Chapter 14

Lance was the next one out of the group to take off his helmet, before he made a dramatic gasp for air. For a split second, Hunk actually thought Lance was choking, until Pidge slapped Lance on the side of the head. Lance breathed normal just like Allura and Mara, before he turned to Hunk with a sheepish look on his face for being caught. "Not cool, Lance" Hunk muttered, as the group stopped a few feet in front of the stranded aliens.

The male, purple skinned alien took a step forward and extended his hand out to the group. "You don't know how glad we are to see some friendly faces. Most folks don't want to get tangled up with anyone who's on the run from the Galra."

Keith stopped a few feet away from the alien, with a confused look on his face. "So, you guys are fighting the Galra?"

The alien gave a small shrug of his shoulders. "Well, I don't think Zarkon is exactly quaking in his boots at the three of us, but we do what we can. I'm Rolo." He then gestured to the two other aliens behind him. One was female and was yellow skinned, and the other was a chrome covered robot. "This is Nyma, and our cyber-unit, Beezer."

Nyma and Beezer both said hello, quickly attracting the attention of Lance and Pidge.

Lance was quickly at Nyma's side, already trying to lay down his charm. "Hi there! The name's Lance." Pidge was quickly at Beezer's side, looking over every detail of the robot. "Cool robot!" Pidge exclaimed, as she began to poke and prod around. Mara and Keith but let out a groan at the same time, before Mara leaned over to whisper something into his ear. "Safe to say he's back to his original flirty self..." Keith couldn't help but smirk at Mara's joke, as they looked over to see Lance trying his best to impress Nyma.

Shiro turned to face Rolo, as he looked over their ship out of the corner of his eye. "Was your ship damaged in a fight?"

Rolo let out a sigh, as he looked over and placed a hand on his ship. "Yeah, we've really been through it with the Galra. Parts are hard to come by. Luckily, we were able to limp to this moon about a week ago. If you didn't pick up our distress signal, I don't-"

Allura was quick to grab Rolo's hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze and flashing her best smile. "We're happy to help. I am Princess Allura of Altea, and from now on, you won't be alone fighting the Galra. You'll have the Paladins of Voltron by your side."

Rolo looked back and forth between all of the Paladins in front of him, before he turned around to see how Nyma and Beezer were interacting the other Paladins. Lance was chuckling to himself as he held onto Nyma's hand, trying to flirt with her. Meanwhile Pidge was inspecting every inch of Beezer, with a big smile on her face and a sparkle in her eye. Rolo raised an eyebrow as he turned to look back at the Paladins in front of him. "Okay?"

Shiro behind Rolo to see how Lance and Pidge were acting, and frowned to himself before he let out a sigh. "I don't think they've heard of us…"

"It has been ten thousand years…" Keith muttered out loud. Mara tilted her head to the side in thought. How exactly do you explain what Voltron is to somebody who has never heard of Voltron before? Just before she was about to open her mouth and try to explain, Shiro took a step forward and began gesturing with his arms.

"Uh Voltron? Five robot lions that combine into this big robot... guy?"

Rolo slowly nodded his head, a mental image of Voltron appearing in his mind… Or at least what he assumed was what Voltron looked like based on Shiro's description.

"Sounds impressive. I'd love to see it. Or-or him. Them."

Hunk had been patiently waiting near the ship, tapping his foot against the ground as he watched the others converse with the stranded aliens. He couldn't stop thinking about Shay, and what he people must be going through at the moment while they were stuck here on a detour. Eventually, he couldn't take it anymore, as he walked right in front of Rolo. "Why don't we get to work on your ship? I'm sure we all have places to be."

Rolo seemed taken aback by Hunk for a moment, before he gave a shrug of his shoulders. "Sure. Pretty much our whole flaxum assembly is shot. I don't know what kind of extra parts you carry in this rig of yours…."

Rolo looked up at the massive Castle ship behind the Paladins, with the same sparkle in his eye that Pidge had a few moments ago when she was looking over Beezer.

"I've never seen anything quite like your ship…"

Allura followed Rolo's gaze towards the Castle ship and smiled, before she looked over at Rolo's ship. "I'm sure we can get you back up and running. Give Hunk a list of what you need. Coran can show you where to find it."

Rolo nodded at the pair, and signaled for Nyma and Beezer to follow him. "We'll go with you. Don't want you to have to carry all that yourself. Come on, guys." But Hunk quickly stepped in front of Rolo, blocking his path. "Uh, I don't think so. You can just wait out here."

Allura let out a small gasp of surprise before she was right at Hunk's side, with a disapproving look on her face. "Hunk don't be rude." Mara was also taken by surprise at Hunk's shift in demeanor, and found herself nodding her head with what Allura said. Lance was quick to pipe up behind the Princess with his own thoughts on the situation. "Yeah, mind your manners. There are ladies present." Lance then turned back to face Nyma, and clicked his tongue at her. All at once Shiro, Mara, and Keith sighed at Lance's flirtatious behavior. Seriously? Now was not really the time to be trying to flirt with the random alien girl you just met. Not when they had bigger issues to deal with on their hands.

But Hunk remained in his spot, unmoving from anything that was just said. "Oh, I'm sorry, oh but does anyone remember the last time we let our defenses down? Someone kind of set off a bomb. Remember, Lance? You were almost killed.

Lance's smile dropped from his face, as he looked off to the side. "Oh, yeah…." Mara then couldn't help but be brought back to her own memories of what took place when she found Lance and Coran at the site of the bomb explosion, and how badly injured Lance had looked… They had almost thought he wasn't going to make it…

Shiro then appeared by Hunk's side, and gave him a firm nod of approval. "Hunk's right. Sorry, but we have to be cautious." Shiro's words were quick to snap Mara out of her memories, as she re-focused her attention onto Rolo.

"Hey, I don't take it personal. That's how it is out here. You've got to look out for your own. You're doing a good job, big man." Rolo then gave Hunk a pat on the back, to which Hunk did not seem to keen on receiving. Beezer rolled up to Rolo's side and began to print out a list of parts they would need to fix their ship. When it was finished, Beezer let out a few beeps of exclamation, before he rolled away back to Nyma's side. Hunk looked down at the list as he began to read over its contents. He then looked up to see Rolo and the group walking towards a small fire they had going near their ship. Hunk let out a sigh before he began to walk back towards the Castle ship. "Yeah. Thanks."

.⋆✦⋆.

As Hunk began to set to work on the ship, the rest of the Paladins sat around the fire along with Rolo, Nyma, and Beezer. There was nothing but silence in the air between the group, except for the sounds of the fire crackling in front of them as it continued to burn. Out of the corner of her eye, Mara looked around the fire. It seemed like nobody was sure who should speak first, or if they should speak at all. Once her eyes landed on Rolo however, he turned and directly made eye contact with her. Mara blinked a few times, but Rolo continued to stare at her, tilting his head to the side as if he was thinking about something. Mara quickly looked away, as her heartbeat began to increase, and she could feel a small blush starting to appear on her face. There was more silence between them all for a moment before Mara cleared her throat to finally speak. "So, what can you tell us about yourselves?"

Rolo looked to Mara before gazing into the flames of the fire, with a sad look on his face. "My planet was destroyed by the Galra and I was taken captive. I managed to escape, but not before I lost something." Rolo lifted up the hem of his pants to reveal that his entire leg was a metal prosthetic. Mara's eyes widened a bit, just as she could feel Shiro tense up a bit next to her. His own prosthetic arm then whirled to life, and began to glow. Shiro held out his arm towards Rolo, with an understanding look on his face. "I know exactly how that feels."

Rolo looked at Shiro's arm for a moment and gave him a solemn nod. He then turned to face Mara, managing to make eye contact with her again. "Tell me, what's your planet like?"

Mara's face lit up as she began to explain various aspects about the Earth to Rolo. She used a lot of hand gestures, and would even turn to Keith and Shiro to back her up on some of her claims that even had Rolo second-guessing her. Eventually, Mara asked Rolo more about his own home planet, and in a few minutes the pair were sitting close together, exchanging various stories and information about their lives.

Keith sat across from the pair, slightly narrowing his eyes when he noticed how Rolo would move closer to Mara or touch her hand. And it seemed like Keith wasn't the only one who was noticing this, as Keith could feel Shiro tense up every few minutes. Out of the corner of his eye, Keith could see that Shiro was also staring at Mara and Rolo interacting, and he was not liking it one bit. Keith couldn't help but let out a little snort to himself at the sight of Shiro being jealous. And the best part was, Shiro probably didn't even consider it jealousy! Shiro would probably just say he was being 'concerned' for Mara, but Keith knew better. His two friends definitely had something between them, and he had to do was wait and see what would happen from it all. Rolo asked Mara a question that had her nearly stuttering back in response, before she let out a shaky laugh. Keith raised an eyebrow at this, wondering what it was that Rolo had asked her. And… Wait, was that a blush on Mara's face? Keith narrowed his eyes as he continued to watch the pair, his gaze and actions nearly mimicking Shiro's now.

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Hunk eventually came wandering out of the Castle ship, with a crate full of supplies to help fix Rolo's ship. As he set the crate down, he let out a small grunt. "Well, I hope there are some parts in here that'll fit. You know, to get your ship moving?"

Mara frowned slightly before she turned to face Rolo, their story exchange coming to an end. Rolo stood up from his seat, and gave Hunk a pat on the back as he walked over to retrieve the crate of ship parts. "Great! Thanks for all of this!"

Before he could take the parts over to his ship, Allura walked up to him and cleared her throat, with a determined expression on her face. "So, what can you tell us about Zarkon's forces? Where are they concentrated?"

Rolo titled his head in thought for a moment before he replied to Allura. "Well, his command ship sits right in the center of the Empire. He mostly calls the shots from there and has his minions do the work, depending on who's closest. This is the territory of a real nasty bugger named Sendak."

Mara's eyes widened at the information, as she looked out of the corner of her eye to Shiro. Mara still hadn't forgotten any of the time they had spent when they had been held captive inside the Castle ship by Sendak and his goons. Or before that, when Shiro had an intense fight with Sendak, that ended with the pair about to deliver a final blow to the other.

"Oh, we've met." Keith sarcastically replied, as Mara shook her head out of her thoughts, and let out a sigh of relief. "Well, at least he shouldn't be a problem around here anymore…."Rolo turned to face Mara with a confused look on his face. "What do you mean?

Mara faintly smiled at Rolo before she replied. "We recently defeated Sendak, and are now holding him prisoner on our ship."

Rolo's eyes widened, as he then looked to Keith for confirmation. Keith simply nodded and Rolo let out a whistle. "That's very impressive…."

Shiro quickly cleared his throat, trying to get the conversation back on track. "Anyway, how far are we from the center?" Shiro asked. Rolo shook his head in response. "We're way out on the fringes."

All of a sudden, Hunk stepped into the circle to address the group. "Hey, sorry to interrupt, but I think you guys are kind of keeping Rolo from working. It's just that we're in a hurry. A hero named Shay saved my life, and I swore I would return to do the same for her and her people…" Hunk then turned to look at Rolo straight in the eye. "You understand."

Rolo blinked for a moment, before he gave a nod to Hunk. "Sure, I get it. Sorry to keep you waiting." Rolo then whistled for Beezer to come over, as they began to look over the crate of ship parts. Meanwhile, Shiro had taken Hunk off to the side of the ship to have a private conversation. "Hunk, we're going to get going soon, but I think Rolo might have some information that could be helpful to us."

Hunk peered over Shiro's shoulder to see Rolo and Beezer working, with Pidge still fussing over the robot on the side, and Mara asking more questions to Rolo about his travels. Hunk looked back at Shiro and frowned. "Not for nothing but I don't trust this guy as far as I can throw him. We ought to leave him with parts and just say, Adios, amigo!" Just as Shiro was about to reply, Rolo called out for Hunk's attention.

"Hey, bud! Sorry, but do you think you could hunt down a length of thermal pipe about yay long?"

Hunk let out a groan as he began to walk back towards the Castle ship. "Sure, on the way." Shiro whispered a quick thank you to Hunk, before he walked back over to talk with Rolo. "So, are there more freedom fighters? Any kind of organized resistance to the Galra?"

Rolo gave a shrug of his shoulders is response. "Only folks who haven't been colonized yet, or the lucky few, like us, who managed to escape somehow.

Keith placed a hand on Rolo's shoulder. "Well, we're going to change all that."

A faint smile appeared on Rolo's face. "That's good to hear and all, but I've got to warn you, it's pretty bad out there. You don't know what you're up against." Rolo then turned around and put his attention back into looking at the ship parts in the crate, as he began to work on fixing up his ship. Mara was pulling Pidge away by the arm so that Beezer could help Rolo, which she was not happy about. Mara began to look around for Lance, knowing that he would need to give Nyma a break, so she could also help fix the ship. But when she didn't spot him or Nyma, Mara sent a confused glance over to Pidge. "Hey, where did Lance go?"

Pidge muttered something about Lance trying to impress Nyma, before one of the Castle ship hangars opened, and the blue Lion was now flying over them before it went out of sight. Keith looked up at the sky, and let out a groan. Why did Lance have to be such a show off, always trying to impress people?

After a few minutes of tinkering, Rolo announced that they would be doing a quick test flight to make sure everything was working correctly. Rolo and Beezer quickly went inside of the ship and fired it up, before they took off into the skies. The remaining paladins began to wait for them to return, along with hopefully Lance and Nyma.

"How many ticks have they been gone?" Pidge asked, as she began to look around for any sign of the ship or the blue Lion. Mara let out a huff, before she looked down at the holo clock on her wrist. "I think we're past ticks here..."

"I don't know. I hope they didn't break down again…" Allura spoke up, as a worried look came over her features. Hunk took off the goggles on his face, revealing his eyes were now narrowed. "Something ain't right here…." All of the paladins turned to face Hunk, before there was suddenly a batch of static coming over their communicators inside of their helmets.

"Guys? Hello? Little help?" Lance's voice called out, with a hint of panic to its tone. Mara quickly scrambled to put her helmet back on, so she could hear better what Lance was saying. Shiro went right into leader mode and answered first. "Lance? Lance! Are you all right? What's going on?" Lance let out an audible sigh over the channel. "Well, I'm kind of chained to a tree…And I think Nyma and Rolo just stole the Blue Lion."

Hunk slammed his goggles on the ground. "I knew it!" he yelled, as everyone turned around to face him. Hunk slowly nodded his head, as he then quickly picked up his goggles from the ground and began to run back towards the castle ship. The group quickly followed, while Shiro continued to talk to Lance. "Where are they now?"

Lance was quiet for a moment before he replied back in a sarcastic tone of voice. "Uh, space?" Mara let out a groan in response, just as the group entered the hangar to get to their lions. "Well no shit, Sherlock." Mara muttered under her breath, getting a small chuckle from Pidge and Keith over the communicator. Meanwhile, Hunk was on a constant rant about the situation at hand. "I never trusted those guys, right from the beginning! I mean oh at first it was just like a feeling in my gut, you know, but when I was replacing that pipe, the pipe was cracked, but none of the hardware around it was damaged…"

"Okay, we get it!" Keith tried to yell over Hunk's words.

But Hunk continued to get louder as he spoke, as if Keith didn't try to interrupt him. "I mean if the thermal pipe is cracked, then, obviously, hello, the entire assembly should be totally roasted."

"Okay! We get it!" Pidge now tried to yell over Hunk's words. But once again it was of no use, as Hunk just continued rambling on. "We should've had to replace the entire undercarriage of that reactor. So, right then, I was, like, positive. Foul play.

"Okay, we get it!" Everyone yelled, finally making Hunk stop his ranting. "Oops, sorry guys." Hunk quietly replied, as the Lions then rose off the ground and flew right out of the hangar, now in pursuit of Rolo's ship.

.⋆✦⋆.

"So Shiro, what's the plan?" Mara asked, as the group continued to fly through open space to find Rolo's ship. "We have to intercept Rolo's ship, and recover the Blue Lion." Shiro replied, as Mara and the other paladins gave a firm nod in response. As they continued to travel through space, eventually Rolo's ship appeared on their radars. "Ok, how are we gonna do that?" Pidge asked, with a bit hesitation in her voice. Pidge had brought up a good point, how were they going to follow through on their plan? It wasn't like Rolo was just going to pull over on the nearest planet and apologize before giving them back the lion. Not when he and his crew were already trying to make a break for it. And they couldn't just blow up Rolo's ship, that would be entirely out of the question. But instead of Shiro replying, it was Keith's voice that came over the communication channel. "We're going to have to slow them down, and fast. They're quickly approaching a massive asteroid field."

The Lions were just about to catch up with Rolo's ship, but it was too late. Rolo's ship was now flying through the cluttered asteroid field, making it increasingly harder for the paladins to pursue him in such close quarters.

"We'll never get through this asteroid field!" Pidge complained out loud, echoing everyone's thoughts in that moment. Hunk let out a huff, before he began to fly his Lion forward in a charge against one of the massive asteroids. "Maybe I can just bust through!" As soon as the yellow Lion made contact, a chain reaction began within the asteroid field. It was now all moving around in an unpredictable pattern, with collisions happening left and right. "Nope. That was wrong. That was a bad idea!"

Shiro thought to himself for a moment, considering all of the group's options. The Black and Yellow lions were too large to traverse inside of the asteroid field, and Pidge and Mara still had little piloting experience compared to the others… Shiro finally came to a decision, as his voice came over the communication channel once again. "Keith, you're the only one who could possibly fly through this. We need you, buddy. Get in there and flush him out."

Keith immediately smiled, as he began to pilot his lion ahead of the others. "You got it. See you on the other side." Mara slowed down her lion to a complete stop as she watched Keith and the red Lion begin to enter the asteroid field. "Good luck!"

Now all they could do was wait for Keith to hopefully flush out Rolo's ship, so they could then get the Blue Lion back. As they were waiting, Pidge and Hunk were busy talking with Lance as he was still handcuffed to a tree back on the moon, re-assuring him that they would be getting the Blue Lion back as soon as they could. Lance did let out a few words of protest when it was revealed that Keith was now the one who was , but Pidge and Hunk both told him it was the only way.

Which actually got Mara thinking to herself. Why was Keith the only one who could fly through the asteroid field? Shiro was just as good of a pilot as Keith, so why couldn't he have gone in? Mara bit her lip as she opened up the communications channel directly to the Black Lion, so she could speak to Shiro. "What made you say that Keith was the only one who could fly through that asteroid field?"

Shiro let out a small chuckle before he responded. "Besides the fact that he's the best pilot I've helped train? It all goes back to when I first met Keith…"

Mara's ears instantly perked up, as she leaned forward closer to the display console. "Could you… Please tell me? Keith never did tell me how you both met."

Shiro gave her a small nod, as he cleared his throat. "I was recruiting at a local school near the Garrison, we had a flight simulator set up for the kids to test out…"

"Oh yeah, I remember those days!" Pidge excitedly yelled over the communicator, interrupting Shiro for a moment. "Yeah me too, those simulators were fun!" Hunk chimed in, before the pair realized their mistake. "Oops, sorry Shiro!" Hunk and Pidge quickly whispered over the communicator, before Shiro continued to speak.

"A couple of them made it past three levels, until Keith took his turn at the controls. He beat the entire simulation, surprising not only me but everyone else in his class." Mara slowly nodded to herself, as she began to imagine in her mind what that situation must have looked like. A pre-teen Keith blowing everyone out of the water with his skills and impressing Shiro, who was one of the greatest pilots and graduates of the Garrison at his age… Shiro waited for a moment, waiting it out to see if Hunk or Pidge would chime in again. But after a few more seconds of silence, he continued his story. "I remember asking his teacher why Keith wasn't on the list of recommended students for recruitment, since he was clearly the best according to the simulation results…."

Just as Shiro was about to finish his trip down memory lane, Rolo's ship came smoking out of the asteroid field, struggling to fly correctly. The lions all began to circle the ship, emitting a menacing growl at the thieves before them. Keith and his Lion were quick to follow up behind Rolo's ship, as they began to escort it back to the moon. "Yeah! Hey, Lance, I got your lion back."

Lance let out a sigh of relief at Keith's message. "Thank you, Keith. Now, can you come here and unchain me?"

A mischievous grin appeared on Keith's face, as he began to make static-like noises inside of his communicator. "Uh what's that? I, uh... You're cutting out. I can't... I can't hear you…" Mara couldn't help but let out a giggle, which she quickly tried to cover up with her hands to prevent her from having a full out laugh attack at what Keith was doing to Lance.

Lance let out a gasp over the communicator, as he began to sound panicked in his voice. "Oh, come on! I thought we bonded. Keith? Buddy? My man?" At this point, everyone was laughing at Keith's antics, even Shiro! It was Mara however, who ended up flying down to the tree where Lance was handcuffed, and set him free. Lance thanked Mara, just as she gave him a pat on the back. "Don't be so eager next time to impress a girl, ok?" she whispered, as she gave Lance a quick wink and walked back over to her Lion. Lance quickly followed behind her, as the pair then flew away to join the others.

.⋆✦⋆.

Once they got the blue Lion out of the docking area of Rolo's ship, they gathered Rolo and his crew together, back around the now dying fire where they had found them originally when they landed on the moon.

They were all standing around Rolo's group in a closed circle, with very harsh looks on their faces. Keith was the one who spoke up, letting the group know about their fate. "Since your ship really doesn't work now, you'll have to wait here for a rescue." Beezer let out a series of sad beeps, as Nyma crossed her arms over her chest and pouted. Rolo simply nodded, before he turned to look straight at Keith. "Thanks for sparing our lives."

Hunk turned his back on Rolo and his group, before he began to lead the others back towards the Castle ship. "Now that these guys are dealt with, let's get to the Balmera and save Shay and her family." Everyone was now following right behind Hunk, with Mara and Lance slowly lingering behind as they looked over at Rolo and Nyma.

"Hey…." Rolo softly yelled, catching the paladin's attention as they stopped in their tracks. "You may not believe this, but I hope you do stop Zarkon. It's a lifetime of fighting the Galra that led me to where I am today." From the look on Rolo's face, Mara knew that he was being true and sincere about his words to them. It made her think back to an old Earth saying about how war 'changes people' and makes them do things that they would have never considered doing from before. Mara thought that this saying fit Rolo and his group right now, and that they were probably very different people before any of this happened to them. Mara then ended up walking back over and placing a hand on Rolo's shoulder. "I promise you, we're going to change that. You've got a second chance now, right for the right thing. Be true rebels against Zarkon and his evil."

Rolo and Nyma stared back at Mara with awed expressions on their faces, before they both silently nodded. Mara then waved goodbye to the group, before she re-joined the rest of the paladins. Allura was practically beaming at Mara with approval for what she had said to the stranded aliens. "I couldn't have said it better myself."

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A/N: PLEASE DON'T KILL ME! I know it's been almost a month since I last updated this fic, but I had some things going on that was delaying me from finishing this chapter. I hope to not have such long or sporadic updates anymore, and I will try to meet my one chapter a week goal.

But now we can at least move on to the next two-parter episode, which will be rescuing Shay (and the entire Balmera). I will probably have these two episodes made into two chapters, since I know it is mainly action heavy and has the paladins in their lions for most of the time, but then again, we'll see. I'm more excited for when we reach the Crystal Venom episode, it will involve a lot more of Allura and Mara interacting, with some angsty Shiro and Mara on the side. And possibly, a revelation about Suroa? You'll just have to wait and see!

But you know what we did get to see in this chapter? Jealous Shiro! Protective Keith! Blushing Mara! And don't you worry, Keith will be asking Mara what exactly it was that Rolo said to make her blush from earlier. Keith doesn't have any romantic interest in Mara, he's more of the protective friend type of guy, and the fact that he already senses something between Mara and Shiro too. I'm debating on if I should have Shiro (or Mara) tell Keith about the bathroom incident, or if Keith would really care/have any opinion about it. Let me know what you all think!

Also, as of writing this, Voltron just had its last panel at NYCC and we now have the release date for the final season of the show, December 14th. The trailer looked insane and I honestly have no clue what is going to happen. I have most of Mara's story planned out up to season seven (along with a few other OCs we will meet in the future) so it will be interesting to see how the canon story ends and how I can incorporate that into this fanfic.

I do not own Voltron Legendary Defender, but I do own my original characters. I hope that you will give them time and get to know them and love them as I have over the course of their creation/development.

So please, feel free to favorite, follow, and leave a review! I look forward to getting constructive feedback from you all as the story progresses.