Keith's face ached. He had been gritting his teeth and grinning for equal amounts of time ever since they had gotten the Lions off the ground. Flying the Black was a dream come true. He had never flown anything so smooth and so powerful at the same time. It was by far superior to the Alliance fighters he had flown, even the ones considered the most advanced. He ran his hands over the Black's controls, fingers twitching as he watched a missile cut its way through the clouds and to him. He bared his teeth as he let loose a missile of his own. The two missiles connected and disappeared, a sight he was still struggling to get accustomed to. They were not using real ones, heeding the Princess' threat that she would make sure they would never fly again if they dented the Lions, so the missiles were holographic.

"Nice try, Lance," he said.

Keith could see Lance grinning on one of the smaller viewscreens at his elbow; the other three viewscreens showed him Sven, Hunk, and Pidge in their respective cockpits. Keith wondered why the Alliance hadn't thought of installing the same in their squadrons' fighters. They were useful tools, especially during tense battle situations, when visual contact could be just as important as aural.

"Can't you just take one hit, Chief?" Lance whined. "Just one?"

"That would go against his principles," Sven said with a chuckle.

"Thank you, Sven," Keith said smoothly.

His dark eyes traveled back to the main viewscreen to see three more missiles coming up behind him. He destroyed them as easily as the other one.

"Sneaky," he admitted. "But you need more to get past me."

He steered the Black into a dizzying high-speed plunge, moving from his position between the Red and Blue. He had no idea where Hunk and Pidge were, but he would keep his eyes and ears open. It came as no surprise to him that each member of the team had put him in the crosshairs--that was what he wanted. It was the best way to gauge their skills...and his own when compared to theirs. With his attention on the scanners, he did not miss the strong signal that suddenly appeared in their vicinity. Studying the readouts, he frowned when he saw that there was no way the signal was one of the Lions. His frown deepened when he realized exactly what it was.

"What is that?" he heard Hunk ask.

"I think it's a Ro-Beast," Keith said grimly and began typing. "Everyone go to these coordinates and keep out of the Ro-Beast's view."

The five Lions converged at his coordinates.

"Info, Pidge?" Keith inquired.

"Too big for us to take in this form," Pidge replied. "He's over two-hundred meters tall and about two-thousand tons."

"That's a big boy," Lance mumbled.

"I think it's time we practice using Voltron," Sven said.

"Some practice," Hunk said.

"We'll get the most out of destroying this Ro-Beast," Keith said. "Ready, team?"

"You bet," Lance said, excitement in his tone.

"As ready as we'll ever be," Sven said, more reserved than his friend.

"Are you sure about this?" Pidge asked worriedly.

"Very sure, Pidge," Keith said. "Let's form Voltron! Activate interlocks...dynotherms connected...infracells up...megathrusters are go..."

At his words, the Lions fell into formation. Keith talked them through it even though his hands trembled as he gripped the controls. The principles of forming Voltron were as familiar to him as the back of his own hand, but he knew as well as the next person that knowing how to do something could be very different from doing them--often with harsh consequences. He hoped this would not be the case today. As the Lions locked together smoothly, he let out the breath he'd been holding.

With a final metallic boom, Volton was formed. The robot swung his sword through the air before it disappeared into the Red Lion's mouth.

"Ready to face big, bad, and ugly?" Keith asked them, a battle gleam in his eyes.

"Lead the way," Hunk said.

Taking the main controls, Keith flew the robot towards the signal, still visible on his scanners although they were nearly a whole continent away. He readied the lasers as they neared the Ro-Beast, his mind whirling with battle strategies and how Voltron's capabilities would match up against the brute force of a Ro-Beast.

Hagar's creation was a ghastly monstrosity with horns, red-rimmed purple eyes, and a dark brown color that helped it blend in with Daordian's landscape. It had a huge tail that it swung back and forth, and had they been outside, they would have heard the whoosh of air as it did so. The Black's sensors did make a note of the crackling electricity and Keith had a feeling getting hit by that tail was going to hurt a whole lot. The robot and the Ro-Beast circled each other warily. A laser blast came out of the beast's eyes. Voltron jumped out of the way.

"Lion torches," Keith ordered.

An explosion of fire erupted from the Red Lion's mouth, hitting the Ro-Beast in the chest.

"Red Lion is the perfect one for Lance," Pidge said. "They're both full of hot air!"

"When this is over, we're going to go one on one, Squirt," Lance said.

"Concentrate, guys," Keith said.

The Ro-Beast let out a roar and ran head-long into Voltron. Keith slammed the thrusters and Voltron shot up into the sky, throwing two spinning laser blades behind him. They lodged into the Ro-Beast's back and detonated within seconds. Before Keith could move, the Ro-Beast's tail reached out and wrapped itself around Voltron. An electric shock ran through the robot and into them.

"Keith!"

Allura's face appeared on the lower right-hand corner of the viewscreen. Keith gritted his teeth.

"Not now, Princess," he said curtly. "We're kinda busy..." He turned to his team. "Blue Lion, ice rays!"

Ice encased the Ro-Beast's tail as it unleashed another electric blast. Electric rays surrounded the Ro-Beast and it began to smoke. It bared its teeth and sank it into the Yellow Lion. Hunk let out a yell.

"Green Lion, solar wind!" Keith yelled. "Red Lion, lion torches!"

A whirlwind came out of the Green's mouth the same time a fiery burst came from the Red. Together, they hit the Ro-Beast with full force. It faltered and waved its arms, trying to stop the superheated wind from coming any closer. They could see that it was burned badly.

"Form the blazing sword," Allura said. "Hurry!"

"Form blazing sword!" Keith cried.

The long blade gleamed between the mouths of the Green and Red. Voltron swung it downward and cut the Ro-Beast in half. Keith laughed as he heard his team as well as everyone in main whoop for joy. He and Allura exchanged a glance. She smiled at him and he smiled back.

"Nice job, Commander," she said.

"Thank you, Princess."

"Now, get back here. I think we have some Zarkon butt to kick."