Chapter Text
"Lance.. look behind you." Shiro's smile was so wide and proud, his eyes shining in awe. He was either staring at an aurora, or...
Lance spun around. There was Red, leaning down and opening her jaw for him. "Red... Red!" The bad feelings took a backseat as every good and wonderful emotion sprung into his chest. Lance laughed, running, sprinting towards Red's cockpit. Everything was okay. Everything was fine. Red hadn't turned him away.
"How..?" Lance smoothed his hand over the headrest of the pilot's seat, staring up at the glowing red lines of the view screens. Shiro smiled as he followed Lance inside, giving a low whistle of appreciation.
"I think, Lance, that Red admired your resolve in the face of great hardship. Wouldn't you agree?" Lance looked back at Shiro, giving him an overwhelmed smile. "I'm not sure.. but I'll take it." He breathed in deeply, not pushing his negative emotions away, but dealing with them alongside the good ones.
"Okay, Shiro. Let's go see the others. We gotta take back that colony, and put an end to those druids' games."
- - -
Everyone had gathered on the bridge. The moment Lance entered with a posture that radiated a fighting spirit, Hunk flung himself at him with tears in his big brown eyes. "Oh man. You look so much better! Did you guys fix the curse?"
"No." Lance answered, finding comfort in Hunk's embrace, even as the bees of bad energy stung inside his blood. "It's still there. I just needed a kick in the pants, that's all. I got this." He smirked at Shiro, who nodded firmly back.
With that, Shiro turned to address the inhabitants of the Castle of Lions, hands behind his back like a proper military officer.
"We may have lost our last battle, but we won't give up yet. Let's move past this defeat, and find another way. Pidge, you were going through the data of our scans on that colony the other day. Find anything new?"
Pidge sat in her command chair, typing quickly at the floating keyboard. "I think so. The more I go over any communications that went in or out before we took out those towers, the more it seems like there isn't a single native on that colony that isn't imprisoned. As far as I can tell, this colony is just a glorified prison, and not a taken over habitat. Or so the correspondence goes.."
Hunk furrowed his brow. "Okay.. but there's still people that need help, right?"
"Right. Probably. But who sent that distress signal? I mean, it's plausible someone got out and had enough time to send it.. but judging by the way the Galra were ready for us?"
"Maybe the prisoner got caught, and they were just on high alert." Lance added, going over his own probabilities in his head.
"Maybe. But I have a hunch that this was all a set up. It had been way too easy for the three of us to get in there and find the video footage. But the actual cells? It was road block after road block."
Lance had a curling, sick feeling boring a hole in his gut. "Are you saying the prison isn't actually there?"
Pidge looked up, her brows knit in pain. "It's.. just a theory. We never saw any cells. Just the control room, and a map with heat signatures. Could have been anything. Maybe it's there, maybe it's elsewhere."
Hunk was still standing near Lance, and he started to piece together what the others were seeing. He breathed in sharply, laying a hand on Lance's shoulder. "Wait. Wait wait wait.. They gave us footage of prisoners getting brain tortured... there was no actual visual confirmation of the prisoners or a holding bay for them... and that distress call might have been a trap? For..."
Everyone looked at Lance. Lance felt his innards twist painfully. "...Why me?" He breathed uncertainly. Pidge, Shiro and Allura had been in the building, and no one came for them. But Lance...
No one had an answer to that.
Lance could feel fear thrash through his mind, attacking everything in sight. He needed to keep his head above it, but it felt like drowning in a tank with no surface to breech. Hunk's hand on his shoulder was grounding, if only by a small margin. It was getting hard to breathe.
Fight it.
Yes, he had to be stronger than the fear. It was going to wreck him, but he found a strange pride in keeping his head up even as the tidal wave crashed into him. He'd die with his boots on, so to speak.
"If we can confirm there's no prisoners there.." Lance began, his voice wavering. He spoke on regardless. "Then what? Blow the place up?" He'd love to blow it up, whether it'd help anything or not. Maybe not the most heroic of desires though.
"Last time we went in, we were making a point of using stealth to keep off the radar. This time, I say we go in with the intention of sabotage." Pidge grinned wickedly, her glasses flashing with mischief. "All of us as a group, no getting separated. We blow up walls, doors, whatever. We blast our way down, and see for ourselves whether the prisoners exist or not."
Everyone looked to each other for a voice of reason, or a word of caution.
Every single member of the group gave the most nonchalant of shrugs in perfect sync.
"Meh. Let's do it." Said Lance with more ease than he felt.
- - -
A wall exploded. Shrapnel flew off from the blast point, and littered both hallways which had now become one. Lance leered at Pidge from behind his shield. "Do I even want to know how you and Hunk built a bag full of bombs in two Vargas? Do you just have them stockpiled? Actually, no. Never mind. I don't wanna know." Lance waved a hand in the air to shoo away the possible truth. Pidge for her part looked pleased as punch. Hunk looked sheepish.
"Shame, really. It's actually really interesting." Pidge replied, standing with the others and making their way through the wrecked hall.
A Galra soldier with a small entourage of sentries rounded a corner and began firing. Allura formed her whip, flicking it down the hall and capturing the Galra in it's vice. With a grunt from the princess, she ripped the soldier from his calvary and flung him behind the team and into a wall. Said team tried not to gawk, and instead focused on taking down the remaining sentries.
Robotic parts now littered the floor. The team scurried past them, and Hunk picked up some pieces and added them to the bag.
"Hunk.." Lance chided.
"What? Spare parts are a mechanics best friend!"
They moved on.
They reached a lab quite like the one Lance had been found in. Lance didn't have any memory of it, since his eyes had been closed for the majority of his stay there. He mentioned as much to his team, when asked of any significance pertaining to the room and it's use.
"So, is there anything beyond this room?" Hunk looked around, but the space itself was fairly void of clutter. Just a platform for patients to lie on, and a small computer station off to the side. Pidge was already going through it.
"Guys, there is nothing here. This facility is either very new, or they didn't keep any patient info here." She huffed, kicking the bottom panel for good measure.
"Then what was this place meant for? I mean the facility as a whole, if we're thinking the whole 'it's a trap' route." Hunk sat on the platform, looking up at the ceiling. Lance kept a wary eye on the door they'd come in from.
"Well, they got that footage from somewhere," Allura chimed in, "Meaning there are people out there in dire need of rescue. Sadly, if they aren't here, I'm afraid tracking them will prove nearly impossible. Besides, they aren't the only ones in the universe in need of rescue." This weighed heavily on her, on them all, knowing there were countless souls being harmed. It was nearly out of their hands.
Shiro nodded, a haunted veil falling over his eyes. "Meaning we need to turn our focus on to things we can do. We can't win every battle, but there is a greater war out there worth fighting in. Gathering allies into the Voltron Coalition is a solid step to a bigger goal."
They all gazed around at the empty room, the realization they'd have to turn their backs on individuals for the greater good not settling well in their stomachs.
And there was still Lance's condition to worry over. While he was steadily keeping his chin up about the whole thing, one person's inner strength had it's limits. Running on a broken leg wouldn't win you the race.
They needed help.
Suddenly, the door snapped shut.
"Woah! What's happening?" Hunk yelped, sliding off the platform and bringing up his bayard. Three druids appeared, each one taking up a corner of the room. The paladins were near backing up into the final corner.
Lance felt his mind swing into vertigo. The world turned upside down, he lost his balance, collapsing onto the ground.
His team cried out to him as he sat there on the cold floor, head dropping in his hand. He fought to see past the spots crawling across his eyes like melting spiders. The remaining paladins surrounded him and faced off against the druids. One more materialized in the centre of the room.
"Haggar!" Allura's eyes blazed in fury. Lance tried to look up, but it felt as if he was on a ship swaying horribly on a stormy sea. Sweat began to bead down his face and neck, his body flushing in sudden fever. It felt like his brain was swimming loosely in his head.
"Princess.." Haggar sneered from under her hood, her hands glowing with sinister energy.
"What do you want?" Shiro demanded, stepping forward with one foot, his arm glowing in anger. "What's your end game here? What did you do to our Paladin?"
"I simply saw an opportunity. The mind is a tricky subject, but those who are already vulnerable are much more easily manipulated. Let's see how well this works.." She snapped her fingers, and her druids flew into action. Dark, menacing energy crashed like lightning into Allura, Pidge and Hunk. The latter of them fell to their knees in agony as electric bolts burned under their armour. Allura winced in pain, but managed to hold her own against it.
Haggar went for Shiro, the pair of them battling in a fashion eerily similar to a clash they'd had once before.
She had him surrounded in copies of herself, easily distracting him as he attacked one after the other in hopes of finding her real body. The real Haggar silently slipped past the struggling Paladins, heading for Lance.
Lance felt his physical strength drain as his fever rose, burning him up and making him sweat uncomfortably. His inner strength was wilting under the strain of a growing panic that scratched and clawed at his defences. He felt a wash of relief come over him when a cold hand smoothed over his forehead.
"Give in."
A flood of memories hit him with monumental force. Watching his team slowly move away from him, as he fell behind in every respect of the word. An ache in his heart as he reached for relationships that went nowhere. Allura scoffing at his flirtations. Keith leaving the team even though he'd thought they'd made such a great team. Hunk shooing him from the kitchen. Pidge levelling him with a look of exasperation when Lance got impatient with her talking science over his head. The memories were given a wash of dark and angry energy.
Blue's barrier blocking him out. Red's barrier... Rejection, rejection.
"Give in."
The memories hurt, they hurt terribly. But something still burned bright deep inside.
Lance dove free of the tidal wave of negative energy, and free fell into the darkest corners of his wavering heart. There, he found the flourishing little light inside. He reached out to it.
Shiro's kind face as he spoke of Lance's strengths. Hunk's delighted laughter when Lance cracked an obviously terrible joke. Keith's stunned expression as Lance gave him advice, and the feeling of warmth when Keith actually adhered to that advice. Allura's proud little smiles. Pidge's sparkling eyes as she admired new technology.
Lance came to a realization as the darkness chased after him down here in the cockles of his heart. He'd never cared if his friends came looking for him. He never did the things he did just to expect it coming back to him.
He loved helping them. Loved their smiles and laughter. Loved to see them happy and flourish. Lance didn't help others to serve himself. He helped others simply because he loved them.
Love.
The light grew brighter and brighter, a wild mix of blues, reds and blinding whites. It overtook the dark druid energy. It fought back. A roar so powerful ripped through the heart and lashed out at the sinister druid magic.
When Lance came back to his body, it was to the sound of Haggar screaming. He opened his eyes, watched as she held her hand as if it had been scalded. Her body was awash of the druid magic that Lance had somehow purged from his own body.
He felt healthier than he had in weeks. And he was ready for a come back.
Lance's weapon materialized in his hands, and blasted Haggar point blank. She flew backward, dissolving her copies as she crashed across the floor. His team looked on in awe.
"Lance.." Shiro gawked, holding an injured arm after a long fight with multiple copies of an evil witch.
Lance stood up, cracking his shoulders as he rolled them back. "Pay back, boys." He grinned, flashing a cocky smile that hadn't been seen in an age. His team found strength in that smile. They found hope.
Team Voltron stood tall, and faced off against a room full of druids and their master.
Haggar sneered, snapped her fingers, and the druids got the memo. All four vanished. The room began to shake violently.
"What the--?" Hunk wobbled on his feet. Pidge hissed and ran for the control panel. "I think they might have triggered something. Lemme just see if--" She was about to check the database for any sign of a bomb or other booby traps, but Shiro grabbed her shoulder, pulling her back.
"No time! If this place is coming down, then we need to evac, right now!"
Everyone agreed.
They ran. Not a single Galra soldier remained inside to stop them. Through crumbling halls and rooms and bays that seemed to be caving in, they ran and flew. Their lives depended on it.
They finally reached the hanger, and all five paladins escaped into the safety of their lions. Within seconds of flying up into the air, the whole facility imploded.
When the lions left the atmosphere, the crushing silence was near deafening. Lance finally started to hear his own exasperated breathing as he leaned over in his chair. The last varga seemed to have happened in a wild blur. Was this all.. truly over?
He closed his eyes. All that resided in his mind was his own thoughts. Maybe they weren't calm, but they were... they were normal.
"Well!" Lance gasped out, leaning back and running a hand through his sweat soaked hair. "Fun ride! Time to hit the showers?"
Silence.
Then a snort. Hunk. "Good idea, Lance." The faces of his team mates lined the bottom of his view screen. All of them winded, tired, but happy to see their blue Paladin back in action.
- - -
"You truly feel well again, Lance?" Allura asked, her hand on his shoulder as they stood on the bridge. Lance smiled, giving a nod. "Yeah, I do. I feel like I learned a few things from that whole experience, yanno? Made me a better person." He wanted to follow with a joke or maybe a bad pick up line. But maybe honesty was best. He didn't have to hide his true heart from his friends. They'd love him anyway, and he loved them back.
"Good. Nice to know you can learn something." Pidge called from her chair, working on some strange pile of armour with Hunk.
"Rude, Pidge." Lance snarked back, shrugging off any hurt the jibe might have left. Pidge didn't say these things to hurt. She said them because she liked him. Besides.. if she ever did say something that crossed a line, Lance knew now all he'd have to do is speak up. Shiro had taught him that. To be true to his own heart; that was how he'd fight the darkness.
"Well, I'll let you nerds have fun building.. whatever." Lance said with a stretch of his arms. "I'll go hang out with Kaltenecker."
"Aaah, nope. You aren't going anywhere Lance." Shiro said with a sharp grin, holding the boy back. Lance blinked up, confused. "Huh? Why?"
"Training!" Coran said with a grin. "Shiro says we all need to bond better as a team!" Coran too? Lance looked at them all, wearing matching grins.
"Close your eyes, Lance." Allura said with a delighted grin, her hands balled up near her chest in excitement. Lance flushed slightly, and closed his eyes. He heard giggling, which made him a little bit nervous. Then someone pressed something heavy against his chest, snapping it into place behind his back. "Guys? You're makin' me a little bit nervous here." He said with a bit more of a squeak in his voice than he meant to.
Finally, a large gun of some sort was pressed into his hands.
"Alright Lance. Open!" Allura's voice. Lance opened his eyes.
Everyone was wearing the strange armour plates over their chests. They all had guns that looked like the one he now carried. Each one had a large hose that looped behind them. On their backs, a tank of...
"Is.. are these Food Goo Guns?" Lance asked with mild horror.
Pidge grinned like a kid at Christmas. "Me and Hunk have been working on them all week. We thought, since you've had such a hard time lately, we'd test it out today as a celebration of your recovery."
Shiro gave a firm nod. "Team Bonding. Lance style."
Lance was overwhelmed. He didn't know what to say. Allura's smile softened, and she laid a gentle hand on Lance's cheek.
"Lance.." She murmured. Lance's heart caught in his throat. Then she smirked so deviously it was as if she'd been possessed by Pidge. "Tag. You're it."
The entire team fled the bridge in a symphony of laughter. Coran included.
Lance's mouth opened wide in a smile so full of delight and excitement, he felt it splitting at the corners. "Ooooh you guys are going down! The Sharpshooter leaves no survivors!"
Their game lasted for hours. The halls were a mess of dried, wasted food goo. The light in all of their hearts burned brighter, because they were a team. They were friends. They had each other.