Keith stirred his coffee, the spoon making tinkling noises as it hit the sides of his mug. With his free hand, he slid a finger between his flightsuit's collar and his neck, unable to shake the feeling of being strangled. If someone asked, he would not deny his nervousness but neither was he going to offer it up voluntarily. He would be flying the Black Lion for the first time today and though he was normally very confident in the cockpit, he could not help imagining crashing and burning a second after firing it up. Though he had reached for the Black's key without thought, that did not mean that he was meant to be its pilot. Keith was not one to shirk duty, but he sensed that this would be bigger than him...this was legend. He was not so sure if he was the stuff of legend

Around him, the members of his team were scarfing down their breakfasts as if they wouldn't be eating again for a long, long time. He couldn't blame them. Daordian Beta was not the most welcoming of planets and if anything happened to them or the Lions, help would be a long time coming. But there was no other way to do this and all they could do was be as careful as they could to make sure things ran as smoothly.

Then again, Keith thought with an amused glimmer in his dark eyes, the thought of Allura unleashing her wrath on them for breaking Arus' last hope could be enough to keep us sitting up straight in our pilot seats.

"Are you ready?"

He turned his attention to the Princess seated at the head of the table. It had not slipped his notice that she was looking more than a little rough around the edges, but still managed to sound as if she could rip you in half with her very will. He still wasn't sure if that was admirable quality or not, but it got people moving. As strong as she was, Keith could not help feeling protective towards her--even though he knew she would personally show him to a transport shuttle if she had an inkling of how he felt. It had nothing to do with being attracted to her or anything of that nature; she just needed help and he was willing to offer it to her.

"Ready as I'll ever be," he replied.

"Any words of wisdom, Princess, or would that be too much of a stretch?" Lance said around a mouthful of egg.

They had learned not to laugh whenever Lance said something about Allura, but that didn't stop Pidge from smiling. She regarded Lance coolly.

"How about this, Lance?" she said, speaking to him like she would a two-year-old. "The sky goes up and the ground goes--you know this one--down."

Sven chuckled. "You could have used that advice when you crashed Headmaster Marco's new VX-200."

Hunk let out a loud guffaw. "That was Lance! That story was legendary."

Lance grinned proudly. "Yup, that was me."

"Every time Headmaster Michaels sees him, he always sends him to detention," Keith said, trying not to smile.

The table erupted with laughter. A corner of Allura's mouth twitched upwards, but that was as far as it went.

"Finish up in here," she said. "I don't want to waste anymore time. The skies are clear."

Keith stood. "Gentlemen, you heard her. Let's hit the road."

Hunk took one last bite of toast and followed them out the door. Allura took them to the hanger where the Alliance transport landed early that morning. The pilots had already returned to GG in Pidge's and Hunk's fighters. Allura did not want to risk the Alliance pilots saying anything about the robot Lions.

"Good luck," she said, extending a hand to Keith.

He shook it. "Thanks."

They climbed onboard, Sven and Keith taking the pilot positions. They waited for clearance from Coran before blasting off to pick up the Lions. They had tested out the chutes the day before to make sure everything was in working order and had familiarized themselves with the cockpit controls in their individual Lions. The design was simple and according to Hunk, more efficient than the current Garrison design, at least when it came to battle situations. The Lions were war machines through and through.

"No fancy stuff, Lance," Keith said as they lifted off. "I know how much you want to mess around with the Red Lion, but we can't risk detection."

"I know, I know. The Princess already gave me a lecture about it. Don't worry. I'll be calm."

They landed the transport in a crater near the Castle to keep in from sight. Allura told them it was made by Voltron falling to the ground. Keith, Lance, and Pidge went to the Castle first while Sven and Hunk stayed behind to guard the transport. In Castle Control, Pidge pushed a small red button. The platform he stood on rose. Keith and Lance ran into their respective doorways and swung down to the shuttles. Pidge followed suit. They shot through their individual tunnels, each ending in the three different Lions.

"Insert keys," Keith said over the comm line.

The oval keys fit perfectly into oval-shaped grooves above the viewscreens. The controls lit up and the Lions' eyes glowed.

In the Black Lion, Keith let out a disbelieving breath as he felt the hum of the Black's power underneath his hands. He'd flown the Alliance's most advanced fighters but none of them could come even close to the kind of power the Black Lion had. When the Black let out a mighty roar and broke free of its stone encasement at the entrance to the Castle of Lions, Keith laughed, unable to hold back his excitement. He took to the skies with a little more power than he meant to but it was so easy to fly the Black, as easy as moving his own hand. Maybe it had something to do with the engineering, but he'd never flown anything with such ease before.

Lance grinned as the Red shot out of the volcano's core to the sky. He always thought that he only had true freedom in a cockpit, but in the Red he had so much more than that. He didn't know how or why but he felt like he belonged in this pilot's seat and all the other ones he had been in before had just been preparation for this day. There was no magic, no voices in his head telling him this was what he had been waiting for, but Lance felt it in his gut. He belonged to the Red just as surely he it belonged to him. It was a strange thought but it was the only way he could explain it and he wondered if Keith or Pidge got the same feeling...

The Green Lion came running out of a large tree deep within a forest. When it had been starting up, Pidge had stared at the controls and was tempted to pry open the panel to see what made it work, but he was sure Allura would not be too happy about that. However, when he launched the Lion into the air, all thoughts of the Green's insides flew out of his mind. A wide grin creased his face as he made the Green Lion do a 360 and he barely even felt the effort. Pidge had never enjoyed flying as much as he enjoyed tinkering with the computer system in the fighter, but this...this was something different altogether.

Quickly, all three Lions landed near the transport. Sven opened the large doors and they entered the huge belly of the ship. But after they settled themselves, it was apparent that nothing else would be able to fit.

"Looks like we overestimated the transport's capacity," Pidge said.

"Sven and Hunk, go get your Lions," Keith ordered. "You're going to have to fly next to us and we're going to have to go at top speed to avoid detection."

Sven and Hunk ran up the crater and to the castle. Lance took the co-pilot's seat next to Keith. The transport lifted off the ground and hovered as it waited for the other two Lions to appear.

"Ready to fly?" Keith asked when the Blue and Yellow appeared on his scanners.

Sven's and Hunk's faces came on the viewscreen in the transport and there was no disguising their excitement. Next to Keith, Lance looked a little put out about not having the chance to fly in the Red Lion.

"Wow," Hunk said.

"I know," Lance said mournfully. "You sure you don't wanna trade spots, Sven?"

"I'm sure," Sven said.

"I guess it wasn't just me," Lance said thoughtfully. "They're something else, aren't they?"

"That's the understatement of the century," Hunk said. "This technology is amazing..it's like it wants me to be in here."

"It sounds crazy, but I felt the same thing in the Green Lion," Pidge said. "Weird."

"Alright, we'll discuss this later" Keith said, interrupting them before they lose sight of what exactly they were doing. "We have to get out of here before we draw attention to ourselves, what with two giant robot Lions hovering outside. Let's go, team."