Chapter Text
Keith
“Woah, Allura, you look...different!” Lance exclaimed as he and Keith stepped out of Red.
Keith couldn’t help but agree with Lance’s statement. Allura was dressed more casually than he had ever seen the princess, in a black v-neck and jeans and cloud of hair pulled into a ponytail.
“Please do not remind me,” she frowned, “I feel so strange in these earthen fabrics.”
“Same here,” Keith mumbled, resisting the urge to pull at his red Altean tunic. He felt overdressed and the suit made his nose itch uncomfortably.
“Speak for yourself, I feel awesome!” Lance laughed like Keith had expected him to, proudly strutting the blue threads he’d found.
“You’re something, all right,” Keith smirked, and before the other boy could retort turned back to Allura, “But I’m guessing you didn’t find us to talk about clothes?”
Allura’s lips tightened, “No, indeed. I came looking for you because I don’t trust these other Voltron members, and I wanted to know if you felt the same.”
Keith felt a strange sense of shock, but also vindication. If even Allura felt something was off, it was off.
“Yeah,” Keith nodded, “We’re not exactly sure why, but Lance and I think they’re hiding something.”
Allura straightened, “I think they might be in league with Lotor and his generals.”
“What?” Lance exploded, “Allura, how could you possibly think that? It’s crazy!”
“Not as much as you might think, Lance.” Allura held up her hands, “I just spoke with Keira, and what she said combined with a few offhand comments from Alastair and Gunderson lead me to believe that this Voltron might be on the side of the Galran prince.”
Keith felt inclined to agree, which was something he hadn’t expected. “It makes sense.”
“What’re you talking about makes sense , how does that seem logical?” Lance turned on Keith.
“Lance, think about it; you said so yourself not five minutes ago that something shady was going on here. Who’s to say these guys aren’t with Lotor?”
Lance just stared at Keith for a moment, his blue eyes roaming across the Red Paladin’s face. Keith willed the blush away from his cheeks as he stared down the Blue Paladin as well, his gaze lingering on his quirked eyebrows and scowling lips. He was also quite suddenly reminded of how skintight these Altean uniforms were and how attractive it made Lance’s shoulders look.
“Whatever the case may be,” Allura’s voice cut through the tension, “We know that there are important things they’re not telling us. We need to confront Alastair and get the truth.”
Keith tore his gaze away from Lance and nodded, “That’s what I was thinking, too.”
“Don’t you guys think we should wait until we’ve gotten more information before we go off accusing these guys of being a part of Lotor’s posse?” Lance asked, “I mean, I hate Lotor as much as anyone, and I don’t wanna be helping him out in any way, especially after what he did to us on that gas planet, but can’t we give these guys the benefit of the doubt? Maybe in this reality Lotor is actually a part of the Blade of Marmora and is trying to sabotage Zarkon from the inside!”
Keith opened his mouth to reply when he realized he didn’t have one. Lance made a good point; they didn’t really know much about this reality and the way things were moving in it, just like he knew nothing about their own Lotor or what his plans were.
“You make a good point, Lance,” Allura finally said, “But I cannot sit idly by and go along with these people until we know for sure where their loyalties lie. I will not repeat my mistakes of the last time we went to another reality.” and with that the princess turned away.
Keith sighed. Their princess sure had a flare for the dramatic. He looked at Lance, who was watching the princess go, a worried crease between his eyebrows. Keith had the sudden urge to smooth that crease with his fingers and whisper that everything would be okay.
“Y’know, it’s a really good thing I didn’t meet Allura on Earth,” Lance mused, “the way she looks in los pantalones , I would’ve made a complete idiot of myself talking to her.”
Keith was confused, “How would jeans affect the way you talk to Allura?”
Lance turned to Keith, his expressive face screaming disbelief, “Are you seriously blind ? Our princess is probably the most gorgeous girl in the galaxy, and seeing her wear clothes like a normal earthen teenager...how would that not affect you?”
“Oh,” Keith understood, his heart deflating a bit, “I guess I just never thought of Allura like that.”
“Yeah, I mean, I don’t anymore, but there are times it hits me how stunning she is,” Lance sighed, “I’m gonna have to make sure nobody hurts her.”
Keith couldn’t even come up with a response. Lance didn’t like Allura...like that anymore?
The Blue Paladin turned back to him, a strange sadness on his face, “She deserves someone who’ll make her happy, don’t you think?”
Keith shoved his swirling thoughts aside and nodded slowly, “Yeah. You all do.”
Lance looked like he wanted to say something, a question burning in his eyes, but kept his mouth shut.
“C’mon,” Keith began walking in the same direction as Allura, “We need to find a way to get intel on this reality’s Lotor and generals.”
“ Un momento, Samurai,” Lance smirked, “I think I have a way.”
Lance
Lance really hoped this plan would work, or he was about to make a complete idiot out of himself. Well, más que lo usual, at least.
The Blue Paladin stood outside the hangar leading to Lana’s Red Lion, praying that he wasn’t about to be eaten alive. When he had told Keith his plan, the other boy had looked at him like he was crazy.
“You’re gonna talk the information out of a robotic cat?”
“No, no no no, I’m going to use my charm and flattery to get the information out of Red, two things you sorely lack.” Lance explained.
“So what, you’re just going to waltz into her hanger, sit in her cockpit and...talk? This isn’t a slumber party, Lance. You can’t braid each other’s hair and talk about―” the poor Paladin looked at a loss for words, “Whatever people talk about at slumber parties!”
“Dude just trust me, I know what I’m doing!” Lance had assured his leader.
Now, standing in front of the large robotic cat, he wished he felt as confident as he had sounded. Keith had a way of doing that, though―building up his confidence. He still felt a trill of happiness in his chest when he remembered what Keith told him after Shiro had just gotten back.
“Leave the math to Pidge.”
Now if only his stomach would get with the program, that’d be great.
There was a coil of warmth that reached out to his mind and quickly retreated, suspicious. Lance immediately knew it was the Lion in front of him, searching for Lana but only finding him. He felt the energy coil again, this time with a question.
Lance laughed, “I guess you haven’t heard the news, then,” he strode over until he was right in front of the Lion, “Hey there, the name’s Lance. I’m the pilot of the Red Lion in another reality, though I must say, you’re pretty amazing, too.” he grinned.
Though she didn’t move, Lance could feel the Lion’s unimpressed glare.
“Okay, I’ll admit, I’m a little rusty, but gimme a break! We’ve been so busy fighting Lotor that I haven’t had a chance to put my skills to use, except on Keith, and he does not count.”
Another question, and Lance could’ve sworn he heard a voice say ‘Keith?’
“Oh yeah, Keith, he’s our hotheaded pilot of the Black Lion. Really cool guy, I think you’d like him.”
A warmth passed through his thoughts, and Keira’s face popped into his mind.
“Yeah, Keith is just like Keira, your former pilot, right?”
The Lion’s mood darkened in sadness and worry and anger.
“Whoa, sorry, I know that’s a touchy subject for you all. But it’s turned out okay so far for us while we fight against Prince Lotor and his generals.”
There was another question: ‘Lotor? Fight?’
“Mmhm,” Lance nodded, “Prince Lotor, Emperor Zarkon’s son and heir? He’s taken over for his father since we took out the old man.”
Another face popped into his head, a vaguely familiar-looking woman with gray hair and Altean markings.
“Is that Zarkon’s wife? Honerva?”
A red-hot blast of anger shot out from the Lion, flashes of battles and graveyards and tears flooding Lance’s senses. It was like remembering when he had seen two boys throwing rocks at helpless birds when he was little. He’d been so angry with the cruel boys that he’d fought them, and they left him with a busted lip and feathers covering his arms and face.
Lance shook his head and felt woozy from the intensity of this Red Lion’s emotions.
“Whoa, you have really strong feelings for that woman, huh?”
A low growl resonated through the hangar from the Lion, and Lance realized that strong feelings was a gross understatement.
“Well, whatever the case may be with her, you seem pretty familiar with Lotor and his generals. Have you had a lot of contact with them?”
Images with the faces of the four Galra women they had fought against the week before flashed through Lance’s mind, one sticking out more prominently than the others.
“Axca?” Lance asked, the name echoing in his head. There was a gentle prodding in his mind, and Lance let the alternate dimension Lion see into his mind for the memories he had of Lotor and his crew.
She seemed confused as to why there was nothing else after the Teladuv lense incident, like there was something missing, or wrong with that picture.
“Is there something that happened in this reality with Lotor that didn’t in mine?” Lance asked, “Because all we know is that Lotor was trying to get the Teladuv lense, but we don’t know why.”
Again the image of that dual-pistol wielding general popped into Lance’s head, though this time she stood across from Lana and Keira, weapon drawn. Her gun was pointed directly at Keira’s face, and Lana’s bayard was trained on the Galra.
“I don’t want this to end in bloodshed,” Axca said calmly.
Keira cocked her head at the Galra general, “Says the one holding a gun to my head.”
“K, don’t encourage her,” Lana muttered, not daring to move lest Axca try something. It was the exact same stance Lance would take were he in this type of situation.
“I’ve come to ask a favor of the Voltron paladins,” Axca continued as if neither of the girls had spoken, “specifically for the one who saved my life in that weblum, the one who has Galra blood in their veins.”
Keira’s eyes were dark as she stared unflinchingly at Axca, “That’s me. I was there in the weblum that day, just before we defeated Honerva and Lotor showed up.”
“And are you part Galra? There have been rumors of a Voltron paladin with Galra blood in her veins.”
“What’s it to you?” Lana responded before Keira could open her mouth.
Auxca seemed to weigh the answer on her tongue for a moment. “There are many of us who are part Galra, part other, but never had we seen a species exactly like yourself, a species so Altean-looking, with Galra blood. I had to know if the rumors were true.”
There was a long pause as Keira and Axca stared each other down. Finally the Red Paladin spoke, “They’re true. I am part Galra. I don’t know how or where it comes from, but I have the same blood.”
Axca was silent for a moment longer before lowering her weapon, “As long as there is some Galra in you, we should be able to help each other out.”
“What do you mean?” Lana asked, her bayard still drawn but no longer pointed at the general, “Why should we help you?”
“Because Voltron and Prince Lotor share a common interest: the destruction of Honerva’s empire.”
Lance shook his head again and rubbed at his temples, trying to make sense of what he had just seen.
“Wait, so Lotor is on our side?” Lance asked aloud.
The Red Lion growled at him, like a mother cat reprimanding her kitten, and Lance was forcibly reminded of all the times they’d been attacked by Lotor.
“Okay, okay, I get the picture,” he yelled before he had to relive another of this reality’s memories, “Lotor’s still a bad guy, but you’re just...working with him to take down the empire?”
Axca and the other generals’ faces appeared in Lance’s mind again, but not the Prince’s.
“Not with Lotor, just his generals?”
Red hummed in agreement.
Lance felt like he was on the cusp of discovering something important something earth-shattering and ground breaking, but he didn’t know how to ask the question he needed in order to get that information. He wanted to push the subject further, to ask why this was the case, but there was an edge to Red’s presence in his head, as if she was about to ask her own questions, and Lance couldn’t risk her knowing that Allura and Keith didn’t trust her paladin.
“Thanks, girl,” Lance smiled, realizing that he had a lot to process, “Your team is pretty cool, y’know.”
As he turned to leave, one thing pushed at his mind from the Lion: two figures, one clad in red armor, the other in blue, standing on a mountaintop together. Black hair whipped in the wind around the Red Paladin, and the Blue Paladin pushed it out of the way as they leaned forward and kissed gently.
A question came with the image, and Lance couldn’t tell what she was trying to ask him, though the image of Keith standing before the Black Lion after Thaceryx stuck in his mind. The whole team had been exhilarated at the fact that they could form Voltron once more, but there was a vulnerability to Keith that Lance hadn’t seen before then.
“I’m not sure what you’re trying to ask me,” Lance said warily, “But I promise to look after my Red Paladin. I won’t let you down.”
Keira
“I just can’t make heads or tails of this, Chulat,” Keira complained to the mouse sitting beside her, “I mean, maps are supposed to be simple and easy to read, right? So why am I having such a hard time with this one?”
“Maybe becuase you’re looking at it backwards?” a voice from behind her made Keira jump.
She turned around to face Gunderson, who had his tablet tucked under his arm as he stared at the holograph.
“You’ve got this nebula system in the completely opposite place,” the small boy continued, pushing his glasses up his nose, “and the last time I checked, Puig was on the western side of the quadrant, not the eastern.”
“Cardinal directions are void in space, Gun.” Keira deadpanned.
“I know,” he fired back, “I just wanted to see how much you actually paid attention to when Huali and I give our talks.” his eyes gleamed devilishly, “you never know, from the way your eyes are glued to Lana―”
Keira jumped the younger paladin and wrapped him in a headlock, grinning, “And how many times am I going to tell you that I always pay attention to you and Huali when you’re giving speeches?”
Gunderson struggled against her hold for a moment before tapping her forearm twice, “Okay, fine, uncle, uncle!”
Keira laughed as she uncurled her arm and the boy twirled out of her grip, pouting, “If you spent more time on the training deck I could teach you how to properly get out of that.”
“Oh no, I am perfectly fine with the training I get in battle, thank you very much,” Gunderson fixed his messy hair, “Besides, I’d rather not have to deal with you and Lana constantly making heart eyes at each other as you pummel the other into the ground. It’s not good for my indigestion.”
Keira rolled her eyes, “You’re worse than that boy from The Princess Bride , and I do not make constant heart eyes!” she turned to Chulat for support, but the mouse just looked at her with a shrug.
“I take that as the highest compliment,” Gunderson said, walking to his chair and opening his tablet, “And you most certainly do make heart eyes, you’ve had them ever since that first ‘bonding moment’ or whatever a year ago.”
Keira felt her cheeks warm and tried her hardest to will it away. She huffed and turned to face the holographic map again, realizing that the young Paladin had been right; she was looking at it backwards. She reached out and flipped the map around like Alastair had taught her to, and found she could actually understand it again.
“What’re you doing in here, anyway?” Gunderson asked from his chair, “I figured you and Lana would be bonding with your alternate selves as much as you could.”
Keira’s brow furrowed, “Just...trying to see if there’s any way to get to the Slygor system faster. There’s so much extra quintessence aboard with two Voltrons, and you know how dangerous that is.”
Gunderson hummed in agreement, “I’ll check our suppressors and cloaks tonight to see how much it’s affected them. If there’s too much of a signature, I’ll check in with Cora and Huali to see what we can do.”
Keira smiled, “Thanks, Gun.”
“I do what I can,” she could picture the shrug he was giving.
“What about you?” Keira asked, turning again to face the Green Paladin, “Why aren’t you geeking out with your alternate self?”
“Alastair needed me to come up and check on a few things for his research while he experimented, and Pidge wanted to stay and watch, saying that she wasn’t leaving until something exploded.” Gunderson replied, Chulat coming to sit on his shoulder, “Besides, Huali and Hunk joined the party and it was starting to get crowded down there.”
Keira smiled again, “Remember the first time you tried alchemy? You kept trying to prove it wasn’t a real science unless something blew up.”
“Yeah,” he laughed, “It wasn’t until Lana knocked over that vial trying to impress Alastair that anything remotely exciting happened.”
“My hair was white for a month !” Keira yelled, “I think that’s more than remotely exciting !”
“But you didn’t blow up,” Gunderson said, sounding disappointed, “And I think the white hair looked good on you!”
“You didn’t have to deal with the stares of aliens thinking you were an albino every mission!”
A cackle from the other side of the room startled both paladins, and Keira instinctively went for the knife at her waist. She spun around to see Lance standing in the doorway of the control room, laughing at the Red and Green paladins.
“Was your hair really white for a full month?” the gangly boy asked, a large grin on his face.
Keira slowly relaxed, feeling foolish for reacting so strongly, “Yeah, the chemicals in my hair wouldn’t wash out.”
“Until we went to that one planet with a cleansing waterfall,” Gunderson added, “Now that was a fun day.”
“You’ve been to a planet where there’s waterfalls?!” Lance’s eyes gleamed, “Was there rain, too?”
Something tugged at Keira’s heart hearing the hope in his voice. “We haven’t found a planet where it rains water, yet.”
Disappointment melted into an easy smile so quickly on Lance’s face Keira thought she had imagined it for a moment. But she knew the Blue Paladin well enough through Lana to recognize this defense mechanism, and it made her heart ache even more for this boy she barely knew. It highlighted another difference between her Voltron and theirs: their Blue Paladin was still pretending to be something he wasn’t. Keira caught Gunderson’s eye, but he didn’t seem to understand what was so monumental about Lance’s expression.
“Have you been on any planets with rain?” Gunderson asked.
Lance shook his head, “Not that I’ve seen, but I’m sure there are some in the solar systems near us.” he smiled wistfully, “We’ve been too busy assembling the coalition to do much exploring, I’ll be honest.”
Gunderson nodded, seeming to think that a viable excuse, “We’ve been doing that, too.”
Keira knew it was because they were plotting their own rebellion the young boy hadn’t been able to search for his sister or father. She wanted to fix that as soon as possible and see her adopted baby brother reunited with his family, but their mission was too important right now to allow time to pursue leads.
She then turned to Lance, who was inspecting her with a strange expression. Keira wasn’t sure if he was confused by her, or simply comparing her to his Red Paladin.
Alastair’s voice suddenly called over the comms, “Gunderson, could I get some help down here? I need someone who knows the proper alignments and algorithms to work the computer for me.”
“Be right there!” Gunderson leapt from his chair and out the door behind Lance, Chulat still on his shoulder and squeaking. “See ya!”
The metallic double-doors shut behind him, and Keira immediately felt the silence in the room thicken between her and Lance. It was a silence that wasn’t comfortable, but wasn’t awkward, either. It was a full silence, one where you could almost hear the thoughts spinning and churning in the minds of the room’s occupants. And if you listened hard enough, you would find yourself forgetting your physical body existed, becoming lost in your thoughts and the other person’s thoughts.
This silence did not stretch long enough to reach that point, however, because Lance’s thoughts were noisy enough and persistent enough to flow from his brain to his lungs to his vocal chords to his lips and tongue.
“I talked to your Red Lion.”
This was not what Keira expected to hear, “You did what?”
Lance’s eyes didn’t betray any sign of remorse, but his voice did, “I went down into the hangars and talked with your―Lana’s lion. I wanted to see for myself how they differ from ours, and thought I’d try to get to know her.”
“And what did you find out?” Keira asked, hoping she didn’t sound as curious as she was.
Lance shifted on his feet imperceptibly, “That your Red misses you nearly as much as mine misses Keith, and―” he met her eyes, “That you’re secretly working with Lotor’s generals.”
There was another silence, only this time it was charged. The silence that follows an accusation of any kind, whether it be good or bad, is always electric and anxious, void of coherent thought and logical reasoning.
Keira tried to keep her voice level, “What makes you think that?”
“Red showed me when you met Axca―really met and talked to her, not just on the battlefield.”
She remembered that moment well. It had taken a lot of negotiations before either the Galran women or the Voltron Paladins relinquished any real information to each other, and even now Keira didn’t fully trust them, though she wanted to.
“What about it?” she crossed her arms.
“I know you’ve made a pact with Lotor’s generals, but I don’t think you’re in league with Lotor himself, right?”
Keira fought back a smirk. Just like her Lana, this boy was more perceptive than he seemed. She nodded slowly, planning out her words. “There are things happening between us and the Galra in this reality that requires inside information. Lotor’s generals have proven they want that same information and share it with us. Our mission hasn’t changed since the first time we ever formed Voltron, and it won’t until that mission is complete.”
There was another pause, and with it a third type of silence. This kind happened when one party had given a statement, and both parties knew that it was only a half truth. The party who knew there was something more, but not sure what, could either wait in this silence, calculating and cold, or take the half truth as the full and not be bothered by the unspoken.
Lance chose neither of these, which showed wisdom on his part, and proved to Keira that she had been correct in deeming him more cunning than his blinding smile lead others to believe.
“Sounds like you’ve got things basically figured out here,” Lance nodded and let out a sigh, “I better find some food on this castleship; I should learn where you keep the snacks since we’ll be here for...3 days, right? That’s what Cora said at least,” he rubbed his chin with his hand, then waved it in the air, “Something about not having enough quintessence to power up the wormholes, right? Yeah, I think that’s what she said. Dunno how that could possibly happen, though, do you?” he fixed his bright blue eyes on her, and Keira knew immediately that he didn’t trust her.
In lieu of responding, she met his gaze and stared back.
The gangly boy shrugged, “Whatever.” and with a metallic
whoosh
, the doors opened and closed behind the Blue Paladin.