Full Dive

Chapter 6: Moving Forward

I am quite partial to Lance, and may from now on set the reality portions of the fic in his perspective.

Chapter 6: Moving Forward

Lance was skeptical at first. The new paladin was alright, but she was definitely jumpy. It seemed that every little thing spooked her.

Nevertheless, she was the one Green had chosen, and he trusted the lions' judgement better than his own.

Her name was Nayo. She was an Olkari student. In fact, she was an apprentice to Reiner herself. The team had been excited to have another genius to rely on, but the girl's true colors quickly shone through the first time they encountered an alien ship.

"Aaah!" Lance's screen automatically showed Green's cockpit, where the girl was cowering behind her chair.

"Nayo?" Allura called. "Is everything alright."

"ALIENS. THERE'S ALIENS."

"Nayo...we're aliens too, you know..." Shiro said, somewhat confused.

"But how do I know if these guys are nice like you?"

"We're allies with the Galra, Nayo," Lance chastised. "Just because their ship is purple doesn't mean they're our enemy."

"Oh...right..."

"It just so happens," Shiro said, his voice softer, "that these guys are actually the people we came out here to meet. They may have information regarding the location of the witch Haggar."

Nayo squeaked, hiding further behind her seat at the mention of the witch.

Lance sighed. "This is gonna be an interesting process."

Since then, Nayo had not only warmed up to the team, but had put genuine effort into facing her fears and becoming more confident. And if anyone was a good confidence teacher, it was Lance.

Hunk walked into the lounge to find Lance and Nayo lying on the couches with orange facial masks on.

"Orange? Really?"

Lance sat up, grinning. "It was too hard to see the green with Nayo's complexion, so we went with orange instead!"

"And how exactly did you manage that?"

"Uh, food coloring. Duh."

Needless to say, the next few days brought about many laughs.

"I can't believe you used orange food coloring on a facial mask," Shiro said, shaking his head. "You should have really thought that through."

Lance looked in the mirror again. "I mean, it's not that bad. I already have a dark skin tone."

"I wasn't referring to you."

Nayo's orange face was definitely...unique. At first she was angry with Lance, but over the time that her face was discolored, she learned to laugh at herself more. In fact, her strange appearance actually boosted her self-esteem.

It wasn't an easy process, but at least the team was complete again.

---

Pidge sighed. It was getting harder and harder to push onward. Everything was discouraging. Everything hurt. She was sick of seeing people die, sick of feeling like she was trapped in the biggest cage in the universe.

There was a screen you could access from your menu that displayed the total number of deaths caused by the game and even listed the names. Pidge had long since disregarded it. Even the idea of the list made her sick to her stomach.