"What are you doing?"

    "Shush!" 

    "Wh-"

    "Dude," Pidge stopped Keith, looking him dead in the eye. "When Em does something in the name of medics - don't distract her."

At this, Keith rose an eyebrow and turned to look at the said girl, who was crouched down next to a small batch of green plants. 

    "Lots of leaves," Em deduced, poking them lightly. "Not like forest leaves though - they are pointy and kind spiky. . ." Her eyebrows furrowed in thought as she snapped off a small piece of the plant. Goo started to spill from the place where the leaves once met - making her jump up.     "Aloe!!"

    "Aloe?" Hunk asked. "Doesn't that help for sunburns?"

    "Not only that!" Ember crouched down next to the plant, prodding around the root of a small plant. "It helps with acne scars, reduces dental plaque, and can lower blood sugar levels!" 

    "And you know all that because-?" Lance trailed off, raising an eyebrow. Ember huffed, scooping out the small plant from the ground. 

    "Aloe is something that my older brother would use when he got sunburns from track meets and stuff like that. They also explained it more in Herb class." She explained, throwing her backpack to the ground as gently as she could. "While we do have advance medicines, you never know when you'll actually need to grab something quick from the wilderness."

    "So, you're just going to lug that Al plant where ever we are going?" Keith asked. 

    "Yup!" Ember smiled at the taller boy - gently wrapping the plant in a bandit before putting it in a plastic baggy. "When we get back to the Garrison, I won't have to go to the nurse every time I get a burn or something. I can just grow it in my room!"

Everyone stared at the dark haired girl, Shiro shaking his head lightly to himself as Lance grinned. 

    "Only you, Bee, only you."

    "Well, lets keep going!" Em grinned back at her friends, putting her backpack on carefully before they all started walking again. 

The group of six walked for what seemed like miles before finally stopping on top of a flat rock that held them all - the ridge ahead of them. 

    "Okay, I admit it. This is super freaky." Lance was the first to speak. 

    "I'm getting a reading." Hunk relayed to the others as the device started to beep. He started walking forward, making Pidge follow since he was carrying a portable dish.  They walked around a red cliff to see another red cliff and so on. 

As they came upon an edge with a short drop - a hole in the wall - the beeping started to get more rapid. Hunk let out a breath of amazement. 
    "Well," Em started walking towards the entrance. "X marks the spot, right?"

In the tunnel Hunk and Pidge openly gawked at the carvings in the wall. Lance looked around in wonder, Ember was staring at every drawing with glimmering eyes, and Shiro was with Keith - taking in information. 

    "What are these?" Shiro asked.

    "These are the lion carvings I was telling you about." Keith replied. "They're everywhere around here." 

Em watched in fascination as the cave drawings started to light up in a bright blue color, making everyone else stumble. 

    "Whoa!"

    "What?"

    "This is so pretty!"  

    "They've never done that before." Keith stated, making Em turn to look at him. 

    "What do you me-!!"
In a flash of blue light and crumbling rocks - the floor beneath the teens and adult disappeared. They floated for what seemed like a second before they all screams.

Em let out a shriek of surprise as cold water start sweeping them down the hole to an opening. With a grunt, Ember landed on Lance harshly, making him cry out. 

    "Oh, Bee! That stung!" He started to lift himself up as Ember slid off his back. "Get it? Bee, stung?"

    "Lance," Ember whispered. "Look."

In front of them all was a blue lion that sat stories above them. He had red details, gold eyes, and an even lighter shade of blue surrounding it. 

    "I think it's being shielded." Ember stood up, shaking her hands out.

    "It this it? Is this the Voltron?" Pidge asked out loud. 

    "It must be." Shiro stated. 

    "This is what's been causing all of this crazy energy out here." Keith narrowed his eyes and started walking towards the lion first. Everyone started to fall behind him.

    "H. . .How long was this here?" Ember murmured to herself. "It couldn't have possibly been recent - we would have seen it!"

    "Does anyone else get the feeling this is staring at them?" Lance asked out of the blue, moving left and right as they continued their walk. 

    "Nope."

    "Yeah. The eyes are totally following me." Lance confirmed after a second, walking left then right again. 

    "I wonder how we get through this." Keith muttered to himself, touching the force field with his palms. 

    "Maybe you just have to knock." Lance waltz right up to it, knocking on it in a rhythm. Much to everyone's surprise, the force field disappeared and the circle under the lion lit up blue.  

Ember stumbled back as a vision flooded into her mind. What looked like to be five lions - red, purple, green, blue, and yellow - they formed a giant robot with a flaming sword. She was brought back to the world as Keith stumbled into her. 

    "Whoa," They all breathed. 

    "Uh, did everyone just see that?" Lance asked.

    "Voltron is a robot. Voltron is a huge, huge, awesome robot!!" Hunk exclaimed. 

    "And this thing is only one part of it!" Pidge added on. "I wonder where the rest of them are."

    "This is what they're looking for." Shiro stated.

    "Incredible." 

    "This technology looks so. . .advance." Em breathed out, grey eyes lighting up in wonderment. 

With a sudden movement, the lion started dropping its head closer to the group - Pidge and Hunk screaming as the jaws opened up and a ramp lowered. 

Lance and Ember exchanged glance as Lance's face grew into smirk. "Lance," She trailed off, watching Lance chuckle as he started up the ramp. Ember was quick to follow. "Lance, come on!" 

When she entered the pilots room - or what she assumed it was - Lance's chair had just stopped from moving forwards and light blue screens lit up the space. The black screen in front of them cleared and they saw the cave the lion has been in. 

    "Alright! Very nice!" Lance cheered. 

    "Okay," Hunk started, making the group look at him. Besides Pidge and Em, who were looking at the screens with excitement. "I feel the need to point out, just so that we're all aware. We are in some kind of futuristic alien cat head right now."

    "I know! It's so cool!" Ember grinned from her spot between Shiro and Keith, hands latching onto the seat Lance sat in. "I mean - look at everything! I might be in the medical field, but this tech so amazing!"

    "Did you guys just hear that?" Lance turned and asked suddenly. 

    "Hear what?" Keith asked. 

    "I think it's talking to me." Lance said, leaning in closer to the screens before pressing a few buttons. The lion that they were in stood and roared loudly, making Ember clutch onto the seat tighter. 

    "Woah!"

    "Hey!!" 

    "Okay. Got it. Now, lets try this." Lance grinned as he grabbed the control handles, moving them both forwards. The lion leaped out of the cave they were in, out into the open world. Lance made the lion do flips, fly up in the arm, roll near the ground. Ember clutched onto the chair as if it was her life while Keith had put his arms around her to hold onto the chair. 

    "You are the worst pilot ever!" Keith spat, trying to get a better grip on the chair. Shiro was to her left clutching the side of the seat. Lance made the lion run across the ground, a grin on his face. 

    "Isn't this awesome?" Lance cheered. 

    "Make it stop. Make it stop." Hunk chanted, looking a little bit green. 

    "I'm not making it do anything. It's like it's on autopilot." Lance informed them.

    "Well, that's reassuring!" Ember shouted from her spot. 

    "Where are you going?" Keith asked as the blue lion lifted itself into the sky again. 

    "I said it was on autopilot! It says there's an alien ship approaching Earth." Lance explained as the lion started to fly out of the Earth's atmosphere. "I think we're supposed to stop it."

    "What did it say, exactly?" Pidge narrowed her eyes at Lance. 

    "It's not like it's saying words. It's more like feeding ideas into my brain, kind of." Lance explained lightly. 

    "If this thing is the weapon they're coming for, why don't we just, I don't know, give it to them? Maybe they'll leave us alone. Sorry, lion. Nothing personal." Hunk suggested, making everyone face him with a deadpan expression. 

    "You don't understand." Shiro started to explain. "These monsters spread like a plague throughout the galaxy, destroying everything in their path. There's no bargaining with them. They won't stop until everything is dead."

Hunk's face slowly turned beat-red as the rest of the group stared at him with narrowed eyes. 

    "Oh," Hunk stated simply. "Never mind then." 

    As the lion started flying them out of space, it roared in warning. A huge purple and grey ship appeared out of no where, the lion heading straight towards it. 

    "Oh!" Ember jumped at the sudden appearance. "How did they get here so fast!?"

    "Holy crow!" Hunk exclaimed as everyone stared in awe and fear at the ship. "Is that really an alien ship??"

    "They found me." Shiro said ominously, eyes glued to the ship. Ember reached aroun Keith's arms and took Shiro's hand, giving it a tight squeeze for comfort. 

The ship started blasting laser at them suddenly, barely grazing the blue lion. Pidge turned to Lance in a panic. 

    "We have to get it out of here!"

    "Hang on!" Lance ordered, pulling on the control handles. He jerked around the lion, dodging the blast before thrusting the sticks forward. "All right. Okay, I think I know what to do." 

    "Be careful, man. This isn't a simulator!" Pidge snapped from Lance's right.

    "Well, that's good. I always wreck the simulator." Lance jerked the handle back and the lion skidded to a stop - a blast of light blue bursting from - what Ember assumed the mouth - and made the enemy ship explode where it was hit.  "Let's try this." Lance grinned. 

He pulled both the handles back and flip over some lasers before bringing the lion in close. The lion's claws scraped into the ship and more explosions followed. 

    "Nice job, Lance." Shiro praised as Lance led them away from the purple-glowing ship. 

    "I think it's time to get these guys away from our planet." Lance commented. 

    "I second that," Ember chimed in, still having a grip on Shiro's hand. He held her hand just as tight in comfort as well. As the lion was flying the opposite direction of Earth, the ship behind them followed closely behind, gaining on them. 

    "Oh no!"

    "They're gaining on us!" Pidge exclaimed. 

    "It's weird. They're not trying to shoot us. They're just chasing us." Lance inferred, glancing behind him every once in a while. 

    "Okay, seriously, now we think having aliens follow us is good?" Hunk started. "I m not on board with this new direction, guys." 

    "Where are we?" Keith asked. 

    "Edge of the solar system," Shiro replied in a soft tone as he stared out the window to his right. "There's Kerberos."

    "Really?!" Ember gasped, looking over to the ice moon. "I never thought I'd be able to see it! It's beautiful!!" 

    "It takes months for our ships to get out this far." Pidge breathed. "We got out here in five seconds."

A sudden portal opened up in front of them - the center being a purple and white mix while the outline was the same blue that matched the lion they were in. 
    "What is that?" Hunk asked. 

    "This may seem crazy," Lance started off with uncertainty. "But I think the lion wants us to go through there."

    "Where does it go?" Pidge questioned. 

    "I don't know. Shiro, you're the senior officer here. What should we do?" 
    There was a short pause as Ember squeezed Shiro's hand. 

    "Whatever is happening, the lion knows more than we do." Shiro stated, squeezing Ember's hand back. "I say we trust it, but we're a team now. We should decide together."

    Ember met everyone's eyes and nodded - showing she would trust the lion.
    "Hey," Ember started with a small smile, trying to lighten the atmosphere. "If we end up not dying, this is going to be one hell of a story." 

Pidge snorted and put a hand on Lance's shoulder to let him know the decision.
    "All right. Guess we're all ditching class tomorrow." Lance summed up, shoving the handles forward. 

And as their Solar System around them disappeared - Ember couldn't help but think this was only the beginning of something big.