A/N: This is rewrite of season two which consists of basically taking the bulk of season two and tweaking most if not all of the elements and completely rewriting certain aspects of it. The last thing I want is for this fic to be a disappointment to those who, like me, were already disappointed with season 2 in many ways.

This fic is an attempt to write season two the way I would have done it, developing all the characters and their relationships in a way that is perhaps unrealistic to expect of a TV show, but I digress. Although I am developing all of the Voltron team (especially Lance and Hunk, since they got the least screen of the Paladins this season) there will be a heavier focus on Shiro and Allura than perhaps the rest given the sheer amount of unexplored potential between the two and the rest of the team in season two, however I hope to give everyone about the same amount of page time. I am still learning how to write everyone else, so if you have any tips for how to write a certain character/relationship, please let me know, I'd love to hear them.

I'll preface this by saying right now the fic will be more Shallura than Klance centric due to the narrative arc I'm developing, my comfort level with characterization, and personal preference. That being said, all relationships between the characters will be explored and developed, and none shall be romantic aside from the two previously mentioned.

Above all else, I hope you enjoy this story as much as I have enjoyed writing it thus far, and I'd LOVE to hear your thoughts.

Now, without further ado: go to 1x11 of Voltron: Legendary Defender, "The Black Paladin", and come back once you get to the end.

THE SPACE BETWEEN STARS

CHAPTER ONE: Across the Universe (I)

Allura had never felt so helpless in her entire life. Discounting the 10,000 years in the cryo-pod, she had never been forced to watch all her hopes shatter and spin madly out of control right before her eyes. The fall of Altea had been destruction but with a rising, desperate hope swelling in her chest. She and her father had the Lions; they could still win this.

They could still win this.

She forced herself not to yell as the Paladins fell into the current of the wormhole, washing over them ocean waves, tangling up their tails and heads, metal panes rattling as their screams echoed over the commlink. Shiro's, loud and raw, mingled with the pain of the injury Haggar had given him, was worst of all, ringing in her ears long after it had stopped and the blaring of the castle alarms took its place. Red lights flashed as the control panel blocked her at every opportunity.

"They've vanished in the temporal rift!" she cried, her panic getting the better of her for a moment. "The Lions are gone!"

"Let's check the rift-exiting positioning monitor," said Coran, his fingers flying across his keyboard as fast as her heart was pounding, "to see where this wormhole is taking us."

"Coran look! There appears to be something on the other end. We're heading right toward it." Her shoulders hunched over slightly when the next realization set in, bracing her legs to keep herself steady.

"Scanners show there's no exit. It's just nothingness. Find an exit before we run smack into the void."

"I can't. I've lost control of the Castle." Angry red signs blared up at her against Altean blue, and her heart sank. There was no way out.

"Brace yourself―we're about to hit it!"

Or was there?

Allura's gaze dropped to the pillars holding up the steering mechanism, and she dropped to her knees, the impact sending a painful shudder up the rest of her body. She ignored it, fingers scrabbling for the panelling covering the steering. Her nails found a crack and she wrenched the panel open, tossing the metal away and not caring to see where it landed. Buttons with Altean lettering stared back at her, dusty and almost covered in grime except for the faint blue pulse.

"Allura?" came Coran's confused voice.

She didn't look up as she pressed in a code, the one her father said would always work: her birthday. The keys glowed a pure white once she was done, and lettering flashed across the screen: System override. Manual steering activated.

She placed her palms back on the steering mechanism, and rolled the axis under her palm; the Castle made a sharp swerve, and for a moment, she dared let herself hope they'd join their Paladins somewhere, scattered across the universe.

Of course, she could never be that lucky. It was too late as the bow of the castle hit the spiralling current Haggar had conjured up, their side slamming into the void. She wielded her eyes shut as the very bones of the Castle shook, and prayed she wouldn't be like Hunk and throw up whatever was left in her stomach.

The Castle tilted and she nearly fell, as blinding darkness enveloped the Castle―her existence―and then, light.

Hunk landed first. His Lion dropped and rolled three times over, skidding to a halt and staying still for a moment, long enough for him to see he had come to the edge of a rocky cliff with a long drop below, once he got his bearings.

The Yellow Paladin to let out a well-deserved sigh of relief, before Lance and Pidge smashed into him, one after the other. The three Paladins screamed as their Lions dropped off the cliff into another chaotic fall.

"C'mon girl," Pidge hissed, yanking at her controls. The Green Lion didn't budge, tumbling ceaselessly through the sky, slamming into and then bouncing off a rocky ledge.

"Blue's not listening at all," said Lance.

They fell a good 10 feet, reminding Hunk all too much of the caverns in the Balmera, with the length of the fall, but this time it was all too easy to scream until his Lion crash-landed with a sickening crunch on cold, hard earth. His neck hit the back of his seat, and cringing from whip-lash, Hunk slowly unbuckled himself from his seat and made his out to his Lion's maw, stepping out onto the strange new planet they had landed on.

It didn't look all different from Earth, with flat, sand coloured rocks and cliffs and thin ledges. They hadn't landed in a cavern, and over the rolling, dry landscape, he could see a town glimmering in the distance made up of bright red buildings. The sun wasn't glaring, but the air was still humid and making the back of his neck turn sticky.

He turned away towards Blue as the Lion's mouth opened and Lance stumbled out. Hunk quickly caught him and his best friend gave him a grateful smile.

"Thanks buddy."

He straightened up once Pidge joined them, cautiously taking off her helmet. Her hair turned poofier than usual in the humid air.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"Dunno," said Hunk. "But there seems to be a town… The Lions seem too banged up, so I guess we should walk?"

Lance shrugged. "Guess so. Maybe we can get some help in repairing our Lions?"

Hunk glanced back at his. "I probably could if I had the parts, but honestly, I think they just need some time to rest."

"Does that mean we get to rest too?" Lance asked hopefully.

Pidge rolled her eyes. "No."

The Blue Paladin let out a whine, but followed his friends as they started over the small hill, and down towards the town. They crossed over a thin, drying stream that was more caked mud than water and flat plains of rock with some boulders lying around that had perhaps come off of the cliff decades ago.

They walked in silence, as there wasn't much to say. Talking about the grumbling of their stomachs would only make the hunger pains even worse, although Hunk wasn't sure that was entirely possible. Talking about what could have happened to the others was painful in a whole other way, since they had no clue. Hunk knew they were lucky to have wound up together―the Garrison trio, together again, just like they had been at the start of this adventure. He imagined what he would have done, already reluctant to sneak up to the roof, to break Shiro out of Garrison's clutches, if he had known what it would lead to. That it would lead to this.

Would he had have turned and run? Hunk didn't know. But he knew he wasn't running now. Zarkon had enslaved hundreds of thousands of planets just like the Balmera, just like Shay and her people. He had destroyed planets in the same way he had destroyed Altea.

They had to stop him. And they would somehow, Hunk thought, trying to think on the positive side for once. Once they got the team back together.

If they got the team back together. Who knew where the others were? They could be thousands of galaxies away.

At least he had Lance with him. He and Lance had hardly been apart since they met when they were eight years old, and he didn't know he would do without his best friend.

The sun set far faster than their progress, and it was a relief when the air turned cooler, cloaking them in night.

Until they saw bright yellow eyes―dozens of them, all in pairs, more popping up with every blink―glowing in the gloomy darkness.

"Um guys," said Lance nervously. "We've got company."

In hindsight, sitting slumped against a rock while his wound pulsed painfully with every breath, Shiro supposed it was nothing short of a miracle he had managed to haul himself out of the Black Lion in the first place. Then again, the fact he had survived this long was miraculous anyway. Or maybe that was too graceful a word for the brutality he had been forced to show back in the arena, the monster he had had to become to keep himself alive.

Do you really think a monster like you could be a Voltron Paladin?

Zarkon's connection with the Black Lion had overpowered his. Sendak had been right, Shiro realized dully. Pain overshadowed everything else. But if he was a monster, then wasn't Zarkon worse? What was the truth? Where was the line he still hadn't crossed?

Static crackled across his commlink, and then Keith's panicked voice, "Shiro? Shiro can you hear me?"

His temple throbbed as Shiro pushed himself into more of a sitting position. "Keith?" More static. "Keith I'm here. Where are you?"

There was a horrifying moment of ear-grating static, and then Keith's voice broke through the noise, sounding out of breath but not pained. "I don't know, not far I think. Where are you? Are you okay?"

"Takes a lot more than a glowing purple wound and a fall from the upper atmosphere crashing into a surface at what I guess is about 20 meters per second to get rid of me. How are you?" He could practically picture the flat, dry-eyed stare on the other side of the commlink, and sighed. "It looks like I'm in some kind of canyon, I'm a few ledges above from where my Lion crashed."

Keith's voice brightened, "I think I can get a reading on your Lion. Sit tight, Shiro, I'm coming."

"I can't exactly go anywhere," Shiro muttered under his breath, yet there was a sense of relief in knowing that not only was Keith unharmed, the kid wasn't alone―Shiro wasn't alone―and that they could figure things out together. He pried his hand away from his side, grimacing when he saw the purple gashes glow, like demonic claw marks.

He didn't know what that witch Haggar had done to him, but he hoped it was nothing the cryopods couldn't fix. Nothing could be worse than the hunk of Galra metal that was currently his arm, could it?

Then he heard the low growling, and his heart sank when he saw creatures with low slung bodies and sloping backs, scrunched up snouts sniffing over the Black Lion.

The universe just loved proving him wrong, didn't it?

"Actually, Keith," he spoke into the commlink, trying not to sound too urgent. The last thing he wanted was to make Keith freak out and lose his focus. The boy already had a problem with being patient after all, after charging into a one-on-one battle with Zarkon that was all too clear. "You better hurry."

Choking back a cough, Shiro forced himself to his feet. He'd be useless to the team if he was dead, and he had survived much worse than this, hadn't he? Faint memories told him he had in the arena, the loss of his arm, but they were fuzzy as best. Keith's panicked breathing (oh, great) crackled through the static lines of their commlink.

Pidge dove behind Lance as the aliens came into light: owlish eyes peered back at her, framed by long, almost feathery lashes. The rest of the aliens were garbed in thick brown feathers around their necks and elbows, the rest hidden by swaths of white cloth. The rest of their skin appeared to be smooth and unblemished, a deep rich brown. Tall, wide black or brown wings arched out their backs.

One with greying feathers and choppy black hair stepped forward, and let out a shrill, loud hoot, almost like a scream. "You! You're Paladins of Voltron! You must have seen our distress beacon!"

"Distress beacon?" Hunk repeated uncertainly.

Pidge emerged from behind Lance, her brow furrowing. "Wait, you know who we are?"

He let out a derisive snort, throwing out his arms in a gesture towards the aliens. "Don't be stupid Pidge, of course they know who we are! I'm Lance, the Blue Paladin, and currently looking for a Mrs. Blue if―" Pidge elbowed him in the stomach. "Ow!"

Hunk took a step forward. "The Galra are here?"

"In our atmosphere, yes. They have not landed but it is only a matter of time, and our greatest warriors we're all captured, except for one. I am Adelina, the Chief of the Winged Ones. The Blue Paladin is Lance. Who are you, strong one?"

He placed a hand on his chest. "I'm Hunk, and this is Pidge. We were separated from the rest of the Paladins, our Lions are recuperating now―that's actually why we came here, to see if―" The word help got lodged in his throat when he saw the desperate hope shining in the Winged Ones eyes. "If we could start helping you with this problem, I mean, we knew you had some kind of problem, and―"

"Oh, thank you Paladins. Let us take you to our village, we can offer you hospitality, and whatever you need to beat the Galra!"

Hunk, Pidge and Lance exchanged wide, uneasy smiles once Adelina's back was turned, leading them and the rest of her squadron back towards their home. Up close, the town looked quite different, with tall buildings and hardly any stairs, glittering lights among the yellow eyes glowing in the darkness. Birds that resembled owls with rainbow coloured feathers were perched on every window sill and building top, with specially made bird houses for them.

The rest of the Winged Ones dispersed, sans Adelina, who never strayed from her path as she led them further into the town. Faces peered down from tall buildings, a slight warm breeze picking up in the air around them and from the beat of their wings. Something that smelled like veggie stew wafted from the open windows of almost every building, and Pidge's stomach gurgled; she hadn't realized quite how hungry she was until that very moment.

"Our greatest warrior will see you now," said Adelina, stopping in front of an open roof hut with a canopy strewn over as a makeshift ceiling. There was a blue curtain draped over the doorway. "Once you're finished speaking, we'll arrange for some nourishment."

"Are ya sure that nourishment will be edible?" Lance whispered to Hunk.

Before he could respond, Pidge said, "Let's go meet this warrior person. Maybe they can help us." And she moved past the two boys and pushed away the curtain, Lance and Hunk flanking her as they entered the hut.

It was dimly lit with candles framing the circular shape, along the edges of the wall. Sitting in the centre of a room was a woman with short, choppy black hair that curled around her chin, and wide, arching black wings―the biggest ones Pidge had seen so far―the tips brushing the ceiling.

"We were sent by your Chief," said Lance. "Um, you are the greatest warrior right?"

The wings stirred as the woman got to her feet, golden eyes against rich warm skin when she turned around to face them. Her eyes were so intense―burning and defiant and angry―it almost made Pidge take a step back into Hunk's stomach.

"My name is Elyta." Her voice was as sharp as the knife clipped to her side, the blade running along to her knee. Another sword in its scabbard was resting on her other hip. "The Galra took my family. We are going to get them back."

The Castle of Lions shuddered and stopped, upturning some sort of heavy substance. Allura tightly gripped the pillars of the steering mechanism to keep from being thrown into the wall, the metal bending under her tight grip. Coran had fallen out of his chair but seemed unharmed as red lights flashed, and then the power went dead, enveloping them in blurry darkness.

She coughed into her arm, tentatively raising her head and squinting in the dark. The markings next to her eyes glowed. "C-Coran?"

"I'm alright princess," he wheezed, somewhere underneath a circuit board. "Are you―"

"We've stopped, somewhere," said Allura, looking at the windows. One had a large fracture running down the middle, and half of the windows were smeared with mud. Slivers of bright lilac peeked through the grime. "Somewhere with a lilac sky―?" It looked familiar, that shade of purple. A lump formed in her throat. Painfully familiar.

"Seems like it." Coran pulled himself to his feet. "Hopefully there's civilization nearby, we'll have to fix parts of the Castle." He staggered over to her and helped her to her feet, and they stumbled to the door together, leaning on each other.

Allura stepped away from him when the door didn't automatically open for them, and ripped the door apart with her bare hands, folding each metal piece in half and tossing them in front of her. They banged off the walls as she and Coran stepped into the hallways, before going still, and she gave each door the same treatment until they were at the exit of the Castle. The elevator wouldn't lower, but the Castle had landed on its side, so she was confident they could both make the jump with perhaps a bit of shapeshifting and extra height.

Her knees nearly buckled when her feet hit the dirt, feeling a little dizzy. Spending three days in a Galra prison with no food or water and then engaging in a space battle probably wasn't the best idea, but she didn't have much of a choice these days. Closing her eyes and waiting for her head to stop spinning, Allura let herself shrink back to her original height.

Coran landed neatly beside her and did the same thing. "Well, let's see where we are, shall we? We'll need some help getting the Castle aligned properly with the engines."

The Castle was endurable, but with half of it caked in mud and one engine fizzing in a watery puddle of mud, it wasn't going anywhere until they got it straightened out and standing tall for takeoff.

As for where they were...

The mud gave way to a water-logged grassy meadow, which stretched for miles and miles with the lilac sky and sun casting a warm glow. Rocks the size of hail were in clusters along the riverbed and everywhere else, slowly sinking into the mud. Beyond the meadow were tall buildings made of cream coloured marble, too far away to really make out. Just below, at the tip of Allura's vision, the very edges of the meadow miles away, were dots of pink, hundreds of them, bleeding into each other.

"Are those..." She staggered closer, gulping down a breath of fresh air."Are those juniberries?" If she was right―stars above, how could she be right? How was this possible? The mud under her shoes was real, the crash was real, but this...this couldn't be real. Everything ached.

Coran turned in a circle, staring wide eyed at everything before tears started spilling down his cheeks. "Allura. I think we're on Altea."