When the lion popped out from the other side of the vortex, Ember felt like she was going to throw up. Her stomach churned in an uncomfortable way and she had to close her eyes or it would make it worse. After a few moments, she opened her eyes as Lance started talking.
    "Whoa. That was. . ."

    "Can we not do that again?" Ember groaned, letting go of Shiro's hand to put her fingers against her forehead. "That made me so dizzy."

Before anyone replied, Hunk flew to his left and threw up. Ember let out a gag, turning away from the sight. She felt Keith cringe away as well. 
    "So sorry." Hunk apologized before puking again. 

    "I'm just surprised it took this long." Pidge admitted, pushing up her glasses. 

    "I don't recognize any of these constellations. We must be a long, long way from Earth." Shiro changed the subject, making everyone look around the space they were in. 

    "I don't know how you guys manage to remember each and every constellation. I can barely remember where the North Star is!" Ember shook her head in disbelief.

    "It's not that hard." Keith shrugged, moving his arm from around Ember to beside her. But she didn't notice as she scoffed. 

    "Says the best pilot here." 

Lance must have not heard her because he didn't reply with anything. "The lion seems to want to go to this planet. I think. . .I think it's going home." 

Ember studied the planet - her eyes narrowing at the thought that it looked almost like Earth. 
As the lion continued its way onto the planet, the group in the pit leaned in closer to the seat Lance was sitting in. 
    "Guys, personal space." Lance groaned. "Hunk, your breath is killing me."

    "Um, is it just me or is anyone else having second thoughts about flying through a mysterious wormhole?" Hunk blabbered. "Why are we listening to a robotic lion anyways?"

    "It got us away from that alien warship, didn't it?" Lance retorted. 

    "I don't know if you noticed, but we're in an alien warship." Keith pointed out.  

    "Oh, are you scared?" Lance teased. 

   "With you at the helm? Terrified." 

    "Boys," Ember sighed. 

    "All right, knock it off." Shiro ordered. "No one's happy to be in this situation, but we're here now. If we want to get through this, we've got to do it together." 

    "So, what do we do?" Pidge asked the obvious question they all were thinking. 

    "Find out where we are, that'd be a great start." Em looked around the new place they were at. 

    "Yes, we find out where we're heading." Shiro agreed. "Lance?"

    "I don't know." Lance confessed, staring at the handles in thought. "I'm sorry. The lion's not talking to me anymore."

    "Great," Ember muttered to herself before Lance straighten himself up. 

    "Wait! Wait, wait, wait, wait! Shh!" Lance ordered - making everyone shut up. "Listen. I think I hear something." 

A sudden high pitch squeal made Ember furrow her eyebrows in confusion. 
    "I'm hearing it, too." Keith said. 

    "It's, uh - it's kind of a - a high-pitched squeal?" Hunk tried to describe. The squeal suddenly turned into what they all feared; a fart. Everyone started groaning and covering their noses. 

    "Come on, Lance!"
    "Really?!" 

    "But seriously, there's a castle up ahead." Lance remarked. Ember looked up and true to his word, a beautiful white and blue castle was in front of them. The bridge connecting it to the land looked broken and unstable but the castle looked like it's new. 
    "Wow." 

The four corners of the castle suddenly lit up in a light blue - as well as the middle part of the castle. "Please don't be weapons, please don't be weapons." Ember chanted to herself as the lion started to land on a huge path, maybe built for it.

    "Keep your guard up." Shiro commanded, narrowing his eyes at the castle. 

    "Something wrong?" Pidge asked, turning to look. 

    "My crew was captured by aliens once. I'm not going to let it happen again." He swore. Ember gulped, looking around at everyone. Shiro just stood straight and started to make his way out of the lion. The rest of the crew followed closely behind. 

Ember hiked the backpack up higher as she walked behind Lance and next to Keith. As soon as Ember took a step off the lion's jaw - the blue lion started moving, raising its head up and making everyone gasp in surprise.
    "Nope!"  Ember exclaimed, stumbling to keep her balance as Lance pulled her next to him. "Not today!"

    "No! I knew it was going to eat us! No!" Hunk cried as they all turned slightly to face the lion. The lion roared loudly, making Ember cover her ears. The wall behind them flashed blue before opening - reveling it was actually a door. Hunk ran for cover behind Shiro. 

    "Oh, the door is open. Guess I was wrong about you." Hunk said out loud

    "Whoa," Ember breathed, letting her hands drop. The room inside looked dark and scary - but only because it was such a big room. Ember's eyes lit up with remembrance. She hasn't been in a castle since her last visit to France. "Lets go look around!" She whispered excitedly.

    "Ember!" Pidge hissed as the long haired girl started towards the entrance by herself. 

Shiro let out a little sigh - taking bigger strides to get in front of the younger girl. "Slowly down." He told Ember - making her sigh. She complied anyways. As the group started to look around the room and walk deeper in - Hunk decided he was gonna say something. 

    "Hello?"

Everyone jumped at the sudden voice and turned to Hunk as the voice echoed off. Hunk shrugged at all of them and the group went back to looking around. 

    "From the size of the lion, I expected these steps to be bigger." Pidge shared her thoughts. 
The room lit out and they all let out a surprised gasp as a robotic voice started speaking. 
    "Hold for identity scan." 

    "What?"
Ember watched in awe as the floor lit up around them before the same color of light started to surround them. It caused an eerily blue glow to reflect off of the walls in the room and everything inside it.

    "Why are we here? What do you want with us?" Shiro asked, wanting answers now. 

When the glow around them disappeared - the actual lights started flickering on in the room and down the hallway. 
    "Whoa!"

    "Whoa."  

    "I guess we're going that way." Pidge slowly said, watching the hallway light up. With a glance around the group, they started to follow the lit up path. They followed the lighted path for what seemed like forever; Ember jumping every time Hunk randomly said 'Hello?'. They walked down stairs, went through split hallways and even passed some different rooms. 

Finally, the room they were apparently suppose to be in appeared in front of them; the doors opening up to revel another huge room with a dip in the middle of it. Pidge let the way into the room as she made her way to where a pedestal stood. 

    "Hello?" Hunk let his voice echo - hopefully for the last time. 

    "Where are we?" Lance asked. 

    "We must be really deep in the castle." Em commented, doing a small spin to see everything. 

    "It's some kind of control room." Pidge stopped in front of a raised platform, like it was some kind of screen. 

Ember turned to face a hissing noise while Pidge gasped in shock. A pod rose from the ground - a white mist following it -  with a figure inside of it. As soon as the first pod stopped, a second pod followed with another figure in it. Lance glanced wearily at them, being the closest. 

    "Are these guys. . .dead?" Hunk peaked his head over the control screen Pidge was looking at. Ember narrowed her eyes before walking closer to the second pod. 

The first pod glowed a light blue before the screen disappeared - reveling a tan girl with white hair and pink markings under her eyes. The looked relatively normal - besides the pointed ear that stuck out. When she opened her eyes - the new girl gasped. "Father!"

Lance rushed forward and caught the lady as she fell, making sure she didn't hit the ground. She blinked her eyes open - but Lance blocked Ember's view of the color. She swore she had pink eyes thought. 

Of course, Lance being within five feet of any other girl, he put on his 'attractive' face. "Hello." He grinned. 

    "Who are you? Where am I?" The new girl spoke in what reminded Ember of a British accent. 

    "I'm Lance," He started flirting. "And you're right here in my arms."

    "Your ears," She narrowed her eyes at Lance's ears. 

    "Yeah?"

    "They're hideous. What's wrong with them?" She recoiled slightly. 

    Ember snorted quietly to herself, covering her mouth in amusement. 
    "Nothing's wrong with them!" Lance said defensively. "They heard exactly what you said about them!" 

Much to everyone's surprise, the white haired woman grabbed Lance's arm and ear, twisted his arm and force Lance to his knee. 

    "Who are you? Where is King Alfor? What are you doing in my castle?" She shot out question after question. 

    "A giant blue lion brought us here. That's all we know!" Lance cried out. 

    "How do you have the Blue Lion? What happened to its paladin?"

Ember took a couple steps forward to be closer to Lance and the seriously confused girl. She noticed the small golden band with a blue gem around her head, and bowed her head slightly.

    "Em," Pidge hissed, Keith looking like he was about to laugh at Lance and drag Ember back. 

    "You're the Princess of this castle, correct?" Ember spoke up over  Pidge's warning.
The woman nodded slowly, letting Lance go. "Yes. . .What are you all doing here? Unless. . .How long has it been?"

    "We don't know what you're talking about." Shiro explained. 

    "What he means, Princess," Ember waved Lance to go back towards the group. Out of everyone here, Ember knew how to keep calm - herself and others. "Is that we are just as confused as you are. A Blue Lion brought us from our planet to this place. How about you tell us your name, and the last thing you remember?" 

    "I am Princess Allura of Planet Altea." The Princess, Allura, started. She glanced over the group of Earthlings before locking her blue and pink gaze with Ember's black ones. "I've got to find out where we are and how long we've been asleep."

    "You're no injured are you?" Em asked quickly. "If you are, we have to take care of you first. Answers come later."

    "I will be fine." Allura waved Em off as she walked towards the screen. Placing her hands on either side of it - the whole thing glowed blue before the same color of blue screen appeared out of thin air. 

    "Okay, that's how that works." Pidge said, clearly taking note. While Allura was typing away on. . .whatever technology that was -  the second pod started to open up as well.
A man that look similar to Allura - with blue markings and ginger hair instead of white - gasped.

 "Enemy combatants!" He screamed, jumping out of the pod.

He aimed for Lance - who did a quick side step - before the ginger hair man landed on the ground. "Quiznak! You're lucky I have a case of the old 'sleep chamber knees'." The man glared over to Lance. "Otherwise, I'd grab your head like this, wrap you up like so-- One, two, three, sleepy time!"

Ember watched with mild amusement as Lance and the ginger man started showing off 'fighting moves' they would pull. 

    "Man, these guys are good." Hunk said - making Ember furrow her eyebrows. Was he joking or not?
    The screen beeped - distracting Ember as Allura murmured a "It can't be." to herself. 
    "What is it?" The ginger man asked Allura. 

    "We've been asleep for 10,000 years." Allura breathed out in shock. "Planet Altea and all of the planets in our solar system have been destroyed." She whispered, trying to let everything set in. "Coran, Father is gone. Our entire civilization. . ." She turn to face the person named Coran. Her eyes harden in hate. "Zarkon."

Shiro gasped, eyes wide. "Zarkon?" He asked. Ember shivered at the name as sudden chills fell over her. She doesn't even know who this 'Zarkon' is but the name sent her body into a frozen state. 

    "He was the King of the Galra," Allura explained, dropping her hand from the board. "A vile creature and enemy to all free people."

    "I remember now. . ." Shiro breathed out. "I was his prisoner."

    "He's still alive? Impossible!" Allura denied, shaking her head. 

    "I can't explain it, but it's true." Shiro pressed. "He's searching for a super weapon called Voltron."

    "He's searching for it because he knows it's the only thing that can defeat him," She explained. "and that's  exactly why we must find it before he does." 

     "Come on Princess, you must eat." Coran jumped out of seemingly nowhere holding a bowl of green goo. "It's been 10,000 years." 

    "I'm not hungry." She shook her head and started to type quickly away on the screen.

    "Princess, if you want to even get started on this mission," Ember took a step closer to the Altean Princess. "You have to eat something."

    "The hommel is right." Coran agreed, nodding towards Em. "You need to eat before anything?"

    "Hommel?" Em echoed. 

    "It's a certain creature on Altea, you dress similarly to it." Coran explained. 

    "Man, 10,000 years?" Lance gawffed. "That's like one thousand plus ten."

    "That's times ten." Keith corrected. 

    "Whatever, dropout."

    "Lance, Keith!" Ember scowled. 

    "I haven't eaten since breakfast and I'm starving." Hunk held his belly and groaned.

    "Yeah, but you've thrown up, like, five times." Pidge pointed out. 

    "Good point," Hunk hummed before digging into the green goo that Coran made for Allura. 

    "Hunk! Don't eat it!" Ember groaned. 

    "I can't believe your civilization created such advanced technology 10,000 years ago." Shiro remarked in awe. "It must have been an incredible place."

     "I told you!!" Em glared at Hunk as he groaned and held his stomach. 

     "You were right," He groaned. 

    "Yes, it was, but now it is gone and we're the last Alteans alive." Coran stated grimly. Allura stopped her typing and clutched the place over her heart - or where Ember thought her heart was. Coran walked over and gently pulled her into a hug as she started to sob. 

Ember narrowed her eyes in confusion at the sound of squeaking. Allura seemed to have heard the same thing because she pulled out of the hug and made her way over to the pod. 
    "Looks like we're not the last, after all." Allura mused as four mice reveled themselves. 

The screen Allura was station at suddenly went red and symbols appeared. Alarms started to blare loudly as a image of a recognizable purple and grey ship popped up. 

    "A Galra battleship has set its tracker to us!" Coran announced in a panic. 

    "How did they find us?" Allura questioned. 

    "I'm not sure, but I bet it's Keith's fault." Lance declared. Keith made a face and glared at him. 

    "Say whatever you've got to say to make yourself feel better. After getting us stuck on the other side of a wormhole!" Keith turned towards the Cuban boy. 

    "I'll stick you in a wormhole!" Lance hit their foreheads together with each other. 
    "I swear," Ember started, crossing her arms. 

    "Stow it, cadets!" Shiro demanded, pushing the two of them away from each other. Lance threw his arms up in challenge."This is no time to place blame. It's time to work as a team. How long before they arrive?" The older man directed his last question to Coran. 

    "At their speed?" Coran brought his hands up and started counting. "Oh, well, carry the two. . .I'd say probably a couple days." 

    "A couple days?" Ember furrowed her eyebrows. "Really?" 

    "Good. Let them come!" Allura said in determination. "By the time they get here, you six will have reformed Voltron, and together, we will destroy Zarkon's empire!" 
Hunk burped from the other side of the line - Ember was in between Lance and Keith for a reason - before smiling guiltily. 

    "Sorry. Food goo." 

    "Princess, there are five of these lions. How are we going to find the rest?" Shiro asked. 

    "Also, I don't know if you counted correctly - but since there is only five lions, one of us is getting left out." Pidge pushed her glasses up. 

    "No! Don't count me in." Ember sent a weak smile at everyone. "I feel like I'll be needed elsewhere. Besides - I'm better at healing then fighting."

The mice in Allura's hands squeaked as everyone exchanged glances. "If that is what you want," Allura nodded towards Ember before standing up straighter. "Now, follow me."