Brighter Than the Stars: A Voltron Fanfic (Keith X OC)

Chapter 2

"Everybody get up right now and come to the bridge! Zarkon is here! We're being attacked!"

Violet blinked, then made her way down the halls to the control room, where Allura was shouting into the speakers. "You all must form Voltron or else we're doomed!"

"Zarkon's not attacking," Violet said. "What are you doing?"

Coran, who was a bit too friendly for her liking, sidled up to her and whispered, "It's a ruse - Princess Allura wanted to see how well the paladins are prepared."

Violet raised an eyebrow. "And telling them the enemy is attacking will make them better paladins?"

"It's a test, not an exercise," Coran said, turning to Allura. "You're not being believable enough, princess - here, let me do it." he took the speaker from her hands. "OH, QUIZNACK! ALLURA JUST GOT DECAPITATED! VIOLET'S ARM WAS SHOT OFF! AND HER LEG TOO! Hold on - Allura's telling me that we need to form Voltron!"

"I thought I was decapitated," Allura said dryly.

"Oh, right." Coran tried again. "I mean - Allura's DECAPITATED HEAD is telling me that we need to form Voltron! Those are her last words!"

Allura's expression was a mix of confusion, exasperation and irritation. "Coran, stop. It's too late." The paladins entered the room - Shiro in his armor, Keith and Pidge in their clothes, Hunk in his pajamas and Lance nowhere to be found.

"It is indeed too late! If only we had managed to form Voltron!" Coran said, throwing his head back dramatically.

"I guess Zarkon's not really here?" asked Shiro.

"No, and you should be glad he's not because it took you - Coran?" Allura said angrily.

"Seventy degrees," he reported. "Quiznack, sorry! I was using a meat thermometer instead of a timer."

"The point is, it was far too long!" Allura finished. "None of you are remotely prepared to fight Zarkon! Keith, Pidge, Hunk, Shiro - where are your bayards? And where is Lance?"

The blue paladin chose that moment to step through the doors. Lance was wearing a blue robe, blue lion slippers, and holding a mug. "'Sup, everyone. What's happening?"

Violet smirked. "Nothing. Did all of you get those slippers? Because I want some."

"Are you sure? I had this really weird dream about Allura being decapitated and half your limbs falling off...."

"Sounds like a vivid dream," Violet said innocently.

"Enough! Coran and I woke up two vargas ago so we could get to work on the castle's defense systems," said Allura. "We were checking the alarms and decided to give you all a test. I bet you can guess which one failed. I'll give you a hint: it wasn't the alarms."

Violet regarded Allura with one eyebrow lifted. "I'll guess ... the alarms?"

Allura glared at her. "I'll take that as a no," Violet muttered. Was the princess always this demanding?

Hunk yawned. "Sorry for not being alert enough, princess, but we've been through a lot the past couple of days. You guys just woke up from a ten thousand year nap. We've had to fly through space, eat weird space food, and battle a evil space emperor. It's a lot to process."

Allura's angry gaze didn't abate. "You must know how dire our situation is," she said, pulling up a screen that looked like a map of the universe. She explained to the paladins that the places highlighted in red on the map were distress signals from planets that had been attacked by Zarkon. Violet winced - almost the whole map was covered in red dots. "Your planet, Earth, is in this section of the galaxy," Allura continued, pointing out the Milky Way. "As you can see, it's right next to Galra-conquered planets. So we can assume Zarkon is planning to attack it as well."