"Alright team, let's get started," Shiro said joining the group on the outside of the ship. He smiled when he heard the cheers of agreements coming from his teammate's comms. They turned towards the Castle waiting for a command from their leader.

"We're ready Princess," he stated confidently. "Get ready," he said to the rest of the team. He heard Allura's affirmation come through the comms and watched the Castle's force field appear around the ship.

"Start evasive maneuvers!" He shouted a moment before a laser shot towards them. They quickly split up and dodged around the blue lasers, spreading across the expanse of space. They used the rocks floating around them to block the attacks, twisted around the shots at perfect moments, and fired back when they had the chance. After a moderate amount of time; they came together and flew in formation.

"Let form Voltron!" Shiro yelled. He could fell his mind starting to meld with the other paladins, and could feel their excitement as their lions came together. They twisted around the shots and quickly got closer to the Castle.

"Form sword!" he commanded. They lashed out against the barrier and successfully sliced through the shield. They let out a cheer and leaped away from the Castle, preparing for their next assault.

"Good work team!" Shiro praised. "Now lets fo-" he started before he was cut off by a pounding in his head. He let go of the controls to rip his helmet off his head and clutch it between his hands. The black lion shook as Voltron was torn apart, and he let out a loud groan.

"Shiro? Whats happening? Are you okay?" He heard Keith's panicked voice ask him. The paladins worried faces popped up in his vision.

"I- I don't know," he managed to choke out. "My head," He felt Black jolt as Yellow clutched them in their paws and began dragging them back towards the ship.

"Its okay Shiro, we got you," Lance said calmly. He tried to reply to the teen but felt his eyes stubbornly shutting, turning his vision dark. Yellow gently set Black down and landed beside them, quickly letting their paladin out to run to the other lion.

"Did anyone see what happened?" Keith asked running to join Hunk at the mouth of the black lion. Only negative responses greeted him around the group, and he looked up worriedly at the leader's ship.

"Why isn't he coming out?" Hunk asked with furrowed brows.

"Maybe he passed out or something," Pidge suggested. She shrugged when she got narrowed looks from everyone. "I'm just saying,"

"We're just going to have to wait, Blacks not going to let us in," Lance said crossing his arms. The others mirrored his pose and waited with bated breath for the return of their teammate. Their sighs of relief weren't able to be heard over the sound of the black lion's maw opening in front of them. The paladin came forward in relief to greet their friend, but he quickly rushed past them to sweep Lance into his arms.

"Alluran!" He cried in relief and peppered kisses over the shocked boy's cheeks.

"Um, Shiro, are you alright?" Pidge asked in confusion. Shiro turned to them a wide smile on his face.

"I apologize, Paladins, I'm not Shirogane, my name is Sheeva," he said politely. They were intrigued to hear that; although his voice was the same, he now had an accent similar to Allura's.

"Uh, excuse me, dude, could you let me down?" Lance asked from Sheeva's arms. He turned his attention back to the teen and gave him a small grin.

"Yes, sorry, you just remind me so much of my love," he said unabashedly. A blush flooded Lance's cheeks and looked down to the floor. Sheeva chuckled and resisted the urge to pull the blue paladin into his arms. Their attention shifted to the hanger doors when they slid open revealing both Allura and Coran.

"What happened? You were doing so well," Allura commented once they came close enough. Sheeva whirled around eyes widened and sank down to one knee in front of the two.

"Princess Allura, Master Coran," he greeted keeping his eyes focused on the floor. The two Alteans gasped as they recognized the voice coming from the paladin.

"Sheeva?" Allura asked hesitantly.

"Yes, my Princess," he replied.

"What happened to Shiro?" She asked confusion clear on her face.

"We have begun combining your highness," he replied.

"Sheeva, you know that you can call me Allura," she said with a smile, that faded when he shook his adamantly.

"No my princess, I've failed you, you shouldn't show me any kindness," he said stoically. "Because of my failure, I was unable to protect Altea and I was unable to save Alluran," he stated glancing briefly at Lance.

"It wasn't your fault that Zarkon lost his mind," Allura stated gently lifting his chin to look at her. "As for Alluran, you made his years the best that he ever had, do not doubt the love the two of you shared. You know as well as I do that if he was here right now, he would beat you for saying those words," he sniffed and nodded his head not able to stop the few tears that escaped his eyes. He stood and let himself be wrapped in a hug by his fellow Alteans. They pulled away and Coran clapped him on the back.

"Now then, how about some dinner?" He asked.

"Would you be willing to make a paladin lunch?" Sheeva asked sheepishly wringing his fingers together. Coran's eyes lit up as groans could be heard around the hanger.

"Of course my boy! You're the only one around here with good taste!" he exclaimed leading Sheeva out of the hanger and toward the kitchen. They sat down around the table while Coran danced away to prepare food for Sheeva.

"You said that you began combining, what does that mean?" Keith asked after a moment of silence.

"When Alteans are reincarnated, we don't completely take over a person's consciousness. We sort of implant the memories of our past and let the others learn from it and form bonds with their significant other from their past life," he explained. "We let them use our feelings, ideas, and memories to create a new sense of self, but in order to do this, they must take long rests to be able to take in the amount of information they are. That is why we switch consciousnesses so Shiro can learn,"

"That is so COOL!" Pidge shouted sitting up and slamming her palms onto the table.

"Cool?" He asked quirking an eyebrow in confusion.

"Good and interesting," Hunk said absentmindedly used to the Alteans not knowing their slang.

"Oh, thank you," he said to Pidge bowing his head with a smile. She glanced at the rest of the paladins smugly.

"Hah, Shiro bowed to me," she grinned.

"Hey, no fair, that's not even Shiro. He's a knight, he's all gentlemanly and stuff like that," Hunk pouted at the green paladin.

"Thank you Hunk," Sheeva said before bowing to Hunk as well, sending a smirk at Pidge.

"Ha!" Hunk cheered throwing his hands in the air. Sheeva laughed and beamed at the two of them.

"Here you go Sheeva, piping hot!" Coran cried twirling into the room and set the bowl of green and yellow...someting in front of Sheeva. He licked his lips and quickly started eating from it. He looked up at the paladin's faces of disgust and only chuckled.

"How can you eat that?" Lance asked. He cringed when Sheeva sucked a yellow morsel into his mouth and swallowed it whole.

"It's delicious and healthy," he stated between bites. "How can you not eat it?" A small gag came out of Lance's mouth when a waft of aroma came out of his bowl. Sheeva snorted and covered his mouth before a piece of food could fall out of his mouth.

"How long is going to be until Shiro switches back?" Keith asked.

"I'm not sure, as I sad we will be switching out randomly, neither of us will be able to control it and it will stop when we become one," he replied.

"Wow, okay, well I'm going to turn in now I've had enough excitement for today and I am beat," Hunk announced pushing his chair back and leaving the kitchen. He was quickly followed by Keith, Pidge, and Lance leaving the three Alteans to themselves.

"Sheeva, how do you feel about this?" Allura asked suddenly. He looked at her but diverted his attention to the table top.
"I am glad that I am getting a second chance at life, one that I won't waste. I am happy that I will have the two of you to help me along my way," he admitted.

"But..." Coran prompted. Sheeva's head sunk further down.

"But, I don't know how long I will be able to ignore the similarities between Alluran and Lance, and if he is not his reincarnation I fear that I may break," he whispered. He cleared his throat and scooted back to stand up. He picked up his finished dish and headed to the kitchen.

"Thank you very much for the food Coran, I really appreciated it," he said escaping into the kitchen. He put his dish into the washer and leaned against the counter trying to clear his head. After a short while, he left and headed towards the quarters; as he was about to enter Shiro's he heard a slight cough behind him. He turned and found Lance shifting from foot to foot in front of him.

"Lance," he greeted with a small smile.

"Hey Sheeva," he responded with a matching grin. "Um, I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry for everything that you've gone through. I know it's not a lot but I know how it feels to think that something is your fault, and I've lost people too," he blurted out, wringing his hands nervously. Sheeva was struck back by the similarities between his lost prince and the blue paladin and couldn't help but cup his cheek.

"Thank you, Lance," he said gratefully, softly rubbing his cheek with his thumb. Lance looked star struck into Sheeva's eyes and blushed. Sheeva's eyes widened and he quickly brought his hand away and back to his side.

"I am so sorry Lance, I don't know what came over me," he stuttered trying to will the blush away from his face.

"No no no, its fine, its fine Sheeva, really," he said quickly trying to reassure the man. "Anyway, if you ever need to talk about anything, you can come to me, okay?" Sheeva nodded and watched the Cuban boy walk into his room and away from his sight. He slunk into his room and face planted onto the bed, quietly shoving his face into the pillow hoping to smother himself in embarrassment.

Lance put his head in his hands and muffled his screaming into them, as the blush across his face bloomed over his entire face. He quickly got ready for bed and jumped under the covers, after the events of the day he was able to quickly fall into a deep sleep. Usually, at this time he would fall into a dream about home or Blue and float around until morning. This time, however, he found himself snapping his eyes open to see his look-alike standing in front of him.

"Hello, Lance,"