Survival of the Innocent (A Voltron fanfic) (Book 1 of Fates Entwined)

Effortless Entertainment Part 1

Most Paladins are asleep, peacefully resting. All of them except Shiro and Keith. Suddenly, the alarms in the Castle of Lions start to blare, rousing every Paladin but Lance, who is sleeping with headphones on that are playing peaceful music. Keith is startled by the alarms, briefly flashing back to the arena, but Red brings him back to reality almost as quickly. The awake Paladins rush towards the Bridge of the Castleship.

"Everybody up! Zarkon's attacking! The Castle's about to be destroyed! Go, go, go! We need Voltron now!" Allura yells through the comms from the Bridge with Coran, "Hurry! We can't survive much longer!"

"You've got to sell it a little bit more," Coran says and Allura hands him the microphone and he starts yelling, "Oh, no! Allura is dead! Aaaah! it's horrible! Her head fell off! Wait! What? Her severed head is trying to speak to me! What is it, Allura's head? What are your final words?"

"Coran..."

"Oh, yes, Princess, I'm listening," Coran continues, unaware of the Paladins in the entranceway.

"It's over."

"Oh, I know! Uaaaagh! If only Voltron had been formed..." Coran trails off as he sees Shiro, Keith, Hunk and Pidge have entered the Bridge.

"—Oh! Time!" Coral cries and clicks a device.

"I guess this isn't an actual attack," Shiro deadpans.

"And it's a good thing it wasn't because it took you... Coran?" Allura asks.

"Seventy-five degrees. Oh, sorry. No, this is a meat thermometer," Coran replies.

"However long it was, it was too long. You must always be ready to do battle with Zarkon. Look at you! Only Shiro is in uniform. Keith, Pidge, Hunk, where are your Bayards? And where is Lance?" Allura scolds and asks just as Lance enters the Bridge, yawning and looking well-rested.

"Good morning, everybody. What's going on?" Lance asks.

"Coran and I have been up for hours getting the Castle back in order. We had to run a test on the alarms, and we decided to test you as well. Guess which one failed," Allura deadpans in irritation.

"Hey!" Hunk cries and yawns, "You got to sleep for 10,000 years, man. Monday night, I was on Earth. Now, I've flown through space, fought some evil alien named Zarkon, eaten goo in some weird Castle. That's a lot to process in, uh... I don't know. What day is today?"

"It's the third quintant of the Spicolian movement. Hump day!" Coran informs them 'helpfully'.

—It's a lot to process," Hunk finishes.

"You must understand the stakes of our mission," Allura answers and brings up a map of the universe from the Castleship's computer and displays the amount of distress beacons before continuing, "Over the last 10,000 years, the Castle picked up distress beacons from the following locations. So, we have to assume that Zarkon has conquered almost the entire known universe," she moves the map to the Milky Way where it appears barely out of Zarkon's reach and continues, "Earth is here. An attack on your planet is inevitable."

"Oh no..." Hunk mutters.

"Exactly. Our mission is to free all those planets. Coran and I are getting the Castle ready to leave Arus. During that time, you have to learn to form Voltron, so we can begin fighting Zarkon," Allura continues.

"The Princess is right. Let's get to our Lions and start training," Shiro agrees.

"Wait. But I want to talk to the prisoners we rescued from the Galra ship," Pidge complains and Keith looks at her in understanding and slight confusion.