The forgotten paladin

The Escape

KEITH POV:

I was a Galra. I had been Galra his whole life, yet, I wasn't fully Galra. My mother was a Altean women and my father was a Galra commander.

There, now that that's out there, I know I shouldn't exist. I'm a hybrid of the two species. I can transform between a full Galra, full Altean, or my most natural state, a mix of the two.

My father had urged me to leave after overhearing a conversation that the higher ups had about what to do about me. I had taken my fathers advice and escaped on a ship that was transporting a few goods across the Galra outposts.

I've been planning to escape because of the way I was treated. The older Galran soldiers harassed me and hurt me. One time, they had raped me, the life I had on the ship was hell. The only person who helped me through it was my father and this prisoner I befriended named champion. His real name was Shiro, but I couldn't call him that, so I call him champion. I was almost caught several times talking with Shiro and each time, I was whipped fifty times. It was literally hell. They treated me like a prisoner, they even put me through the colosseum and forced me to fight. My dad had tried to stop them but with no luck, so I was forced to fight. The last battle I fought was with Shiro. I had cut him across the face and probably left a horrible scar, but he soon went into rage mode. He stabbed me in the stomach three times, cut my arms and chopped off two fingers, and left me in a pod for a week. I haven't talked to Shiro since, but that's not important now. Now it was time to escape.

I hopped onto the first ship and found a discreet place in the vents. At the first stop I got off , it was a green planet that was covered in plants and animals. There were caves and mountains in the distance along with multiple Galra outposts that were stretching across the planet. The ship stopped at a post next to a huge mountain, so I decided to explore the mountain. It was riddled with caves and gems and trees. There were lots of Galra soldiers so I had to move stealthily as to not be caught. I found a cave with multiple carvings in it, the cave was very deep and for some reason, was urging me to enter it. I was exploring the cave when I felt tremors across the planet. I ran outside immediately just in time to see a blue mechanical lion fly above me.

It was amazing. There were three lions in all, a blue lion, green lion, and yellow lion, all working in perfect harmony to take down this outpost.

I stared at the lions in awe until I heard a low growl come from the back of the cave. I turned around to see the markings glow red. The red lights lit up all over the walls, illuminating the whole cave. The light might have alerted the Galra soldiers of my presence.

As if on cue, I heard yelling behind me. I turned around at the same time a gun fired at me, hitting me on the arm and sending me back with a jolt.

The growling grew louder. The pain spread all across my body as I was shot once more in the leg.
"AGHHH!!"
I screamed out, vision blurring. I looked around, trying to find something to protect myself with. I looked toward the back of the cave and saw two yellow eyes staring back at me. The back of the room shone with a bright blue color revealing a red lion. It was the same as the other lions that were out there, except this one was the color red.

Somehow drawn to whatever was back there, I tried to crawl my way towards the bright light from the back of the cave. The soldier shot again, hitting me on the right side of my stomach.

I screamed out in pain, the horrible feeling spreading throughout my entire body even faster, making my vision go fuzzy and my thoughts go haywire. I touched one of my shot wound and through fuzzy vision, saw blood dripping from my hand. I looked toward my leg and it was oozing blood, looking as if it would never stop.

I was distracted for a bit, trying to seal the multiple wounds with one arm, still dodging the other gunshots from the multiplying soldiers. They were slowly moving closer, inch by inch, making it even harder to dodge the shots. I was hit again in the shoulder and my other leg.

I was suddenly thinking about cats, probably because of my blood loss, or maybe a different reason, but that was when a giant lion came flying out from the back of the cave and swallowed me up.

No, it literally swallowed me... in its mouth. Except that it was mechanical, like the other lions I had seen flying around earlier.

I was put into a soft leather chair after being swallowed and a huge console appeared before me. I had never seen something this advanced before! A voice told me something in my head and I under stood immediately. It wasn't exactly telling me in English, but I understood it. I pulled back on one of the controllers and was sent soaring up into the sky.

"I'm gonna call you Red"
I told the red lion, knowing that I had to call this ship something, and it seemed appropriate. The lion purred back, most likely enjoying its new name and companion. I smirked, this was gonna be fun.

LANCE POV:

"Paladins of Voltron, we need you to attack a enemy base on Lycron (I.e the planet Keith was on) and retrieve the red lion. We will find the red paladin after we get the lion"
I wasn't exactly sure how that would work out, I mean who would voluntarily join Voltron: defenders of the universe in exchange for a normal life. I sure wouldn't.

I can't really complain though. I had a mission to do with the two other lions that could be flown. Pidge piloted the green lion and Hunk piloted the yellow lion.

The paladins of Voltron really needed to get the red lion so they could unlock the black lion, which was going to be piloted by Shiro, who was back at the castle.

Even if they got all the lions they wouldn't be able to form Voltron without the red paladin, and they couldn't even go to Earth to look for one because it was millions of galaxies away at the moment.

Me and my two friends set out to the planet Lycron. Pidge and I were to distract the base while Hunk searches for the red lion.

I was halfway through destroying a mini gun on top of one of the bases when he saw a red lion, flying!

Wait... someone was piloting the red lion, and the green lion, and the yellow lion, and my lion all at the same time. With my calculations, that's one too many, that means that there was at least one person that was foreign to us, and I bet she was flying the red lion.

Since I'm always a charismatic guy, I tried calling the red lion, possibly get a look at the pilot. I think it's a girl because if her flying style, she weaves throughout the laser beams and counter attacks with perfect precision. She moved like her life depended on it. The only thought on my mind was how fast and deadly she was. I contacted Pidge.
"Who do you think the girl is?"
I asked, not daring to look away from the screen displaying the battle before me.
"How do you know it's a girl? Or, let me guess, you just assume everyone's a girl before knowing them?"
My silence was a clear answer for him.
"Okay, so you're dumb, and I'm sure he would not be liked being called that."
I flinched, knowing that if I was wrong, I would probably get punched by the other paladins, including the newest member.

"Let's just assume it's a girl, for now at least, before we get to meet her. She at least looks experienced with this kind of work before, maybe she was a pilot or something before getting in the red lion."
I said, praying that this would get pidge off the topic of the pilots gender. Suddenly, Hunk called.
"Hey guys, are you able to get ahold of the person piloting the red lion, or is it just me?"
I nodded, agreeing that I couldn't contact the red paladin, even though I've tried multiple times.
"Well think about it,"
Pidge intruded,
"The lion just got out of a century long sleep and probably doesn't have all its systems in yet. Or even in working order."
Pidge stated this as if it was obvious. After a few minutes of fighting, the battle was over, it was much quicker to have another lion to help do the dirty work.

I was about to land my lion when I got a group call from Allura, I bet it's for the red lion, she might even be able to contact her now.