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"Lionesses and Their Cubs"
Allura stared in shock. There on the training deck were the robot lions, but they appeared as real lionesses, and the Paladins, but they appeared as lion cubs. It was easy to see who was who. The lionesses were the same color as their mechanical selves, and the Paladins matched their lion. However, there were some defining characteristics each Paladin retained.
Shiro was black, still had the scar over his nose, the metal arm (though now it was his front right paw), kept his grey eyes, and had his white floof. Keith was red, had his purple eyes and his tuft of hair was black. Lance was blue, had his blue eyes, and his tuft was brown. Pidge was green with light green fur around her brown eyes, and she had no tuft. Hunk was yellow, had his brown eyes, and his tuft was dark brown. Each Paladin's tail had a tuft of hair at the end. Shiro's and Keith's were black, Lance's was brown, Pidge's was a lighter brown, and Hunk's was a dark brown. Shiro was the largest of the cubs with Hunk and Lance behind him, leaving Keith and Pidge as the smallest.
Allura rubbed her eyes as if she thought she was seeing things. The scene before her didn't change. Suddenly, a growl drew her attention as Lance pounced on Keith, and the two cubs were sent tumbling. Obviously, Keith didn't want to play with Lance as he whimpered. Red Lion swiftly extracted Keith from the pile (by his scruff) and tucked him between her paws, licking his head gently. Lance sat up and cocked his head, staring at his rival/team mate in confusion, until Blue came over and gently nuzzled Lance. Once the blue cub was sufficiently calmed, Blue picked him up by the scruff and carried him over to Allura. Blue gently placed Lance in her arms, and Lance proceeded to rub his cheek against the princess's. "What happened?"
The princess's voice caught everyone's attention. The rest of the Paladins immediately bounded over to her with their lions following at a much more subdued pace. She scooped up the rest of her Paladins, settling them in her arms. However, it was a tight fit. Hunk took the opportunity to wriggle himself free and jump onto her left shoulder, prompting Pidge to do the same with her right shoulder and leaving Shiro, Keith, and Lance to dangle in her arms. Shiro looked slightly disgruntled at his back feet not being supported as Keith and Lance glared at each other.
"Please be careful with my cub!" a voice startled Allura.
She looked around until she saw Red looking at her. "Red, was that you?"
"Yes. Be careful with my cub."
Allura gently placed all of the cubs down, only for Lance to jump back into her arms, satisfied to have her all to himself. Allura petted Lance and asked, "What happened to them?"
"We're not entirely certain. We could feel something going on through our bonds, which allowed us to transform into these forms," Black replied. "We were able to locate our Paladins easily enough. We brought them here, so it would be easier to watch over them, and they would have a lot of room to move."
Allura surveyed the other Paladins as they interacted with their lion. Hunk was trying to pounce on Yellow's constantly moving tail, Shiro was sitting beside Black looking up at her, Pidge was draped over Green's back with her tail swishing back and forth, and Keith was sitting between Red's paws, where she had tucked him when Allura set them down. "Is there a reason Red is so protective over Keith?"
"He is my cub; always has been and always will be, and now he looks the part," was Red's reply.
"Can they talk?"
"Yes. We can each hear our particular Paladin but not each other's," Blue responded. "Lance, come here please."
"But, Blue-" Lance lifted his head and looked at his lion.
"None of that, Lancey Lance."
"Yes, Blue." Lance rubbed his cheek against Allura's again before nimbly leaping to the floor.
"Black, can I go talk to Keith?" Shiro asked.
"Can you cubs understand each other?"
"I don't know, but I can tell something's not right. Maybe he knows why?"
"Let us both go over. Maybe I can still understand him. If nothing else, Red and I can translate for you two." Black and Shiro stood up and walked over to Red and Keith.
Shiro approached the red cub. "Keith, can you understand me?"
"Shiro!" Keith darted out from between Red's paws and tucked himself under his friend's chin.
"It's okay, Keith. I'm sure we can think of something to reverse this. That's what Pidge is doing." Shiro gestured at the green cub, who had a faraway look in her eyes, with his tail.
"I don't want to be stuck like this," Keith whispered. Red ducked her head and gently licked Keith's head.
"It'll be okay, cub. Why don't you and Shiro go play?"
Keith looked up at Shiro. "Do you want to?"
"If you want to, Keith."
Keith and Shiro stepped away from their lions before Keith tackled Shiro. The two cubs tousled and tumbled with each other, Shiro making sure that he didn't hurt the other cub. Their playing caught Lance's attention, and he whined at Blue.
Blue nuzzled Lance. "What's wrong, Lancey Lance?"
"Why didn't Keith want to play with me, but he's willing to play with Shiro?"
"I don't know. Perhaps he thought you were actually fighting and not playing?"
Lance whined again. "I don't want to fight him. I thought we were friends with a competitive streak."
"Maybe you need to ask him instead of just tackling him."
"Okay." Lance walked over to where Shiro and Keith were tumbling and waited until they were done.
Red was standing nearby and looked at Lance sitting by himself near the two playing cubs. She walked over and laid down near him. "Lance, can you understand me?"
Lance looked up at Red. "Red?"
"What's wrong, little cub?" Red started grooming the little blue cub.
"I wanted to play with Keith, but he didn't seem like he wanted to. Now, he's playing with Shiro."
Red realized that Lance hadn't been trying to start a fight like Keith had thought. She stopped grooming Lance and picked him up by the scruff and deposited him in the middle between Shiro and Keith, both of whom had paused to catch their breath.
Keith cocked his head in slight confusion. "Lance? Red?"
Red gently nudged Lance forward with her tail. "I'm sorry about earlier, Keith. I wasn't trying to fight."
"You weren't?"
"No. I was wanting to play. Can we?"
Keith perked up. "I'd love to. Shiro, do you want to join us?"
"Sure." Shiro bounded closer to the other two cubs and carefully tackled them.
Black, Red, and Blue were watching their cubs play. Red was nervous about her cub getting hurt, because he was so much smaller than the other two. Blue was more relaxed once Lance was drawn into the group. Black was a little worried about why all of the Paladins were cubs and hoped the Green Paladin could come up with a solution.
Fin