Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Shiro, still inside the pod, reminded Lance vaguely of mortality. Their fearless former leader was now pale and weak-looking within the pod, and it made Lance feel... ill at ease.

He couldn’t talk to them. He had so many words to say, but none of them would come out of his mouth.

Not after seeing their faces again. It had only been a full quintant. Lance hadn’t said more than a few words.

He was leaning against the wall about three feet back from the others, silently staring at Shiro. He kept to a light tension to his limbs, feeling oddly calm, for the whole situation.

“Is... Is he gonna be ok?” Hunk asked softly, eyes tracing over Shiro’s limp form.

Allura sighed, almost delicately. “Only time will tell if this body will accept Shiro’s consciousness.” She murmured.

By Lance’s side, Ascua stayed against his leg, silently waiting. After th.e events on Creemin, he had found himself teaching her, when to move and when to strike.

When to stay by his side.

“Is there anything we can do to help?” Lance questioned from the side. He kept his voice quiet. Serious.

Pidge gave him an odd look. “I’ve tried contacting the Voltron Coalition, but I can’t seem to get through to anyone. It doesn’t make any sense.” She paused, still typing on her screen. “There might be some distortion I’m not picking up on.” She sighed. “...Maybe we need to get into the upper atmosphere for a better signal?”

Hunk glanced toward her. “The Lions aren’t going anywhere without recharging their power cores.”

“The battle with Lotor severely depleted them.” Allura confirmed, regretfully. “If we had the Castle of Lions we could recharge them, but...

Red’s not as bad. Lance tried to say as everyone fell silent. Red was tired, he could feel it, but she wasn’t... awful. Not as bad as her sisters and brothers, who stared at her like she was alien to them.

He couldn’t get the words out.

“Is there another way to recharge them?” Pidge inquired, looking around.

“They can recharge naturally, given enough time and ambient energy,” Coran reassured. “but that could take phoebs.”

Lance settled a bit more against the wall, listening.

“There’s got to be something we can do.” Keith said softly, worried.

Coran turned toward the black Paladin. “We are on the Dalterian Belt, home to the element faunatonium.” He said. “We may be able to use it as a temporary solution.”

The name clicked somewhere in Lance’s brain. Br’tova had said it to one of his workers at one point. “...Wait, the... energy spreading stuff?” Lance asked.

“Not far off!” Coran grinned. “We’re going to use the element to expand the energy particles within the cores. But first, we need a yalmor.” He paused. “Wait, Lance, how do you know about-“

“Not important.” Lance cut him off. “What do we need the yalmors for?”

“Wait, wait wait, there are yalmors on this planet?” Hunk asked, after glancing at Lance in confusion.

Coran laughed. “Well, how do you think we find the faunatonium? Those yalmors have a nose for the stuff!”

“Ok.” Keith nodded, finally pulling his eyes off Shiro, and turning to Lance in mild concern, but also curiosity. “You guys find a yalmor and get this faunatonium stuff. I’ll stay with Shiro.” He said softly, glancing back at his brother.

Lance nodded to Keith. He was worried about his friend. Shiro and Keith had a strong relationship, brothers, and now? One of them was dying.

“...I’ll stay as well.” Allura said softly. “I may have exhausted the limits of what I learned on Oriande, but, I still might be able to help in some way.”

“Alright then.” Coran nodded. “We’ll get started.”

Staring at the floor, Lance wasn’t paying attention until Hunk called him.

“Lance, are you coming?” The yellow Paladin asked.

“Hm? Oh yeah, I’m coming.” He nodded. “Ascua.” And a whistle, and the cat was back on his shoulder, tail looping behind his neck.

They were stopped by the mysterious new Altean, Romelle, speaking. “Wait. You just fought Lotor, learned one of your teammates you thought was dead is alive, defeated him, stopped an explosion that could have destroyed reality, took your friend’s consciousness from the black Lion of Voltron, and put it inside his clone, and now we’re simply moving on?”

Lance sighed, and didn’t bother to stay for that conversation. He still didn’t know Romelle. He didn’t even know where the hell she came from.

Nobody had exactly explained this to him yet, so he simply slid past Hunk and outside.

Lance stepped from Black, gently patting the big guy on the jaw as he headed into the sun.

Then he looped around, cut across, and went to Red, laying on her side like some sort of glorified housecat. “Hey girl.” He murmured, gently reaching up to convince her down. She did so, letting Lance pet her nose. “...Is everyone still afraid of you?”

She chuffed, tail lifting up and slapping back down to the ground. Yes.

“The paint is still cool.” Lance informed with a soft smile. The rumble that rang through the ground as Lance pressed his forehead to her nose told him that was the right thing to say. “...I’m going searching for yalmors with the others. Everyone else’s core is really low.” He murmured, soft enough that nobody creeping up would hear him. “I know you’re tired, but I won’t be here. So if anything happens, can you make sure that Keith, Allura... everyone, stays safe?” He asked.

Wind blew around him as her thrusters fired just slightly, enough to whip his hair up. Of course.

“...thanks, girl.” He smiled softly, then turned around and met up with the group as they were heading past, taking a neat diagonal guard position, slightly behind the group.

The planet’s pink trees and bright foliage were nothing like Dirmon, but it was lovely in it’s own way. Now though, every inch of Lance was on edge, on guard, ready for a fight.

He didn’t like how everyone spread out, forcing him to take a central, high-ground spot to keep an eye on them all. He didn’t trust planets anymore.

Coran smelled a plant, then sneezed. Lance nearly jumped out of his skin at the noise, hand tightening on the handle of his Shin’shi. He hadn’t let go of it since entering this hellish forest.

“This looks like a yalmor patch.” The older Altean noted, considering some of the flowers. When he took a lick of a flower, Lance wrinkled his nose. “Yep, yalmors definitely sprayed here.” He confirmed.

Everyone groaned at that.

When there was a horrific screeching noise, Lance felt everything tighten up. It took him a second to realize that it was Coran screaming, and not out of pain.

“Puta...” He hissed through gritted teeth. Hunk gave him a weird glance, but said nothing.

Whatever noise Coran was making though, worked, because after a few cries, an answering call rose up. With a giggle, Coran lunged forward.

“There’s a yalmor!” Coran called, grinning as they all peeked over the bush, staring at it. Lance gave it a long look, but then turned away. He had to guard their backs.

“It’s kinda cute.” Pidge began, watching it. “You know, in a creepy, hideous sort of way.” Lance chuckled, shaking his head softly, fingers playing over his weapon. “Like you, Lance!” Pidge poked.

Lance snorted softly.

“Shh! Yalmors are extremely aggressive. Any sign of weakness, and they attack!” Coran explained. “You’ve got to corner it, and make it think you’re the bigger, meaner yalmor.” He then danced forward in a goofy, waving dance. “Alfor and I used the Squelzian Technique to wrangle us up some yalmors!”

Romelle followed him with a confused stare. “Are all ancient Alteans like this..?”

“Well, we only know two.” Pidge said.

Lance made a quiet click with his tongue to Ascua. She dove and hit the branch above his head, staring and waiting for commands.

As Coran jumped for the yalmor, squealing like a pig, it‘s three eyes scanned him over... Then lunged forward and whipped him with it’s trunk.

Ascua was between the yelping Coran and the yalmor in an instant, claws lit up sparking blue. She let out a vicious sounding bark as Hunk staggered back, Lance neatly dodging them and leaping to the bush.

“What is with your cat, Lance?!” Pidge questioned.

The yalmor had quickly decided not to fight Ascua, choosing to turn away, as she flew back over to Lance, snarling at it still.

Hunk and Coran fell over backward, nearly landing on an alien like a tall, trunked turtle. “Oh. Heya.” Hunk said.

Just as it sprayed a multicoloured powder all over them.

Ascua shrieked in rage, shooting away, as they all, suddenly, were standing next to larger than life grass and stones.

“What the quizacker just happened?” Romelle said.

“Uh, it’s pronounced ‘quiznak’, and I have no idea.” Pidge answered.

A loud thudding came from nearby as Lance spun, whipping out his Shin’shi, blade smooth and heavy in his hands.

Coran gasped. “Lance, what is that?”

“What was that? Coran, what was that?!” Hunk asked, worried.

“What’s that?!” Coran shouted, turning from Lance.

And then the yalmor, far more massive than before, lowered it’s three-eyed head to them.

“...Shit.” Lance hissed, whipping out his Bayard as he slid his Shin’shi away.

“It’s the yalmor!” Coran shouted as the others screamed, all but Lance, who stepped in front of them.

“Get moving!” Lance ordered, blaster landing in his hands. “Go go!” He ordered, shoving Coran forward as he shot four or five neat points right into the yalmor’s face.

Nobody had to be asked twice, sprinting away as the yalmor chased them, roaring furiously. It tore up grass, caused small earthquakes, and generally created chaos.

“We’re trapped!” Coran shouted as they were backed against a tree.

When he realized he couldn’t see Ascua, Lance put his Bayard away, then whistled as loud as he could.

There was a swoop of deadly wings, and then huge, green paws slammed either side of them, a pale orange underbelly overhead. Long, deadly claws gleamed with restrained energy as Ascua’s mouth opened, releasing a screaming howl-bark.

The yalmor roared, though Ascua’s wings only spread wider, right before she reared to her back feet, and took a swing.

The energy discharge wasn’t as great as it could’ve been, but it was still sharp and loud. Lance had seen her kill with those blasts. This one was just a warning.

The yalmor fell back, shrieking in pain and shock, before turning and fleeing.

Everyone had fallen over, panting, but Lance stepped forward. “Ascua!” He called loudly, then whistled. Her head snapped around, pupils narrowing to him. She sniffed him gently, then purred, lowering her head to the ground. “Good girl, good girl...” He murmured, petting her snout.

“Good grief.” Hunk exclaimed. “What the heck is she?”

“She’s a Zeptrin.” Lance said simply, then whistled and pointed away. Ascua rumbled, then opened her wings and shot into the air, dust kicked up by her wings.

She caused water to fall on them, half-drowning the whole group. “Huh? Keith, do you copy?” Pidge demanded to her comm. “Allura? Krolia? Anyone?” Silence greeted her. “The shrinking must’ve caused our communicators’ range to drop exponentially.” She informed. “Nothing’s getting through.”

“We’re so small! It’ll take us forever to get back to the rest of the crew!” Coran exclaimed.

“I can’t command Ascua while we’re on her back.” Lance sighed. “There’s no way she’d hear me over the wind.”

“What are we gonna do!?” Romelle said, panicked.

Lance sighed, rubbing his temples gently. Chaos brings order.

Ten doboshes later, he had hacked a path straight through to a small cave in a gigantic mushroom looking thing, using his sword to avoid questions about his Shin’shi.

Ascua was nearby, Lance could see her in the tree high above, keen eyes searching the ground.

“What if we’re this quizacking small forever!?” Romelle said in a fluster.

“It’s quiznacking, and yes, thank you, Romelle. What if?”

Lance half ignored them as he helped Pidge scan for ways to get through to the others. He sat back as she glanced up to Coran. “You said the faunatonium works on gluon field fluctuations, right?”

“Correct.” Coran said. “It expands cosmic distance.”

“Maybe it’ll work to make us bigger.” Pidge murmured.

“You might be onto something!” Coran agreed.

“How are we going to find it?” Romelle said.

“With a yalmor!” Coran exclaimed. “We’ll lure one back here!”

“Really?” Romelle’s deadpan was stunningly human. “Us? Like this?”

“This is nuts. I think it, and you say it!” Hunk said with a grin.

“It’ll be extremely dangerous. Hunk’s our only hope.” Coran said.

Lance winced, shaking his head. “How about instead of that, I can see if I can get Ascua down here, to fly us to one? She’s pretty good at tracking.”

“...You said you couldn’t command her in the air.” Pidge said.

“I can tell her what to find while we’re here.” Lance smirked slightly, then stepped forward and whistled.

Her head snapped to them, diving off the branch to land near them with a trill.

When she nosed Lance, he chuckled and gently rubbed her snout. “I’ll be back to normal soon girl. Promise.” He said with a smile. “Ascua, do you remember that thing that attacked us?”

She growled. Hell yes she did.

“Find one.” Lance asked.

Almost immediately, she turned around, like she was going to go right then.

“No, no not yet!” Lance called. “Wait!” He said. “Lay down.” When she did so, he looked to the others. “Between the neck and the shoulders, don’t get in the way of the wings!” He told them, waiting for everyone to grab hold of Ascua’s thick fur.

“Remarkable! I’ve never met a species like this!” Coran said, staring at one of the near-crystalline hairs. “She grows these! What for?”

“Hold on tight!” Lance ordered, gripping to some fur on her head. “Ascua, ok... go now!” He told her.

She got up, and Lance clung to her neck as she shifted upright, turning and taking off effortlessly.

Within a few flaps, they were soaring high above the forest floor, Ascua scanning effortlessly, an eagle in flight.

Everyone was holding on, eyes shut in terror, but to Lance, she felt almost like Saja, just... bigger.

Finally, she gave a victorious screech, diving lower, over a fleeing yalmor.

“Alright everyone off!” Lance shouted as Ascua dipped low, one wing almost skimming the yalmor’s back. Panicked, everyone sprinted off, diving to relative safety of the yalmor below. “Ascua, stay back and wait!” Lance ordered her, before diving into the yalmor’s fur as well. With a final bark, Ascua turned and swooped away.

When she had left, the yalmor slowed, sniffed around for a moment... Then sprinted.

They were forced to lay flat, gripping far harder to the yalmor than Ascua. “This is worse than the flying beast!”

“Yes! Then at least we could command it!” Romelle responded.

Abruptly, the beast stopped, scratched in the dirt, then roared. More came forward as Coran explained what they were doing. After a bit, Pidge nodded.

“Alright, let’s go!” She snapped.

“Wait, what?!” Hunk said, as Lance stared at the floating pieces.

“Look, if we want to get back to our regular size, we have to jump in there!” Pidge explained.

Don’t need to tell me twice. Lance thought, leaping into the circle, followed by the others.

They slid easily, into the bubbles of faunatonium.

Then, they were floating, yalmors suddenly a lot smaller...

Right before they all dropped to the ground, squished together.

“Oh, quiznack...” Romelle groaned, getting it right for the first time.

Once they separated themselves, Lance held out his arm, whistling sharply.

Ascua’s bark-howl was audible throughout the forest, shooting around a tree and hitting Lance’s arm effortlessly. “Good girl.” He hummed, lowering his arm to allow her to nuzzle his chin. “Yes, I love you too.” He chuckled, letting her ease up onto his shoulder.

“I’ve never seen a non-dominant species so capable of problem solving!” Coran exclaimed, leaning forward to see Ascua’s fur better. “She remembered what we were attacked by!”

“She’s pretty smart.” Lance said, gently scratching one of her ears. They swivelled forward, into her ‘happy’ pose, before turning back to her normal listening position.

When they collected the faunatonium, Lance and Ascua led them back to the Lions, having gotten a little twisted around in their journey.

He wasn’t expecting to see Shiro sitting up, though.

“Hey, you’re looking better.” Lance said with a soft smile.

Shiro gave him a stunned blink, like he was trying to identify something. His eyes flicked up and down Lance’s body, making the other Paladin feel strangely... examined.

Ascua growled at Shiro, prompting him to stare at her instead.

“Where were you guys?” Keith asked, worried. “We couldn’t get a hold of you.”

“We got the faunatonium.” Lance said simply. “We’re ready to charge up the Lions.”

“This stuff is fascinating! Glu-“

“Pidge, English please.” Keith muttered, stopping the insanity before anything else happened.

Shiro sighed, chuckled slightly, and shook his head. “It’s good to be back.” He said, somewhat breathlessly.

They met eyes. Yeah. Lance thought. Yeah it is.

Chapter Text

Keith noticed something weird about Lance the instant he came back, but some things only became more noticeable with time.

The way Lance moved, was different.

Before, he had moved easily, with a swaggering confidence and large, loud steps.

Now he moved silently. Effortlessly, but in a way that screamed he didn’t want to be seen or heard. He still was confident, but in a different way. Not an, ‘I’m hot and I know it’ way, but an, ‘I could do damage, if I wanted’.

They were all gathered in a soft circle, keeping half an eye on Shiro, who wanted to get some air. “Were you able to contact earth?” Shiro asked as Pidge sat beside him.

“No luck.” Pidge murmured. “The low power levels are probably affecting our broadcast distance. I’ll keep trying for Earth.”

“It’s the atmosphere.” Lance said abruptly. Everyone turned to look at him, confused. “It’s a bit the cores, but also the atmospheric distance. This place is signal-catching.”

Silence for a moment.

“...How do you... know... that?” Shiro said slowly, staring at Lance.

The red Paladin shrugged, almost too casually. “Red told me.” He said softly. It wasn’t very Lance-like.

Where did you go? What happened to you? Keith wondered, watching Lance shift away slightly, glancing back to Red. She wasn’t sitting, like the others, but rather, laying on her chest, like a housecat.

She looked out of place, with the other Lions. Before, they had formed their ring and they had fit like pieces of a puzzle. Now, Red seemed more like a dangerous, dark spy ship than anything else.

“I can’t believe we’re finally going home.” Hunk said. “I’m gonna hug my family and never leave again.”

There was no noise when Lance stepped back, but Keith saw it anyway. He was almost positive nobody else noticed.

“I can’t wait to see how Dad integrated Altean and Earth technologies together I bet he came up with something amazing!” Pidge exclaimed. “And my mom...” As she went into a nervous stint about what her mother was going to do, Keith noticed Lance put up his arm.

Out of nowhere, Lance’s mysterious space-cat, Ascua, swooped, hitting his arm at force it seemed, but Lance was unaffected, gently lowering his arm to pet her. Like a falconer, with a bird. It was almost beautiful.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Keith turned to Coran. “How long do you think it’ll take us to get home?”

“I was just calculating that.” Coran responded, counting. “Without the luxury of a wormhole and with diminished power cores...” He muttered to himself for a few more seconds. “Oh, it’s going to take us approximately 150,000 earth years!”

“A hundred and fifty thousand years?!” They shouted, in various states of shock

“Coran, I think your finger counting is a little off.” Pidge said abruptly. “It’s going to be one point five years.”

Keith, and everyone else, groaned in relief.

“Oh, right. Forgot to carry the three.” Coran winced with a sheepish smile.

“It’s going to be a very long and difficult voyage.” Allura said. “But it’s our only chance to replace or survive without the Castle of Lions.”

“...there were times when I thought I’d never see Earth again.” Shiro murmured softly, eyes down. “To be able to go back... that’s a dream come true.” His eyes were filled with unshed tears and unspoken memories. Adam. Keith realized. The ability to tell Adam that he was sorry, that he was right.

“I suppose we need to figure out who’s flying with whom.” Krolia murmured softly.

“And what about the animals?” Coran asked.

“What about them?”

Coran immediately launched into a mess about who couldn’t be paired with whom, and why, when Lance cut him off.

“Cows aren’t afraid of mice. And Ascua won’t fight with the wolf, or eat the mice.” He stated, eyes narrowed slightly. “She listens.” Sitting on a box, Lance let the creature in question settle on his lap, paws folded over each other as she surveyed each Paladin.

“The wolf is riding with me,” Keith murmured after a moment. Because he’s my pet. “but that means that Hunk will have to take the cow.”

“Me with the cow? Not a good idea.” Hunk stated. “I can take the cat.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Keith noticed that Lance made the shape of ‘Ascua’ silently, not correcting Hunk out loud.

“Someone else can take the wolf. Keith, keep the cow.” Shiro said.

Then everyone looked to Pidge.

“Not me. I am allergic.”

“I’ll take the mice.” Allura said with a smile.

Keith rolled his eyes slightly. “How come you get the smallest passengers?”

“I say, we go old school and draw straws.” Hunk said with a grin. Keith started to nod, but then noticed Allura.

“But I’m terrible at drawing!”

“She really is.” Coran confirmed before telling a story about Allura as a child.

“No, drawing straws is an Earth thing.” Hunk said, picking a few pieces of grass, some long and some short, and putting them in his hand. “Whoever gets the shortest piece, has to take a passenger.”

They all considered that, as Keith stepped forward. “Sounds fair to me.”

Allura settled with Romelle, and Hunk got the mice. Keith got Shiro, Coran and Krolia. The wolf seemed less than pleased with Allura, who locked him in the hold.

Lance got the cow in the hold and his weird cat. Keith still didn’t quite trust her, because she was just... way too well trained to have only been with Lance for the week he was missing.

Unless it was more than a week. Keith thought back to his own adventures in spacetime with Krolia. ...That scar on his jaw didn’t heal in a week.

As they launched, Red leading, Keith noticed that Lance was oddly silent. As he had been basically the whole time, but now, in the Lions...

It was even more noticeable.

As they headed out, Lance was still silent. He even seemed to not be that amused by Hunk’s... rather hilarious pictures of the mice. Barely speaking, hardly acknowledging them, just continuing forward.

Behind Keith, meanwhile, Coran was still going through the Altean alphabet after Shiro made some dumb comment. Fuck’s sake, can we just have a nice, silent ride? He wanted to ask.

“Keith, your wolf is tearing up the cargo hold!” Allura snapped.

“Because he’s lonely!” Keith returned. “Let him into the cockpit!” This is why I should have him.

“I will absolutely not let that beast into the cockpit!”

By the end of the third time through the alphabet, Keith finally burst. “That’s it! We’re switching passengers!” He insisted.

“I second that!” Allura agreed.

When they had switched, it abruptly became a much quieter ride for Keith. He was fine with that though, Shiro sleeping in the back while Krolia sat on the floor, doing sit ups.

“No sense in wasting time.” She commented when he looked over.

With a shrug, he turned back to front, enjoying the peace.

Except that he hadn’t heard from Lance in a while. Casually, he reached over, and tuned in the comm.

Lance showed up on the screen, the cat sitting somewhere behind him. He was holding a small, long distance communicator, and staring at it.

“I mean, it’s already been months for them, Red.” Lance murmured, clearly not knowing Keith could see him right then. “I bet they’re already out. I should give them a call, maybe next time we-“

“Lance?”

The Paladin jumped, communicator seemingly gone at the same time his Bayard was in his hand, Red growling.

“Oh, uh...” Lance relaxed slightly, seeming to remember something. “Sorry, Keith. What’s up?” He turned toward the camera a bit, and Keith saw the scars properly.

Jaw. Lips. Eyebrow. Hairline.

Some part of him had registered them, but not seen them. They looked so... alien, on Lance. His cheekbones were sharper, his eyes had small circles under them, and he seemed weary. His whole face looked thinner. He did too.

“Just um... wondering how you were?” Keith said weakly. He was worried for Lance, but actually speaking to his entirely different teammate felt... weird, now.

“I’m ok.” Lance said with a shrug, turning back to cockpit front.

Please talk to me. Keith thought offhandedly. “...where did you go, Lance?” He finally questioned. Body tensing as those words came out, Lance seemed to crunch inward a bit, hands tightening on the sticks.

“...nowhere.” Lance muttered softly, almost sadly, before reaching over and turning off his comm, effectively shutting Keith out. He didn’t turn it all the way off, but he did turn that conversation off.

With the dismissal that rang a little hard in his chest, Keith sighed and turned away. “...I’m here if you want to talk.” He said to nothing. Then he opened up the all comms channel, and announced, “there’s a planet with a breathable atmosphere nearby. We can set up camp there.”

“Sounds good.” Hunk said, falling behind Keith.

“Finally! I think I managed to increase the range!” Pidge exclaimed with a grin.

“That would be acceptable to me.” Allura smiled.

Over Lance’s comm, Red growled. “Yeah, I know girl.” Lance sighed, still unaware Keith was listening. “I don’t think they’re ready for a straight half-quintant like that.” He chuckled.

Half-quintant? What? “Lance?”

The Paladin jumped again, swearing as he put his Bayard away. “Yep, sorry?”

“We’re landing.” Keith stated, watching his every movement.

Lance nodded. “I know.” He said plainly.

The silence stretched, before Keith simply peeled off and landed on the planet he had found.

It was a small rock, barely enough to support it’s atmosphere, with a spattering of green-teal grass. It didn’t seem to have many larger plants, but it did have water.

As Keith stepped out of Black, he noticed one particular Lion missing. “What the hell..?”

Red was still in the air, head turning side to side, easily gliding overtop before finally heading toward ground, a bit back, away from the others. Oddly, she extended her front paws, thrusters cutting out before she landed, much like a cat jumping down from a counter as her shoulders and arms bent to take the pressure.

She padded forward a few steps, which was just the start of the strange things Keith saw right then.

Like she was covered in water and fur, Red shook her upper body and shoulders out, heavy and powerful, before she settled back down to a sitting pose. Her mouth opened, Lance stepping out, and turning around to face her. He seemed to talk for a moment, then held out a hand toward Red.

Which was when her head dipped, like she was actually some sort of living creature, and pressed her nose into his hand. She moved without him being inside.

Lance smiled, but it wasn’t like how Keith was used to seeing. There was no cockiness, no teeth. Just a soft tipping of his lips that the others, trying to start a fire, missed. It was really... beautiful.

After pressing his forehead into her nose, Lance turned and headed toward them, Ascua sitting on his shoulder. As they passed, Lance nodded softly to Kieth, an acknowledgement.

Around his hips, Lance adjusted the chain belt that held the strange, long sheath of a mysterious blade.

“...That is a very strong weapon.” Krolia murmured as Lance sat down nearby, but not quite within the light of the flame. “It’s like your knife, but... more than that.” She said softly, staying close to Keith. She kept looking over at Lance, in both curiosity and concern.

The black Paladin considered that. “...I’m going to talk to Red for a second.” He said coolly, then turned and jogged toward his former Lion.

She was laying down, not sitting like the others, literally laying, on her side. Even her head.

“Uh... Red?” He called to her. He was expecting a mental hum back, being her former Paladin.

He wasn’t ready for her eyes to light up, head pulling off the dirt and arm shifting under herself, glaring down at him with pale, grey-yellow eyes.

Longer claws gouged lines in the soft earth as she adjusted herself further, tail flicking slightly. Keith’s eyes went wide, not in any way, shape or form prepared for that.

The oddest part was, he didn’t feel the mental hum. Just a low, definitely physical growl.

“...Hey.” He said with a soft smile. “I was just...”

He hadn’t been this uncertain since he had returned to Voltron.

“Just wondering if you wanted to come sit closer.”

Flinching and spinning around, Keith stared at Lance, abruptly beside him now. Keith hadn’t even heard him.

“Uh, yeah.” Keith agreed quietly. What else do I say to that?

Head tipping slightly to glance at Lance instead, Red growled, and Lance turned away, starting to walk back toward the fire.

Red shifted to her feet, and followed Lance. Keith had to turn around and run for a moment to keep from being stepped on as they moved into the circle.

“Whoa, Lance!” Hunk exclaimed as they came closer, Red following them like some kind of trained beast.

Allura blinked, clearly stunned. “How are you... doing that?” She whispered.

“She does it on her own.” Lance shrugged, sitting down slightly out of the fire’s range.

Red sat between Blue and Black in the circle, mimicking their normal sitting poses, but Keith couldn’t quite shake the vision of Red’s huge head just lifting to stare at him.

Can you do that, Black? Keith asked the Lion. He only got a low hum of wariness and confusion in return. No, no Black could not do that.

Shiro managed to limp free of Black, weary, but alive and well. With no small amount of determination, he sat against Blue’s arm, where they had set up camp.

“So, one day down.” Hunk said with a soft smile.

“Just 546.5 more days to go.” Pidge muttered, only half-joking. The sarcasm was a little bitter.

Allura sighed. “Have you been able to contact Earth?”

Shaking her head, Pidge growled, “No. Nobody’s responding on any Coalition planet in the sector.”

Lance sighed softly as Ascua flew back overhead, purring softly, and dropped a small, fish-looking thing at his feet. “Thanks Ascua.” Lance chuckled, gently rubbing her jawline, before turning into his elbow and gently coughing.

“Hey, she hunts?” Pidge questioned, staring at the fish. The wolf walked over to sniff it, only to receive a stinging swipe to his nose. He flinched back, yelping and running back to Keith.

“Lance, I thought you said she would not fight!” Allura gasped, staring at Ascua.

The red Paladin chuckled, shaking his head softly. Keith thought it made his scarred visage look... softer.

“She didn’t chase him.” Lance defended, petting her. “It’s just, she gives them to me. As presents.” He murmured calmly, almost shyly. “Sorry, Keith.”

“Wolf’ll forgive her.” Keith reassured. I hope.

Hunk reached for the fish, but Lance picked it up before handing it to him. Ascua didn’t growl that time.

“...Think she could get more? We could have actual food, not more of our supplies!” Hunk grinned.

With a nod, Lance stood up and pulled Ascua onto his arm. He clicked his tongue twice, and then threw her off his forearm. She vanished over the plains in a few moments. Her owner sat down, and coughed a few times.

“You ok there, Lance?” Shiro questioned, glancing to Lance as he slid a hand under his armour, rubbing his chest.

Lance nodded, giving them a weak smile. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

There was a few moments of comfortably awkward silence. Nobody wanted to face the elephant in the room.

Not until Pidge spoke up. “So, what happened to you?” She asked, turning to Lance.

Keith was certain nobody but him and Krolia noticed how pale Lance went with that question, how terrified his expression became, how his shoulders went tight and he stopped breathing for a full five seconds.

It was only battle training with the Blade that allowed him to notice the tiny, well-hidden details.

“...I was... uh...” He murmured softly, eyes dropping from them. “...The shot wasn’t... a killing, shot.” One hand tightened on the other. Keith felt Krolia’s eyes narrow, her breathing change in mild confusion and concern. “It just... Launched me, away. Pretty far. I’ve been trying to get back.”

“That’s amazing, Lance.” Allura said with a smile. “Did your Lion record where you ended up?”

Lance swallowed, glancing to the side. “...Yes, she um... did.” He confirmed, albeit stunted. Violet eyes went sharp, Keith almost speaking up for them to stop talking.

“We got the logs that said you were in ‘Sector Space’,” Hunk informed, missing how Lance flinched slightly. “but Pidge and I weren’t able to get a lock on where that was.”

“It’s um... In a bit of a... far corner of space.” Lance murmured, sounding slightly more choked with every second.

Shiro’s head tilted, going to say something, when Ascua reappeared with a sharp cry.

Flew over, carrying four of the fish things from before. Three she dropped at Hunk’s feet, then she landed beside the wolf and placed one in front of him, like an apology for clawing him earlier.

The wolf playfully pawed at her, and she rolled over and pushed back, a big, happy cat, tail tip flicking playfully as her wings half-spread on the dirt.

“So, Sector Space... Is that like, a specific quadrant, or... could you tell?” Hunk inquired, even as he started cleaning the fish.

Pidge nodded her agreement. “Is it just a specific area? It must be close, for you to make it here in a week-“

Lance shot to his feet, shoulders tensed around his neck, fingers forming claws on either side of his head. “I-“ He began loudly, then cut himself off, shutting his eyes as his head tilted to the corner, hands slowly curling into fists as they lowered to his side. He let out a near-silent, shaky breath, taking a few deep inhales before speaking again. “I’m going to check on Red.” The hiss was sharp, but whispered.

Without further words, he spun and almost ran away, barely keeping his tense power-walk, before Red bent down and scooped him up.

Ascua rolled over and took a step to follow, glancing at the others with a light purr. She turned away, when Keith reached down and petted her. “I’ll go see him.” He told her.

She cocked her head, then smelled his shoe. Finally, she glanced to the wolf.

There were a few seconds where she considered it, then seemed to come to a conclusion. She took off, heading away from the Lions, back to her hunting grounds.

Keith glanced to Shiro and Krolia. “I... guess I’ll go see Lance.” He said softly, heading to Red.

Laying on the ground like a sphinx, after Lance went to her, Red’s eyes were dark and shadowed, no sign that her Paladin was inside at all.

Stepping up to her, Keith stared at the silent Lion for a moment, unable to voice his simple request. Let me see him. Let me talk to him, let me make sure he’s ok.

Red though, did seem to still be able to hear him. Mouth sliding open with a smooth, soundless movement, the Lion growled softly. As Keith stepped into her mouth, he took notice of the slightly longer teeth, the gear mechanics on her jaw that were larger than they had been before...

The jaws that had torn through Lotor’s armour almost effortlessly.

...Later. Keith thought, ducking through Red’s mouth and heading for the steps up to the helm.

“...an’t do this...” Lance’s muttering became audible as he finally emerged into the cockpit. The red Paladin was slumped over himself, arms tight and fingers driven up into his hair, pulling on the strands as he seemed to try and squeeze his skull. “Can’t do this, Red... I’m not me, I’m not...”

“Lance?” Keith questioned, reaching out to grab his teammate on the shoulder, give him a comfort.

Before he could even blink, his arm was yanked forward so hard his shoulder hurt, and cold metal touched his chin. Lance’s narrowed eyes burned with something harsh and violent, something that screamed bloodlust and horror, something that said he didn’t recognize who he was holding, something that told Keith of months of looking over his shoulder.

It was that knowledge, and months of training with the Blade, to recognize that Lance was about two seconds from dislocating his shoulder and slitting his throat.

Then Lance blinked, eyes going wide, and staggered back like Keith had burned him.

The black - Wait, wasn’t it silver before? - blade dropped to the ground, making an absurdly loud clang in the silent Lion.

“P-puta, Keith, Jesus Christ I’m s-so sorry, fuck, I’m-“ Lance cut off, pale and shaking, staring at his hands and then at his knife.

Shifting forward, Keith tried to reach forward to the shivering red Paladin. He felt disconnected from Lance, one because he had spent two years becoming a calmer, rational adult...

And two because Lance was so different from when he had left.

“Lance-“

The scared Paladin stumbled backward a bit more. “S-stay back! I d-don’t want to hurt you!”

Keith’s eyes went wide. No, you won’t. He thought, putting one hand up in a calming gesture, and kneeling down to pick up the knife.

It was very handle heavy. Extremely so, in fact. How anyone could fight with it was a nightmare to think of, because Keith couldn’t even imagine how he’d hold the thing.

“Lance, it’s ok.” Keith said softly.

There was a long pause, Lance’s wide eyes scanning him over, chest working in heavy, hard breaths. Please relax. You’re going to pass out.

“You won’t hurt me.” Keith whispered, holding out the knife to Lance.

It was a long few seconds before Lance reached over, and took the blade from Keith. For a second, it felt... strangely light and balanced, just as Lance picked it up.

He slid it into it’s sheath, moving it effortlessly, like his hand knew exactly where it fell.

Then Lance turned his back, hugging his arms around his chest. “...Please go.” He whispered.

“Lance-“

“GET OUT!” Lance spun and roared, vicious eyes brimming with tears.

Quickly stepping away, Keith backed out and headed out.

He pretended that he didn’t hear Lance crying on the way down.

Keith couldn’t sleep. Not while he was thinking about Lance, staring at him like he was an enemy, but then recognizing him. The only that had been on his face then was fear.

“Shiro?” He whispered.

“Yes Keith?” Shiro murmured, voice slightly thick from dozing off.

Pausing, the black Paladin considered his next words.

“Lance is... really off.” He said softly. “I’ve never seen him like this.”

“I noticed. What happened earlier?” Shiro asked, sitting up. “You looked... Really off, when you came out.”

Keith opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by Krolia. “I appreciate you two are worried about the red Paladin, but could you take this outside?”

Chuckling, Shiro rotated and stood up. “We can do that. Sorry Krolia.”

His mother only grumbled, rolling over slightly in her sleeping bag.

Keith followed his older brother out of Black, under the two-moon sky of the planet they had landed on.

“So, what happened?” Shiro questioned as they sat against Black’s paw. Tearing his eyes away from Red, Keith sighed and gently pulled a hand through his hair.

“Well...” Keith took a deep breath. “I went in there to see Lance, but when I saw him he was... Talking to Red, about how he ‘couldn’t do it’. When I tried to pull him out of it, he drew that weird knife he has on me.” He explained. “Also, that knife is ridiculously unbalanced.”

“Well, don’t knock it ‘til you try it.” Shiro smiled.

With a nod of agreement, Keith continued. “Then he dropped it, and started panicking. I think that he... Shiro, he didn’t recognize me.”

The elder’s face went grim for a moment, jaw tightening slightly. Keith recognized the strangely pensive expression on Shiro’s face. In his memory though, it was normally partnered with rubbing the bracelet on his wrist.

“...I don’t think Lance was gone for just a week, Keith.” Shiro said. Keith had suspected it, but now...

“You think he was caught in another time dilation. Like mine?” The half-Galra inquired, cocking his head slightly.

Shiro sighed, and glanced away. “Not quite like yours. From what you’ve told me, yours was mostly... survival, right?”

“Yeah. Just waiting, like survival camping for the most part. You had to be careful about time jumping, but other than that, it was camping.” He nodded.

Turning back to Keith, Shiro shook his head softly. “...I don’t think those scars came from camping.”

Keith’s blood ran cold. The idea of any of his team, let alone Lance, all on their own without any backup, possibly fighting more dangers than any of them wanted to think of, was horrific. Keith wasn’t a leader, or a protector. He didn’t want to be, because he didn’t think he could be.

But they believed in him, to be the Head of Voltron. So he became the protector, the leader.

“...So you think-“

Shiro shrugged with the stump of the Galra arm. “...I don’t think it’s that far off.”

He turned to look at Red, at the longer claws and sharper teeth. At the adapted thrusters and gears. What happened to you? What happened to Lance?

She gave him no answers.

The next morning they took off again. Keith wanted to do a scouting run before anyone else, but Lance stated simply, ‘There’s nothing here.’

“Did Red tell you that?” Pidge had asked, curious.

Lance had simply shaken his head. “We already went on a scouting run. We’re clear.” He had said as he stared right at Keith.

Keith had glared back before he could help himself, and Lance’s gaze hadn’t dropped until he turned away. Even with his back to the Paladin, Keith had felt the gaze in his back.

They had been flying for a few hours when Krolia stepped forward. “This is the Klii-Nyn System.” She said coolly. “There’s a Blade of Marmora rally point located on a moon here.” Staring at it, she smiled slightly, though it was still serious. “We should check in with them, and get an update on their operations.”

An update would be nice. “Team, we’re going to make a quick stop.” Keith announced. “Everyone follow me.”

The Lions curved toward the meteor belt nearly effortlessly, Red creeping into line with Black as Krolia called to the station.

What is Lance doing? Keith wondered as he saw the Lion coming up on his right, slower to land than the others. When Krolia finally found the right wavelength, she gave her name.

Only static answered them.

“Let’s go in.” Keith suggested.

“Sounds good.” Hunk replied as Black dipped down, going for a landing.

They headed to the door, Allura prying it open and making it seem easier than it was. The base was empty and barren, silent in an eerie sort of way.

Keith turned off his jets, landing on the walkway and scanning the inside of the base, eyes flicking over dusty walkways and pipes. “It doesn’t look like anyone’s been here for years.” He said softly.

He paused as Pidge glid past, landing next to the computer. When she was landed, he turned and followed. “The system won’t boot.” She said softly as he, Lance and Krolia watched. “Looks... like the backup power has been out for a while.”

Hunk flew past. “If the Blade of Marmora abandoned this place... That means something really bad must’ve happened.”

“That’s impossible.” Krolia said confidently, though grim. “This base was still fully operational during my last check in with the Blades.”

Then there was a loud rumbling, shaking the floor as they all slid slightly off-balance. There was a sharp blaze of light as Lance’s blaster came out.

“Enemy ship! Incoming!” Coran called.

Keith turned around. “Everyone, back to the Lions!”

They fled the base, getting into their Lions just in time to take off and see the small, violet and red ships.

“It looks like a small fleet.” Kieth informed. “Mostly Galra fighters.” He snapped off his comm for a moment. “Mom, Shiro, sit down.”

“I’m staying where I can see.” Krolia said, glaring at him.

Shiro paused, then pointed at her. “Same here.”

“That’s good news.” Hunk said on the comm system. “We should be able to do this easily!” He sounded hopeful.

Then Pidge popped up on the screen. “Yeah, but remember, we’re not flying at full power!”

“Krolia, Shiro, hold on.” Keith ordered, then went back to the comms. “Pidge is right. Everyone stay sharp.”

Without a further note, Red suddenly broke off, chased by three small ships. “Watch your backs.” Lance said steadily, seemingly unbothered by this. “Where there are fighters, there’s probably a cruiser.”

Black was swirling in and out with Green and Yellow, Keith struggling to keep them balanced without jostling his passengers who refused to sit down. “We need to get out of here!” He snapped as Blue fell in formation and the group swirled away, dodging neatly.

There was suddenly a set of explosions a good distance ahead, a blue beam of light cutting off several.

Keith found himself staring, trying to identify who was killing the Galra ships, when he was forced to brake, barely avoiding being shot by a volley of lasers.

“Guys, they’ve got me!” Hunk shouted in near-panic. “I can’t move!”

“Hang on, Hunk!” Keith returned, spinning around. “I’m gonna get you out of there!”

Black’s jawblade formed as he fired forward, slamming his passengers back into the wall. The blade seemed to go through the strings easily, freeing Yellow.

“We’re getting beat!” Pidge shouted. “We need to do something!”

Red abruptly swooped in front of Black, just in time for Keith to see the ship he hadn’t noticed coming for his underside.

He did, however, see Red’s jaw crunch it’s cockpit apart.

“We need Voltron!” Allura exclaimed.

“Ok. Everyone, in formation.” Keith ordered.

Red hesitated as they fell in, Lance appearing on the comm screen. “Keith, this won’t work-“

“Hold!” He ordered, glaring forward as the Galra ships started firing from behind. Several near-misses skimmed Black’s shoulder, Keith pushing still, they had to form, they needed Voltron, they-

“Oh fuck this!” Lance hissed, and abruptly, Red swung backward, dropping from formation, as her fire-cannon formed.

There was a single blast of unrestrained, blue flame.

The swath it cut in the Galra ship fleet behind them was nothing to laugh at, seeing how they scattered before Lance’s cannon blasts.

“What happened?” Allura demanded.

“Lance broke-“ Hunk began, but was cut off by Pidge.

“I’m guessing the Lions didn’t have enough power to form Voltron!” She exclaimed.

And Lance knew it. Keith realized abruptly.

“So now what?” Hunk shouted.

There was a pause, Keith’s thoughts racing to decide, his team was depending on him, he had to help them, he had to make sure they got out...

“We run!”

Just as they curved, going to flee...

Pidge suddenly blew backward in a blaze of crystal and fire.

Then Allura, and Hunk. Lance was still turned, standing his ground in a vicious display of tactics.

“Lance, run!” Keith shouted as he saw the fighters converge on the Red Lion, snarling as her claws gleamed, eyes glittering...

Then she burst from the circle, heading for them, only to be blown backward by a crystal, then chased with several fighters.

“I-is everyone ok?!” Lance demanded as soon as Red had righted and the fighters swooped off.

Various assents rose from the others, Keith nodding with a grim expression.

“Xanthorium crystals!” Coran gasped, staring at the scanner beside Keith. “They’ve been cloaked.”

Keith dodged several later shots neatly, only to crash into something, rattling them all as they were blown back.

Hunk spoke up next. “I’ve never seen the Galra use weapons like this before!” He exclaimed, eyes wide.

“Pidge, your six!” Keith shouted in warning.

“And they’re not using standard Galra battle formations!” Allura added to Hunk’s statement.

“They’re using a straight strafe and then flank.” Lance growled. “Allura, turn a hard left on my signal...”

Keith turned, catching Blue fleeing three ships, staggered, and Red seemingly nowhere near them.

“Now!”

Allura shot left, just as Red spun, a blue beam cutting through the three ships as they lined up.

“Whoa, Lance! How did you-“

“I’ve seen it before!” Lance snapped. On his video, he appeared vicious, bathed in red. “They’re trying to get us into a group.”

“They’re trying to trap us by chasing us through this tunnel of crystals!” Keith put together, glaring at their opponents, then to the swirling, chaotic space vortex ahead of them.

“He’s right!” Pidge said as she flew forward. “Look, there are more crystals up ahead!”

Lance shot past Keith, spinning around. “I’ve got cover. Keith, where do we go?” He asked as Yellow and Blue dove into line with them, bunched together.

“We have no choice.” Keith hissed bitterly, even as Lance continued firing. “Everyone, into the cyclone! Hunk, that means you and I are going to have to punch a hole through the storm to create a path for the team. You ready?”

There was a pause. “As I’ll ever be.”

Steering Black closer to Yellow, Keith and Hunk plowed a path through the debris.

“We can’t take much more of this.” Lance informed, rapidly searching around.

Keith growled, teeth gritted in determination. “Everyone scan the area for anything we can use for cover!”

“There’s a volcanic ice planet nearby!” Pidge rattled off a load of details, Keith considering their advantage. Tight spaces, opportunities to lose them around corners...

“Ok team.” Keith called. “Let’s do this!”

They dove out, heading through the planet’s atmosphere even as they were pursued viciously.

“Turn and fight!” Lance called, Red spinning to cut another line across.

Allura copied his actions, almost hitting an ice pole. “I got another one!”

Wincing at the danger, but focusing, Keith kept pushing. “Alright, everybody, stay in formation and follow me!”

After a few moments, there was all quiet, determination and focus through them all.

Until he saw it.

“A cave!” Keith realized, then turned to his comm. “Lance, bring up the rear! When everyone’s through the tunnel, fire above the cave opening.”

“Red’ll make it.” Lance deduced, airbrakes shooting Red behind the others, spinning to return fire. “Rodger that.”

Keith hated to do it. “We’ll see you on the other side.”

Black led the others into the cave, dipping through the opening just as he heard the crash of Red’s blaster hitting the roof. Rock crumbled as dust filled the tunnels, flowing over them and streaking off.

“Lance, you in?” Keith asked.

“We’re in!” Lance barked back, looking away. “We’ve got stragglers.”

“Split up!” Keith ordered. “Thin our attackers!”

“I can do that-“

“Lance hold your fire!” He shouted.

No shots came from the Lion as they spread out, Keith shooting Black down a corridor barely able to hold him.

Then, someone landed on Black’s leg.

Fuck! He thought, glaring at the idiot trying to get into Black. “He’s trying to break in.” Shiro snapped. “I’ll take care of him.”

“No!” Krolia shouted. “You’re still recovering. I’ll do it.”

There was a tense few seconds, Keith realizing that she’d need a weapon. “Wait!” And he held out the dagger that he had carried since he was a child.

“I’ll help too!” Coran said, and then they ran out.

Keith focused on getting them out of the stupid fucking cave.

“Is everyone clear?” Keith demanded after Krolia came back in.

“I’m good.” Hunk said.

“Me too.” Allura confirmed.

“I’m handling it.” Lance snapped, Red’s dot on the screen flying back, smashing one ship in the process. “Pidge, stay ahead!”

Then, suddenly, the ships started flying off, hitting walls.

“What happened?” Lance asked as Red returned in line with Green.

“I think the wolf just saved us!” Pidge exclaimed.

Through the comms, Keith could hear the soft, faint whimpers of his wolf, hurt. “Keep him safe, Pidge!”

“Of course!” The green Paladin stated as the tunnel opened in front of them, the whole group streaking into the sky, victorious.

Until, out of nowhere, something hit them.

A beam that took all control from Keith’s hands, slamming them into the ground.

Everyone groaned, trying weakly to get up, but none were struggling like Red, ripping into the landscape with her claws, trying to fire a shot off.

Keith could only watch, helplessly, as he and his team were captured.

Chapter Text

Being dragged from Black by nearly two-dozen raiders was pissing him off. Krolia and he had fought back, but in the end, they weren’t enough for more than seven.

Chained and shoved down a hall at gunpoint, Keith kept searching around, ensuring his team was together, at least. Not that it mattered much, while being marched to the brig.

Romelle looked terrified, never before experiencing something like this, as Shiro and Pidge stayed close to her. Hunk was led off too, as was Allura and Coran. When Keith tried to turn and find Lance, he received a ringing hit with the butt of a gun.

Head throbbing, Keith staggered to the side with a groan, shaking it off as the lot of them were shoved into a cell. “Lance!?” Keith demanded, shooting forward and pounding the door with his fists. “Hey! Where’s Lance?” He barked at the guard.

No reply came, and Kieth snarled in displeasure. Among things he hated, being ignored was unfortunately high on the list.

Spinning away, Keith paced back to the rear wall as Krolia remained near the door. Standing against the wall close to Allura and Hunk, Keith silently waited, wondering what the hell they wanted Lance for.

Half a varga passed, and the door slid open with a hiss. Two wary raiders tossed Lance inside, his body bouncing slightly on the floor. Both Allura and Keith shot forward, quick to check his pulse, roll him over and-

Blood. There was so much blood.

It coated the entirety of Lance’s chestpiece and arms, a good portion of the rest of him as well. Keith’s heart went to his throat as he struggled to use his bound hands to work on pulling the chestplate pieces apart.

“He could still be bleeding!” Allura said frantically, running her hands under the plates, trying to find the injury.

“C’mon Lance, wake up...” Keith hissed, finally clicking open the locks of the armour, and expecting to see some gross swelling, or broken ribs. But there was nothing. The fabric underneath his armour was even dry. What the..?

Allura’s thin hand spread out on Lance’s chest, gently pressing. “He’s not... hurt...”

Which was when Lance flinched and lunged up and over, pinning Allura down even with his wrists chained. The Altean gasped on fear, right before Lance came back to his senses, shooting to his feet, and staggering back with a groan.

“Lance?” Hunk inquired, tone low and worried as he stepped forward to help Lance stay stable.

“‘m ok.” Voice husky, Lance sounded like he had spent a while panting, or coughing... generally, out of breath. He looked it too, a little winded, a little sweaty.

Allura came closer again. “Are you alright?” She said, reaching for him.

“I’m fine.” Lance stated, backing into the wall, then sliding down it. “Can uh... someone help lock down my armour, again?” He said.

Keith was quick to kneel beside him, sealing the pieces together once more. The deep breath Lance took at the tight armour felt odd. Like he could breathe better with his armour sealed around his ribs.

“Lance, where are you hurt?” Krolia demanded, sliding forward with her ears tipped slightly back.

“I’m not!” Lance exclaimed as Keith tried to find the injury. If he already couldn’t feel it, and he was this bloody, he had to be nearly close to death. “I am fine, I said!” He lifted an arm, and Keith pushed him still. “I’m not hurt-“

Keith could feel the exact second that Lance’s entire body tensed, and he immediately wondered if that was where Lance was about to pass out.

“...it’s not my blood.” The Paladin said softly.

Everyone turned to Lance as he carefully started smearing the semi-congealed fluid from his chestplate.

Pidge crept up to Keith’s shoulder, and stared as Lance cleaned himself up. “Who’s blood... is it?”

Lance shrugged. Keith knew that was basically as far as they were getting on that note. “Not mine.” Keith bit his lip as Lance stood up and walked over to the door, taking a quick look outside. “Krolia, you seen anyone else?” He asked softly.

“No.” Krolia murmured, only taking a glance at him. “Just this one guard. If the door opened, we could overpower him.”

“I bet Ascua could hear me from here.” Lance nodded. “She can kill through armour, in one impact.”

Wait, what can she do? Keith blinked at Lance. Krolia turned to him as well.

“She’s capable of such?” The Galra asked.

With a shrug, Lance nodded. “It’s actually not the impact, it’s the plasma discharge that kills.”

“That cat can discharge plasma?” Pidge questioned, eyes wide.

He chuckled. Keith knew the feeling. While in the Garrison, he had never understood how people could just talk about their pets. Now that he had the wolf, well...

Keith wasn’t talkative, but he would speak forever about the wolf.

“She’s built for it. On her home planet, it’s how she’d make the smaller creatures edible.” Lance explained. “Cooking, essentially, but not.”

“A living animal, capable of using plasma...”

Lance turned to glare at her slightly. “Let’s look at Ascua later, get out of here now.” He rumbled, and Keith could suddenly feel the hum of aggression, of bloody battles won.

Then the door unlocked, and slid open.

Both Lance and Krolia slid backward as Lance shuffled slightly to the side, hidden without being hidden. It was strategic, almost unthought of. Keith acknowledged that, then stepped slightly in front of Allura.

Two guards slid inside, guns at the ready, as two unfortunately familiar faces revealed themselves. Zethrid. Ezor.

Keith could’ve gone without seeing them again. Should’ve stayed on the whale.

“Well, look who’s here.” Ezor smirked. “It’s Voltron.”

Zethrid pounded a fist into her other hand. “We’re going to have a little talk.”

There was silence among the Paladins for a moment, everyone mentally readying themselves. There was a threat for torture, definitely.

“...Wait, hey! You guys were Lotor’s generals.” Hunk murmured. “I’m glad you survived.” He grinned.

“I’m glad you lived, too.” Ezor purred, hair-tail twitching slightly as she leaned in. “It’s no fun torturing a dead person.”

“Oh so, maybe not then?” Hunk asked. Keith half-slid behind Hunk, a preemptive, protective gesture.

When the first question was asked, Keith’s brain tried to backtrack. All this time? He wondered.

“What are you... talking about?” Shiro questioned slowly.

Ezor snapped to glare at him. “Your disappearing act.”

“Answer the question! How did you survive that explosion?” Zethrid demanded.

“Don’t you... know? You were there.” Hunk said softly.

There was a bit of quiet mocking taunts thrown at them before the ‘where is Lotor’ question came again.

Keith spoke up this time. “Lotor’s dead. We left him in the Quintessence Field.” Where he’ll rot.

A few more, slightly confused questions, then a threat of torture. Everyone was starting to feel a little worried, shuffling in tighter to the back wall. Lance, however, didn’t move, silently standing beside the wall.

Keith was careful to keep an eye on him as well, his blood streaked costume oddly black-looking in the light.

“We have no choice but to apply pressure.” Zethrid hissed.

“Finally!” Ezor exclaimed. “Who’s our first victim?”

Her eyes searched over the group, going from Shiro to Krolia and briefly hesitating on Keith. Then, to Keith’s shock and dismay, she focused on Pidge.

“You.” Zethrid growled. “I’d bet half my fleet this group of heroes has a soft spot for the small one.”

Ezor stepped forward, at the same time that Lance did. He didn’t do anything but move in just a foot closer, staring at two Galra. Ezor stopped in the middle of her stride, putting her foot down.

“Believe me.” Lance said in a low, threatening tone. “Cuffs or not, you touch her, I’ll do worse than I did to those crewmen.”

Kieth could only stare as Ezor stepped back, eyes wide at Lance, while Zethrid ordered other guards to come forward. “Hey.” Keith snapped as four or five guards surrounded Lance, leveling guns on him. They ignored him, of course.

The red Paladin didn’t object, simply glaring at Ezor and Zethrid from between the people surrounding him. “Go ahead then. I promise I’ll do it.” He stated. No threats. A dare. A challenge for them to be dumb enough to hurt Pidge.

Ezor only gave him a glance before the tentacle thing on her head snapped forward, wrapping around Pidge’s wrists. Everyone shouted but Lance, who didn’t move. Like he was more focused on boring a hole through Ezor’s head. With a spoon.

“Pidge!” Keith was only stopped by more guns being trained on him. I’ll join you in that dare, Lance. “Let her go!” He demanded as Pidge was held by her throat, claws cutting thin lines into her skin.

They demanded more things that only confused and terrified Pidge and the others, ineffective otherwise.

They could get no information out of Pidge, because she, like everyone else, didn’t know.

I don’t know what they want either!  His foot shifted forward, ready to jump into a fight to protect her. “We don’t know!” Keith snapped as they slid Pidge up a wall.

Lance only looked more violent as time went on, saying nothing.

“We told you!” Keith repeated, for the upteenth time, fear seeping into his voice in the way that he hated. “He’s in the-“

Then there were blaring lights and alarms that made Keith cringe, already frayed nerves sparking with fear.

Ezor finally just dropped Pidge, allowing Keith to step in front of her as Hunk helped her sit up.

The guards poured out as Lance was freed from his ring of guns.

When they had left, Krolia crept forward again. “This is it.” She growled. “The next time that door opens, overwhelm the guard.” She ordered, the whole group gathering either side of the door. Keith’s hands tensed, ready for a fight, when there was grunting outside.

Seconds later, the door slid open.

On the floor, a downed Galra, with the mice standing on his back.

Keith could only stare as Allura stepped forward. “Hello little friends!”

What... Keith thought.

“How the hell did you even-“ Pidge began, just as Lance dropped to a knee and seemed to fiddle with his boot. “Lance, what are you-“

Keith looked over just in time to watch Lance slide something into the key slot of his cuffs, counting for a few ticks, before turning it.

The red glow died, and Lance slid his wrists free, quickly moving to Romelle next.

“That is amazing! Our Altean colony doesn’t have that yet.” She gasped as Lance freed her, then Pidge.

“That’s because it’s not Altean.” Lance murmured. When he reached Keith, the black Paladin noticed the odd lump of grey material that Lance was using. It appeared to melt in Lance’s hand slowly, then re-solidify after a few seconds. Whoa.

Lance seemed to have a perfect grasp on how to manipulate the piece of... something, to get it to work. It was actually... kind of beautiful, to see Lance focus on the material.

Keith shook himself out. He did not need to be thinking of that while in a hostile combat situation.

Meanwhile, Allura was talking to the mice. Keith turned back to her just as Lance unlocked Shiro. “Coran’s trying to rescue us.” He summarized. “And he’s got help.” She offered her cuffs to Lance as the mice finished their explanation. “Acxa.”

“What?” Keith hissed, eyes wide with disbelief. She’s not working with the others... so what is she doing?

Watching Allura shift shape and therefor, size, fairly effortlessly, was always something that impressed Keith. Allura was really good at it.

Watching Coran sink to the floor though, was not impressive.

Shit. Keith shot forward, not even noticing Lance with him, as they helped get the poor Altean to his feet. After a quick examination, Keith realized that he wasn’t permanently damaged. Just a little bruised and concussed, no bones breaking either. “Coran, where’s Axca?” He questioned. He wanted not surprises on this mission.

“I-I don’t know.” Coran slurred, leaning a little away from Lance. “Where am I?”

“Are... you ok?” Shiro asked.

“Never better.” Coran said with a bit of a bitterly sarcastic air. “Now let’s get our belmards and hayards.” He muttered.

“Don’t worry.” Lance murmured softly, pulling Coran a little more upright.

“I’ve got him, Lance.” Hunk walked up, tugging Coran away from both Keith and Lance.

Keith got what Hunk was doing immediately. “Lance, up with me.” Lance nodded, heading to the front of the group with Keith. He felt... in tune, with Lance.

LANCE

Sliding through the ship came easily to Lance, exactly how he remembered it. His molding key was locked into his grip as a thin blade. It wasn’t going to fillet fish, but it was going to do damage if he shoved it hard enough.

He and Keith crouched beside the doorway. “Our Bayards.” The other whispered.

Lance’s grip tightened on his knife, noticing his Shin’shi present on the table as well. He put the knife in his left hand.

“They’ve got guns.” Pidge murmured.

“...Keith, I can distract them.” He glanced to the other, voice soft.

Keith looked him up and down, assessing. “...Do it, on my mark.” He murmured. Then he shut his eyes, focusing.

“UNHAND THOSE BAYARDS, YA SCALLYWAGS!” Coran shouted.

I’ll take that as the mark. Lance thought as every other Paladin snatched Coran back, spinning around the corner at the same time there was a flash of light, and Keith darted in as well, Bayard having teleported to his hand.

Lance swung at the first guard, nicking the guy’s wrist as he dropped to his knees, skidding under the gun that would’ve shot him. His hand fell on the Shin’shi’s grip as he spun around, shooting up at the same time.

The sheath hit the floor as the wall was splattered with sharp, red spray. The Galra was carried by the momentum of the strike, staggering into the wall and sliding down even as he bled out.

Picking up the sheath and putting away his blade, Lance stepped up to the table with Keith, grabbing his helmet when he noticed Pidge staring at him from behind.

“...You... killed him.” She said softly.

“Well, yeah.” Lance shrugged. “He was going to kill us.”

Hunk and Allura looked at him in concern, but went to their Bayards and helmets, neatly avoiding the corpse still bleeding onto the floor.

“Lance, lead the way. Keep the team together.” Keith ordered, helmet on as he walked past.

That doesn’t fly. Lance thought, grabbing Keith’s arm and spinning him around. “Wait, where are you going?”

“Acxa saved our skins. I’m not going to leave her behind.” Keith stated.

“Then they’ll expect one of us. I’m coming with you.” He returned. He wasn’t letting his foolbrained leader run off alone.

With a growl, Keith glanced to the rest of the team. “Lance, you need to-“

“Krolia is perfectly capable of leading them out. But I’m not letting you walk out of here by yourself.” He rumbled dangerously, Shin’shi clipped to his hip as he put his Bayard away.

The other Paladin glared at him for a while, before sighing. “Fine. Krolia, Hunk.” He glanced to them. “Lead the team out.”

They nodded, taking the grim responsibility of survival as Lance stepped toward Keith. “I’ll stay in the shadow. They’re only expecting one.”

“How do you know?” Keith growled at him as they spun around the corner, searching.

Because they know one of us is stupid enough to stay behind. “Because they’ll think we only are going to be stupid enough to send one.” Lance said, running after Keith but keeping more to the side. This was easy. “Oh.” He began, glancing to Keith. “If the opportunity comes up? I call Ezor.” He smirked. Oh, I made a promise.

They nearly shot around the next corner when they saw Acxa, just about to take a blow from Ezor. Putting his weight backward, Lance grabbed a rib of the wall, keeping in the hall as Keith slid out to guard Acxa.

“Oh look, Acxa! It’s your favourite Paladin.” Ezor purred.

“So do you guys actually know each other?” Zethrid questioned.

“Yeah, don’t you remember how she never wanted to kill him?” Ezor mocked.

“Aw. I guess it is true love.”

Keith’s eyes narrowed in focus, stance dropping. “Can’t we just fight?”

Just like that, they pair of half-Galra leapt into the fray as Lance waited. He’d know his moment. Sorry Keith, gotta let you get kicked around... He thought. Acxa got pinned up against the wall by Zethrid, while Keith was thrown about by Ezor.

Until the orange half-breed passed just close enough to Lance.

He reached out and snagged the end of her head-whip, yanking her back as he jumped from his hiding spot. She yelped as Lance let go of the whip, catching it again close to the top of her head and pulling her up against his body. “Hey.” He said darkly, the edge of his longsword against her throat. “I made you a promise.”

She shoved back, spinning around in a lightning quick movement, but apparently thought that Lance had let go of her whip. He pulled it forward and down, bringing his knee up at the same time.

Stunned, she staggered backward, enough time for Lance to land in stance and hit her with a seamless right cross.

The crack under his hand told him that he had broken her nose, but the blood streaming down her face as she covered her face with a hand told it as well. Her eyes were wide, horrified.

“What...”

“News flash;” Lance snarled, stepping forward with narrowed eyes and a twisted jaw. “I’m not the Paladin you fought before.”

“Ezor!” The second Galra shouted, lunging for Lance with a roar.

Lance ducked her, backpedaling quickly. Ezor was badly stunned, probably slightly concussed and her whip thing was hanging from her head at a limp angle. I hope I broke it. Lance thought, ducking a swipe from Zethrid. If there was one thing that was great about training with alien species that were larger than him, like the Atrox and the B’hra, it was knowing how fast to move.

Zethrid hit hard, but she was slow.

Weneq moved faster than this.

He however, still received a kick from Ezor as he was fighting with Zethrid. “You bitch.” Lance snarled as they backed him into a corner.

Keith came to his rescue then, pulling Zethrid back into the fight with him and Acxa, as Lance spun to Ezor.

Then he heard the crash that said something had broken. “Keith?!” He said, shooting back, out of hitting distance with a glance over his shoulder.

“Lance, get ready!” Keith called back.

Sighing, Lance turned back to Ezor. “Looks like I’ll need to make this fast.” He muttered, shooting forward with a sweep of his sword.

The tip went through her armour and deep into her chest, a long line that mirrored the burn that a Galra ship had left on his body.

Ezor staggered, hands coming down to cover the fatal wound with her mouth open in a gasp. Bayard retracting, Lance fired his jetpack at the same time that Zethrid screamed in rage and horror, staring at her partner, dying on the floor.

After the order for the Lions to fire on the ship, the end of the hall went up in flames just as Keith and Acxa shot past at the fastest they could, Lance following as they headed toward an exit, back toward their team.

KEITH

After they landed, the Lions all tried to stay sitting up, but they found very quickly they couldn’t. Red and Lance were going between each one them and carefully making sure that the way they were sitting wasn’t putting too much pressure on smaller joints.

Eventually, Keith walked over to him, followed by Hunk. Lance was talking, probably to Red, as he knelt beside Green. “Red, I think she’s on her arm too hard.” They came close enough to hear Lance speak, and Red stepped overtop of Green to gently nudge her flat on her stomach. “That’s better.” He nodded, then spotted them. “Oh. Hey.” He smiled softly. “I haven’t checked Black and Yellow yet.”

“...I actually wanted to know how Red was doing that.” Hunk said quietly, staring up at the Lion who stepped up behind Lance.

“Yeah. How does your bond do that?” Keith asked. Because that would be really nice to do with Black.

Lance chuckled weakly. “It’s uh... not... just our bond. She... Received a few upgrades while we were... gone.” He murmured, then headed over to Yellow. “...Hunk, can you tell him to relax?” Lance questioned.

“Uh... I can try?” Hunk said, then shut his eyes. A few seconds later, and Lance glanced to Red. She lowered her head and dug in her feet, shoving the significantly heavier Yellow onto his side fully.

“Sorry girl.” Lance chuckled as Red rumbled, turning toward him. “Just one more. Can’t let Black hurt his wings.”

In response, Red let out a low growl, stepping back and heading with Lance toward the largest Lion. Keith’s lion.

Keith followed, because what else could he do? Red had never just up and walked with him. And the way she was moving, smooth and easy... That didn’t feel like how Keith had ever experienced her. The Red he knew was snappish, and felt like playing with fire, all electric and nerves, like he could lose control and burn himself at any second.

This wasn’t control, or pilot and ship. This was a relationship that he and Black didn’t yet have.

Red and Lance were friends.

“Keith, can you get Black to stay relaxed?” Lance questioned as Red stepped up beside Black.

Nodding, Keith stepped forward and lay a hand on Black. He could feel his exhaustion, his weakness. The fact that his core was drained and he was in pain.

Relax. He told the Lion, trying to pass a feeling of comfort through their link.

Then a hand fell on his wrist, and he was pushed back gently.

His eyes flicked open - When had I closed them? - to watch as Red drove her claws into the rock, head against Black’s side as she put her entire weight into it.

It was rather impressive, to see her push Black fully onto his stomach, forcing his body to adjust to get his feet underneath him.

“Good girl.” Lance murmured as Red lay down, rumbling. She squished down beside Black, though the other Lion didn’t react. Then he turned to Keith and Hunk.

Which was when Keith became startlingly aware of his the fact that Lance’s hand was still gently wrapped around his wrist. Apparently Lance noticed too, because he dropped Keith’s arm almost immediately.

Keith was a half second from reaching out and taking Lance’s hand again. His hand was tougher, harder, than Keith remembered. Not that he had felt Lance’s hands much, just that he remembered sparring with the other Paladin.

Before he could do that though, Hunk picked up a few more sticks and led them away, toward the cave where the group was hiding out. Nudging past him, Keith sat down on the boxes they had set out. Leaning on the wall just behind Shiro was Lance, eyes downcast to the fire.

...I want to feel your hands again. Keith thought, staring at him. How did he put that into words that didn’t sound creepy?

Keith wanted to feel them again to see if Lance was stronger.

“We should give the Lions some time to recharge before we head back on our way.” Shiro said softly.

“So much has happened in the last few weeks...” Hunk murmured.

“Weeks?” Acxa asked from beside Keith. “What are you talking about?”

“When we last saw, you were fighting us beside Lotor.” Allura said, confused.

“...That was three deca-phoebs ago.” Acxa murmured.

Keith stared for a moment, everyone gone stiff and silent, head racing. ...It couldn’t be...

“No one has seen you since your fight with Lotor.” Acxa continued.

“That’s impossible.” Keith whispered to her, not wanting it to be true. He had already spent two years away, he couldn’t be missing more time-

The fabric covering the cave entrance flapped closed, everyone glancing over for half a second. The black Paladin realized immediately that Lance was gone.

“It’s true.” Acxa said grimly, pulling Keith’s attention back over.

When they were done bitterly staring at their own palms, Acxa stood up and tipped her head. “Hey. Show me to my ship?”

It took Keith a moment to realize she was speaking to him. “Oh. Uh, sure.” He nodded, getting to his feet and following her out, to the desolate planet’s surface.

There was silence for a few seconds as they headed toward the darkly coloured Galra ship parked on an outcropping.

“...Keith.” Acxa said, pausing in front of the ship. “I um, just wanted to tell you...”

He stared, confused. What do you have to tell me? 

“That... I thought you could be someone I talked to.” She smiled softly.

“Uh... Well, we are... allies.” Keith began slowly.

Acxa laughed softly. “Yeah, but I mean that... I felt like I had a connection to you. Someone who might understand, being... half in, half out.”

It hit him with all the subtlety of a runaway ship, but at a bad time because she was leaning in.

“Oh uh-“ Keith reeled back slightly, completely confused as to what do to in this situation. “I’m gay!” He finally squeaked out, staring at Acxa, who stared back. He had thought of her a bit like a sister too.

Then she burst out laughing.

It was a soft noise. Not as soft as Lance’s laugh was now, nor as pretty.

“Alright, I won’t force anything.” She pulled back, and Keith felt himself relax. Knowing that she wouldn’t push it was nice. “...Look, I saw your friend there, too.” She murmured, dropping her eyes. “...Something happen?”

“Not really.” Keith answered quickly, because Acxa didn’t need to know that Lance was... off.

“Ah. I’ve just never seen him...” She broke off.

His own eyes focused elsewhere, drifting up to the ledge where Black was resting, and he saw Lance.

The Cuban boy was laying on Red’s nose, helmet on his lap with his feet crossed over each other. He was leaned on the slanted metal of the space between Red’s eyes with his head tipped back, resting on the Lion.

He seemed remarkably peaceful. In fact, Lance looked the most at peace with himself since he had come back.

“You know, he is nice.” Acxa murmured. Keith spun around with a soft blush, glaring at her as best he could. The laugh he received was unexpected. “Look, I won’t steal anything or say anything. So just... Don’t sit around. You’re too cute to be alone.” She winked.

Unused to the odd, flirty Acxa, Keith sputtered as she slid into her cockpit, then took off, shooting into the sky.

...I’ll talk to him one day. Keith decided.

SO HERE HAVE A QUICK SKETCH FOR ASCUA'S OFFICIAL FORM!!

So she's actually a bit darker than most Zeptrins, and her inside wings are actually lighter than her outside wings. This is a lazy colour, showing off her conducting plasma. 

Feel free to interpret her colours/wing size/shape, if you draw her! There are lots of shades between these basic colours that I've shown!

This week, I can answer some stuff about Ascua's biology too, so ask away!

Chapter Text

When Lance’s head snapped up to the bright, blinding lights, he could already sense the headache that was coming on.

“...we’ve got playing with us today!” An announcer-like voice came from above him as they fell into a gameshow looking place.

“What is this?” Allura murmured in disbelief, blinking around while the others looked as well. Lance’s hand slid to his hip, going for his Shin’shi, when he realized it wasn’t there.

“It’s like... a gameshow.” Hunk said.

His Bayard refused to activate too. “Fuck.” Lance snarled, glaring at his storage bars.

“What’s happening?” Keith asked. Lance only could scan this... place, for any evidence of a weapon.

“I don’t know.” Pidge murmured. “Last I remember, we were all flying in our Lions.”

Which was when some sort of alien on a hoverseat shot over, shoving a microphone thing in Keith’s face. With an unexpected surge of protectiveness, Lance snarled at him, leaning forward.

“Hi there! Tell us your name and where you’re from!” The bubbly alien smiled at Keith, even as he shifted back warily.

After a second, Keith settled back with narrowed eyes. “What is this?”

“Uh oh!” The alien shot past them, grinning at something... in the darkness beyond the stage. “Looks like somebody wasn’t listening to Norlox...”

There was clapping, from the darkness.

Lance snarled softly, this whole situation was making him on edge.

When the cheering of the show name, ‘Garfle Warfle Snick’ rose up, Lance shifted backward again. God’s sake...

Maybe at some point in time, he would’ve liked this. But not anymore.

“That’s right, the name of the game is Garfle Warfle Snick!” The alien said. “Now, tell us your name, son.” The smile as he turned back to Keith was almost casual.

“My name is Keith... how did we get here?” Keith questioned, eyes searching the room. He wasn’t quite... as freaked out as Lance felt, but it was damn close.

C’mon, where’s something... Lance thought, searching.

When Keith was asked to introduce the others, Lance didn’t really pay attention. He was still focused on some way out of this.

When the alien - ‘Bob’ popped into Lance’s head - turned to Keith again, Lance decided to listen in. “Ok, Keith, I’m sure you know how to play our game? All you’ve gotta do is accumulate quaz-cenbullion credits, and you win! Of course, if you don’t... you’ll hear this sound!”

A sad trombone noise played.

“And that means your trapped here in our studio for the rest of eternity!”

Lance’s heart stopped. He had already been trapped in a seemingly inescapable hell for years... But even that had an exit.

Everyone else was already shouting about it, stunned and confused, as Lance was still searching for an exit. There was always an exit.

“Uh oh! Is there an echo in here? Echo in here?” The alien said as he spun away.

“I don’t know who you are, or what’s going on, but we’re getting out of here.” Keith snarled, glaring at him.

The alien chuckled. “Oh, I don’t think so.”

With a snap of his fingers, Lance couldn’t move his feet.

Fuck! FUCK! He wanted to scream, like he was chained up again, in that fucking Galra prison, in the middle of Hell, killing to keep alive-

“Lance.” Allura had leaned over to grab his arm, behind Hunk. Head snapping up to face her, eyes wide, Lance could feel everything, her urgency, her comfort. “...You need to breathe.”

“Head down.” Hunk instructed softly, staring at the alien even as he put a hand on Lance’s back, encouraging him to lower down a tiny bit, lean on the metal thing in front of them. With a nod, Lance dropped himself to rest his elbows on the desk, lacing his fingers together and laying his head on his hands.

He had forgotten to breathe. Completely.

“See, all of you are guests on my show.” Bob said, though the words rung in Lance’s ears. Suddenly, his voice was echoing, a demonic tone. “And you will play my game as long as I want you to.”

And then it was gone. “Understand?”

Everyone but Keith and Lance nodded, worried about the whole ‘never leaving thing’.

Lance, meanwhile was still trying to get his breath back. Useless. Fucking useless.

“Great!” Bob purred, grinning. “Let’s start with our first warfler! Tell us what it is, Norlox.”

“The first warfler is... pictation!” The other alien called out.

Hunk’s hand was still on Lance’s back, grounding him as he finally straightened up, sighing. “‘m good.” He murmured to Hunk. “Sorry.”

“It’s ok.” Hunk smiled softly, nodding.

Abruptly, Keith was shot away from them, much to the shock and horror of the others. “Keith!” Lance shouted, trying to grab Keith’s wrist before he was snatched onto the stage, but he missed.

“Come on over here, Keith.” Bob grinned. “Pictation the drawing game... Now, Keith, the answers will pop up on your screen, where your team can’t see them. So it’s up to you to draw the people and places you’ve seen during your adventures as a Paladin of Voltron while your team tries to guess the answers.”

Keith stared at the pen for a moment, then toward the other Paladins. Lance met his eyes, gently nodding his head. Just go with it. We’ll get out of here alive. He thought, focusing on not moving his feet.

Because that was going to spiral him again.

“Are you a good artist, Keith?”

“I, uh...”

There was a flash of something as Bob continued. “Well, I hope you’re a better drawer than a talker, huh?”

Everyone stared for a long time.

Keith’s hair was in a top ponytail. With a child’s soother in his mouth.

As hard as Lance wanted to laugh, no sound came out. Something deeply disturbing was going on, and it was starting to get weirder with every moment in this place.

When Zarkon, Haggar, Lotor and some... other random Galra showed up, Lance’s hand slapped to his side, shifting backward into the best stance he could get. Keith too was matching his position. What I wouldn’t give for my fucking Bayard.

And then the Galra fucking won.

What.

“Windy... Cave?” Keith asked slowly.

“I didn’t get better at Pictionary since I left Earth.” Lance muttered with a shrug, forcing his leg to relax.

Then Lotor shouted about lifelike renderings and they had a quick family argument, shouting at each other over the game board.

“Family, am I right?” Bob said.

Lance could only glare at his hands as he struggled a tiny bit in the cuffs. “God...” He muttered softly.

“The solo card!” Bob called, abruptly waking Lance from his thoughts to the lights. “That means one of these Paladins is going to take the next warfler alone. Question is, Zarkon... who is it going to be

“Well... There’s not too much choice here... I’m going with the dumb one.” The dead emperor exclaimed.

There was a few seconds of silence.

“...Who’s he talking about?” Pidge murmured, confused. Lance could only look over and shrug, not knowing who to go to.

None of them were stupid.

“It’s time for a word from our sponsors!” Bob announced as the Paladins were looking between each other. “But when we get back, Lance will be doing the next warfler, alone.”

“Lance?” Hunk gave the alien a questioning look.

“Lance?!” Keith hissed darkly.

What the fuck are you implying, you fucking shit. Lance’s jaw twisted into a snarl, wanting to lunge forward. Instead, he was drawn forward, close toward the alien in his floating chair. He glared at Bob, silent.

“Right before the break, Zarkon played a solo card and chose a Paladin to play alone... And the Paladin he chose was the dumb one, Lance.” Bob waved a singular of his four arms at Lance who had been brought close. “Hey Lance how’s it going?”

Lance growled, glaring him down. “I’d appreciate not being called dumb.”

The alien nodded. “I guess I can see that. Well, you have a chance to prove how smart you are right here.” He smiled. “Norlox, tell Lance what the next warfler is.”

“The next warfler is... Faces from the Past!”

“Ah, a little walk down memory lane!” Ben exclaimed. “You know how this game works, right Lance?”

“I can guess.” Lance shrugged.

Then Bob shot closer to his face, and Lance almost punched him. “What do you think, audience? Do we believe this beautiful dum-dum?”

There was cries of ‘no!’

“I believe you, Lance, but just for the folks at home, we’ll go through it...” Bob smiled.

After the explanation, Lance nodded. “I can do that.”

“Well, this time, we’re going to mix it up a little bit.” The alien gave him a sly grin. “Recently, I hear that you went on an adventure, all by your lonesome!”

Lance’s heart dropped to his toes.

“So, nobody else but you can compete in this one... but just to be doubly sure... Lower the isolation shield!”

A tube slammed down on top of Lance, who immediately put his hands on it. “What the fuck...” He snarled, echoing in the tube.

Then, a scrolling flash of faces, their names, their memories flashing in his head like a rapid, continuous lash of a whip.

It finally slowed, showing a pale orange snake that Lance recognized quite well. She had-

It switched on the last second to a clear, four-armed crystal being.

“...Her name is Iitri.” Lance murmured softly.

“You gotta say it louder.” Bob grinned.

Lance’s eyes widened, then snapped to the side. He couldn’t say her name again. This was all bad.

There was a loud BZZT that said he had gotten it wrong.

“Her name is Iitri!” Bob practically shouted, right before the wheel began spinning again. “Alright Lance...”

It landed on a pale violet, snakelike head and shoulders that Lance took a moment to click into, before it switched to a similar face that had Lance’s stomach in his throat, bile rising “...His name is Weneq.”

“Louder, Lance!”

Lance choked, spinning away with a hand over his mouth. He was going to throw up. Or scream. Or both.

The BZZT came for that one too.

It scrolled through a few different people before going to a green Dira. Then it switched again. A mouthless face appeared, brown and green with sharp eyes and armless shoulders, huge wings cresting either side. “Yaqui.”

“Call it out, Lance!”

The words sounded like they were underwater. Even the BZZT was distant.

“One more wrong, Lance, and I’ll need to press this button and send you to the lair of the Snick!”

The ice creature was a lot like a gigantic bug, though it roared at the camera like a beast.

The wheel scrolled, landing on a blue Atrox, before it switched to a bluish-indigo-navy B’hra, with gray markings on her face, slightly scarred and missing scales. She had a smirk, confidence, with shadows behind her eyes.

Lance could see them through the picture, simply because he knew how she felt. “...Ru’al.” He breathed.

“Say it!”

“HER NAME IS RU’AL!” Lance spun around and screamed it, crouching slightly down after that, hands wrapped around his head softly. He was going to cry, in about thirty seconds.

“That’s right! You are not gonna get fed to the Snick!” Bob cheered. “Sorry Zarkon, looks like you’re going home. But, since he’s here anyway, let’s bring him out, ladies and gentlemen, star of the hit stick-com, Bii-Boh Me, the one and only, Bii-Boh-Bi!”

Lance had enough ability to straighten up, trying to breathe fully again. That had felt a lot like a panic attack, but... harsher. Not quite as... stressful, but definitely more painful.

They explained to him the next game, which he nodded, and then did his best to interpret whatever the hell Bii-Boh-Bi was trying to say before the worm high above his head started descending to eat him.

Finally, he took a chance, just saying back the best he could do, practically screaming the last ones. He already felt like his brain was screaming at him, just as the snake clamped itself down on the glass.

The floor rose below him, like an elevator that finally ended up dropping him in the boiling stuff. “...Fuck.” He muttered.

Everything warped right after Pidge hit the... thing, recording them.

There was a shattering noise before she launched herself at Bob, pouncing him to the ground. “Hell yes.” Lance hissed...

Right before he was standing at the stage again.

“Looks like the Paladins have made it to the final round!” Bob exclaimed. “One of you will now be allowed to leave the game... The rest of you will be staying here with me forever.” He glid slightly away, glaring at Pidge. “You have blazzle hoochas to write down your choice for who should get to escape on the screen in front of you.”

Then walls came up between them, making Lance jump. Chaos brings order. He told himself, brain still feeling like he had pounded it with a hammer.

He picked up the pen. Allura? Princess of Altea? He wondered. She could rebuild the colony. Then he paused. He could choose to free any of them, really. Any of them should get out. Hunk was his best friend, Pidge was brilliant, and Keith...

Keith.

Black Paladin, their leader, could find more Paladins. Keith was half-Galra, making him both human, and one of the most dominant species in the universe.

He wrote the name.

When they all stood up, and the walls went down, Lance listened to their reasoning. Hunk picked Allura. Allura selected Pidge.

Then it was his turn. “...I chose Keith.” He murmured. “He’s our leader, and half-Galra. So... he’s the future.”

Keith voted for him.

“Lance? Why Lance?”

“...I think he has the best chance of rebuilding Voltron, on his own.” Keith said coolly.

Lance got a weird feeling in his chest. Like something was squirming.

Pidge voted for Hunk.

And just like that, they had won.

Lance shot awake to a panicking Red, roaring slightly, jumpy, as he grabbed back to the sticks and held her steady. “Whoa girl, whoa...”

The rational part of his brain said that had been one fucked up dream. The other part said that it wasn’t a dream.

That was the same part that knew that the Hewin zone was messing with him.

He got up as the others talked about seeing Bob, finding the Ran’jun crystal and sitting back down with it lighting up in his hand, gleaming between his fingers. Ascua made a soft noise at him, curling on his lap. “...I’m ok, girl.”

“Hey, Lance?” Hunk called to him.

“Yeah?”

“We’re landing.”

Lance suddenly realized that, they were indeed. “Alright, Red.” He murmured, swooping overhead a few times to ensure that nothing was chasing them before landing a bit off. Apparently, the other Lions were still very... Awkward, around Red. Between her movement, and her new abilities...

They’ll have questions. Red seemed to say.

“I know.” Lance sighed. “...maybe I can answer a few.”

When he walked out, he felt everyone’s eyes land on her. They had seen him nearly break down in the middle of all that, memories officially driving him mad. That, and the fact that he hadn’t slept well over a few days...

He sat down heavily at the edge of the fire, cross-legged and with Ascua at his side. In his hand, the Ran’jun crystal still lay. He hadn’t even noticed he had taken it with him.

“...Hey, Lance...” Hunk came over and sat nearby as Krolia and Keith got the fire up. “...You alright?”

There were a few moments where his brain went both silent and loud, two separate halves of him at war with each other. “...I think I should... Tell you guys... something.” Lance said slowly, before he could tell himself not to. It prompted everyone to stare at him, partially in concern and partially in shock.

The Princess moved forward. “Lance, you don’t... need to, if you don’t want to.”

“I won’t be able to say everything.” Lance murmured. “Not everything. Not today. But... you guys are my teammates.” Eyes focused on the Ran’jun crystal between his hands, Lance let it’s flickering lights distract him from his own, confusing mind. “...I should tell you.” He shut his eyes, mentally assembling himself.

“Lance...” Hunk blinked at him, almost reaching out.

Shrugging him off, Lance glared at his hands. “...Sector Space is like what happens if you put aggressive Galra with no compunction for killing a Paladin of Voltron in a maze of empty spaces and death planets.” He explained slowly. “Sometimes there’s nothing at all. Sometimes there’s planets everywhere.”

“...It sounds a lot like here..?” Pidge muttered, confused.

“It’s not. I’m talking you can’t see the stars, for days on end, they’re the dimmest little things in the distance and it’s silent!” Lance snapped, glaring at her. She looked at him in something between sympathy and pity. “...So silent.”

There was a pause.

“...I was dead out here for a week,” Lance said, almost flippantly. “but in Sector Space? I was there for... Two years.” He shrugged. “Well, a bit more. A deca-phoeb and nine phoebs. So like...” Running the quick conversion, he turned back to them. “...Two years and three months?”

Everyone had gone pale and sobered, though Coran’s eyes narrowed in a pensive expression that seemed odd on the older alien’s face. “...You have a very good grip of Universal Standard Timing, Lance.”

Keith and Krolia looked sad, but not... Surprised, he noticed.

With a mirthless chuckle, Lance nodded, running a hand through his hair. “That kinda comes with living in Sector Space and having time as the one thing that stays... normal. To you.”

Keith was staring at him now. Everyone was. Lance ploughed on, before his brain could tell him to stop.

“...Sector Space has Galra in it. And spacefaring species that fight them. On two planets, Red received upgrades, and a repaint.”

“Is that why she moves so... differently?” Pidge asked.

Lance nodded, gripping the crystal. “...It’s not pretty in there. It’s not because nobody’s afraid of the Galra. Nobody, from the... people who didn’t even know who Voltron was, to the most advanced species I’ve met.”

Coran and Allura’s eyebrows narrowed at that.

“...Nobody’s afraid of the Galra in there. So when fights go down...” He shut his eyes, memories finally catching up to him. “...When fights g-go down, they’re always bloody, it’s kill or be killed.” He choked slightly. “...So y-yeah. It’s not great.” He finished, because he had no idea what else to say.

Then he turned around and ran toward Red, hiding in her cockpit until he could breathe again.

“...Lance?” A voice called into Red, jolting him awake.

Groaning, he pushed himself upright, back crackling in protest. Leaned against Red’s cockpit glass was not the best way to sleep, though he had known that before. It felt like his body had flatlined, lack of sleep closing the gap the instant his body let out enough tension to rest.

From the disorientation and dreamlessness, he must’ve been out cold.

Which was when someone ran over to him and dropped to their knees, seeming worried. Lance knew that they probably thought he had passed out, being slumped over and then looking around in confusion. “‘m good, just fell asleep.” He murmured to the person, finally blinking enough to turn up and look at his would-be rescuer.

Keith.

“You were gone for a few hours.” Keith said, looking him over.

“Took an impromptu nap.” Lance nodded, waving him off, then stretching slightly. He still felt wobbly, his brain not online and not wanting to be. He didn’t really feel like he was waking up worth a damn.

Keith, oddly, stayed knelt beside him with a hand on his shoulder as Lance cracked his spine again, using Red’s window to pull himself upright. Apparently, a few hours of rest were long enough for his body to remember that food was a thing he needed.

After a thankful nod to Keith, Lance made a beeline to the storage box, squatting down to grab a packet of water, then food. “Want one?” He asked softly, glancing to the other as he simply punched a hole in the water pack and sucked it out. It was more efficient than straws.

“Uh... sure.” Keith murmured, and so Lance tossed him a second pack. He wasn’t finding it easy to eat the food Hunk made. Solids that were non-meat were still a bit edgy on his stomach, and considering that half the time he wasn’t even hungry, the food packs just became his go-to regardless.

He had no idea what the hell he was going to do when he got to Earth.

Keith had been sceptically staring at the mildly orange-tan of the food goo, before he followed Lance’s lead and opened the corner, going to suck some of it out.

Watching Keith recoil with a choked, disgusted noise, face twisting up in a near-green wince, was one of the funniest things Lance had seen.

He laughed at it, briefly attracting Keith’s attention, before the black Paladin attempted to go for another taste, like he hoped it would get better.

“You don’t have to eat it.” Lance chuckled.

“Thank you.” Keith grunted, quick to put the packet down. “How do you eat that?”

Shrugging, then sighing, Lance picked up the discarded pack to put in the little recycle box that Red had. “You get used to it.” Then he thought about something. “...You didn’t have to eat these, when you were... uh, in the space rift?”

“Um... No?”

You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me. I can’t eat solids because I spent two years in Sector Space, but this asshole has been eating normally this whole time?

Lance huffed, removing the corner of the packet from his mouth. “...Fair enough.” He muttered softly, putting the mostly-finished packet in the recycle box.

They sat in silence for a bit longer as Lance checked the time, wincing at the fact that he had only spent one, maybe two vargas asleep, and petted Ascua.

Lance didn’t want to talk, didn’t need to. Not anymore.

After a while, Keith left with a soft smile. Lance felt oddly like they were on the same wavelength.

They didn’t need to speak.

SO HOLY SHIT YOU GUYS

YOU FUCKERS GAVE ME FANART??? W H A T????

THANKS SO MUCH LIKE??? IM SO FUCKING HONORED???

Please credit my bro the artist at @hannahstrom.art  They do great work, and they did a spectacular job on Ascua here!

Please check out Flyingjerk at Tumblr, they did this amazing image of Lance and Ascua, and they said it was a bit abandoned but hey, CREDIT

Chapter Text

They were gliding through the expanse of space, most people still asleep as their Lions carried them safely across the sky.

Krolia was awake, exercising again behind Keith as he watched the stars pass. He was bored, which was odd because he almost never got bored. Normally there was more to do, people to talk to.

But last night he had woken up early, and couldn’t go back to sleep. He didn’t want to lose the others, so he simply sat at Black’s helm and let the Lion have the steering.

They were passing by a nebula, teal and silvery, stars distant, different strands of rocks and pieces swirling in a large, deep cloud. The gaseous mass spread out in a kaleidoscope of brilliance, amber lines tracing throughout the more common aqua, giving him the vague impression of a gemstone. He was simply watching the slowly gliding gasses, when Red abruptly shot past him.

Almost immediately, he grabbed the handles of Black’s helm, going to shout for the others to wake up, they were under attack, before Krolia stopped him with a hand on his arm.

“We’re not being attacked.” She murmured, eyes tracing the dark red streak as the Lion of Fire peeled off from the others, into the nebula that effortlessly seemed to swirl around her.

Leisurely, she barrel-rolled through it, paws extending in front of herself, the faintest glow of her thrusters the only sign that she was actively pushing them. Red, in a lot of ways, was now the stealthiest one among them, with her elegant motions and beautiful gliding, as well as silent, invisible thrusters.

But this was... something else.

Red moved naturally, effortlessly, as gaseous teals and silvers swirled over her body in glittering waves.

Arching her back, she turned a loop, easily dipping through the nebula as she seemed to play, enjoy herself in it. Keith couldn’t feel her, not anymore, and he couldn’t hear her at the distance, but he could see that she was having fun.

It was unique, to watch a Lion of Voltron travel like she did. She and Lance were clearly used to longer hours flying, because whenever the Lions stopped for a rest, Red and Lance would fly around, scouting.

But this wasn’t scouting. This was raw enjoyment, freedom of movement and ability.

Dipping lower, Red squeezed herself between two small meteoroids, spinning free with a languid pounce and sliding around another, significantly smaller meteor that she could’ve shoved out of the way.

Watching her spin slowly down and away, moving like Blue did in water, was mesmerizing. Not even Black moved like she could, so effortless and alive.

It was a while of dancing among the smoke before she shot ahead, bursting free of the nebula’s reach with gaseous lines trailing from her body as she streaked into the distance, far away from them in a span of seconds, before she moved back into formation, relaxing and returning to gliding as if nothing had happened.

“Paladins, wake up.” Keith called when Red had settled back into the set. “Time for training.”

He tuned out the loud complaints of the others as they slowly woke up, though Lance’s call came in quickly, said he was awake, and vanished again. Red didn’t seem to be bothered by the others waking, shifting around. When Green nearly bumped into her, she simply rose above the smaller cat, giving her the moving room she didn’t have.

When they were all awake, Keith let them settle into formation before loading the simulation.

Krolia grabbed the microphone. “I’ve been designing these for several quintants, but this time I’d like to see how you handle this one while you cannot communicate with your fellow Paladins. If a Galra ship were to cast a shield or communications mute, then you could be forced to work in a group, when you can’t speak.”

The simulation loaded, an ice planet with various geysers of concealed methane shooting up at random intervals. Hitting them would result in an explosion.

Krolia smirked. “Everyone, your comm systems will be shut off, except for this channel. Be prepared for my mark.”

There was a long pause as Keith, and everyone else, shut off their comms and prepared for battle, Green shuffling out her tail as Blue glanced around, Yellow growling. Red didn’t move. “...Begin in three... two... one.”

Red’s airbrakes flared the second they began, falling through the fake Galra ships in nearly a second, smashing two with just claws as she flipped backward, immediately unleashing a torrent of blue flame through the biggest one, spinning far to the side of the others and vanishing behind a simulated cliff.

“Lance!” Keith shouted, before realizing that his mic was off this round.

Green and Yellow were working well to dodge the Galra’s shots and watch each other’s backs, as Blue fell in with Black, Keith focusing on the quick, light ships chasing them with his tail cannon. Blue kept the path clear, but it was painfully obvious they had split too far up.

Keith slowly started moving toward Green and Yellow, attempting to lead Blue. The Princess was clearly paying attention, because the four fell into even flight patterns, allowing them to aid and assist each other.

Unseen to anyone, Lance was still fighting. According to Keith’s map, he wasn’t actually that far away, but a swarm of fighters was behind him.

Before, in training sessions, Lance had always listened, stayed with the group, done every order Keith threw at him.

“Has he not... lost, yet?” Krolia breathed, staring at the map with astonished eyes.

Abruptly, new opponents shot from the side, and Yellow’s dot went offline. “Damnit. I got hit.” Hunk said as his comm came back on.

Allura was just about to get caught, when Red streaked around a corner just in front of them, within a few feet of the ground, claws barely brushing the edge of the simulation’s ice as she abruptly stopped, summoned her fire cannon, and held.

The other Lions barely passed her before several geysers of methane rose up close to the Galra ships.

And Lance shot the fire cannon through the geyser.

The whole area exploded, milliseconds for Red to escape quickly vanishing as Black, Blue and Green spun around. “What is he-“

Red stepped into the flames, and unleashed Hell.

She took off within the next few seconds because she was getting buried by gunfire, but after that, Lance and Red were back to systematically destroying everything in range.

Which was when Keith realized the point of the exercise. ...It’s not about escaping. It’s about turning... and fighting as one, even when we can’t talk.

Wheeling Black around, Keith fell in line with Red, struggling to keep up with the other Lion, but slowly realizing there was a pattern to Lance’s motions. Like stepping him through a spar.

After a few moments, Blue and Green joined as well, just as Red dropped out, faster than he had ever seen her move, flaring her paws to a deadstop, then lunging upward and clawing viciously into the belly of the large ship.

It vanished, and the simulation ended, comms linking back up.

“That was amazing! How did you know facing them would work?” Pidge asked.

Keith glanced to Red, returning to formation as they continued farther and farther into space. “...it made sense.” He glanced to Krolia, who was watching Red as she lined back up.

It was another eight vargas of flying before they found a suitable rock to land on, a small planet on the end of the Alaki belt. Covered in thick forest, it was hard to find a landing site.

Red once again did her graceful ground-pounce, coming to an elegant stop beside Black. Her head swiveled, and Keith nearly jumped.

She looked at him. Not Lance, turning to check that Black was alright, but Red herself. He could feel her eyes focus, feel them slide over Black’s body, through the glass of Black’s eyes and at him.

It was unlike anything she had ever done with him. Even when she had first become his Lion, lunging from that ship with her jaws wide.

Lance came out almost immediately, Ascua swooping behind him effortlessly. She hit his shoulder, tail wrapping effortlessly around his chest as her wings flared just around his head. “I’ll go hunting.” He stated, holding his rifle.

“I’m coming with you!” Hunk called, starting after Lance with a smile.

To Keith, and everyone else’s surprise, Krolia stepped forward. “I will come.” She stated clearly. “Hunk, help make camp. Lance and I will hunt.”

Lance’s eyes narrowed, but he said nothing, turning and walking into the woods as Ascua swooped from his shoulder, flying ahead.

Watching their retreating backs, Keith stayed silent until Krolia vanished into the underbrush, then turned to the others to help lay out camp.

KROLIA

Her son had told her much about the other Paladins that he had worked with, but the ‘cocky, sassy Lance with more skill than he gives himself credit for’ was not the same Lance she met.

Krolia knew hardened warriors. She liked to hope that she was one, in many ways. Kolivan, Thace, Ulaz... All were spies and warriors, toughened by the trials and the fighting they had done, bloody and brutal things, for the Galra Empire.

The boy Keith had described was no hardened warrior. A good teammate, support as a sniper, but no forward fighter.

The predator stalking through the trees, occasionally glancing to the winged creature Ascua for guidance and direction was a bitter veteran with blood on his hands, a history. He felt like another Blade, another member’s hopeful soul darkened by the reality they faced every day.

That the rest of the Galra wanted them dead.

He moved light and soft, seeming near invisible, which Krolia had previously though impossible in such bright, stark armour, but somehow he made it work.

When he came to obstacles that Ascua simply flew over, he vaulted them and kept up with her, seeming almost to ignore Krolia entirely. As though she was an extra in the hunt.

Ascua suddenly plunged through the leaves, landing up on a branch just above Lance’s head with a low rumble, staring straight forward. The Paladin’s Bayard came out, rising into his sniper rifle without a thought, falling comfortably in his hands. He levelled it on something that Krolia’s nose couldn’t pick up on.

Most Blades chose things other than guns when they could. Galra weren’t the sharpest eyes in the Galaxy, certainly not, but neither were soft, squishy humans.

Krolia barely had time for that thought before there was the soft snap of the gun, and Lance was vaulting the bush wall between him and whatever he had hit.

She was quick to respond as well, following him through the forest as Ascua dove across the path, into a bush.

Lance stopped to a halt beside an odd animal. It wasn’t overly large. Smaller than an Earth Deer. Four legs, a long muzzle. Forward eyes with a short tail and long, tentacle-like horns. It’s shaggy fur covered thin, diamond scales, as the Paladin tracked it’s body over with a scanner before stopping at it’s feet.

“...It’s got poison in it’s back hooves.” Lance said, glancing it over. “So we’ll need to carry it carefully.”

Without much further instruction or command, he grabbed it’s forelegs, and pulled it closer with a grunt as he forced himself to stand up. Krolia noticed, abruptly, the way his body shifted and twisted slightly on itself with the weight.

He was too thin for his size, stress and lack of solids having eaten him to a hard, slim fighter, all tendons and wire-taut muscle.

Not enough to lift the heavy body he had killed. Being underweight eventually took it’s toll, even the Galra feeding their soldiers well.

She was quick to dart closer and grab the creature from Lance. Staggering slightly as his weight was forced to shift, Lance nodded politely to Krolia. She brought up a hand and helped him steady.

“Thanks.” He murmured, calling Ascua down to him.

For a while they walked in silence, before Krolia finally spoke up. “Keith has told me a lot about you.”

Lance seemed to chuckle, then shake his head a bit as they walked. “...I guess I’m not what you expected, then.”

There was another few moments of quiet, which Krolia took to assess him. He appeared bigger and tougher, scars standing clear, from the picture that Keith had shown.

It was the same boy. But this one was older.

“...You said you were in Sector Space.” Krolia said coolly. “...The entrance was mentioned in a report, I once read.” She murmured, noticing that he turned toward her with a distinctly curious expression, hidden behind a layer of cool indifference. “It was said that rarely, ships would vanish out the light of a rare pulsar-“

“That’s the exit.” Lance interrupted. “It’s a blue pulsar, and it’s where the Galra and B’hra leave Sector Space.”

Krolia tilted her head, even as she adjusted the beast’s body on her shoulder. “The... B’hra?”

With a shrug and a vague nod, Lance’s hand fell to the hilt of the strange blade on his hip. “They’re... an advanced species. As advanced as the Alteans were.”

The older Galra blinked. As advanced... as the Alteans?

“They...” Lance began, then shut his mouth, turning away. He reminded Krolia of Vortan. Vortan was a young Blade, a new one, who saw his first combat. He was the one member of his squad, who made it out alive. Then he spent movements cutting himself off mid sentence whenever he went into something regarding the mission.

“...Lance.” Krolia stopped him with a single hand on Lance’s shoulder. Her son liked this one, and to her, he was too similar to Vortan, to other Blades. “...I do understand. Being in a place that... is not a simple task.”

Undercover. Her own species, people, wanting her dead for believing in something else. A gun trained to her throat for any mistake.

Lance’s body had gone taut. Sharp.

“So, if you... would like to talk, at some point.” Krolia continued softly. “...I will be here.”

There was a long period wherein Krolia wondered if Lance had even listened to her, or if he had just, completely shut down.

Then, slowly, he nodded. “...Ok.”

Krolia dipped her head in response. That was all she could ask.

LANCE

It was the middle of the planet’s night-cycle when Lance slid from Red, glancing up at her as her eyes gleamed, carefully rising to her feet with a near-silent shift of weight.

Ascua glid overhead before Lance called her down. “Watch them.” He told her, before tossing her upward, watching as she swooped toward the Black Lion to stand on his nose.

“C’mon girl.” Lance encouraged, rolling his eyes at Ascua before he turned and headed off, down the narrow, worn path of dirt that they had considered landing on earlier, but hadn’t. The Lions would’ve been spread farther apart, due to their sizes.

However, it was perfectly large enough for one Red Lion, and her Paladin. Silent, brilliant... Just them, at peace.

Shiro would call it bonding, but Lance figured that they didn’t need to straight-up bond anymore. They were bonded. Close as a Lion and Paladin got.

The trees of the planet were slightly luminescent, glowing brighter when Red brushed past them, occasionally going ahead and straight up poking her nose into a tree to get the result.

He really loved it. Red being able to move on her own let her personality reveal itself, show off, and she was a showoff. Which made sense.

Lowering her head to the ground, Red let out a low rumble to Lance, head close to his body. He recognized the question in her growl, her tone, and thought briefly back to Krolia, even as he slid his thumbs into the band of his belt and let his arms relax. “No, Red, I’m fine.” He shrugged, reaching an arm over to gently pat the side of her jaw.

Seemingly satisfied, Red stood back up straight.

For a while, they just walked, enjoying each other’s company in the still evening.

Then Lance caught Ascua’s screech over the trees.

“Fuck, shit!” He shouted, spinning around. I knew it! I should’ve stayed! Damnit!

One of Red’s massive paws landed just in front of him, and a thought came through her connection.

“...Got it.” He stated darkly, shooting up her paw and clinging to the section with the best grip. Red didn’t hesitate to pick her foot from the ground, holding it close to her chest as she shot back toward camp, even with Lance climbing her body, into her jaw, and snatching the handles before he was even fully sat down.

Shooting from the forest floor with a roar, Red streaked high above the trees and the other Lions, locating the Galra ship in an instant.

It was about twice the size of a Lion, but nowhere near as tough. Even as it rained fire and shots down on the confused and disjointed Voltron team below, Lance ploughed into it’s side with teeth and claws, quick to pull it down into the forest and fire cannon shot after cannon shot through it.

The ship burned beneath Red’s claws, not even having enough left of it to explode. Once he was done, he shot back around, lunging toward the clearing.

Swooping overtop of his team, Lance turned on the broadband comms. “Everyone up! Listen to me and listen fast!” He barked.

“‘m here, I’m up!” Hunk shouted. Appearing frazzled and exhausted, with an edge of fear, he seemed near-panic.

“Lance, what are you-“ Keith began as Black struggled to stand.

Pidge appeared next, adjusting her glasses, as Allura shot to the helm too. “Lance, we’re under attack!”

“I noticed!” Half-snapping, Lance swivelled to focus on the sky as Red’s mouth opened to welcome Ascua back inside. “There’s no fleet, but there are several scout ships.” He stated. “Get off the ground. I’ll get us an exit, but stay behind me.”

He charged through the second scout ship, just as Black and the others took off, staying close to Red’s hindquarters as she clawed the third one open with fast, hard swipes.

When a larger, carrier ship (not nearly so large as a true Battleship, but big) appeared through the atmosphere, shimmering with it’s vile purple lights and dark colours, Lance gunned it. “Lance?!” Keith shouted at him.

“Stay to my sides!” Lance barked in order, slamming his Bayard into it’s slot, turning it, and forcing Red into a somersault.

The fire-blast from the railgun tore the ship in half.

Swerving to the side, Lance guided his team away from the ensuing explosion, and neatly back into space.

They were sloppy to get into formation, and slow to react when Red turned, but they were out and safe. “...Everyone alright?” Keith asked, voice still mildly rough from sleep.

“‘m alright.” Hunk said first, shaking himself out. “Holy... where did those come from?”

“I... I don’t know.” Pidge murmured, disbelieving. “The Green Lion picked up nothing.”

Lance kept going as Green and Blue shuffled around, still trying to get themselves settled as their Paladins seemed to be afraid of settling.

“We should land...” Keith paused. “Again.”

In the back of his mind, Red growled. “No.” Lance snapped immediately. “We have to keep moving. If the first one I took out didn’t send out a distress signal, the second one definitely did and the third one confirmed it.”

Keith groaned, screen loading up to show him rubbing his face, looking tired. When the other screens loaded, Lance noted how everyone looked tired.

“Lance, c’mon-“ Hunk began, Yellow even starting to peel toward a planet.

“No.”

Lance pushed Red forward, and she spun out from the front of the group, stopping in front of Yellow with a snarl. Her claws were spread, mouth slightly opened and tail lashing.

Allura gasped. “Lance, what are you-“

“Lance.” Keith rumbled dangerously, though Lance knew he wasn’t above dragging him back into line either.

“We stop moving now, we’ll be dealing with this for the next quintant.” Lance stated, eyes flicking between the stopped Lions, particularly focused on Yellow, a low growl rumbling under Lance’s hands, in the back of his mind.

His fingers flexed, stretching over the handles.

“Lance, just let us down. We can-“

“Hunk I swear to God, if you try to push past me right now I will drag you back into line.” Lance snarled. “...I’ve done this before.” His skin felt too tight. Everything felt too close. “Now. Stay behind me, and push fast.” He snapped. It seemed like it was chafing over his mind, gunshots and close escapes.

Everyone went silent.

Then, when Lance turned and slowly started back up, around to the head of the group, Hunk followed. They all did.

It was several vargas later when Lance finally let them land, steering into an asteroid field and finding caved rock to hide in. “Over here.” Lance instructed.

Everyone had fallen silent about two vargas ago, too tired to keep talking. Several times, Lance had to circle around and push one of them back into formation.

They settled in quickly. Lance had pushed them to their limits the whole time, and the other Lions were probably exhausted. Red was still buzzing underneath him, the closest a Lion came to having an adrenaline rush.

On a compulsive note, Lance nudged Red forward, circling their temporary base with sharp and nervous motions.

By the time he returned, everyone had gone to sleep. Probably mad at him.

That’s fine. I’m not here for you to like. Lance thought as Red settled down. I’m here to keep you alive.

With a soft rumble, Red passed her best reassurance to him. He was doing fine. He was keeping his team alive.

“Thanks Red.” Lance murmured, pressing his head against the side of Red’s cockpit, eyes shutting in tired relief. He felt burned out, the echo of blasters roaring in his ears. “I’m gonna... Go take a walk.”

He stepped onto the asteroid, feeling the gravity shift from Red to the odd rock. Padding across the rock, Lance simply stared off into space and took a soft breath. He was exhausted, but he couldn’t focus. He couldn’t... think.

He sat on the edge of the rock, putting his feet out into the expanse of the stars. After he leaned back on a slightly larger rock, Lance sighed, and shut his eyes. ...Sorry, guys. He thought to the unhearing Paladins.

Somewhere in the back of his mind though, it wouldn’t stop screaming. This was no longer his place. His home.

Not anymore. He had lost that along with his innocence somewhere back over the skies of T’branin. Fuck it.

Then he heard footsteps.

One hand fell to his Shin’shi, other planting so he could spin upright to cut into his opponent, and-

“Lance?” Hunk called softly. Almost immediately, Lance breathed the tension from his lungs. It was just his teammate, his friend. Then he winced. He’s probably pissed.

“Hey, Hunk.” Lance murmured, eyes shutting for a brief moment. His mouth opened to say something, but he wouldn’t get the words out. He wouldn’t apologize for saving them.

“...hey, so uh... earlier, I did a few long-range scans.” Hunk began, hands laced together, thumbs twiddling nervously. “...and I learned that there were lots of Galra drones that... followed our path.” He murmured.

Lance was almost ready to stand up, get back into Red and chase the stupid small ships away. Lead them far from his team, so they’d be safe.

“...but they missed us. You were right.” Hunk mumbled. “You... we would’ve been caught. A few times over.” There was a pause, Lance listening to him breathe for a moment. “...you pushed us so we wouldn’t.”

Glancing to her, Lance tensed slightly. He knew they would’ve been caught without any scans. Even with different tactics, the Galra still would’ve chased them. Apparently, Lance was the only one who had recognized that. Without proof that Hunk had found anyway. After all, he knew enough about travel and tracking anyway.

“...so, thanks.” Hunk finished after a while. “I just... Sorry I tried to fly off.”

“...it’s ok.” Because it really was. He didn’t need them to like him or apologize.

When he didn’t say anything else, Hunk nodded, then headed back off to Yellow for some well-earned sleep after listening to Lance earlier.

Lance stayed where he was. He was going to watch over them tonight.

KEITH

Keith was mad.

Lance took over his command, snapped at them all, and threatened to fight Hunk. Then, he proceeded to make them fly for nearly another 8 hours without break, before he brought them to a stopping point.

So yeah. He was mad.

Storming toward Red, Keith glanced up at her. “Hey! Tell your Paladin his leader wants to speak with him!” He shouted, expecting her to growl at him, but listen.

He wasn’t expecting Red to spin on a dime, claws slamming into the dirt either side of him as her head shot forward, very nearly bumping into him, pale yellow eyes glaring in rage. She was growling viciously as he had fallen to the ground. This was the Red that Keith recognized. Raging flame. Snappish. Fury.

It was terrifying from the outside.

But then something broke into his head, through Black’s connection, and in a deeper and substantially more frightening voice than he remembered Red having, she roared at him.

HE. WAS. PROTECTING. YOU.

Keith was staggered from the sheer force behind the words, right before something  heavy and furious hit him square in the chest, slamming him onto the ground.

Ascua, with her long teeth and those ferocious black and blue eyes stared back at him, fangs barred in a vicious snarl. He could hear her claws tapping against his chestplate, feel them poking at his hips.

When Keith shut his eyes at the horrific, terrifying clicking of plasma forming over her claws, the snarling and clicking abruptly ceased. The sharp weight pulled itself off him, and flew back up to Red.

Struggling into a sitting position as Red turned away from him, Keith tried again. “...I... still need to talk to him.”

The thought wasn’t as clear this time, but she made the fact that Lance wasn’t with her known.

Keith tried to get her to tell him where Lance was, but he ran into an emotional wall of restrained rage. She was pissed at him.

Sighing, he walked off. Hunk was making food, and showing something to the others. All of them glanced the screen over, then twisted away, guilty. Standing, the Yellow Paladin flagged down Keith, and got him to come back over. “Hey. So... Lance was right.”

The screen, the scans, proved it. They would’ve been caught a half-dozen times over, in a worse fight each time. Lance had ensured they would be alright.

And Keith - up until his one-sided shouting match with Red that reminded him how truly small he was - had been about to yell at him.

“...got it.” Keith nodded with a sigh. “...has anyone seen Shiro?”

“He wandered off a bit ago. He said he had to look for something.” Pidge shrugged. Everyone looked fairly guilty.

With a nod, Keith headed away from their camp as well. He had to find Lance. Maybe talk to him about sharing his plans with the team. That was important. But he also had to apologize.

He had been tired as well, grumpy, and ready to land. He hadn’t fallen asleep at the helm like Allura, Hunk or Pidge, but watching Lance push all of them neatly back into line at different points had been oddly tender. Lance, by keeping them going, had kept them out of further danger.

Rounding a corner, Keith caught sight of Shiro’s helmet, white hair shining slightly through the edge of the facemask. “Shiro, hey-“

Shiro instantly snapped to face him with a half-frantic ‘shh’ gesture. Hand sliding down his hip to his Bayard, Keith was on high alert, ready for any potential of an attack.

Then Keith noticed the other Paladin, sitting beside Shiro.

Lance was asleep, half-leaned on Shiro and the rock behind him, head listed onto Shiro’s shoulder with his breathing soft and light. For once, he appeared lax and... younger. Like the same Lance he left, before he had landed on that space whale.

A flash of uncharacteristic jealousy went through him, seeing Shiro getting to be calm and relaxed with Lance, who he had been worried about since he returned.

“...My arm’s gone numb.” Shiro murmured, smiling wryly. Keith only blink at him, completely missing what Shiro was saying. The older man laughed quietly, shaking his head. “Keith, can you please sit with him?” He said, not-unkindly. “...In five more minutes you’re going to have to amputate my other arm.”

He chuckled, shaking his head. “Yeah, I can stay.” He nodded.

It took them a few minutes of awkward shuffling and careful transferring before Keith had replaced Shiro, Lance’s head resting on his shoulder. He was warm, heavy, and almost soft against him. It felt... oddly nice.

Keith focused on Lance rather than Shiro as the older man walked off, sliding his arm behind the sleeping Paladin, resting on Lance’s hip to pull him a little closer.

When he didn’t react, Keith took it as a good sign, aside from the fact that he was exhausted enough to just sleep. Or maybe he trusts me. Keith realized.

He got to sit there, watching Lance at peace. The longer he lay there though, the more worried Keith became. Lance was... not as heavy as he had felt when Shiro had first laid him on Keith’s shoulder. Too light, oddly enough.

Unfortunately though, it was only another half-varga before Lance shifted, lifting his head from Keith’s shoulder with a light groan. “...What...” Lance mumbled, reluctantly waking up.

It seemed that Lance had been very much asleep, and probably enjoying it. Or at least, he needed it. That, Krolia had drilled through him while on the space whale. He was not to stay up late overtraining.

“...Hey.” The murmur came out even softer than Keith had meant it to be said, but it was kind.

Lance yawned, stretching out a tiny bit. “...Hey.” He shook out his head, sitting up and glancing around. Then he mumbled something that sounded a lot like ‘Swore I fell asleep on Shiro.’ After another pause, he sighed. “Sorry for... uh, that.” He nodded toward Keith’s side. It was another long two seconds before Lance lifted his arm off Keith’s wrist, looking uncomfortable.

“N-no.” Keith quickly tried to reassure. “It was alright.”

They were silent for a moment, until Lance hummed. “...Alright then.” He stated, standing up with a bone-cracking movement.

“Lance...” Keith began, though the image of Red nearly crushing him with her claws came to him quickly. “...I’m sorry, for... my frustration earlier. You were only trying to help us.”

With a blink, Lance gave him an odd, appraising glance, before he chuckled. “No, it’s ok. I did kind of threaten to fight you.”

“Yeah, but we weren’t listening to you. You knew more about it than we did.” Keith admitted, because this Lance was confident in what he knew, and he did know what he was talking about.

He hated that he thought of them separately, like Lance was two people.

When a small light passed by the outside of the asteroid field they were hiding in, both his and Lance’s heads snapped to it, Keith already running through escape routes and speeds. The Lions were all tired, but they could keep pushing if they were needed.

Red, meanwhile, was probably capable of fighting still, and probably would be until she... Until she died.

“...It’s not coming this way.” Lance noted.

“But it was a Galra ship.” Keith stated grimly.

With a nod and a hum, Lance hopped his feet underneath him, and straightened up without even touching a hand to the dirt. “We should alert the others.” He shook himself out and offered a hand to Keith.

Taking it, Lance pulled him to his feet, surprisingly solid, as they jogged back to camp. “We spotted a Galra ship.” Keith stated to the shocked group, his words followed by fallen faces, struggling to stand, so they could pack up and run. “We’ll need to move fast.”

“Keith, wait...” Lance suddenly grabbed his arm, tugging him away from the others. “...Keith, the other Lions are tired.” He murmured. “I can distract the ships. Lead them off, destroy them.”

Recoiling, Keith almost vehemently spit ‘no’, before he remembered Lance earlier, the scared, yet forceful voice over his comm that ordered him to follow. Repeatedly.

“...No. You can’t, Lance.” Keith stated. Even if he knew what would happen, he had to keep the team together.

Lance was already shaking his head by the time Keith had started saying ‘can’t’.

“Keith, you’re...” Lance began.

A combatant. Keith filled in. Like me.

“You know, that the other Lions won’t get out of here fast.” The finish was dark, Lance’s blue eyes burning with something vengeful.

And they’re not strong enough to fight back. Keith realized what Lance was saying, watching the other Paladin nod slowly, understanding that Keith realized. “...You need to be back in 8 vargas. Or we come looking for you.”

“If I send Red back to you, don’t.” Lance stated coldly.

Keith’s heart dropped to his stomach, reaching out to call Lance, but not before Red landed beside Lance, jaw already open.

He simply lay a hand on one of her top, massive teeth, and held tight as she rotated, Lance kicking from the dirt to effortlessly swinging into Red’s mouth.

Keith understood. He had believed the same, when he dove for the front of that ship’s shield, uncaring if he died, so long as his teammates could save the day.

With a low rumble, Red planted her paws down and shot off, even as Lance dipped behind her jaw and vanished.

“Let’s go!” Keith called to the others. “We need to move!”

It was seven and a half vargas later, Keith shifting uncomfortably on the edge of the planet they had found, when he finally caught the wink of light on the skyline.

For a moment, he feared that it was a Galra ship. That despite what Lance had done, they had tracked the tired Lions down, the Paladins all asleep and ready for a decent sleep.

Then Red’s body twisted around, thrusters roaring a little louder, as she brought herself to an even stop in front of Keith. He could still sense her irritation with him, at daring to even try and shout at her Paladin.

Her head lowered down, mouth opening. Stepping out with his helmet pulled off, hanging limply in his left hand, Lance stared at the ground, one arm crossed over his chest, holding to his left bicep.

“...Keith.”

“Yeah, Lance.” Keith stepped forward, reaching toward him, but freezing before he could pull the other into... any sort of contact. Keith wasn’t huge on contact. Not from anyone but Krolia and Shiro, maybe.

It didn’t matter though, because Lance moved into him, his helmet dropping to the ground as he pressed his head into the corner of Keith’s armour, holding to him tight and desperate, the Red Paladin, seemingly starved for contact.

Sinking to the ground, Keith finally wrapped his arms around Lance with a soft breath, feeling Lance’s body shift against him, the too-thin, sharp bones in his limbs, the too-tight muscle that shifted under his skin, the too-short breaths.

“...They won’t find us.” Lance murmured to him.

Keith only nodded softly. What could he say, to a fearful, lonely and broken man, with bloodlust in his eyes but guilt in his mind?

Lance was now someone he understood, feeling alone for so much of his life.

They sat together, staring at the stars, and falling asleep in the comfort of someone who understood what it was to be alone.

Chapter Text

Keith flew silently as Pidge, Shiro and Allura tried their various tests for contact, one hand falling from his seat into Kosmo’s fur. He missed Krolia.

“How long have we been flying through here?” Hunk questioned.

“Three movements and 6 quintants.” Lance responded easily.

“And... how long is it going to take us to get to earth at this speed?” Romelle mumbled blandly, somewhere behind Lance from the way her voice echoed. “Pidge said... one billion deca-phoebs.”

“She said one and a half Earth years.” Lance sighed, though he sounded remarkably calm for the whole, floating in space situation.

“Romelle, it won’t be that long...” Keith tried to reassure the Altean he had come to think of as a sibling.

“Whoa, wait... There’s a big discrepancy between one and a half Earth years and one billion deca-phoebs. Which one is it?” The Yellow Paladin asked, prompting Keith and Lance to groan as Pidge shouted at him.

Much to Keith’s relief, Shiro spoke up. “Look, we knew this wasn’t going to be an easy or quick voyage, but replacing the Castle of Lions is our top priority.”

“We just have to stay sharp, and maintain discipline.” Keith stated. On his screen, Lance glanced to him and nodded. “We knew when we started this journey, we’d be low on power. We didn’t plan on going through the galactic void, but we’ll get through it.”

“We’ll run into something that’ll make this trip... more interesting.” Lance said grimly.

“What makes you so sure?” Hunk’s face appeared on his screen.

Lance chuckled mirthlessly. “Something always comes along to try and kill us.” He growled.

Everyone went stunningly quiet, realizing the truth of Lance’s bitter words, and how much he knew it to be true.

Shiro’s speech did it’s job. Inspiring them, all ready to stand up and fight, do their best to work with each other.

“What’s that? Dead ahead!” Pidge called, turning forward. “My scanners aren’t picking anything up!”

The blackness before them swirled, dark thunderclouds of sparks brightening periodically within the gas.

Keith heard Lance’s uncharacteristic hitch of breath, low and scared, almost immediately.

“We need to go.” The Red Paladin hissed. “We need to go, n-“

Lance was cut off by a bright flash, Black shuddering underneath Keith as he tried to keep hold of the steering, flipped head over heels.

“We got to move!” Keith called to the others.

To his surprise, Lance’s comm cut out with his furious, terrified scream, Red shooting ahead with rapid laser blasts. “Lance!!” Keith shouted as Yellow fell back with an electrical crackle.

Red was still rapidly spinning side to side, randomly firing blasts into the vortex they were caught in. With a gasp, Allura was forced to the side, to dodge a panicked shot from Red. She fell back as the lightning caught her.

Then Green, and finally, Red too.

Pushing Black to the side, Keith thought he could escape before the lightning caught him too.

Then Black roared in pain as they took a hit too. “Break high!” Keith ordered, most of the others falling into line as Red made a jerky, stressed movement, still firing forward, Lance’s comm flicking in and out, showing his face pale and eyes blown, mouth caught in a howl.

It finally, finally went silent, the vortex vanishing.

They got less then a second of reprieve before the light began anew, Keith screaming, as the light engulfed them, and then there was nothing.

Waking up felt like static shocks all over his body, snappish and uncharacteristic. “Is everyone alright?” He asked with a groan.

“...I’m here.” Pidge murmured after a moment, coming through just his helmet.

“That was crazy.” Hunk whispered.

Allura’s comm rang in. “I’m fine.”

There was silence on Lance’s line.

“...Lance?” Hunk called.

Eyes narrowing, Keith growled. “Lance, come in.” He said. When he received no response, he turned around... Only to see Kosmo. Frozen. “Hey, are you ok, buddy?” Running a soft hand over the wolf’s muzzle, heart caught in fear, Keith kept trying to get him to respond.

“Shiro seems to be frozen, but his vitals are strong.” Pidge announced.

“Same here.” Keith murmured, scanning Kosmo. The wolf was fine.

There was a scared breath as Allura spoke. “Coran is frozen as well. Our Paladin armour must have protected us from the shock. The Blue Lion is completely incapacitated.”

“...So, we’re all alone in space, no power, no way to call for help, nothing within several thousand light years...” Hunk began, starting to panic.

“...Pidge, is there any way to get the Lions back up and running?” Keith asked.

There was a pause. “Maybe, but I don’t know how long it’ll take.” She murmured. “And I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re all drifting in opposite directions after that blast.” Pidge stated.

“If we don’t get the power back on, we might lose each other.”

“Ok, the power’s gonna have to wait. Our top priority is tethering the Lions together.” Which was when Keith remembered that Lance had his armour on too. “...And someone needs to check on Lance.” He said, tapping in his comm to beep at Lance. “He’s not responding.”

“I think I have some idea of how we can do it. I have some leftover zipline in my hull.” Allura announced.

“We’re getting out of our Lions to do this?” Hunk whispered. “We don’t even know what that energy pulse was.” His voice wavered.

“It’s the only way to stay together. Allura, grab that zip line. Pidge, go get Lance.” Keith ordered. “Let’s get moving.” It was hard, to slide from Black’s jaw when the Lion was still and unmoving. “Everyone, stay sharp and hang on.” He held onto the Black Lion, locating Blue.

“Ugh.” Hunk murmured. “So many Lions. All spinning.” He said.

“Hunk, you’re fine. You’ve done worse than this.” Pidge growled.

“Yeah, ok, let me just-“ Hunk made a noise through the comm. “No good. Oh, don’t barf in the space helmet, Hunk. Don’t do it.”

“You’re going to need to push your Lions to my location. Otherwise, there won’t be enough cord to attach us together.” Allura stated.

“By ourselves? I don’t think we can.” Hunk murmured. “Nope. Our jetpacks just don’t have enough thrust.”

“I’m here.” Lance’s voice came out hoarse and harsh.

“Lance, where the hell were you!?” Pidge demanded.

“...Sorry.” Lance murmured, and Keith glanced over to his tiny, glowing dot on top of Red. “...Allura, push the Lions to Blue?” Lance didn’t sound great.

“Y-yes.” Allura said.

“This is going to take forever!” Hunk gasped. “We’re going to have to do this one by one.”

Keith understood immediately. “On our way, everyone to the Yellow Lion!”

They all arrived, pushing Yellow toward Blue, as best they could. Then Lance paused, turning and staring up. “Fuck. Fuck!” His breathing had gone high again, backpedaling.

“Everyone hold on!” Keith shouted, right before it began.

Lance screamed, guarding his face, just before he was blown back, past Keith.

Hunk lost his grip, knocking the others off.

Firing his jetpack, Keith tried to hold steady as they were flung rapidly in other directions.

“I’m losing sight of the Lions!” Pidge shouted.

“Stay together!” Keith ordered, shooting toward the others, trying to grab them.

“I’ve got Pidge!” Allura called, making Keith turn toward them.

Hunk grunted. “I’ve got Lance, but he looks pretty bad!”

Keith snagged Allura’s hand, the group joining and spinning together. “Fire your jetpacks. Let’s get stabilized.” Keith barked.

They all listened. Even Lance, who had his arms wrapped over his head, mic off and unable to speak to them. Keith couldn’t see most of his face, but he could see the tears running down Lance’s clenched jaw, teeth locked in a grimace. Something was wrong.

“Can anyone see the Lions?!” Allura questioned.

Head snapping side to side, Pidge was clearly trying to seek out any signature of them. “I can’t see them.” She whispered.

“At this point, I don’t even know what direction they’re in.” Hunk stated, turning away from Keith even as he held tightly to Hunk’s ankle.

“Okay. Let’s run through our checklist. Does anyone have any supplies?” Keith inquired, glancing to each of them.

A chorus of ‘no’s came to him, just as Lance started slowly uncurling from his tight ball, glancing warily around at them. He appeared terrified, but it looked like his breathing was gradually relaxing, seeing where he was.

“Our suits will recycle enough moisture to keep us hydrated for a little while.” Keith informed, nodding to Lance. “Lance, comm on?”

There was a few small shifts by the Red Paladin, before Lance’s activated. “...I’m here.” He panted. His voice was roughed, high, scared still. “...I’m here.”

“Ok.” Speaking gently, Keith gave a nod to Lance. “We just need to stay together. We have each other.”

There was a sharp, almost harsh laugh from Lance. “Don’t worry, Hunk.” He whispered. “Something else will be along to kill us any dobosh now.”

Everyone glanced at him, uncomfortable, as he shut his eyes and dropped his head. Hunk put a hand on his shoulder, and gently rubbed his arm. Lance shifted slightly to lean into him.

LANCE

The timer’s annoying beep brought Lance back to the present, it’s annoyingly sharp beep forcing his focus. “Everyone sound off.” Keith stated.

“Lance here.”

“Pidge here.”

“Allura here.”

There was silence.

“...Hunk?” Keith called. Lance could hear his irritation, feel his minor fear.

“I’m hiding.” Was Hunk’s response.

“I need you to sound off, Hunk.” Keith sighed. “It’s important to maintain discipline and mental acuity in these situations.” The way they were sitting, back to back like some fucked up human star, made Lance’s back ache. “These techniques helped my mom and I through the Quantum Abyss.”

“Keith is right.” Allura hummed. “Being lost in space has been known to drive one mad. Too much time contemplating infinity is not good for the mind.”

Lance shifted, Allura’s statement bringing up a few questions in his own mind. He wondered if she was just uncaring, or just not realizing what conclusions that brought Lance to.

“I like to keep busy calculating pi out as far as I can.” Pidge added. “The record is 4 quadrillion, but but that’s using the Hadoop parallelization framework.” Lance could hear her smirk. “I’m just using my brain.”

Hunk chuckled. “Hadoop.”

Then he saw them. “Wait, guys...” Lance hated how his voice came out nervous, shuffling slightly. “...Lights.” He growled, then turned away to cough.

“Lance went crazy first.” Hunk sighed, like it was previously decided.

“No, wait, I see them too!” Pidge shouted. “There really are lights!”

It rose on the horizon, smaller lights surrounding the massive central ‘star’, the inside colour deepening to an orange before creatures, hundreds of thousands of them, swirled around, through, and between them.

“Amazing...” Pidge murmured.

“They’re beautiful.” Allura agreed.

When one came too close to Lance, he recoiled. This was not good. Something was wrong. He didn’t like this.

“We should follow them.” Hunk murmured.

“What?” Keith said.

No Keith, no, something is wrong here... Lance thought, but he was too late.

Keith fired his jetpack, and then-

They were gone.

“Whoa, what-“

“Where’d they go?” Pidge gasped.

There was a pause.

“...Were they even real?” Allura murmured.

That made an odd lump push itself into Lance’s throat. The Hewin Zone. He thought.

“I guess... They could’ve been a hallucination.” Pidge breathed. “But that... usually only happens when you’re going mad.”

Lance stopped breathing. He could see Keith do the same.

“Everyone...” Keith groaned softly. “...Everyone sound off.”

“Lance here.” Lance stated darkly. He wasn’t tired, like the others were. This was wired. Breathing on some planets had been harder than this. The thin air still made him cough.

“Allura... here.”

“Pidge here.”

Silence, and Lance’s heart dropped.

“Hunk, sound off immediately!” Keith barked.

“Keith, you don’t have to-

“It’s ok, Allura. It’s ok.” Hunk reassured them, making Lance breathe out. This felt like when his ribs had been cracked, but without as much of the pain. It wasn’t hard. “I was just kinda, y’know, lost in this fantasy,” He continued. “that we’d get to Earth, and, y’know, the Garrison would throw us a parade and all that stuff, and then, y’know, maybe I’d meet some hotshot pilot who wanted to check out the Yellow Lion, and maybe the Yellow Lion would take a shine to her, obviously, and then I’d be like, ‘Whoa. Whoa I can’t stand in-between you two. The bond is strong here.’”

Lance nodded slowly. “...Retiring.” He murmured.

“Fantasizing about quitting Voltron.” Keith growled.

Quick to correct, Hunk explained that he was going to be the bigger man.

“...Am I quite wrong, or is Hunk still very young by Earth standards?” Allura questioned.

Lance stopped listening. Red would be waiting for him when they escaped this,  and he’d fight until he died. He wasn’t getting out of Red alive. They’d need to drag his corpse from this war.

Then, abruptly, Keith shot away from them, swiping his Bayard, seemingly at random, pulling Hunk to his limit. “Whoa, whoa, Keith, Keith!” Hunk shouted, but the other Paladin clearly couldn’t hear him, or wasn’t listening.

Lance lunged forward almost immediately after Keith stopped swinging, grabbing the Black Paladin’s arm tightly, one hand holding to Hunk. “Keith, calm down...” He murmured gently.

“My Bayard won’t work, we don’t know where the Lions are, we’re being attacked by things we can’t even see!” Keith cried, darkened circles under his eyes giving him even more of a blown, terrified expression.

That gave Lance pause, hand sliding down the armour to Keith’s. You helped me. Let me help you. 

“...Keith, there’s nothing out here.” Lance murmured. “It’s just us.”

He turned slightly away to cough as Keith glared downward at nothing.

Later, Lance tipped his head toward his hand, and turned to private comms, then to Keith’s private comm.

“...Keith, it’s Lance. I’m on private comms. Nobody else can hear me.” He whispered softly.

He could feel the circle shift slightly with Keith’s jolt. There was a pause before he responded. “...Lance?”

“Yeah.” Lance smiled slightly. “You ok?”

There was silence on the line for a while. “...I...” Keith sighed. “...I am.”

“You sure? You don’t sound like it.” Lance chuckled, coughing after a moment. He felt a bit more like himself. A bit more... Lance. 

“...There was... red. Everywhere. And... you were all getting pulled away.” Keith said after a moment. “...I could hear you all calling for... help.”

Lance nodded, then took a deep breath to avoid coughing more. His leader needed some reassurance, and well... This is the way I’ve got it. “...When I was... in Sector Space, I... Had to fly through somewhere like this.” The admission came out hard an stunted. “...In Sector Space, it’s called the Hewin Zone.”

“...It was empty?” Keith questioned.

“Not... entirely.” Lance chuckled. “...It had these monsters in them. Ran’junlankir’ho.” He stated, the full word coming to him easily. “That crystal I have, is made from the Hewin Zone.” He continued. “...And uh, well... You have to stay awake. The whole time. And... At one point, I heard you guys. I saw the Castle, too.”

“...It was a hallucination.” Keith drew the conclusion.

“Not really. An illusion created by a Ran’jun, but not a hallucination.” Lance hummed, turning to glance at the stars in the distance. It reminded him of the empty point of Sector Space, but this time, he felt oddly at peace. Emptiness had once again stolen his soul, and he was alright. “...I heard your voice, too.” The admission was right, in some strange way.

“You mean, the team’s, or...”

“Just you.” Lance shrugged slightly, not enough to disturb Pidge, sleeping on his shoulder. “...But knowing that I had the team, everyone, relying on me? It... I kept going. It kept me going.”

They both went quiet for a while.

“...Hey Lance?” Keith began softly. “...Thanks.”

“Anytime.” Lance murmured in return. “Get some rest, Keith.”

It was only a few doboshes later when he felt the circle shift a tiny bit, Keith’s body relaxing. After that, it really wasn’t long before Hunk and Allura followed Keith and Pidge into sleep.

Lance tipped his head back, staring into the distant spaces between the stars, the blackness that awaited, that far away.

Careful not to disturb anyone, he tuned his comm to the frequency he had memorized, the frequency that Ru’al had given to him all that time ago.

He took as deep a breath as he could manage with the thin air in his helmet. “...Hey Ru’al. If you get this, well... I hope you’re out of Sector Space. How’s the team doing? How’s the outside world treating you?” He began. Not knowing what to say, Lance simply spoke.

He told her that he couldn’t tell his team yet. Not all of them. He told her that he was starting to get better, he thought. He told her what had happened. He told her where they were, what was going on. That if she found the Lions, she had to take them to Earth, and make sure the planet was safe.

“And if I don’t make it out of this one, well...” He chuckled. “...Just do me a favour.” Taking a deep breath, Lance shut his eyes, picturing the beach in his mind. The sun on his skin, the salt in the air, the wind against his face and in his hair. He knew what he wanted.

“Put my memory somewhere by the ocean.”

He could hear the sharp beeping of Keith’s alarm. They had woken up with hungry bellies about three vargas before, but none had spoken.

The fact that Keith wasn’t requesting them to call out was... bad.

“...Keith, shouldn’t we sound off?” Lance asked.

“What’s the point.” Keith breathed darkly.

“...Lance here.” The Red Paladin said anyway. Keith had given them something to do. He was going to do it.

“Pidge here.” Pidge followed his lead.

“Allura here.”

“I... am Hunk.” Hunk responded.

A pause.

“I wonder how... my dad and Matt are doing.” Pidge whispered.

“Better than us, hopefully.” Keith’s grim hiss came.

Allura spoke next. “My father, had something he always said in dire situations.”

“‘Give up’?” Keith asked, voice flat.

“Sorry?!” Allura exclaimed.

“It just doesn’t seem like he was a real fighter when the chips were down.” Keith continued bitterly.

Puta, no, stop. Lance wanted to say, but his lungs felt tight.

“Keith, come on.” Hunk’s reassuring murmur had turned almost begging.

“You...” Allura’s panting morphed into a growl. “Have a lot of nerve questioning someone’s leadership. Seeing how you... left us!”

“Allura, please.” Hunk tried again.

“As I recall, you were the one who got us cozied all up to Lotor.” Keith snarled.

“Hey, Keith.” Lance called, shaking his head. “Stop. All of you, stop. It’s just the-“

“That’s right, Lance, thank you! Stop! Everyone stop!” Hunk burst out as they all separated a tiny bit, Lance keeping a hold of Pidge. “Look, guys, I understand what’s happening here. You’re all, brave heroes who don’t know how to react to being scared, and it’s causing you to attack one another. That, or you’re all going space-mad. Hopefully, you’re all just scared.” Hunk smiled, gesturing outward. “I’m scared all the time, I can talk you through it!”

“Sorry, Hunk, I guess I just don’t know how to be a coward.” Keith snarled.

Lance winced.

“Right, that’s what I’m saying!” Hunk agreed.

“Just go drift off, lone yalmor!” Allura snapped.

“Fine.” Then Keith turned and fired his jetpack, shooting off.

Hunk lunged for him. “No, don’t!” He called, grabbing Keith’s leg. “We have to stay together.”

“Why Hunk?” Keith asked ignorantly, glaring down at Hunk. “Are we really even friends? Is there anything holding us together besides some, messed up series of coincidences? I mean, what are we? Some chosen saviours, do you really believe that?!” He hissed. “What are we even doing out here!?”

Switching places with Pidge, Lance let her hand lock onto Allura’s. If Keith was going to run, he was going to catch him.

“...We’re doing what we have to.” Hunk murmured.

“Let me go!” Keith shouted.

“No!”

Lance shot upward, going to go help hold onto Keith, when Pidge began. “Guys?”

Laying a hand on his shoulder, Lance held tight to Keith. He wouldn’t let him leave. The light in the distance gleamed brightly.

“More of those creatures?” Lance squinted his tired eyes out at the object.

“No, it appears to be a single source. It looks like a planet.” Allura said, gasping.

“It’s... Earth.” Keith gasped.

“That wave, must’ve launched us halfway across the universe.” Pidge breathed.

And just like that, they all launched forward, racing toward Earth, all connected by a focus, a desire, a waiting home.

Then Lance’s brain reversed, resetting. “...Hold on, wait.” Lance murmured, slowing down. He could feel it. This wasn’t right. Something wasn’t right. “...Guys. Stop. Wait.”

“Yeah, where’s the other planets?” Hunk asked. “Where’s the sun?”

“Where’s the moon?” Lance pulled up short, falling back slightly. The Castleship. The Hewin Zone. It was all filling his head in aggressive waves, memories crashing down on him. “This isn’t right. That’s not Earth.”

Blasting past him, Hunk swooped in front of the others. “Wait, stop. This is too good to be true!”

“Hunk, what are you doing?” Allura demanded.

“No, no something is wrong!” Hunk insisted.

Activating his jetpack, Lance swerved in with Hunk. “He’s right.”

“Hunk, Lance, you’re hallucinating!” Pidge shouted. “You’re going space-mad. Just let us take you home!” She shot forward, grabbing Hunk along with Allura.

With barely a second to try and stop them, Lance moved toward Hunk, only to have something heavy and red hit him. “Keith, Keith, stop, Keith!” Lance insisted, his jets firing back, bringing Keith to a halt.

“Enough!” Hunk shouted, his jetpack bursting with a harsher blast. “You’re letting all this get the better of you.” He barked. “There’s no way that can be Earth!”

“Just trust us, Hunk! You’ll thank us when we get there!” Allura said.

“Keith, stop, listen to me, Keith, puta...” Lance growled, forcing his jetpack harder.

“Let... Me... GO!” Hunk shouted, bursting free of them and shooting backward.

Lance kept forcing against Keith, trying to snag Allura as well as she passed. “Lance, please, I can help you, we can go home!” Keith was saying repeatedly.

“No, Keith, listen, come on-“

Then Hunk roared over the comms, and a single beam of yellow shot past, straight at Earth. It exploded on the surface...

And then an eye opened, a huge, whale-like body revealing itself, luminescent underbelly casting a terrifying glow on them.  

“Fuck!” Lance snarled, his hand going to his Bayard immediately, despite it not morphing into his sniper. “Fuck.”

“Hunk was right.” Pidge gasped.

“He saved us.” Allura whispered.

The man himself pulled up between them. “Here it comes!”

It came closer, roaring as it’s huge mouth opened, revealing rings of teeth.

Lance swerved to the side, blasting past Pidge, snagging her arm to help keep her stable. “It’s hunting us.” He barked into his comm, eyes narrowing over the creature’s massive body. “It’ll get us all, unless we can get it away.”

“How? We can’t even use our Bayards!” Allura shouted.

“How did you manifest yours, Hunk?” Pidge asked.

With a huff, Hunk exclaimed, “I don’t know, I just knew that I needed to!”

“Allura, go down it’s flank, it’s turning radius has got to be massive!” Lance ordered. “Keith, what else?”

“Get out of here!” Hunk burst out abruptly. “Get out of here! I’ll buy you some time. Go!” He exclaimed, flying forward with his gun at the ready, blazing shots at the creature.

“Hunk!” Lance shouted, even as he pulled Keith down beside him and Pidge.

Hunk screamed forward, blasts nailing the creature’s face, it’s jaws opening as  he dove for it.

“Pidge, Lance!” Keith barked, shooting toward Hunk as Lance chased effortlessly, reaching for him.

Pidge snagged his foot, just as Lance stretched himself between Allura and Pidge, and Keith acted as the back. “What are you doing?!” Hunk demanded.

“Fire jetpacks!” Pidge commanded, shooting them all away as the creature roared in front of them, just missing.

“What are you guys doing?!” Hunk cried, glaring at them. “I told you to escape!”

“We wouldn’t leave you.” Lance snarled immediately, hand tightening on his Bayard as everyone else started apologizing for their actions.

Keith did as well, then started speaking about their team.. “...This brought us together as Paladins. But it also brought us together as friends.”

Abruptly, he could feel her. He could feel Red, screaming her rage in his mind. Come to me, girl. You know where I am. Come right here. Come here now.

His sniper fell into his hand, narrowed eyes bringing the sight level with the beast. “Keith, when I fought the Ran’jun, it had to be strike-retreat, hard and fast to scare it off. This thing is gonna be similar.” He barked.

“Sounds good. Everyone, attack it from all angles!” Keith ordered. “It can’t target all of us!”

They fought valiantly, swooping to different sections to attack, Lance needing to catch Pidge when she shot past.

“It’s toying with us!” Allura gasped.

Red roared with him. She was almost there. She was so close, he just needed to get that thing to turn forward. ...Red... I trust you.

With a vicious snarl, Lance brought up his blaster and unloaded, forcing it to turn toward them. It spun, revealing it’s terrifying, massive eye... It’s massive, vulnerable eye.

Red’s blast slammed into the eye, increasing in strength as Red came closer and closer, claws driving into it’s spine with a roar, her jaws closing on the back of it’s neck.

Yellow rammed into it, throwing it to the side even as Red kept ripping through chitinous plating, and Blue once again shot it back.

Lunging into the field with a roar, Black forced it back as Red swooped from it’s spine to watch as it flew off, fearful.

That’s right. Stay away. Lance snarled as Red flew back over to the others.

“I think it’s actually running from that!” Pidge shouted, spinning to look behind the Lions, at the lightning on the horizon.

For some reason, Lance could fight an entire battle with a creature, even talk to Keith about the Hewin Zone, but that lighting...

It was like he was there again, being sucked in, dragged down. His friend’s voices sounded like they were underwater, blank and emotionless, terrified.

“...We’re not running this time.” Keith growled.

Lance couldn’t breathe, lungs feeling too tight, but fortunately for him, Red was the one listening to the pain in his mind. She came forward and snapped him up, her reassuring presence, her surrounding pressure, his only reprieve. “...Thanks girl.”

“Form Voltron!” Keith shouted.

And Lance fell into place.

KEITH

Red locked into place, just like they all did, but once again, he felt her as though covered in fog. This time though, Keith understood why.

He understood that Lance and Red weren’t yet ready to let them all in, let them all see everything. That would be for another day, a less hellish time when he could tell them all who he was, what he had done.

The vortex took them, repeatedly blasting them back as they focused, trying to push themselves forward.

Then Keith noticed his Bayard space open.

Black’s curiosity piqued, as did Red’s, and suddenly, a huge pair of jets formed from their wings, launching them forward through the vortex, blazing back into the normal, surrounding stars.

His eyes felt weighed down, exhaustion pulling at him like a small child, but Keith heard the faint whine of Kosmo. Through the comms, he could hear someone coughing, though shoving from the chair to gently rub the wolf’s ruff overshadowed his worry for the person, at least for the time.

“It looks like that nebula carried us thousands of light years away.” Allura informed, though Keith mostly ignored her, ensuring Kosmo was ok.

“That looks like...” Pidge mumbled. “I recognize these constellations!” She gasped, calling Keith’s attention. “This is Earth’s solar system! It’s the Milky Way!”

They all made shocked noises, staring forward as Keith slid back into his seat. “Well, what are we waiting for?” He demanded with a grin, shooting forward. Voltron‘s new jet wings launched them, diving toward the arm of the Milky Way where Earth resided.

Keith ignored the sinking feeling he had in his chest at the heavy coughs coming from Lance’s comm.

Chapter Text

Keith drove Voltron like nothing else mattered, as Pidge called repeatedly into the mic for her father.

By the time he responded, they were swooping past Pluto at a speed most things would find offensive.

“We’re within the Solar System, heading to Earth now.” Pidge said with a smile.

“Wait, you must stop!” Sam Holt’s voice was firm, insistent.

“What? Say again?” Keith asked, double checking that he had heard that correctly.

“Stop!” Sam repeated. “Sendak has invaded the planet. He’s taken over Earth. If he finds out Voltron is here, he’ll threaten the people of Earth in exchange for the Lions.”

With the grim reality of skepticism behind him, Keith knew he was right. “Reverse thrusters!”

Lance was the first to obey, instantly pulling them back, as Hunk called to hold on tight. They came from hyperdrive to four Galra drones, Sam immediately scrambling the transmissions.

“You’re clear!” Sam said, and Keith felt Red purr in his mind, much to Black, Blue, Green and Yellow’s chagrin.

“Keith, permission to-“

“Engage!” Keith ordered midway through Lance’s sentence.

Red’s jaws opened, unleashing a wave of small blasts that took out three of the four ships.

Lance immediately pushed them forward, Red reacting independently, as he went for the kill for the last one. He just about had it-

“Wait, don’t destroy that one!” Pidge shouted at him. “We might need it!”

There was a pause. “...Got it.” Lance still urged them closer, until Red’s mouth closed on the ship’s body. “Hold steady.” He told them.

It was a long few moments later, when Lance finally responded to comms again, coughing slightly. “Clear. The pilot is no longer a problem.” Lance informed them with an odd rasp in his voice as Voltron split, Black carrying the unpiloted ship.

After they all got arranged in the Galra ship’s tiny hold, Keith sat at the helm. It was not the first time he had piloted a scout ship either, controls familiar to him still.

They blasted off into the stars, him streaking far from the familiar sight of Saturn, toward the planet he knew.

The asteroid belt was probably uncomfortable for most of his passengers, but at the moment, they were silent, except for Lance’s occasional coughs.

After they made it past Mars, the crossbreed flew between the various Galra ships, undisturbed. It still made him uneasy, shifting forward in his seat as his eyes flicked over the various ships. He kept waiting for someone to shoot at them, evasive maneuvers coming quick to his mind.

They went by, and finally, close to the planet.

The rough push of the atmosphere against him brought their airspeed down quickly. “Hang on! We’re entering Earth’s atmosphere!”

Hunk likened it to leaving Earth, stuffed in the Blue Lion.

Then the ship shifted, and everyone grunted, Lance coughing a few times. Forcing the controls to rise, Keith pressed several buttons in an attempt to get them to stay in the air. “We’re overweight, I’m losing altitude! Brace for impact!”

The alarm screamed at him, Keith pulling up as best he could. They flew almost level with the ground before the bottom point of the ship caught in the dirt and dragged them, scraping a long cut in the rocky plain before finally halting.

“Everyone out!” Lance’s voice was muffled, but he was still ordering, and the group piled free just as the ship tipped, jolting Keith in his seat, belt over his hips caught tightly in his armour, preventing him from freeing himself.

He went for his knife, but not before the glass smashed in by a single stroke of a long blade. Keith sliced through the belt, and took Lance’s offered hand. Dragged free of the wreckage, Lance and Keith slid down the side of the ship together, nodding to the Red Paladin once freed.

“Thanks.” Keith said as he lead the others out, over the ridge, toward the city they had seen. Romelle pressed close to him, wary, and he smiled at her in the closest thing he had to comfort before they crested the hill, and looked at the city.

Or, the wreckage of it.

Broken, tipped buildings were muted by dust on the skyline, debris and dirt falling silently in small, fog-like waves.

“...Hey, I know this place.” Hunk murmured. “I’ve been here.”

There’s nothing here to recognize... Keith thought.

“This is Plaht City.” Hunk gasped softly. “It’s about a half an hour from the Garrison.”

“...And this is all that’s left.” Lance murmured. On his shoulder, Ascua trilled softly. She didn’t seem to like this either.

Keith’s eyes narrowed over the crumbling ruins, calling Kosmo closer to his side. “We need to get to the Garrison.” He said darkly, leading them down the hill, toward the city that had fallen a long time ago. “Stay together. Let’s move quick and quiet.”

Lance’s Bayard morphed into his sniper without any words, taking the front, as Ascua‘s wings spread and she flew from his shoulder. As if in agreement, Hunk slid to guard the rear with his cannon, and Keith brought out his sword as well.

There was a long period of absolute, uncomfortable silence as they marched in one loose line, the non-combatants in the middle. Keith had noticed how Romelle had come closer to him.

Then Lance swung his sniper up, just as purple shots rained on them from small, floating scanners. “Take cover!” He barked, backing up as he shot out one. Diving to cover beside him, Keith slammed his back into a broken car, trying to spot their attackers.

Hunk was unloading shots at a third that had arrived, and then a new one to replace the one Lance hit, when Keith noticed Lance was unable to get a line on them from this angle.

“I’ll distract them.” He said. “You take the shot.” Then, out of mild fear and still lack of sleep, Keith glared at him. “Don’t miss.” He growled.

With a chuckle that sounded slightly broken, Lance grinned. “I don’t.”

Vaulting the car, Keith took off running from the drones chasing him, zigzagging to avoid various shots that came a little close.

Then the shots were gone. And Lance was standing with a sniper, in the battlefield.

“I wonder how many of these things they have around here.” Keith muttered as he jogged back over, staring at one of the drones Lance had taken out. “Pidge, any chance we could see those things before they get to us?”

“Already on it.” Pidge was kneeling on the ground, staring at a map-scan that she had taken from the drone. “Looks like four more are headed our way.”

Then a hailstorm of lasers went by them, forcing them to hide. “It’s not drones. Look!” Shiro growled, glancing around a corner toward the Galra soldiers, shooting at them from behind the wreckage of the city.

Lance and Hunk, using a car as a stand, did their best to keep the soldiers and robot drones at bay, but the arrival of the new flying drones made it just that much harder. Whistling to Kosmo, Keith grabbed his fur, preparing to go for the drones up close and personal.

When Ascua dropped to the middle of the battlefield.

Her stance was wide, teeth barred, wings spread out, as plasma crackled at the ends of her paws, the back of her jaw. It formed a deadly, teal web over those parts, brightening with each second in the oxygen-laden atmosphere.

Then, with a screaming howl, Ascua’s entire body wreathed itself in terrifying blue energy, uncaring of any lasers shot at her as she charged forward, the matrix around her causing the blasts to glance off.

She slammed into the first soldier, and the unholy roar of electricity released took over the battlefield, conduction leaping between the dozen soldiers unfortunate enough to be caught in her web.

After less than two seconds of the lightning storm, Ascua kicked off the Galra she had first attacked, and flew back to Lance’s waiting side. The soldiers blasted collapsed, bodies fried within their armours.

“Holy shit!” Pidge gasped through the comm.

“Of course.” Coran murmured. “She’s a Zeptriniti Elfinicanos! With Blarien colouration!” He exclaimed.

Keith was still staring at the cat less than three feet from him, her fur crackling with unused energy. “We’ll talk about Ascua later!” He barked, bringing up his sword again for combat...

Then a car came through, slamming into a drone that had been charging for Hunk. It crashed into a wall, just as a man in a Garrison uniform dropped from the cockpit.

A second car skidded into their battlefield, a woman standing up in the driver’s seat. “Stay down, we got this!”

The two people were quick to unload their weapons at the drones. “Thanks!” Keith called to them.

With a growl, the guy swivelled toward them. “Drones send distress signals when attacked. Our weapons neutralize those signals, so unless you wanna deal with a swarm of those things, let us handle it.” He snarled.

The low rumble of a threat came from beside him, Asuca and Kosmo not taking kindly to the new people.

“Now let’s get out of here, before more show up.” The man ordered, leading them toward the cars.

They loaded quickly, Keith keeping Kosmo by his side as Lance shied away from both the people, staying close to him. Silently, Keith reached over and pulled Lance slightly closer to his side, not willing to leave him thinking he wasn’t allowed to be nervous.

The cars roared off through the city, debris changing to rocks as they entered a large, plains-desert.

And then Keith leaned forward, catching sight of the massive dome that rose high above the dusty ground.

All of them gasped, staring at the huge particle barrier, stretching over the Garrison buildings below, as they ate away distance between the desert, and the entrance of the barrier. “...Whoa.” Keith heard Hunk murmur through his comms. With a soft, limited cough, Lance shuffled a little closer to Keith, warily glancing to the dome.

The doors opened for them easily, cars covering the distance in the tunnel in seconds, before they emerged into the main part of the Garrison grounds, heading quickly toward the central quad, where people were waiting.

Kosmo leaned slightly into Keith’s legs, protective, as Ascua sat like a silent guardian on Lance’s lap.

Pidge, over his shoulder, sat up with a gasp, noticing someone she recognized. She struggled over the edge of the seats, behind Keith, pushing to the door first.

The car pulled to a stop, door barely opening before Pidge leapt from the vehicle and into her mother’s waiting arms.

Sliding out first, Keith offered a hand to help Romelle, then Lance, watching as Pidge and her parents hugged together on the tarmac.

There was a pause, as Lance shuffled a tiny bit closer to Keith, between him and Hunk. The Red Paladin clearly was trying his best not to have his weapon out, though Keith could sense the way his fingers flicked by his side, wanting his Bayard but keeping control to avoid pulling it out.

“Lance!” Someone called. The Paladin in question flinched, glancing up to see who had called him, then to Keith.

“...Go, Lance.” Keith encouraged, recognizing that Lance wanted reassurance, instruction.

“Uncle Lance!” A pair of kids called, running toward him.

Without even a further word, Lance took off, immediately wrapped in a hug ball, even though Lance himself looked fairly wary, almost reluctant.

The smile came to his face unbidden as Lance pulled back slightly, glancing to the group that had encircled him. “You two got bigger...” His voice was still quiet, but Keith picked it up.

“You got bigger too!” The little boy added.

“And messed up, what happened to your face?” The girl who spoke appeared almost exactly the same as Lance.

“Rachel, oh God...” Lance twisted, looking at his family with a relieved, but still slightly nervous expression.

With Kosmo standing close to him, Keith noticed Ascua, left sitting on the bumper of the car. “C’mere.” He offered up his forearm, and she surprised him by leaping to his arm, touching noses with Kosmo before she climbed onto Keith’s shoulder. She was heavy, for a flying animal, and he wondered briefly how Lance held her for hours on his forearm. That would build arm strength like nothing else.

“Officer Shirogane.”

Both Shiro and Keith’s heads snapped to Iverson, who’s hands were folded neatly behind his back. “It’s great to see you again. My apologies for throwing you in quarantine.”

Which was when Coran shot forward in all his playful aggression. “Ah, so you’re the one who strapped Shiro to a table. I heard about that.”

Fortunately, Shiro called off Coran before the older Altean could get vicious. “You were just following orders, as any good soldier would. It’s great to see you too.” Shiro smiled. “Allow me to introduce you to our Altean allies.” He began, glancing to the three of them. “Meet Allura, Romelle, and Coran.”

The commander finally smiled. “The honour is mine. Your technology has been instrumental in defending this small corner of Earth.”

“Oh yes, Pop-Pop was quite the genius.” Coran reassured with a smile.

“And Cadet.”

Keith called to attention the instant that Iverson turned to him, standing up from where he had been kneeling with Kosmo. On his shoulder, Ascua adjusted easily as he rose to his feet, saluting. “Yes, sir.” He responded sharply.

“I... owe you an apology as well.” Iverson murmured. “I’ve heard about all you’ve done. I was... wrong about you. It’s an honour and privilege to see you again.” He finished.

“Thank you, sir.” Keith smiled softly, Ascua relaxing on his shoulder as he dropped his arm midway through. “I guess I wasn’t exactly the best cadet back then. I probably owe you a bit of an apology too.” He offered a hand to Iverson.

The man shook it gently, then immediately turned to Kosmo. “Ah, and who’s this little fella?” He asked, letting the wolf sniff his hand. Immediately realizing that this was a potential person he could beg for pets, Kosmo proceeded to lean into the commander.

“Oh, Kosmo likes you.” Coran laughed. “But be careful. If you touch it, it could zap you to a different universe.”

Iverson was careful to lift his hands from Kosmo. “...And... the other one?” He asked, stretching a gentle hand to Ascua.

The creature let out a vicious bark, wings flaring slightly as she glared at him, plasma crackling in the back of her jaw. Apparently, she didn’t like strange people when she wasn’t with Lance.

“She’s not mine.” Keith explained, reaching up to try and calm her down before she blasted the commander through the wall.

Then Lance’s voice rose above the people. “Ascua!” He called.

Head snapping up, Ascua jumped from Keith’s shoulder, gliding over the tarmac easily before landing on Lance’s forearm. He gave Keith a gentle nod, a silent ‘thanks for taking care of her.’

A prickle ran up his spine, sharp and dangerous, like someone was watching him. Glancing back, Keith noticed the man from earlier staring him down, before removing his helmet.

James Griffin glared at him, Keith remembering his face immediately.

This can’t go well.

Debrief, sitting in their assigned rows.

Keith was farther away from Lance than he would’ve liked, but he was relieved that Lance seemed a tiny bit more relaxed than he had out on the tarmac. Like he could breathe again, in the darkened room. Keith had noticed his voice sounding slightly hoarse.

Sam Holt began speaking, explaining the struggles of their supplies. Shiro questioned if there were others fighting against Sendak, but Veronica confirmed what they feared.

Earth was losing.

Hunk, desperate, tried to urge them to go out on rescue missions, when Griffin interrupted.

“Hey, do Paladins not understand the chain of command?” He demanded. “Your CO said it was too dangerous!”

A chair squeaked slightly, at the same time as Keith glaring at Griffin darkly.

“Officer Griffin that’s enough.” Sam Holt snapped, then began reassuring Hunk.

Watching Hunk deflate was a stab in the chest, even as Allura stood. “Well, let’s find out what we can do. You said you integrated Altean tech with Earth weaponry?”

Sliding down the elevator to the hangar, Keith listened to Sam talk about the MFEs and their difficulties.

Coran offered his assistances, and Lance slid closer to Keith as they emerged into the main hall, staring at the huge ship that took over most of the building.

“And this is our battleship.” Sam was explaining it’s abilities, when they were interrupted.

“It’s built, but it can’t fly.” The older woman said grimly. “Everyone, there’s a subject we can’t avoid any longer.” She stated. Keith started to get a deeply angry feeling in his chest, knowing what she was about to say. “Sendak attacked Earth because he wanted the Lions, and now they’re here. It seems that we at least need to discuss our options.”

“No.” Lance snarled softly from behind Keith, hand already dropping to his side. Without knowing what came over him, Keith immediately grabbed Lance’s hand, glancing back to the other Paladin. No, Lance. Not here. He thought, trying to press that thought into Lance’s head without saying anything.

The Red Paladin stilled, but his hand tightened on Keith’s.

“Are you suggesting that we willingly hand over the Lions to the Galra?” Shiro asked with a bitterly sharp edge.

“Our supplies are gone.” The woman - Admiral Sanda, Keith remembered - continued. “We spent all our resources on a ship that doesn’t fly. The weapons we do have are not enough to mount an attack. All we can do, is protect a small pocket of Earth, but for how much longer?”

The strong, worn hand that held Keith’s tightened with each word she said, Lance barely keeping himself together. Somewhere in the distant corner of his mind, Keith could feel Black’s shock and indignation as she spoke. He was angry as well, but not murderous, like Lance was.

“The universe needs the Lions!” Sam snapped.

“So does Earth. They’re our only bargaining chip.” The Admiral continued. Keith wondered if Lance would break his hand.

The next man spoke up, and Keith stayed aggressively silent.

“We have a fighting chance now that the Lions have returned.” Iverson snarled. “We need to take it.”

“I’ll settle this argument right now.” Allura hissed venomously, eyes gleaming. “We’re not giving up the Lions under any circumstances. There is no negotiating with Sendak.”

Lance’s hold loosened slightly, not quite as bone-crushing as before.

“Maybe you should leave the matters of Earth to the people who live here.”

Shiro finally stepped forward, a far more reasonable voice in this catfight. He made his statements sharply and harshly, without being disrespectful. It gave Keith a moment to glance to Lance, who was holding his hand still. The connection was grounding, even when Keith wasn’t the one who needed it.

After the Admiral gave them their ‘time’, Allura and Pidge were led off to find Sendak’s memories. The others were guided to the main area, where memory directed Keith through the halls.

Lance ducked into the room that was assigned for the Paladins the instant that their guide showed them where it was, and the others were told that they should get some rest.

Oddly enough, as they settled in for a nap, Keith found himself missing a weight in his hand.

LANCE

Hunk left nearly two vargas ago, and Keith followed him soon after, but it was a while before Lance slid into the shower room.

He wanted to feel... clean. After Admiral Sanda’s words, he wanted the blood off his hands, even if he had to strip his skin off to do it. Plus, it might help the tightness in his lungs that wasn’t because of any sort of anger.

He knew it was late at night, but he still needed to do this, for a moment.

Bending slightly forward and reaching to his back and fisting his hands in his shirt, Lance carefully pulled it over his head. It slid off nicely, better than most of the Garrison uniforms in the years since he’d been gone.

Laying the shirt on the edge of the sink, Lance stretched his arms over his head with a groan, feeling his shoulder snap into a better place, various other joints crackling and popping with his motions.

Then he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror.

The scar on his side. Smaller, thinner lines on his arms that hadn’t been severe enough at their origin to bother repairing. The burn that traced over him like some horrible letter of what had been done. His face with dry, worn skin, bags under his eyes, cheekbones sharper than normal.

Ribs and hip-bones that stuck slightly out, revealing where an infrequent, mostly jelly diet had stung his body.

Lance stared for a moment, at the thin muscles that shaped themselves into the cut form he always wished he had, but not like this, not this... husk.

Then, on a whim, unable to tear his eyes away from his damaged, ruined body, he leaned over, and flicked off the light.

Plunged into blackness, Lance took a deep breath and a moment to stabilize himself, before he felt his way to the shower, sliding inside.

When the initial blast of cold water hit his shoulders, Lance didn’t bother to move from it. Instead, he simply dropped his head and let it slowly warm, soaking into his hair as it ran over his face and back. The scars felt both sensitive and insensitive as hot water burned over him, tore him apart and stitched him back together.

For a few moments he just stood there, breathing in the steam from the water that should’ve hurt, but his skin felt numb. Water streamed from his parted lips and nose, from his hair and jaw, but he couldn’t yet bring himself to turn it down.

Putting his hands up, he finally stroked his hair out of his face, turning upward into the spray, breathing easily through it.

After washing his hair, then his rotting fucking corpse, Lance just stood, letting the water do what he had wanted the whole time, and wash away his emotions.

He stood there until he couldn’t feel anything, then turned off the water.

Wrapping himself in a towel, specifically so he could hide as much of his chest and hips as he could manage, Lance slid out of the bathroom in a wave of steam, shuffling one hand through his damp hair, the strands clinging to each other in probably spectacular levels of hedgehog-style.

That was what Rachel called it, anyway.

“Lance?”

Which was when he jumped a foot in the air, clinging to his towel, as his fingers fell to the handle of his Shin’shi, sitting nearby.

In the corner of his room, Veronica was trapped by an angry Ascua, who apparently decided that the woman had encroached a little too close to her partner’s hiding place, wings spread slightly in a protective stance, low rumble in her throat.

“Ascua, stop.” Lance sighed, careful to turn himself away from Veronica as much as possible. He didn’t want her to see the burn on his chest.

The Zeptrin made a low noise, but her wings pulled in and she settled into a sitting position on the floor.

Veronica carefully pushed off the wall, watching the fox-cat warily. “...It doesn’t like me much, does it?” She asked.

“She, and she doesn’t trust you yet.” Lance corrected softly, pulling on his shirt first, then his underwear. Muscle memory led him where conscious action failed, knowing how to keep a hold of his towel and get his pants on his butt at the same time. Having a big family had it’s advantages. “She won’t attack unless I’m in danger though.” He murmured, sliding on his socks.

The aforementioned animal padded over to him with a relaxed motion, ears turning upward, more like a cat. He ran a hand over her head, scratching under her jaw as she purr-growled into his fingers.

After getting into a sitting position, Lance patted his arm, and Ascua hopped up. “...C’mere.” He nodded to Veronica.

She walked over, and offered her hand to Ascua. The lean animal sniffed her, and Lance guided Veronica’s hand over Ascua’s head, careful to avoid her horns.

“Just don’t touch her horns or ears.” Lance said after Veronica sat down, starting to pet Ascua in earnest. “She doesn’t like it.”

She likes her ears rubbed, but only by me. I can touch her paws, but if I do she’ll want to wrestle. Her tail makes nice earmuffs, but I don’t think she’ll do that to you unless she’s trying to annoy you. Some part of Lance wanted to tell his sister everything. Every piece of what he knew about Ascua, because maybe it was the one part of Sector Space that didn’t nearly kill him for any mistake he made.

“...How did you get her?” Veronica asked after a while.

He opened his mouth, going to speak, before shutting it again with a snap. He couldn’t speak. Not now. Not here. Instead, he turned his head into his elbow and coughed. “...I met her on a planet. She snuck aboard my Lion.”

“And what, she just... stayed with you?” Veronica tilted her head, gently patting Ascua’s side.

“Yeah.” Lance nodded as Ascua finally seemed to get tired of being petted, and pushed Veronica’s hand away. When she went to pet her again, Ascua neatly pinned her hand under one deadly paw, though she kept claws in.

With a flick of her wings, Ascua stood, and walked off, going toward the napping Kosmo with a playful rumble. The wolf was at least four times her size, but that didn’t stop either of them.

“...Like our old dogs, huh?” Veronica chuckled, and Lance’s mind jumped to Suki and Captain as well. Captain was a Husky mixed with bulldog, it seemed like, while Suki was some kind of absolutely tiny thing.

They played together about as well as Ascua and Kosmo did, which was to say, destructive, but not to each other.

Lance simply nodded, but said nothing more. He knew his sister was intending to break down the walls that he had, but he wasn’t the same kid who his sister could talk about a kitten with and he’d break down.

He was stronger now, older. Less confident, but more sure. He had power behind his blows now, and experience behind his stance. Sure, he wasn’t important to the overall, but he was necessary for certain things. Offence, a watchman.

“Lance!” Veronica said loudly. Jumping slightly, he glanced to her.

“Hm?”

“I’ve been calling you for like, thirty seconds.” Eyes flicking up and down him, Veronica glared slightly. “Are you ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Lance nodded after a moment. He had always been good at believing what he said.

Veronica gave him a look that said she didn’t believe him, but she also didn’t argue.

That much, Lance was thankful for.

The others arrived back in their room late, going to sleep almost immediately. Hunk’s face was twisted in determination, sadness, and loneliness, but he didn’t say anything. Lance sat with him until he fell asleep.

After everyone’s breathing fell slow and quiet, even Coran’s snores, Lance stared out the window, with his blanket draped over his knees. He knew the constellations in the sky high above the particle barrier, but they no longer held the same familiar comfort that they had.

Lance got up. Not like he was sleeping anyway.

For a while, he just stared at his team, watching the group, before he knelt beside Kosmo and Ascua. After giving the wolf a few gentle pets, he cupped Ascua’s long muzzle and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. “Watch them for me.”

She purred, but didn’t follow him as he slid from the room with just his Shin’shi at his side.

He spent the next few hours walking the halls, a stoic watchman, silent and tired, but not willing or able to shut down.

He was in too deep now.

Chapter Text

Keith had been rather nervous when Shiro’s arm had malfunctioned like it did, but after Shiro woke up and was tested and retested, he got back into a proper outfit - feeling ‘great’ as he said - Keith was reassured that he’d be fine.

Sitting in the briefing room, Keith listened closely to Pidge and Allura speak on what they had learned from Sendak’s memories.

His methods, as brutal as they were, made strategic sense. Territorial swaths, to control the populous and limit the planet’s defences from becoming overwhelming. Armaments to keep rebellions controlled. Using the population as workers.

There were six massive structures on Earth, but for now they were focused on Base One, stunningly close to their current position.

The plan was to strike them quickly and simultaneously, with two teams. A sniper team, and a ground team. Keith was going to be part of the ground team with Pidge, Allura, and Griffin, while Hunk, Kinkade, Lance and Veronica were the sniper support.

Keith glanced across the table to Lance, who took a second to focus, but then gave him a slow nod, a silent agreement.

It was set to begin in a week at 2100, when it would be dark enough to further increase their stealth. Between then and now, information regarding the terrain, and Galra drone activity was to be collected by small scout teams.

“I can lead one.”

“No.” Veronica said coolly. “You and the other Paladins must remain here, until missions state otherwise.” She gave him a soft look, almost regretful. After all, she had brought him and Hunk out, but that was now impossible.

Bitterly, Keith nodded. He didn’t like the idea of being trapped in the base for a week.

“Dismissed.” Shiro stated, standing up. The dispersing people gathered into groups, chattering to each other quietly, either about the plan or about other things, some small talk rising amongst the gathered officers and commanders.

Keith, eager to avoid the chatter, quickly ducked out, noticing Lance do the same.

They emerged into the hall together, Lance leaning on the doorframe slightly as he gave a small smile at Keith. After smiling back, Keith led them down the pathway.

“The Garrison doesn’t have a spectacular training facility, but I’m sure we could use it to keep our skills sharp.” Keith began after a while of walking, watching a group of trainees jog past them, two rows in neat formation. “They must have a sniper range somewhere.”

“Yeah.” Lance agreed vaguely from beside him, pausing to cough.

“We could let Ascua and Kosmo out in there. He’d like a run, and... Ascua has most of her time in the air, right?”

Lance nodded and hummed an assent, but his eyes stayed on the ground.

“Then she probably needs to get some time in the sky.” Keith nodded sharply. “...You should introduce her to more people, too. She seems very aggressive.”

“She’s jus’ protective.” Lance murmured.

“Yes, but in a combat situation that involves civilians, she can’t be threatening them. Training room would be good for her.” Keith continued, but picked up an odd stumble in Lance’s steps.

“Sure.” Lance huffed gently.

“I wonder if Kosmo and her could work together. They both follow orders extremely well, and between her plasma and his teleportation, they’d be dangerous out a battlefield.” Then Keith noticed that Lance’s steps were louder, heavier, clumsier than normal. Which was odd. Normally, Keith couldn’t even hear him.

But he could hear Lance fall behind slightly, footsteps going quieter with distance. So he moderated his pace, concern bubbling in his throat, but before he could actually say anything, Lance spoke.

“Hey, Keith..?” Lance began slowly, breathlessly, prompting Keith to spin around.

Lance was using the wall as support, one arm extended to the side to keep his balance. He was shockingly pale, eyes glazed and lidded, half-focused on the ground, lips parted into a soft pant. Head tracing a small circle in the air that he didn’t seem to notice, shoulders fallen in, Lance seemed to be using all his energy on keeping upright.

“...Lance? Lance, what’s wrong?” Stepping forward, Keith reached his hands out slowly, not wanting the other to flinch.

There was a pause as Lance took a few small breaths. “...I don’t feel great.” He murmured, free hand moving up to his forehead, almost like he was trying to keep himself steady.

That was all the warning Keith got before Lance’s eyes slid shut and he slumped, body crumpling.

With a shocked cry, Keith lunged, catching Lance before he hit the ground. The Red Paladin fell into his arms wordlessly, body limp and practically weightless. Quick to shift him to his side, Keith lay Lance’s head in his lap, taking note of his pale face and cold skin.

“Lance? Lance?!” Keith called repeatedly, lightly tapping the other’s cheek. Snapping his head to glance around rapidly, Keith caught sight of a young officer, just turning the corner into the hall where they were. “Hey!” He barked, even as he started trying to pull Lance into a position he could carry him from.

The officer spun, sprinting down the hall and skidding to a halt beside them. “He’s...”

“Call the med bay.” Keith ordered sharply as he gathered Lance into his arms, resting the other’s head on his shoulder. Unlike last time Keith had Lance on his shoulder, he didn’t feel warm. Just cold, too light, and tense, mild fever heat lighting up from his forehead. “Tell them I’m bringing in someone who passed out. Go!” He snapped at the officer, who immediately made the call.

Standing, Keith nodded to the officer as he shifted Lance’s weight slightly. The officer led them toward the med bay, even as he attempted to rouse Lance. “C’mon Lance... Wake up.” He urged, shaking the other slightly.

By the fourth or fifth time he shook the Paladin, Lance’s face scrunched, then his eyebrows stretched upward, hazy blue eyes cracking into slits. “Wha...”

Keith’s lungs deflated in relief. “Oh thank God.” He muttered.

“...Ok.” Lance murmured, eyes starting to shut again.

“No, no Lance, stay with me!” Keith ordered sharply. Blue cracks slid back into focus at Keith’s face, just as the medical team rounded the corner, immediately taking Lance from his arms.

Lance groaned weakly, trying to reach back out to Keith, flailing slightly against the medics. He wanted them away, and Keith could tell as he fought against their grip. It took him just a second to recognize what Lance needed, and the Black Paladin stepped close and took his hand.

Immediately, Lance stilled, eyes slipping shut and body going limp. Some of the newer medics stared at Keith in confusion, but the older medic snapped at them, getting the stretcher up and moving quickly toward the hospital bay.

Keith didn’t let go of Lance’s hand the whole time, using his other hand to take off the Shin’shi, keeping the unbalanced knife at his side.

One of them put in an IV to get some fluids in his system, while another put an oxygen mask over his face. A third took some blood, the group working with efficient, practiced movements that spoke of several events like this having happened before.

“Get that shirt off him, Kelly, get me a pulse! I need the blood pressure monitor here.” The lead medic ordered, his voice stern and solid. One of his assistants brought out a pair of shiny silver scissors, and removed Lance’s jacket without even considering to unbutton it.

The medics didn’t pause at the sight of his chest, but Keith’s lungs went tight as the air in the room seemed to vanish.

Lance’s skin was tight over his ribs. Not in a brutalized, violent way, but more than enough. But that wasn’t what his attention was drawn to.

The grisly burn scar that stretched from Lance’s navel to left shoulder was brutal, sharp, agonizing. It carved a whiter mark, a stripe across Lance’s torso, that left an indent in his skin.

It seems like it had been enough to kill.

“Right.” The medic took a breath, putting on the blood pressure monitor, before nodding to his assistants. “Kelly, where’s that pulse?!” He ordered as he stepped backward.

Shuffling on the bed, Lance slowly began curling around himself, making soft moans in both pain and sleepiness. He doesn’t want it seen. Keith realized. Knowing what was wrong was odd to Keith, and he was certain that if Lance was awake, he’d find it weird too. Even if Lance had been the one guarding it, while unconscious.

Reaching to him, Keith tugged the blanket high up, to Lance’s chin, and sat a bit closer.

Lance relaxed, body going limp as his head tipped lazily to the side.

When the tests came back, only minutes later, the lead medic did a few things before going to Lance, standing over him and beginning to ask him a load of mostly instruction-based questions.

When Lance could follow most of them, the medics transferred Lance to a different room, that had slightly more decorative chairs but about as comfortable chairs.

“He probably won’t be moving much if he wakes up. Call me if he wakes up, I’ll just be outside..” The lead doctor informed, placing a white and orange hospital top on the side table.

“Thank you.” Keith nodded, watching as he left, then turning back to the figure on the bed.

Glancing up at Lance’s face, Keith could only stare at how utterly small he seemed. Like the height and tight muscle melted away under the tough sheet, and left just the scared boy who had protected them as they flew, exhausted.

This wasn’t the Lance he had left, the confident, cocky boy who believed he was a seventh wheel, the one who Keith left to Red’s care, to fight with the Blade.

What would’ve happened if I had stayed? Keith wondered, staring at Lance.

He didn’t know how long he sat there, lost in thought, one hand laying over Lance’s, until he felt Lance shift under his fingers.

Snapping to focus in a second, Keith shifted closer, chair squeaking. “Lance?”

Eyes fluttering, Lance’s head tipped toward Keith in a too-lax motion. “...K’th?”

Sighing in relief, Keith squeezed Lance’s hand for a moment. Abruptly, he understood why Lance had been holding so tight to him while Sanda was speaking. It was very grounding. “Yeah, it’s me.”

“...Wh’t h’ppened?” Lance mumbled, glancing around the room with eyes that simply slid over the details.

“You passed out, because you’re underweight.” And an idiot. He added the last part in his head, but figured Lance probably didn’t need to hear that right now.

Surprisingly, Lance raised his hands, clumsily landing on his chest with hollow thump noises, fingers searching over the blanket.

“Wh’re’s my shirt?” The lessening slur was slightly panicked, fingers digging into the sheet, and therefor, his skin. “Keith?”

“Lance, Lance...” Leaning forward, Keith grabbed Lance’s hands, forcing the other to turn and focus on him. “Just...” Quickly, he grabbed the shirt that the doctor had left. “Here.” He said, reaching to the side after that to hit the ‘call’ button.

Lance tried to get it on, but his body wasn’t quite firing on all cylinders, getting stuck after a few attempts.

“Lance, I already saw it.”

Though the haze of pain and exhaustion, Keith could see the instant those words registered, the odd way his body went lax and tense at the same time, eyes shutting with a faint scowl. “...You did.” Lance said, like he was confirming.

With a wince, Keith wondered if that was the wrong thing to say. He kept his eyes down, waiting for Lance to tell him to get out.

“...Fine.”

The sigh was bitter acceptance and exhaustion in one soft noise, defeat and pain.

“...What?”

Lance raised a hand. “Help me up.” He muttered, still not meeting Keith’s eyes. After a pause, Keith did as he instructed, Lance slightly slumped forward.

His spine showed in stark relief from his position, blanket sliding off his chest to reveal the brutal scar.

Scars. Keith realized, seeing another, smaller burn on his right side.

Snatching the shirt from him, Lance leaned back on one arm and did his best to get it on without disturbing his IV and mask. After a few moments though, he seemed to give up. “...Keith.” He murmured with a soft huff. “...I might need some help.”

Nodding, Keith stood. “Sure, Lance.” It took them both some finagling to get it on, but they’d need to wait for the medic to fully fix it, so for the time being, he just had the IV strung through the shirt.

“Thanks.” Lance muttered, using the heel of his right hand to rub where the scar lay.

“You shouldn’t do that.” The Black Paladin reached over and lay a hand on Lance’s arm gently.

Glancing up to him, Lance sighed. “...Yeah. I know.” Despite the bitterness of his words, he stopped.

For a while, neither of them spoke. Keith couldn’t, wondering how he could’ve prevented that mark. Lance’s chest shouldn’t’ve looked like it had been cut in half.

“Shit.” Lance muttered abruptly, hand snapping out to grab the side of the bed, trying to blink himself back to awareness.

Keith was at attention immediately, helping Lance lay back, just as a pair of nurses burst inside.

“How are you even moving?!” One of them hissed, quick to fix the IV so it was outside of his shirt.

Face gone pale once more, Lance brought up a hand to cover his eyes. “Y’get used to it.” He muttered dully. The nurse who asked just gave him an odd, concerned look.

Thirty seconds later, Lance was passed out again, and Keith felt like he was on the knife edge between screaming at himself or Lance.

One of the medics stayed, double checking his blood pressure and tests. He gave Lance something into the IV, probably some sort of electrolytes, ignoring Keith as the Black Paladin crossed his arms on the bed beside Lance. After that, Keith lay his head on his folded limbs, relaxing slightly.

“We’ll know more about his condition in an hour or two.” The medic informed.

“Thanks.” Keith murmured softly, shutting his eyes and waiting.

“Lance!”

Keith jolted partially awake to someone calling Lance’s name, but more awake to Lance jackknifing off the bed, hand slapping to his side for his Shin’shi.

Reaching up to get a hold of Lance’s thin shoulders and force him back to the bed, Keith turned to glare at whoever had woken him up.

Standing in the doorway, looking varying levels of shellshocked, were the other Paladins, Shiro, Romelle, and Coran.

“Lance, what happened? We heard that you were in the medical bay.” Pidge explained their appearance, quickly assessing the Red Paladin from her initial glance.

There was a sigh before Lance shifted slightly, turning away from the others in the group. A medic pushed to the front of the Paladin Blockade, and glared at them for a moment. “Paladin McClain, I’m going to send you with several special orders for the cafeteria.” He said, writing something on his clipboard as he carefully removed the IV. “I recommend you get started on one of those today.”

Lance’s eyes dropped to his lap, blankly staring at his hands. “...Ok.”

“Most of our scans show that your body isn’t fully used to solid food-“ With a sharp glare from Keith, the medic shut up. “...I’ll just give you the report. Your friends can take you back to your room.”

Twenty minutes later, and Keith was walking with Lance and the other Paladins down the hall, just exiting the cafeteria with a covered container of light soup. Hunk had figured he’d make Lance’s favourite soup, but he went oddly silent when he saw Lance receive a bowl of, essentially, broth.

The group settled into their room for the evening, quietly chattering amongst themselves with nervous flicks to Lance, watching him with the intensity of many small hawks.

His shoulders were too thin under the blankets he was wrapped in, even as he ate his soup in slow, consistent spoonfuls. His eyes stayed on the liquid, even as Keith sat beside him on the bed, his guard.

Ascua helped Keith in that sense, curled against Lance’s thigh like an overgrown cat, one long wing extended over his legs. With her red-painted eyes and vicious expression, she made an effective reassurance as well.

For a while, they all talked quietly, all but Keith and Lance, while glancing to the latter like he had some sort of disease.

After about half an hour, there was the abrupt clink of the bowl on a side table, Lance dropping his hands into his lap.

All eyes turned to him, everyone’s mouths shutting at once, breaths held.

The Red Paladin took a deep breath. “...I think... I should tell you what happened.” He murmured. Then he paused. “...in Sector Space.”

Silence.

“Lance, you don’t have to-“

“Hunk, if I don’t now, I won’t. Ever.” Lance spun to glare at him slightly, then dropped his head, briefly reaching up to pull the blanket more over his shoulders. “...I’m tired. I’d like a nap. I want to tell you guys this now.” He muttered under his breath, then realized they were all staring at him in concern still.

“...That was out loud.” Keith filled in after a moment.

“Yeah.” Lance nodded. “I figured.” He sighed. There weren’t further words until Lance opened his mouth and shut it a few times, before starting. “...The blast that was aimed for Shiro teleported me away.” He began. “...Into Sector Space, in the atmosphere of a planet called Rinnal.” One hand fell to Ascua’s fur, a grounding point.

Keith wondered if that was her home planet.

“I crashed there, and not any slow crash either. I broke my leg, some ribs, dislocated my shoulder... It took me a movement before I could get around at any sort of decent speed.” Lance continued. “Red was pretty hurt too.”

Lance had started at the beginning, and he wasn’t stopping until the end.

It took them just about two hours, to get through everything. There were a few places where Lance had to pause, and Keith knew that he wasn’t saying everything. Other times he paused because someone asked a question. A look of slow-growing horror was present throughout the story.

He said he had gotten in ‘a few fights’, and he didn’t explain where that scar on his chest, or any of his scars came from, but he did tell them that the Galra were in Sector Space, and not just on a few planets.

The early parts he described well, voice clear and easy, barely any stops. Dirmon seemed like it would be an amazing planet for the Coalition. Then he started talking about a place called ‘Creemin’, and his voice became quieter and shakier, stopping repeatedly, one hand occasionally twisting in the leg of his pyjama pants. It never recovered from there.

He didn’t tell them where Red got her upgrades. When he started talking about another planet called ‘T’branin’, his voice got so quiet that they could barely hear him. He tried to tell them about his Shin’shi, but Hunk’s glance away at it’s mention made him stop. He started rubbing where that wound on his chest was. He didn’t mention the Hewin Zone.

“...Then I flew through the pulsar.” Lance murmured, coming to a close. “And I came... out, to all of you, fighting Lotor.” He said. “...and that’s...”

“Where we are.” Keith realized, finishing for Lance. The thinner boy nodded, then made a soft cough. For several seconds, he didn’t even move.

“Alright,” Lance rubbed his chest, swallowing thickly. “now that that’s over with, I’m going to empty my stomach.” Pulling off his blanket and swinging his legs free, Lance walked to the bathroom stiffly and shut the door.

That was all any of them heard until the rough sounds of muffled retching came from inside the bathroom.

Shiro stood, going for the door, when Keith grabbed his arm. “I’ve got him. Just...” He nodded to the other Paladins, who seemed to get the point.

When the vomiting started again, Shiro sighed, and guided the others to their individual rooms, leaving Keith in Lance’s room, alone. Once he was certain that he was alone with Lance, he padded carefully to the door and knocked. “Lance?”

The toilet flushed. “...Yeah?”

“...Can I come in?”

There was a pause, then the door unlocked. Keith slid it open himself, because Lance made no further move to let him in aside from unlock the door.

Inside was dark. Skinny form pressed to the side of the shower, Lance was leaned slightly back to rest his head against the back wall. He seemed pale again, breathing slightly heavier than before, gazing at Keith with weary, sad eyes.

Dropping to his knees, the half-Galra crept closer to Lance, but not before the other man pulled himself forward using the back of the toilet, and dry heaved for a good few seconds.

Wincing in sympathy, Keith reached up and got a glass of water. Some foggy memory of Shiro doing the same to him once came to his mind unbidden, as he offered the drink to Lance.

With a shaky hand, Lance took the drink and nodded his weak thanks. Keith stayed close to him, just waiting for Lance to start again, but he never did. “...Thanks.”

Keith dipped his head in return. “Where did Red get her upgrades?”

The Red Paladin‘s gaze dropped, tracking away. “...I just told you about Sector Space.”

“You never told us where.”

Silence.

“T’branin.” Lance finally murmured.

Keith blinked in surprise. He knew Lance trusted him, potentially more than any of the others, which was why he had given Keith the answer he wanted almost immediately. “...You didn’t tell them everything.”

“I... Couldn’t.” Lance muttered. “...They can’t know.” His head had dropped, face hidden by the shadows cast from the light of the other room.

“They can’t know what?” Keith asked. He didn’t know either.

A weary chuckle rose from the slumped form. When he lifted his head, Keith caught sight of the tears that streaked down Lance’s face. The empty smile, the broken glass and dark shadows behind his eyes. “...They can’t know how many bodies are on the ground.”

In that second, Keith understood.

With the Blade, Keith did several things he wasn’t the most proud of, but he always made his attempts to stay away from direct murder.

Other, older Blades had no such compunctions.

Even Kolivan sometimes trained him to strike in places that would end a life, though Keith tried to avoid those moves most of the time. He had no problems with blood, and not even with death.

But slaying another sentient creature, that... did something to his insides, twisted them in a way that made him distinctly uncomfortable.

’Sector Space is like what happens if you put aggressive Galra with no compunction for killing a Paladin of Voltron.’ That was how Lance had described it.

In Zethrid and Ezor’s ship, he remembered Lance using that vicious Shin’shi thing to slice a neck open, without barely a pause. He thought he had also seen Lance cut a blow into Ezor’s chest, a probably deadly one.

“...Lance.” Keith began slowly, pieces fitting together. “...Did you... kill them?”

The blank gaze slid to Keith, space behind the glazed glare filled with rage, loneliness, loathing, and agony.

He could see Lance consider him, consider what had been, in his mind.

Seeming to come to a conclusion, Lance grabbed the wall, and pulled himself up. Keith followed as Lance lay back in the bed with a rough exhale, twisting onto his side, back toward the other person in the room.

Then, he patted the bed in front of him. “Let him on the bed, Ascua.” Lance sighed. Standing, Ascua shuffled herself out, then pushed her nose between Lance’s arms so that she was laying against his chest.

Keith understood the invitation, carefully settling into a neat sitting position beside Lance, the other just flicking a finger through a wrinkle in the blanket.

“...I killed.” Lance murmured. “It started when I blew up a base on Dirmon. That wasn’t even direct.”

Despite wanting to say that blowing up a base wasn’t exactly direct murder, he understood. Loss of life was still his fault.

“It got worse when I reached Creemin. They taught me how to fight. That was where Red got her jet upgrades.” Lance continued. His voice was flat and dead. “...By the time I left T’branin, I didn’t really feel guilty. I mean I did, but...” He shrugged, still staring at the fold of fabric. “It didn’t really matter if I did.”

“...Lance...”

When he spoke again, it was sharper.  “I haven’t slept properly in... ages. I feel like I’m on, all the time. I can’t shut down and I know it’s killing me, but I just can’t.” He rambled, hands pressing into his skull.

Lance went silent, pressing his face into Ascua’s shoulder. Some part of Keith knew he wouldn’t be speaking again that day. So instead of moving away, leaving Lance alone, Keith simply slid down in the bed, laying beside him.

Even so, blue eyes flicked to him in grim confusion, as Ascua shifted to make room for him. When Keith rolled over and turned off the lights, he could still see enough of Lance’s face for the expression of relief and gratitude.

He didn’t want to be alone with his thoughts.

Half an hour later, Kosmo came in, searching for Keith. He was invited onto the bed by Ascua, because Keith couldn’t bring himself to break eye contact with Lance.

It was late before Lance’s eyes finally closed. Keith followed him soon after, only pausing to pull off his shirt.

LANCE

Lance didn’t dream that night.

It was a welcome change to not sleeping because of his dreams. Even if dreams of a peaceful Earth were long gone, the mental silence was a relief.

Over his side, some small, warm weight was resting, a body curled close to his. He didn’t really want to open his eyes, to come out of the doze that he had fallen into, but when a thud rang out in the next room, Lance shot up whether he liked it or not, instincts reacting before he did. Hand dropping to his Shin’shi, Lance took a moment to remember what had happened.

His team was in the other room.

Beside him, the other form groaned, shifting. Turning, Lance realized that there was still a pale, well-muscled arm laying across his hips. “...Keith?”

“Shhhut’p.” Keith mumbled. Normally, the other was a very early riser, something he learned even more while they were traveling to Earth, but apparently, some quin-days, Keith splattered and could not be woken by human means.

His hair was in a messy black nest on top of his head, even drooling into Lance’s pillow a tiny bit. “...Keith?”

“Y’re w’rm, c’mere.” Keith muttered, pulling Lance closer to his side, apparently determined to turn Lance’s skinny ass into his personal heating pad.

Resigned, Lance reached to the side and grabbed his unfinished soup. It wasn’t that tasty, especially not cold, but hey. He wasn’t going to argue this, and so far, he could keep it down when not drowning in the memories of blood and hell.

Then Keith glanced up to him from the blankets, and Lance couldn’t help but give him a soft smile. “...Thanks.”

“...Y’r w’lcome.” Keith muttered, then turned back into the sheets.

He had a week. His team was going to treat him like he would break. He wouldn’t be able to keep it all down all the time.

I never should’ve said anything.

He was right.

Day three, and everyone but Keith talked to Lance like he was made of glass. It pissed him off.

Which was probably why he was destroying every target the Garrison could offer him with a bitter expression, hands tight and shoulders braced as he worked through the shots.

Each time he pulled the trigger, the bullseye marker went off. Every. Single. Time. He needed the release of the trigger, the sharpness of the recoil, the sting of his shoulder jolting back with each snap.

He didn’t care about the pain. He didn’t even care about anyone else walking in, several cadets pausing behind him and staring. Let them. Lance thought as he walked sideways, crossover, to shoot each target down the line.

Time was something inconsistent and unnecessary to Lance, his only judgements of the seconds, minutes, hours passing was how often he pulled the trigger. He just knew it had been a while, shoulders shaking slightly from exertion, when he finally lowered the gun, eyes taking a moment to adjust back to normal vision, reds standing out slightly starker than normal.

“...That was amazing!”

Turning around, Lance caught sight of Rizavi, one of the MFE pilots. In all honesty, he had no problem with most of them, but Griffin had to learn to shut his mouth, or Lance was going to bring him out to the sparring ring and lay him out a few times. He wondered if that desire showed in his gaze sometimes. Perhaps that was why Griffin avoided him.

Rizavi though, immediately darted forward with a wide smile. “That was... I’ve never even seen Ryan shoot like that!”

Glancing around, Lance realized that he had to have occupied the sniper range for a good 4 hours. Thirty-five feet across, with seven targets at the end of each firing lane, of which there were five.

He had hit every single target, just by stalking up and down the line.

“...Thanks.” Lance murmured.

“No way! You were moving for these too!” Rizavi gasped, staring at the recording screen. “How did you learn to do that?”

“...Necessity.” Lance said, because that was accurate. It was the simplest explanation.

“But how do you hold the gun steady?” Rizavi whispered, like it was some sort of huge secret. “Whenever the pew goes, the butt hits your shoulder, and then the point is off.”

In that second, Lance felt himself physically relax. Memes. Someone who doesn’t talk like I’m gonna shatter, and memes.

“It’s... keeping your arm steady.” Lance raised the gun again, and the exhaustion that brought him down seemed to melt back. “Balance.”

He knocked down the seven targets in the one firing lane again.

“And can you do that running?”

“I’ve had to before.” Lance nodded.

Rizavi looked like she was about to explode. “Can you fight hand to hand? What’s that cool knife? How do the Bayards work?”

Chuckling, Lance turned to her as his Bayard went back to it’s dormant form. “Can... I get my food first?” He asked.

“Of course! As long as you tell me!!”

She followed him, like a vibrating shadow, as he got his designated liquid meal of that particular hour. Honestly, by this point, Hunk’s smothering and the diet were his problems.

The gun range was the one place he could escape them all.

Oddly enough, though, he never found himself wanting Keith to stay away. In fact, the night prior, he had snuck into Keith’s room after his patrol. The other Paladin had welcomed him with little more than a sleepy smile, and that was all the reassurance he needed.

Regardless, the diet sucked. Eating Red’s food goo once or twice a day started to seem more appetizing than room temperature milk and lukewarm broth four times every day.

Rizavi sat across from him the instant he found a table, reminding him that he had this younger stalker. Most of the MFE pilots probably weren’t much older than Lance had been when he started the whole Voltron thing, just Griffon as old as they were.

“...What do you want to know first?” Lance asked.

“The knife! I’ve never seen you without it and none of the other Paladins carry one. I mean, Paladin Kogane carries a knife, but not like that one.”

He snapped the belt lock off the Shin’shi, pulled it and it’s sheath off his side, and put it on the table. “This is a Shinkanjen’shi-arva.” He informed. “It’s design originates from a planet called T’branin. They’re commonly called Shin’shi.”

Running a careful hand down the grip, she glanced up to him. “Can I...” She began. Lance nodded his assent, and she immediately drew it, before scowling. “...It’s unbalanced.” She observed.

“To you.” Lance finished, then lay his fingers down on the blade’s grip before taking a drink of his milk. Rizavi gasped, and Lance knew that she had felt it’s entire balance shift.

She twisted the blade, but Lance kept his fingers on it the whole time. “How does it... do that?”

“It’s a type of metal that adapts to it’s environment.” Lance informed. “And it was quenched with my blood, so it reacts to my touch.” He pulled his hand off, and Rizavi had to adjust to the abrupt weight shift. “So when someone else takes it, it doesn’t react, making it hard to fight with.”

“...That is literally the coolest thing anyone has ever said, here, in this base.” Rizavi murmured, staring at the weapon. Touching the hilt again, Lance let her maneuver the blade. “And there’s been a lot of cool shit said in this base.”

“Just don’t cut yourself with it. It’s very sharp.” Lance warned.

“How sharp?” Rizavi asked.

Without knowing how else to prove it, Lance pulled a random piece of paper from his pocket and slid it past the blade, easily slicing off a tiny piece, practically a string, in a perfect, smooth line. “That sharp.”

Rizavi stared. “...You’re my favourite Paladin.” She said after a moment.

For the first time in what felt like a long time, Lance smiled, and meant it.

After that, whenever Lance could escape the smothering of the other Paladins, or he wasn’t with Keith, Rizavi shadowed him. He understood, abruptly, how Keith felt about Romelle.

He liked that she didn’t need him to sit there and talk when he didn’t want to. He could talk, or he couldn’t. She was easy to please, and whatever Lance was doing was apparently interesting enough to take part in.

Including, one day, shadowboxing.

The mission had been postponed another four quint-days, due to increased patrols, and Lance figured it was time to get back into the game. With determination, Shiro had attempted to keep him away from the training room, trying to get Lance to gain some weight, but Lance had enough. If he sat still for another day, or wandered the halls again, he was going to lose his mind.

So when he knew Shiro would be in a meeting, he went out. Rizavi found him in all of two minutes, and silently followed. After ensuring he had on a decent shirt that would cover his ribs and scars, he went to the training room.

Even though he had been impatient to get past Shiro, he wasn’t impatient about waiting for the floor to be open. The pair of pilots who had been sparring walked off laughing, and Lance stood, stripping his jacket off and putting his arms over his head, stretching.

His right shoulder made an odd click when he stretched it back, so he stopped and rolled them back, standing straight.

“Y’know, it’d be more fun with a partner.” Rizavi grinned.

This is a bad idea. The thought only went through his head for a moment before he glanced back to Rizavi, already in her training outfit. “...I won’t go easy on you.” He warned.

“Please don’t.” Practically begging, Rizavi climbed into the ring as Lance slipped in as well. Warlain ran through his head, Uame’s training fitting over muscles that were tense and easy.

This was where he was meant to be.

When Rizavi moved first, Lance’s brain picked up on the errors. On the four different ways he could stagger her, then kill her.

Seconds. It would take seconds.

Instead, he planted a foot on the inside of her extended one, brushed her punch past his ear, and effortlessly shoulder-slammed her to the floor.

A move that Uame had used to put him on the ground a few times.

After she was on her feet again, she made him do it again. And again.

She did it until she understood how the move worked.

I passed on a skill that I learned in Hell, to someone in an ok place. He thought.

That gave him some reassurance to the world.

That evening, after the fourth milk and soup meal, Lance wandered back to the room easily, searching the halls for any signs of threat.

After checking and double checking, because he knew not to take any chances, he went into Keith’s room.

The man himself was laying on his bed with a book, silent, Kosmo beside him.

Over the last few quint- days, Lance had gotten closer with the Black Paladin. Maybe some part of him wanted to be held, or have his errant soul crushed back into his lifeless corpse, but he wasn’t quite sure what that all meant.

Neither of them were objecting to it though, especially not when Lance padded up to the bed, and sat beside Keith.

“Lance?” The other asked, putting his book to the side.

Without a word, Lance flopped himself down to lay on Keith’s torso, one leg lazily resting on the floor.

There was a pause.

“...Rough day?” Keith questioned.

Shrugging, with a noncommittal ‘hmm’ noise, Lance relaxed. This one still treated him like he could fight.

The spine of Keith’s book rested on Lance’s back, something he found perfectly fine. The simple relaxation of being able to breathe in someone he trusted, while he was protected, was something he hadn’t found in many places.

Lance shut his eyes.

Sleep came easily to him that night, and dreamless. Just like it was every time Keith was there.

He wasn’t sure what that meant.

Chapter Text

Lance was silent on the ride in, eyes sharp as Ascua shuffled on his lap. Veronica clearly knew where she was going, moving effortlessly through the area without much hesitation or slowing.

“You sure you’re up for this?” Veronica asked. She, like everyone else, had been questioning Lance’s stability for the last week and a half.

He could only nod.

He could hear Hunk attempting to make small talk with the other MFE pilot, Kinkade, in the background, but the other didn’t seem to be much of a talker. On that note, they related at the moment.

When they got to the designated building for a sniping tower, Lance held Ascua up on his arm. “Clear the way.” He murmured. “Stay quiet.”

Spreading her orange and red wings, Ascua jumped off his arm and steadily started flying up the steps. Moving easily and near-effortlessly, Lance followed her, keeping the others behind him.

When she made it to the top, she let out a low rumble, signalling to Lance it was clear. “We’re good.” Lance growled, then hopped a bit of debris in the door. “Kinkade, take the left.” The order came to him the instant he saw the broken windows.

Binoculars in hand, Veronica slid between them, searching for Keith and the others below. With Hunk watching the tracker and Ascua in the hall, Lance held his sniper up, scanning the streets below.

“No transmissions. Varied radiation signatures.” Hunk announced to the group at large.

Lance found Keith easily using the scanner function on his sniper. It hadn’t been used as much during his time in Sector Space, but he had an idea as to how it functioned. He watched as they stalked through the building, silent and easy, scanning for hostiles.

“Keith, drone patrol ahead.” He warned, watching as they immediately pressed to the walls, the drones passing without problem.

The group moved effortlessly and quickly, making their way close to the entrance of the main building unstopped.

It was well-guarded though, and Lance knew he would be needed there. After a quick discussion with Veronica and Allura, Keith glanced a bit back, to where he knew the snipers were, though distant.

“Lance, you ready to cover us when we get inside?” He questioned.

“Ready.” With that mark from Lance, the wolf vanished, and immediately, he locked onto them in the building. There was a pause as he scanned around for the enemies. “...Sentries, east wall.”

The wolf teleported them past the hall, and then there was silence. “...Lance?”

“Clear. Right hall. Hold.” Lance murmured, watching as the sentries approached from the side pathways. “There are sentries. Two, either side. Hold position... Coming up to you in three... two... one...”

The wolf teleported at the exact right second, the trio appearing behind a pair of sentries.

“That thing pick up heat signatures?” Kinkade asked, drawing Lance from his silent world of focus.

“No.” Lance smiled a tiny bit. “The suits have sonar imaging, and use that to generate a 3-D map, in a 20 foot perimeter.”

Kinkade nodded, seeming like he was going to say something, then freezing. “I’ve got movement to the north.” He announced. “Drones closing in on your positions from the adjacent alley.”

One of them rotated, focusing on Allura.

“We’ve been spotted.”

“Hang tight.” The other sniper levelled his sights, and Lance followed him quickly.

While Kinkade managed two, Lance hitting the third.

“We’ve got five hostiles.” Veronica announced.

Lance paused, considering it. “Kinkade, take the right three.”

“Understood.”

The shoots went off quick and easy, the drones falling to the ground in various piles of metal, either missing their heads or their torsos.

Emerging from their cover, Allura and Griffin turned back to them, the Altean giving him a kind smile. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” Lance nodded, a small smile on his own lips too.

Veronica slid beside him. “She’s pretty.”

Without much more than a hum, Lance dipped his head. “Yeah. She is.” He shrugged. Because she was pretty.

“Lance! Kinkade, more sentries incoming!”

Lance snapped back to focus, sights falling to the drones on the ground. Several heads exploded as Lance continued firing, while Hunk lumbered his massive gun out to the stairs.

Within the hall, Ascua made a loud screech, and something exploded.

“Cover’s definitely blown, guys!” Hunk exclaimed before unloading another burst down the stairs.

“Keith, Pidge.” Lance began. “Time to roll.”

“Copy.” Keith acknowledged, starting to head off with Pidge.

“Veronica, detonate it.”

With that, the various scramble bombs exploded, scattering chaff across the field and stopping the sentries. “We’ve still got shots.” Hunk said, staring at the real soldiers out on the field, even as they sprinted the stairs.

“Rendezvous at your carriers.” Veronica ordered. “Dodge the soldiers.”

“I’ll handle them.” Peeling off, Lance drew his sword with a whistle to Ascua. Immediately, she beat her wings with a loud cry, paws already wreathing in plasma. “Get to the cars.” He ordered, pointing to the waiting crafts.

Sprinting up a pile of debris by the side, Lance leapt into the air, sword at the ready as the soldier watched the rest of his team, trying to train aim on one of them.

Lance’s sword went through his chestplate and lungs like he was made of paper, barely having time to withdraw it before Ascua shot over his shoulder, into the next soldier with an impressive discharge.

Vaulting a chunk of displaced concrete, Lance swung his sword through the mask of another soldier, cracking it open before changing his stroke, the edge nearly taking off the Galra’s head.

“Go.” He ordered Ascua, racing toward the car. She landed on it first, claws sinking into the roof as Lance jumped on the back, quickly grabbing to a ladder rung. “Veronica, drive!” He barked, slapping the top of the vehicle.

She immediately started forward as Griffin’s car whipped around the corner, engine already roaring.

Lance and Ascua simply braced as the cars chased each other out of the city, back toward the Garrison.

Zaiforge cannons.

Zaiforge. Cannons.

Sendak was going to kill Earth, and Lance had never wanted blood spilled more.

His hands kept tightening on his pants, fingers digging into his palms even through a layer of fabric.

Pidge described the Zaiforge cannons to the commanders, just as Keith spoke up.

“Ideally, we attack all six bases at once, allowing them no time to stage a counterattack.” Keith announced.

“That’s not possible.” Admiral Sanda - and God if Lance didn’t want her blood on his hands too - said.

Then he blinked. Where did that come from? He’d never killed a human. ...Then again, it’s not so different from a Galra, right?

Keith was arguing that if they could get the Lions, they could attack the bases, but they’d need to get to them. Sanda immediately shut him down, saying that there were only five Lions.

As Shiro and Coran explained how they could get the MFEs to the bases, Pidge added that the Admiral was right. “We can’t get to our Lions.”

Everyone groaned softly, thinking.

“...You don’t need to go to them. They’ll come to you.” Shiro said.

Immediately, Lance shut his eyes. He could feel Red in his mind immediately, her worry, her separation, her anger. The world faded as he focused on calming her, convincing her to not come now. She was furious that Lance was hurt, and away from her. After comforting her that he was not indeed, dying, she seemed to relax.

Lance came out of it to everyone realizing that Shiro was right, that they could hit hard and fast. “We’ll need to get our Lions to meet us there.” Pidge reasoned.

“Yeah, that will really catch the Galra off guard.” Hunk agreed. “I mean, assuming our Lions respond to our calls.”

“Lance?” Keith questioned, drawing him to the present.

The Red Paladin turned to face his leader. “Red wanted to be here the day we landed.”

“What if they don’t come?” The question was unspoken until Hunk said it, but it in the air made Lance feel a bit better.

“They will.” Shiro reassured Hunk, glancing over the Paladins. “And when they do, you will strike and destroy all six cannons simultaneously before they can be launched. When they’re done, you can form Voltron and finish off Sendak and the rest of his forces.”

“My pilots can transfer four of you to the Galra bases before heading to the sixth cannon.” Griffon stated with an air of superiority.

“I’ll bring Lance to Base One.” Veronica agreed. “It’s the closest, and I know the ground.”

“It’s settled, then.” With the finish in sight, Shiro glanced to the others, explaining the various facets of their plan. Lance listened carefully, Red humming in the back of his mind, paying attention as well.

She already knew what she was going to be doing, and she was going to be the first one on the ground.

Earth was a paradox.

It was indeed, the object of this journey. From Voltron, to return to ‘home’ or something approximating it. It’s rivers and plains still existed, lush forests and the lapping ocean.

He might’ve found a place within Voltron, but at first he never planned on making it permanent. The desire to come back to a peaceful Earth - formerly the only home he had in the universe - was strong. There was freedom in space certainly, but not if he could not return when he wanted.

It was eternal. It was peaceful and lovely, with flowers that still grew and brilliance that still bloomed and filled the air with that sense of Earth, when they were not within the desert landscape of the Garrison.

And then Lance saw the spires of black and violet breaking above the horizon.

Lance tossed the dart across the lounge room, bored. He was supposed to be resting, according to Shiro, but he didn’t want to, didn’t need to be resting. He needed to be out in the training room with Rizavi again.

He got up, grabbed the dart, and sat back down. With a flick of his wrist, it flew across the room, and into the bullseye.

“Hey, watch where you throw those.”

Griffin walked in, a solid distance between him and the dartboard. Which made sense, considering that the fucking dartboard was on the other side of the room from the door.

“I was.” Lance muttered, getting up and grabbing the dart.

He and Griffin had been friends, or even acquaintances, when they were younger. Not super close, but not enemies.

Lance didn’t like how he spoke to Keith. How he looked at Keith. Hell, the fact that he looked at Keith.

They were silent for a while, Lance waiting for Griffin to pass by his path before throwing the dart again. “Hey.” Griffin growled again.

Glancing toward him with a dark glare, Lance made a similar, deep noise.

“Don’t throw those while people are in here. What if you miss?”

“I don’t miss.” Lance snapped. Because if I did, I’d die.

Griffin seemed to laugh at the almost over dramatic tone that Lance had in that sentence. He knew it was a bit over dramatic, but he didn’t miss.

Standing up, he grabbed the dart, then a second one, and settled back down. With an unhappy glare, Griffin turned and started making a mug of coffee for himself.

Lance waited until he had crossed the path again, going to get the creamer that someone had left on the other side of the couch, before throwing again.

“Hey.”

Without pause, Lance rotated his spine around and whipped the dart hard enough to make it whistle, burying itself in the cabinet door less than a full centimetre from Griffin’s right ear with a dull ‘thunk’.

The pilot flinched badly enough to fall over, his coffee mug rattling on the table. “Are you crazy?! That just missed me!”

With a soft grunt - because his legs ached from yesterday’s training damnit - he got up, yanked the dart out of the cabinet and offered Griffin a hand. “I don’t miss.”

Griffin suddenly seemed to understand, as he took Lance’s proffered assistance, and was pulled to his feet.

There was a while where Griffin just made his coffee as Lance sat back down, throwing the dart. Beside him, the cushion shifted as the pilot sat down, glancing over. “What happened to you guys out there, Lance?”

Staring blankly at the dartboard, he took a deep breath. Every part of the fighting, every noun, adjective, verb came to his mind sharply. Every word that came to his mind, every sentence, every way to describe, explain, and he couldn’t say one.

Except for one word.

“War.”

“Like, invasion, capture, fighting...”

“...Just war.”

Lance frequently thought about Keith, when he wasn’t focused on other things. The mission wasn’t for another few days, but keeping his mind off yet more destruction helped.

He wanted to go find Keith, take a nap. He wanted to punch the heavy bag until his hands bled. He wanted to feel something.

Instead, he turned his attention to a woman who looked almost exactly like him, sans scars, in the middle of the mat with another girl, her legs tangled around the other’s neck.

It took a moment for Lance to realize that the woman, practically a gymnast, was his sister.

She was doing very well in this, like the rest of his siblings. Marco and Luis had found the perfect niche in construction repairs, Veronica and Rachel had discovered their specialty in combat and other missions.

“They are doing very well.”

Turning to face Lisa, Lance nodded. “You all did very well.” He murmured, shifting his weight a tiny bit, away. One of his families treated him like he’d shatter.

The other one didn’t know.

His family had survived. Even if they were working, they were happy. They were a family, they were happiest when they had each other.

Lance didn’t know if he would agree anymore.

“Lance.” Lisa called, drawing his attention out again. “...Are you ok?”

“Yeah.” He said coolly, still watching Rachel go through her spar, when a hand touched his cheek, a soft thumb running over his jawline, across the scar there.

“...Lance.”

With a sigh, Lance moved away, going to find someone, anyone else.

He wondered where he fit in this working but happy family now.

It was a late evening when Lance was patrolling that Keith finally came to him.

Normally, it was the other way around, when Lance couldn’t bear the mental strain of being alone in a dark room any further, and he went to Keith.

This time, Keith stumbled out of his rooms like he was drunk, hair fallen flat around his face, stuck in clumps like it had been wetted. The desperate attempt to escape his mind, some part of his own voice, Lance recognized.

“Keith.” Lance called gently, slipping across the floor easily. “...You alright?” A hand landed on Keith’s shoulder with a soft noise.

Shaking his head, Keith immediately turned and leaned into Lance, forehead on the taller’s collarbone. “...I don’t have claws, right?”

The uncharacteristic softness in Keith’s tone gave Lance pause, gently taking the half-Galra’s hand and glancing over his nails, even running his thumb over them. “No.” The murmur came quickly. “No claws.”

Keith seemed to breathe a sigh of heavy relief, shaking body falling slightly more against the other. “...Good.” He whispered.

Wordlessly, footsteps guided them back into the room Keith had escaped from, but he didn’t seem quite so desperate to run from it this time. Laying on the bed, Lance waited for Keith to curl into his side before he glanced up at Kosmo, staring straight at him. “I’ve got him.” Lance told the wolf.

Kosmo lay his head back down.

Lance stared silently for a while, Keith asleep, curled into his side. The way his hair fell, the way his entire body seemed lax. The way he fought, how his voice sounded when he was determined.

When he laughed, or cried. The way he loved Shiro. The way he did that soft little smile.

...You were right, Red. Lance realized finally. What she had talked to him about, in Sector Space.

He pulled Keith a little closer. He could have this, at the end of the world.

He stepped up into the ship with Veronica, nodding to his sister before helping her secure the last bit of equipment.

“Lance.”

Turning around, Lance glanced to Keith, standing on the tarmac with his helmet under his arm.

Cocking his head with a small nod, Lance double checked the other’s condition before speaking. “Yeah?”

“...I just wanted to tell you to stay safe out there.” Keith murmured with a soft smile.

“...You too, Keith.”

The Black Paladin nodded and turned off, heading away toward the MFE launch sight, Lance watching him go.

“He gonna do that to all of the Paladins?” Veronica asked with a weird smirk.

The all-knowing look his sister had was enough to put him on edge. “Probably. He cares about us.”

“Yeah, sure.” Veronica chuckled. “Get in the car.”

They started off quickly, the MFEs already taken off my the time that Veronica started the car.

“Paladins.” Shiro’s voice began through his helmet. “...Our window of opportunity is razor thin.”

Wake up for me, babe. He thought. Red was already awake, already snarling for release, tense and waiting.

“With the element of surprise, we’ll have the advantage.” Shiro continued. “Good luck.”

Through Red, he could feel the other Paladins focusing, feel them bringing the other Lions awake, feel them calling.

He could feel Black roar, calling the others to pay attention, Keith calling Black to him.

They all blasted off, shooting into the air without problem, starting the journey toward Earth.

Then he heard Pidge yelp through the comm. “Green’s been seen!”

“Blue as well!”

Lance’s eyes snapped open. “Shit. Keith?” He demanded, wondering what their leader would do.

“Black’s spotted too. We can’t clear the path and get here in time.”

In that second, he felt Red make that decision herself. “...Tell them to come to you.” He growled, Red already sensing his command, his assistance. “...Red can punch a hole for them.” Explaining quickly, he pushed Red forward faster, bursting ahead of Black.

The Paladins exclaimed various questions as Red put her thrusters to work.

“Red can open a hole.” Lance repeated grimly. “She’ll be the last one through, but she’ll get the others down. Just focus on calling your own Lions. I’ll worry about Red.” He knew the risks, and the risks of the other Lions not getting there first was more than Red getting there last.

“Lance, that’s suici-“

“Keith.” The bark was enough to get Keith to stop. “Trust me.”

There was silence for a moment. “...Fine.”

Red roared, using claws, teeth and lasers to clear a path for the other Lions. They just had to keep flying, her body twisting around itself to avoid as many shots as she could. He could feel her pain, her frustration, her determination, but she was not flying to Earth until her pride was through.

“Lance?” Veronica questioned slowly.

His eyes snapped open, flicking to her. “Drive.”

She pressed down on the accelerator, speeding toward Base One over the desert, dust kicked up behind them in time with the explosions that spread from Red’s blasts.

It was a deadly dance, cold fire and fury caught in the form of one sleek cat, darting through stream after stream of lasers.

And then the ground in front of Lance exploded. “We’ve been spotted!” He barked to the others as he felt Red take a shot to the side. “Gah...” He hissed, holding his ribs as he felt it. C’mon Red... C’mon. He thought, catching a glimpse of the other Lions heading to their target destinations as Red struggled in the web of ships firing at her.

Veronica steered as best she could to avoid the dangerous ships that shot at them, sometimes missing by mere inches. “Puta!” Veronica snarled, twisting around in her seat for the one who had just shot.

“Black, ready.” Keith stated through the comm.

“Yellow’s here.” Hunk announced with an excited hum to his voice..

Allura gasped, then said, “Blue has arrived.”

“I’ve got Green.” Pidge sounded like she was smirking.

Sighs of relief came infrequently to Lance, especially now, but it certainly felt like that. Good work girl. He thought to Red, even as she struggled. Just fight out. You know how.

“Lance, can you hear me?” Shiro questioned, breaking his focus. Snarling under his breath, Lance turned forward as the car skidded to the side. “Where are you?”

Twisting around to catch sight of the ships that were chasing them, he went to reply to Shiro, before he noticed the closest one. “Veronica swerve right!”

She wasn’t fast enough.

The back tire blew, flipping the car across the desert landscape as both of them screamed, Lance trying to keep a hold of both Veronica and the side so that he wouldn’t suffer any major injury.

Not until his head smashed into the side wall, and everything went dark.