TThe explosion was nearly as bright as the antiquated nuclear weapons used for tests during a conflict that happened nearly 150 years ago called the Cold War if not brighter. Temporarily frying the polarized filters in the cockpits of the lions, causing the paladins to go blind. Not that becoming blind would matter…

The explosion was bright enough that it looked as if it were a second sun. Not even seconds later it slammed into the lions with enough force it was a surprise that they weren't destroyed. Slamming into the black lion the hardest, having supported the body and the other lions supporting the limbs. But there were no screams over the comms, it was as if they accepted their inevitable fate.

In the cockpit of the Black Lion, being hit the hardest, Keith was instantaneously thrown into the console in front of him causing him to scream out blindly from some of his ribs breaking before collapsing back into his chair. Almost as if sensing the imminent danger to his paladin the chair magnetized holding Keith to it before everything went offline. He tried calling out to the paladins over his helmet but all he heard was static.

He desperately grabbed the controls to do something… anything but they were locked up like the time Voltron was hit by the Komar. The lion was violently rocked again from hitting Earth's atmosphere during reentry causing the magnetic locks to nearly completely fail to cause him to slam the visor of his helmet into the same console he broke his ribs on. He screamed in pain again as his head started to ring from the impact and blood slowly trickled down his face from his broken visor.

Being closest to Black, Blue nearly suffered the same fate from the explosion, had she not been vaguely shielded from Black's wings. Instead, Blue was slammed with enough force to cause the Princess to get whiplash from the violent motions. Seconds later sensing danger to her Paladin Blue magnetized Allura's seat even her helmet to keep her from doing any serious damage to her neck.

She remembered something Lance said nearly 4 years ago about Water helping Blue recharge. She just managed to type in the coordinates she wanted just before Blue slammed into the atmosphere. SHe grunted in pain trying to keep her calm in the face of certain death, holding on to the controls. Manhandling them trying to keep Blue straight. It was only when Blue started barrel rolling that her resolve started to crack.

Inside the Yellow Lion, Hunk was surprisingly fairing better than the rest of the team in terms of plummeting down to Earth. Due to the extra armor, Yellow had he could still manage to fight the effects of the explosion hurtling his Lion back to Earth. His console in front of him arched streams of blue energy, prompting him to protect his face.

Being the heaviest of the Lions Yellow slammed hard into the atmosphere. Inside the cockpit due to the impact with the atmosphere Hunk slammed his arms into the console and his head into his arms cutting it open while also giving himself a concussion. When the Lion started to tail spine adding insult to injury Hunk felt his stomach churning violently. Through the lulling ringing of his concussion and the effects of G-Forces he grabbed his controls and started fighting with them to get control again, yelling.

Pidge, being the smallest of the Paladins struggled against the Magnetic locks holding her in place. Her lion's display flickered off and on as she plummeted towards the atmosphere. She grabbed her controls the best she could but only one responded. She typed some buttons on the console to her left.

She pulled up the Head-Missile and tried to launch as a sort of escape pod, but the systems were jammed. She frantically typed other commands on her consoles but nothing was working. Tears started flowing from her eyes as everything she thought of just wouldn't work mathematically or was 30 seconds from burning up on reentry or minutes away from crashing head first into the ground. She heard a faint rumble in the back of her head and with what little power her lion had put it in "Form Voltron mode" reducing the surface of the lion praying it would work.

Inside the Red Lion, Lance was having troubles holding her together. The shockwave not only damaged many critical systems to Red, due to her lack of armor for the sacrifice of speed and maneuverability but Lance hadn't gone unscathed. In the violent shaking and rocking, he bit his lip open but also broke an arm from flailing about.

But like Black, Red magnetized her seat to protect her paladin's torso from the shockwave. He grunted against the pain grabbing both controls. He had to position her for reentry. He called out to Allura - nothing, Keith - he heard briefly a blood-curdling scream of pain before his coms went down, Pidge - static, Hunk - garbled transmissions of him saying something. Before succumbing to G-Forces upon reentry his last thought to himself was to find a soft landing.

On Earth Atlas was in the process of powering back up to revert to its Battleship form when the sonic booms of the lions reentering the atmosphere were recorded on sensors. Shiro tried contacting the Lions but all he got was static. He tried again still static before the realization hit him, they were all free falling to Earth. The only thing the Bridge-Crew could do was watch in horror as the lions fell.

Due to the limited power returning sensors were limited to a 50-mile radius around Atlas. He ordered the sensor officer to track their trajectory and plot estimated crash sites. He as ordered the MFEs ready to launch with Medics in tow with them. They were to follow the lions when they got out of sensor ranger and render any necessary aide to the Paladins.

In the hanger bay, the MFE-Pilots and medics received their orders. Each itching to take off as the hanger doors were forcibly opened manually. But the manual override to the hanger dors was too slow. Just as the first MFE left the hanger the lions had all crashed.

Red slammed into a surprisingly intact flat surface on the outskirts of Platt City near what looked like refinery drums. She slammed so hard that Lance broke his arm when it slammed into his console to his right. With the crash over, the magnetic lock released Lance from its vice-like grip on the Paladin. With the artificial gravity system offline Lance fell and to add insult to injury dislocated the shoulder to the very arm he broke.

Blue had slashed down, nice and softly into the Gulf of Mexico. Like on the Mermaid Planet all her systems were down as she sank deeper and deeper into the Gulf. Her Paladin unconscious from the impact had a pain where bruises would later appear shooting through her. Blue's hull groaned from the stress of the explosion and the water as she came to a stop on her side.

Just barely surviving reentry Green used the last ounce of her energy to revert from her arm stage to her lion stage. She also managed to roll over as to have her back shield take the initial impact. Green crashed into the forest of Yosemite National Park just barely missing El Capitan. Alarms of various system failures blared in Pidge's cockpit, but she was already unconscious from the G-Forces wreaking havoc on her small frame.

Yellow nearly collided with the Galra base but the impact and close proximity did irrevocable damage to the base causing able prisoners to flee. Nearly all of them fled except for a shocked and growing crowd surrounding two, who stared at the massive lion in fear. Fear of the occupant, one they dreamt of holding in their arms again didn't make it. Not knowing he had fared better than his friends, only slammed his head into a console Leaving just Black…

His body was screaming in pain at him, blood trickling down his cut face as he struggled. Struggled to gain some control of his lion. Struggled against the pain in his ribs laying an arm against them as if it was all that was holding them together. Struggled to stay awake as the ringing from his concussion got louder.

Consoles erupted in sparks causing him to wince and move his head away from exploding consoles. The sounds of alarms could be heard, causing his head to hurt even more. Just by closing his eyes to protect his slowly recovering eyesight started him to become drowsy. He heard a faint-weak whisper from his lion pleading with him to stay awake, he had to stay awake.

Through his hazy sight, he saw the shack that was once part of the house his father and mother owned when he was a baby. Coming to terms, he thought to himself "how fitting… my path started here, now it is going to end," he smiled through the physical pain. He thought of his mother, his wolf, his mentor Kolivan who was thankfully harsher on him than his brother Shiro ever was, and her... one last time. Groaning through the pain in his throat, "Well dad, guess I'll be seeing you shortly. We can finally get to catch up." Closing his eyes just before Black slammed into the ground head first.

Romelle was sitting in a room set aside for Keith. She was humming softly leaning against a wall petting the wolf everyone started calling Cosmo. He had settled down surprisingly during the battle with that Hammerhead Robeasts. Romelle commented "it must be nice to be that calm" as she continued to stroke the wolf's fur. But the wolf raised his head looking around the strange room for something and started to whine.