us. 

"Well, that explains it," Ryner started. "Like the Olkari, you understand that, at the deepest level, trees, metal, you, me we're all made up of the same cosmic dust, all arranged by the laws of mathematics." She turns to pidge with a smile. 

Pidge looks up at Ryner a little confused. "Does this mean I should start gardening?" 

"It means that you both are going to need to give your friends a ride," Ryner responded, looking at me as well. 

I got into my mech, Hunk immediately climbing in with me. Lance rode with Pidge while Shiro and Keith rode with Ryner. "This way! To the edge of the forest! To save our king!" Ryner yelled, leading us towards a clearing in the forest. 

"Their headquarters are impenetrable from the ground, but there is one way in, a small opening in the roof. It goes all the way down to an open courtyard." Ryner shows us an, extremely tall building with an opening on the top. 

"That's quite a drop," Keith says carefully. 

"But there you will have total access to the building. The hard part will be getting onto the roof undetected." Ryner says. 

"That won't be a problem," Shiro states firmly. 

"Hey, hey, what's that? Is that part of the building?" Hunk asks, looking towards a cube that looked like the one Coran showed us. 

"My Lubos! It can't be!" Ryner exclaimed. 

"Hey! That looks like the cube Coran gave me!" Pidge shouted. 

"I haven't seen one of those in many decafeebs," Ryner started. "We used to play with them as children. But this. Only King Lubos could have designed one that size." 

"But why in the hell would he do that?" I asked. 

"They must have forced him to reveal his designs and reconstruct it as a weapon," Ryner explained. "From the looks of it, I'd say it's almost finished."

While we were on the way back, Shiro explained the plan to us. "Okay, we need to act fast. Everyone, back to base. I have a plan. First, we'll need to get to the top of that tower. Since the Green Lion has stealth capabilities, Pidge, you're the dropship. You'll take Keith, Hunk, Lance, and me to the roof, then drop back to a safe position. After the drop, we'll use a sensor to scan the building for any Olkari biorhythms." 

Once we geared ourselves up and got ready, our plan was executed perfectly and we managed to find the room King Lubos was in. He was, sobbing over some TV show. 'The hell is going on here?'

"King Lubos?" Shiro asked, catching the Olkari's attention and he looked over at us. 

"Yes? Who are you? The jesters I requested?" He responded. 

I swear I could feel my eyes widening. "Jesters? Excuse me?" I raised my eyebrow up as I spoke. 

"Um, we're here to, like, rescue you?" Lance responded confused to King Lubos. 

He narrowed his gaze at us and put his arm on the chair before alarms started blaring, a door opening to reveal Galra soldiers. 

"You could have just said, No, thanks." Hunk responds. 

"Looks like someone came to rescue you, Lubos." The Galra commander says with a shit-eating grin on his face. 

'I already hate this smug piece of shit.' 

"You turned your back on your people to save your own skin?" Shiro questioned while glaring at Lubos. 

"I'm doing this for my people! They wanted to fight the Galra, but they are too powerful! The Galra could destroy us!" Lubos responded. 

"So you let your own people be enslaved to build a weapon while you sat here pampered?!" I yelled some. 

"Don't make me the bad guy! He forced me to do it!" Lubos yelled back to me, pointing to the Galra commander. 

"Did he force-feed you, too?" Lance spat at the Olkari. 

"You're no king." Keith spat, venom laced in his voice. He went towards Lubos, he tried to run but the chained up Olkari pushed Lubos to Keith and he held his bayard to his neck. "Okay, we're walking out of here! Anyone tries to stop us and Lubos gets it!" He yelled. 

"Whoa, Keith! Calm down a little!" I yelled some. 

"La-Sai, what are you doing?" Lubos asked the chained-up Olkari. 

"You betrayed our people. I can't live this lie anymore." 'La-Sai' responded back. 

"You don't want me to hurt your genius engineer, right?" Keith asks sarcastically. 

"Oh, be my guest. His work is done. The cube is complete." The commander responded with a smirk on his face. 

'These guys are really getting on my nerves.'

"What? But-But I thought we had a deal!" Lubos exclaimed. 

"Guards, put them all out of their misery." The commander yelled, the Sentries about to shoot us when a blast broke through the building and separated us. 

"Your ride is here!" Pidge yelled as the Green Lion came down. 

"Engage the cube! Takedown the lion!" The commander yelled as we started running to the lion before it flew off. 

"The cube is operational! We've got to get back to the other lions and form Voltron!" Shiro exclaimed to Pidge who sped off. 

"On it!" She yelled back. 

Once we got back we faced Ryner as Shiro threw Lubos to the ground in front of the Olkari. "What's going on?" Ryner asked once Lubos was on the ground. 

"While your countrymen starved," Shiro started saying. "King Lubos was well taken care of by the Galra. He willingly helped them build that cube, willingly helped to enslave his own people."

All the Olkari people gasped and looked between each other. 

"I know you're devastated, but it's time to be strong and use your Olkari spirit to fight alongside Voltron and take back your planet!" Shiro yelled out. 

"Lubos, how could you?" Ryner asked while looking down at Lubos with a scowl. 

"I- I was only trying to-" Lubos started before he was interrupted. 

"Enough! We must free our people!" Ryner looked back to the rest of the Olkari people who cheered. 

We started getting ready to fight the cube when my back started hurting. Oh great, another one. That's just what I needed. These stupid Braxon Hicks are gonna be the death of me, I swear to god. I was holding my back, leaning against a tree and I guess Ryner saw me cause she came up to me. 

"Are you alright?" She asked. 

I nodded, taking a breath when it ended. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Don't worry about me. Just, a little out of it right now." 

"Is there anything I can do to help at all?" 

I smiled and shook my head. "No, afraid not. But thanks for asking." 

Ryner didn't take my 'no' as an answer and just gently started rubbing circles on my back. And holy shit did it make some of the pain go away. "You're, with child are you not?" 

I laughed some and nodded while clearing my throat. "Yeah and baby likes to abuse mama's ribs. But, that does make it a little better. Thank you, Ryner." 

She smiled at me and nodded. "Of course Nyleaya. Might I suggest that sitting in a bath may help? Especially with how far you are." 

I smiled and hum softly. "I might just have to try that. Anyway, we need to be going. Thanks for the back rubs, it felt great." 

Ryner lets out a small laugh and crossed her arms. "You're welcome." She walked away after that and I walked into my lion, flying up with my team. They formed Voltron and I waited for them before they came back down. 

"All right, team, let's take that thing down! Form shield!" Shiro yelled as the Green Lion pulled the shield towards itself. I activated my own shield generator and flew next to them. 

"Let's see how tough this magic cube is," Keith says kinda matter-of-factly and shot lasers towards it. 

The most it did was knock it back before shooting the same lasers back at us. "Did that thing just absorb your lasers?!" I yelled out. 

"We need to increase firepower! Hunk, use your blaster!" Shiro shouted towards Hunk. 

"I'm not sure this is a good idea." Pidge tried to say before Hunk overpowered her voice with his. 

"Got it!" Hunk yelled before forming the shoulder cannon and blasting it. "Yeah, I think it's working!" 

Once the blast ended the cube was knocked back a little bit before pausing and shooting back the same exact blast as Hunk's cannon before Voltron blocks the laser. I shot in its direction but didn't hit it just to grab its attention.

"It's giving back whatever we fire into it, like Coran's echo cube." Shiro states. 

"That's what I was trying to tell you guys!" Pidge yelled, grabbing our attention. "It's learning! Making its own versions of our weapons to use against us!" 

"We can't just sit here. We've got to move!" Lance yelled out before Voltron flew away, the cube leaving me alone and starting to go towards them. 

"Guys watch out! Incoming cube!" I yelled, shooting at it but the cube shot towards them and hit them in the back. 

They fell to the ground and the cube put its attention back at me. I put most of my power to my shield so I wouldn't immediately fall. The cube shot at me a few times before I saw Voltron come back up from the corner of my eye. 

"How do we beat it?" Hunk asked. 

"Maybe, if we form our sword, we can cut through the surface and hack right into the center thinking point place?" Lance said, sounding a little confused about his own words. 

"Can't be any worse than what's happening now," Keith responded. 

"Let's do it. Form sword!" Shiro yelled out. 

I kept the cube occupied while they formed the sword and they flew over, slicing it in half. The cube started to fall. "It's working!" Pidge yelled just as the cubes stopped falling and stayed in the air, still firing. 

"It's still operational! Re-engage!" Shiro yelled out. 

"We did it! They're going down!" Hunk yelled a little too soon as the cubes still kept being operational after two cuts. 

"Uh-oh!" Lance shouted as the cubes started firing again, hitting all of us with twice the force. 

"We've got to move! Move!" Shiro yelled. "We can't fight them like this! We need to split up! Back into lions!" They separate back into lions and start evading along with me. 

"Let's see if I can freeze these guys!" Lance yelled as he shot an ice beam at the cube closest to him. It froze completely for a moment before it got free and shot the same beam back at Lance, freezing his lions' head. 

"Oh, no! So cold, so cold!" Lance exclaimed before Keith shot a heat beam to the Blue Lion's head, melting the ice. "Oh, oh. Thanks, Keith." 

"You got it," Keith responded back to Lance before continuing the evade the onslaught of lasers. 

"Shiro, what the hell do we do in this situation?!" I yelled out. 

"There doesn't seem to be any way to stop them, but we can't let this weapon get into Zarkon's hands!" Shiro exclaimed out.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Pidge get shot down by two of the cubes and my eyes widened. "Pidge!" I yelled, trying to fly to her but getting blocked by the cubes, making me have to turn around. 

"Pidge! Are you okay?" Hunk asked but with no reply from her. 

Having to dodge all the cubes, lions, and lasers were getting harder from how much was going on.

"Where are you, Pidge? We need you!" Shiro yelled out to Pidge. 

"Pidge!" Keith yelled out, trying to reach out to her. 

The hits just kept coming and coming until all of our lions were on the ground. 

"Guys, hang on!" Pidge yelled. 

'Oh thank god she's alright!' 

Pidge started bolting around the cubes almost like a lightning bolt. "Whoa, Pidge! What's going on? You're booking!" Hunk exclaimed. 

"I'm not sure, but I feel more connected with my lion than ever!" Pidge started. "I know what I have to do!" 

Pidge formed a cannon on her back and shot one of the cubes. The cube was about to shoot back when vines broke through all around it. 

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

"That's right! Circle up, everybody! Get some of this!" Pidge yelled out, shooting down the other three cubes. 

"Vines," Hunk started with a laugh. "Well, that is not the way I thought a giant cube of death would go down." 

We all flew towards the city where Ryner was and came out of our lions. "I want to thank you all," Ryner started. "You helped us get our home back. And, for that, we will never be able to repay you." 

"Just promise me that when it's time to take the fight to Zarkon, we can count on the Olkari for help," Shiro says with a smile. 

"Now, and forever," Ryner spoke while shaking Shiro's hand. 

"And you," Ryner started, turning to Pidge. "The spirit of the Olkari resides in you. The bond between you and your lion has grown stronger than ever." 

"Without you, I would never have been able to unlock my lion's hidden power," Pidge responded, smiling. 

                                              _____***_____

After we talked for a while we went back to the castle to get some much-needed rest after that battle. I sat down and smiled at Pidge, humming softly. "What you pulled was awesome." 

She smiled back and looked towards everyone. "You know, it's weird." She started. "I've always been a tech junkie. That's how I connected with the world. But, for the first time, I feel connected to everything. I guess it's like Ryner said. We're all made up of the same cosmic dust."

"So, that means we're all related," Keith started, grabbing our attention. "This ship, those stars, the Olkari. Even the Galra."

We all stared at him before Hunk broke the silence. "Uh-oh. I think Keith just blew his own mind." 

We all laughed and I saw him roll his eyes before slightly elbowing him. "Calm down, we're just having fun you big loaf." 

He laughed under his breath before shaking his head. 

"Well, that was a productive trip. Look at all these cubes they gave me!" Coran yelled, throwing his little Echo Cube into the air before it multiplied into about eight. 

"Coran, Coran, the gorgeous man!" Coran yelled before the cubes repeated what he said. "Ah, sounds pretty good." The cubes repeating that as well. 

Hunk made a fart noise, the cubes repeating it. We started to laugh at the stupid joke. 

'Wow, we really are a pack of immature children.' 

Then the alarms started blaring and I just groaned, too tired for anything. "Are you kidding me right now?"