Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was by the 14th loop that Lance understood the rules:

1. This is not a dream
2. The loop restarts when the castle is destroyed
3. The loop also restarts if I (Lance) die, or the castle goes into the black hole
4. (IE) Only if I die
5. Me (Lance) and Blue are the only ones who remember
6. My (Lance) room is also unaffected by the loop
7. (IE) If someone is in my (Lance) room when the loop restarts, they will not remember
8. If I (Lance)  tell someone about the loop, it will restart (T-minus ten minutes)
9. (IE) I (Lance) do not know what will happen if Blue tells someone, seeing as she doesn’t usually communicate with the other Paladins
10. (IE) If they find out on their own, it will not restart
11. There is a unique change in every loop where something different happens (sometimes good, most of the times so far it has been bad)
12. I have not idea how to stop it

Lance paused on the last rule he wrote down, trying to debate if he should keep it or not, as it wasn’t exactly a rule. No matter, he didn’t have time to change it as the alarms went off in the castle. “Paladins” came Allura’s voice over the speakers, “Report to the control room immediately, this is not a drill.” Lance sighed, he was already in his armor, this was the fourteenth loop after all, he had to be prepared.

Nevertheless, Lance quickly ran to the control room, joined only by Shiro, who gave him an approving look but said nothing. The duo arrived in the control room a few minutes after the announcement was made. Coran and Allura were already there. Allura turned, and her face showed with surprise for a moment once her eyes landed on Lance. She, same as Shiro, said nothing, but nodded respectfully towards him.

A few minutes later, Pidge, Keith, and Hunk arrived together, seemingly out of breath. Pidge, hands on her knees, breathing heavily, said “Hey, *huff* at least we beat-” but cut herself off when she saw Lance. “Never mind then,” she said, “We’re the last ones here.” Keith seemed surprised that Lance was already there, and was only barely keeping it off his face. 

“What’s the emergency Princess?” asked Shiro.

“The castle, again, it seems, has taken a mind of its own,” said Allura, “We're headed straight towards a black hole, and I can’t steer the castle out of the way.” 

“Moreover, none of the hangers will let the Lions out,” said Coran, “So they can’t steer us out of the way.” 

Hunk looked panicked. “What do we do?” he asked.

“I’ll look into the castle’s code, see if I can find out the bug that’s affecting the system,” said Pidge, “How long do we have?” 

“With the speed we’re going at, about twelve vargas,” said Coran.

Pidge pursed her lips. “With the size of the castle, that’s not much time,” she said.

“I’ll help you,” said Hunk. 

“I will be going through the castle’s library as well, Number 5,” said Coran. 

“Between the three of us, we should probably be able to find the bug,” said Pidge. 

“But we should start now, just in case.” She dragged Hunk and Coran out of the room. 

“What can we do?” asked Keith. 

“For now, nothing,” said Allura, “I’ll call you back to the control room if anything arises.” The Red, Black, and Blue Paladins nodded, then left.

-

Lance had gone back to his room and changed back into his regular clothes, then gone to the infirmary. Yesterday (technically it had been two weeks, but whatever) Coran had said they were running out of medical supplies in the infirmary. Lance, deciding that Coran had enough work to do around the castle, ran down to the storage room and grabbed boxes of medical supplies and began restocking. Today he was continuing that job. Plus, the restocking helped him think.

“Maybe I can try to help Hunk, Pidge, and Coran?” he thought. “No, that would be too suspicious. And I already tried that. It ended in me telling them about the loop and ten minutes later everything resetting.” No, he could help the others. All he could do was hope for the best changes in this loop. Every loop had at least one variation or change. One loop, the whole castle had gone rogue and the training bot killed Keith. Lance shivered, still remembering his limp body. In another, Coran remembered the loop with Lance. 

It was both incredibly relieving and frustrating, because it only lasted one loop. Lance tried to think of other options, when, speaking of changes, someone entered the infirmary. “Lance?” asked Keith. Lance nearly dropped the stack of healing gel tubes he was holding. 

“Keith?” he asked, “What are you doing here?” Keith was wearing his regular clothes, and holding his hand over a spot on his shoulder. 

“The training bot cut my shoulder,” said Keith, “I came here to get medical supplies. What are you doing here?” 

“I’m restocking the medical supplies,” said Lance, “Coran has enough work around the castle already, so I thought I’d do this to help him out.” 

“That’s… nice,” said Keith, “I thought you didn’t like chores?” 

Lance smiled slightly. “This isn’t really a chore to me,” he said. 

Keith cocked his head. “Why so?” he asked. 

Lance shook his head, moving onto the bandages. “It doesn’t matter,” he said. 

Keith rolled his eyes. ”Just tell me,” he said. 

Lance sighed. “When my family originally moved to America from Cuba, we didn’t have much money, so me and my older siblings got jobs to help out,” said Lance, “I worked at a convenience store down the street. All day after school and during the weekend I was restocking shelves, taking inventory, ordering things the store ran out of, ect.” “Sorting and organizing kind of became a way for me to relax from then on,” said Lance. 

Keith was silent for a few moments before saying “That’s… kinda cool.” 

Lance smiled. “We didn’t have much, so we made the best of what we had,” he said. Lance then grabbed a tube of healing gel and a roll of bandages. 

“Now” he said, “Let me look at your shoulder.” Keith looked uncertain for a moment, but then took his hand off the wound. It wasn’t that deep, but it still needed attention. Lance applied a thin layer of healing gel, which caused Keith to hiss and shed away, but Lance held firm, saying “Almost done.” 

Lance then wrapped the gel covered wound with bandages. “There, done,” said Lance, “I would say lay off training for at least two days.” Of course, you won’t even remember this” thought Lance. Lance turned his back to Keith and continued restocking. 

A few minutes later, he felt a presence next to him. Lance turned to see Keith next to him, helping restock the shelves and cabinets. When Keith saw him looking, a slight red came across his face. 

But then Keith shrugged and said “I don’t have much else to do, so I might as well.” Lance nodded, then continued his work. 

A few minutes later, Allura’s voice blared over the announcement system. “All Paladins, please report to the control room immediately” she said. After a moment, she added “Your armor is not needed.”

Keith and Lance looked at each other, a bit confused, but headed to the control room. When they arrived, it was just them, Shiro, and Allura. “-said it was important, so I hope I didn’t just pull everyone from their tasks for nonsense” said Allura as Keith and Lance entered the room. 

“This is a serious matter.” Shiro nodded. 

“I hope they figured something out,” he said. “Otherwise…” he trailed off. Just then, Pidge, Hunk and Coran entered the room.

Pidge was holding her computer with one arm, and typing furiously with the other while Hunk looked over her shoulder. Coran was holding a book called ‘Dangerous Space Traps and How to Identify Them’, though the cover was in altean. As they entered, Pidge looked up from her computer excitedly. “I think we figured something out!” she said. 

“Well, more like Coran figured something out,” said Hunk.

“I hope so” thought Lance. “I’ve been through enough loops.”  

“That” said Coran, pointing indignantly at the ball of darkness displayed through the control room window, “Is not a black hole!” 

“It looks like one,” Keith muttered. 

“It does,” said Pidge, “But notice how it’s dark blue and not black, how there’s no event horizon.” Lance looked at the looming orb of shadows again and realized, Pidge was right .

The orb was a dark navy blue, so dark it was hard to tell, but it was. Instead of space bending around it, it was just simply there . Dios (God), how had he not realized earlier?

It had been thirteen loops and he had never realized . “Dios, I am as stupid as everyone says” Lance thought. 

“So, it’s not a black hole,” said Shiro, “But what is it?” 

“I knew you’d ask,” said Coran.

He opened his book and flipped through the pages until he landed on one with a drawing that was exactly like the thing outside the castle. “A… Chaos Annyma?” asked Lance, reading the altean. 

“You can read altean?” asked Pidge. Lance nodded. 

“Yep,” he said, smirking.

“Of course when I attempted to learn it, the program tried to kill me,” said Pidge. 

“Ahem” said Shiro, giving the two a look, “May we continue?” 

“Yes Shiro” said the Blue and Green Paladins. 

“‘The Chaos Annyma is a rare, but extremely dangerous, thing to see’” Coran read, “‘It can do anything, from making as if you never existed to suddenly making you have to ability to sing like a wobnabler, the Chaos Annyma can do it all’.” “‘Beware this dangerous phenomena’” Coran continued, “‘For not much is known about them, only that they can do pretty much anything at random, and when being around them, take extreme caution . And whatever you do, do not go inside, for if you do, you may never return’.”

“Now we know what it is,” said Allura, “But do we know how to stop it?” 

“It doesn’t say in this book, seeing as it’s such a rare event” said Coran, “But that's where Number 5 comes in. Take it away.” 

“Right,” said Pidge, “So, according to the castle records, the Paladins of old also ran into a Chaos Annyma, and ended up going through.” “It doesn’t say exactly what happened, but it does say this: ‘We thought at first that the Annyma had affected us all, but then Blytaz revealed that he had been unaffected and had reversed the effects. We believe that because the Metaphysical Aspect of the Blue Lion is Chaos, it prevented him from being affected and in turn allowed him to free us from it’s effects’.” 

“Huh” thought Lance, " So that’s why only I remember.”  

“So if the Annyma has any negative effects, Lance should be able to reverse them?” asked Keith. 

“Technically, yes,” said Pidge, “But it would be best if we could avoid the Chaos Annyma entirely.” 

“But we can’t steer the castle,” said Shiro, “So how?” 

“I was hoping we could talk to the Blue Lion,” said Hunk, “Maybe see if they have any ideas, seeing as it is their Metaphysical Aspect.” 

“Good idea, Number 2” said Coran, “Come along everyone, we have a Lion to meet.”

-

They made it to Blue’s hanger far too quickly. Technically, it took the same amount of time as usual, maybe even longer. But it was entirely too short for Lance as they entered Blue’s hanger. “So, do you just ask Blue what to do?” asked Hunk. 

“I guess so,” said Lance.

“Hey girl” thought Lance. “Any new ideas?” Blue communicated through her usual method of pictures, emotions, and broken language. Lance’s eyes widened. “You want to show them?” he asked her. 

Blue purred, sending a clear image of ‘Yes’ into his mind. “Alright” he said, “I’ll ask them.”

Lance turned to face the team. “So, Blue says she wants to show us something?” he said, trying to sound confused. “She said it would be like the Voltron vision, only longer.” 

“We only have nine vargas left until we hit the Chaos Annyma” said Allura, “Are you sure we have time?”

“She said I wouldn’t take that long,” said Lance. 

“You got all that in two minutes?” asked Pidge. 

“Blue talks very fast,” said Lance. 

“Alright then” said Shiro, “Whenever Blue’s ready.”

“Just close your eyes, wait five ticks, then open them” said Lance. Everyone nodded, then closed their eyes, and Lance followed suit.

Chapter Text

When he opened his eyes, Lance was in the control room. The lights were flashing red, and there were two sets of his friends, and another him. His team was easy to tell apart from their loop thirteen counterparts. For one, they were smoky, like ghosts. And two, they were staring at the other ones, who didn’t seem to notice them.

The loop thirteen versions of his friends were sitting in a loose circle. Coran and Allura were sitting next to each other, and next to Allura there was a space in between her and Keith, who was leaning against Shiro. Then there was another gap in the line, this one in between Shiro and Pidge, who was leaning into Hunk. There was another space in the circle, this time in between Lance and Hunk. The last space in the line was in between Lance and Coran.

“Are… is the Blue Lion showing us the future?” asked Allura. 

“Not exactly,” said Lance. “

You know what’s going on?” asked Shiro.

“Just… watch” said Lance. 

“Ten doboshes until impact” said the castle. 

Lance, loop thirteen Lance, stood up, took a breath, and said “I have something to say.” Loop thirteen Pidge rolled her eyes. 

“I swear Lance, if you are about to make a freaking love confession-” 

“I’m not making that kind of confession,” said Lance, “But yes, I am telling you something.” 

“Well” said loop thirteen Shiro, “What is it?” 

Lance took a breath, then said “This is a time loop.” 

All the loop thirteen versions of his friends went silent until Pidge said “Okay, he’s officially gone nuts.” 

“I’m not crazy,” said Lance. He took another breath, then said “Pidge and Hunk spent their day looking through the castle’s codes. They looked mainly at A47, 6H8, M32, and 98K, but found nothing. Coran was looking through that castle’s library, but also found no results.”

“Keith spent his day in the training room until he badly bruised his leg and has been hiding his limp since he got back to the control room. Allura spent her entire day in the control room, trying a failing to go through the castle’s data since most of it was corrupted. Shiro tried to find a way to open the hangers for most of the day before giving up and coming back to the control room.”

Everyone was silent. Lance had just given a near perfect account of all of their days, even though there was no way he should know that. “If this is really a time loop” said loop thirteen Hunk, “Then why didn’t you tell us earlier?” 

“Because in the loops where I tried to, it reset ten doboshes later” said Lance, sitting back down and sighing, “It was no use.” 

“But now there's only ten minutes left,” said Pidge, “So it wouldn’t have mattered anyways.” 

“Lance,” said Shiro, “How many loops have you been through?”

To this Lance was silent. “Lance,” Coran asked calmly, “How many?”

“Twelve” said Lance quietly, so quietly that they nearly didn’t hear it, but they did. “I’ve had to watch you all die nine times, two I told you about the loop but it didn’t matter, and one I…” they all watched Lance swallow. “I died.”  Pidge stood up from her place next to Hunk and sat down next to Lance. 

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered, “I tried so hard but nothing worked.” Pidge hugged Lance, and Lance hugged her back, tears pricking in his eyes. “I promise,” Lance said, “I promise in the next loop I’ll try my hardest to find a way to fix this, I won’t just stand there and watch you die again.” 

Pidge snorted. “1), I’m pretty sure you were doing that already, and 2), You could easily break that promise and we would never know,” she said. 

“But would I?” asked Lance. 

This time loop thirteen Keith was the one to snort ,“With how stubborn you are? Never.” he said. 

Lance laughed slightly. “Thanks,” he said, “But still, I promise.” 

The vision ended.

-

Lance was sitting in the lounge fifteen minutes later- “I’ll have to update my list” he thought. “The loop doesn’t end when Blue tells someone.” - waiting for his friends. They decided to discuss what to do next without him, for now, and Lance honestly agreed. If he hadn’t done anything so far, what could he do now? Everytime, all he had done was wait for another change and hope for the best.

Lance felt his left twitch, and winced at phantom pain there, in his right arm, and across his neck. In loop 9, the one where he had died, the training bot had, once again, gone rogue. But instead of killing Keith, it had killed him , cutting off his right arm and cutting out his left eye before slicing his throat.

Lance stood abruptly. He couldn’t sit here and do nothing. It was fraying his nerves and his brain was sending him through flashbacks. He left the lounge and headed to his room, trying to ignore the fact that in a little less than five and a half hours the loop would (most likely) restart and this all would have never happened.

He placed his palm on the DNA scanner for his room, not bothering to lock it after entering. He looked around. The place was… well, not exactly messy, but it wasn’t clean either. The floor was spotless, but his bed was un-made. His desk was clear, aside from the unfinished list he had been writing earlier, but the wall in front was covered in sticky notes (Coran had called it ‘Anyplace Note Paper’, bit Lance knew a sticky note when he saw one), as well as words written in dry-erase marker, seeing as the walls of most room’s walls worked like dry-erase boards.

Lance quickly made his bed, then sat down in the chair he had abandoned when Allura had called them on the over-comm that morning, scribbled corrections onto his list of rules for the loop, then let it spin in a slow circle. There had to be a way to stop the loop, he just hadn’t found it yet.

Lance reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a fresh sheet of paper, scrawling at the top ‘Plan to Stop ‘The Loop’’.

1. Get Blue to show the other Paladins (and probably be prepared for them to hate you)

Lance stopped there. Then what? He wasn’t a genius like Pidge or Hunk, a leader like Shiro, a diplomat like Allura, a fighter like Keith, and Coran, was, well, Coran, doing just about anything and everything that needed done and being about anyone he needed to be.

Lance was just… Lance. He was a decent diplomat and fighter, an idiot, a failure of a flirt, and a ‘cool ninja sharpshooter’. Anyone would shoot a gun, it wasn’t anything special. He was everything Voltron didn’t need. He sometimes had no idea why Blue chose hi-

Blue cut him off in his mind, growling at the thought and showing him him through her own eyes. He was a great diplomat, bringing entire civilizations together. He wasn’t the best at hand to hand combat, but he could either talk his opponents down or make perfect shots from impossible distances. When he found out Coran took care of the entire castle by himself, he took on half the Altean’s workload. 

And finally, he was an empath. He understood his fellow Paladins in ways they didn’t understand themselves. He kept Hunk’s anxiety at bay, reminding Pidge that she could take a break from looking for her family. He kept Allura and Shiro out of their own heads and distracted Keith from his anger. He gave Coran someone to talk to about his fallen home world. All of that made him a great Paladin, and she would take no other.

Lance chucked in his mind. “Thanks Blue” he thought, “But in all seriousness, any ideas?”

Because no matter how many times they had their conversations, they always ended back at square one: How to stop the loop?

Lance was so deep in thought that he almost didn’t notice Pidge enter his room, near jumping as she did.

“Geez, Pidgeotto, knock next time, you nearly gave me a heart attack” he said, clutching his chest.

Pidge rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, so, did we ask you to-” she cut herself off, staring at Lance’s note-covered wall. “Whoa, did you do all this today ?”

“No,” said Lance, “My room is unaffected by the loop.” He held up his hand before Pidge could ask. “And yes, I’ve tried having someone else in my room when the loop restarted. They don’t remember.”

Pidge’s mouth snapped shut, getting the answer she had wanted. But he could tell she was still curious, so he handed her the first sheet of paper. “Here” he said, “The morning of this loop I started making a list of all the things about the loop, and edited it before you barged in.” Pidge tentatively took the paper, then began reading.

1. This is not a dream
2. The loop restarts when the castle is destroyed
3. The loop also restarts if I (Lance) die, or the castle goes into the black hole Chaos Anyma
4. (IE) Only if I die (Though it’s probably because things keep going after I die and I just don’t remember anything because I died)
5. Me (Lance) and Blue are the only ones who remember
6. My (Lance) room is also unaffected by the loop
7. (IE) If someone is in my (Lance) room when the loop restarts, they will not remember
8. If I (Lance) tell someone about the loop, it will restart (T-minus ten minutes)
9. (IE) I do not know what will happen if Blue tells someone, seeing as she doesn’t usually communicate with the other Paladins
10. If they find out on their own, it will not restart
11. There is a unique change in every loop where something different happens (a few times good, most of the times so far it has been bad)
12. I have not idea how to stop it
13. If Blue tells some about the loop, it will not restart

“Well, that isn’t good” Pidge mumbled, “Can I take a look at your wall of notes?”

“Go right ahead,” said Lance, moving from his chair to his bed.

Pidge sat down at the desk, glanced down at the list in her hand, and then back up at his wall. Lance just mostly just picked at his nails, or stared at the ceiling.

“We don’t hate you,” Pidge said suddenly.

“Huh?” said Lance.

“We don’t hate you” said Pidge, holding up his ‘Plan to Stop ‘The Loop’’ list, “We understood why you couldn’t tell us, and when we said we wanted to discuss plans without you, we meant discussing plans about how to help you through the trauma of watching us die over and over .”

“Oh” was all Lance could say. 

They were both silent for a few moments before Pidge asked, “So, do you have any idea about how to stop this?”

“I was going over that before you barged in” said Lance, “I don’t have any skills that could help, and you guys' memories get erased every time.”

“Maybe Blue could give us back our memories?” tried Pidge.

“Maybe” said Lance, closing his eyes “I’ll ask her.”

“Can you?” he asked her. She sent him back a flash of no, no she could not. She couldn’t even get the memories from the other lions because theirs were erased too.

“She said she can't,” said Lance, opening his eyes.

“Wait, did you just talk to Blue from here ?” asked Pidge.

“Yeah, why?” asked Lance.

“I have to at least be in Green’s hanger for her to communicate with me, and even then it’s short responses unless I’m inside her!” she said.

“Really?” said Lance, “I thought we could all communicate with our lions from a distance.” “Like all the times Red goes to rescue Keith” Lance referenced.

“In that case Red is sensing that Keith is in danger and going to save him with no impute from Keith whatsoever” said Pidge, “You and Blue are having back and forth conversations when you’re nowhere near each other !”

“I think that's a bit of an exaggeration, Pidge,” said Lance, “We’re just across the castle from each other.”

“Still, you’re the only one out of all of us that can do it,” said Pidge.

“I’m sure at least Shiro can” said Lance, “We’ll ask the other paladins about it later.”

"Why don't we do it now?" suggested Pidge, hopping off Lance's chair, list in hand, and walking to the door.

Lance shrugged, rolling his shoulders quickly. "Sure" he said easily, "why not?"

Pidge smiled, and the duo left to find the other inhabitants of the castle.