Chapter Text
-SOMEWHERE IN THE MILKY WAY-
An altean like spaceship traveled among the stars in search for a certain planet. A planet called… Earth… and inside that ship a very well-known altean stood proudly staring at the glitter painted dark sky.
“Sire, we will arrive to our destination in approximately 3 Vargas” an altean told the captain of said ship.
“Good. I can’t wait any longer to meet the Paladins of Voltron.” The captain and leader said not taking his vision from the galaxy surrounding them, as if thinking or believing it would make their travels much faster.
The other altean stared at him from a few minutes and soon after gave him an unimpressed look. Taking a small sigh the altean said “Look sire, I wouldn’t normally question your actions but as the commander of our people…” taking a deep breath they then exclaimed. “WoUlD YoU SToP StaRInG At ThE WindOW lIkE A MAnIac!? YoU LooK LiKE a CRazY PerSoN”
The man stood still not taking his vision from the galaxy right away. He could feel the tension the other alteans in the crew had when his commanding officer would put him in his place. While he may be the current leader of the Altean race, it was nice to have someone else beside him after… after the true leaders left… So he took a deep breath and slowly turned around and looked at the altean straight in the eye and said… “YoU Don’T UndERStANd! Is ThE PalAdInss! I hAvenT seEn ThEM In SoOo LONG!” The older man exclaimed in a rather comical yet sentimental way.
The altean huffed and while crossing their arms they responded: “Yes! But staring at the window of hours won’t make this ship move any faster. I suggest sitting down and taking a break. We all know the hours of work you’ve put for not only us” they pointed at the other alteans making their leader look at them one by one slowly, patiently, proudly even. This made the commanding officer smile a bit. “But also for this trip. We know the hours you spend packing for our food, medical supplies, programing the defenses and offensives of the ship. We know. So please Coran. Rest. You deserve it.”
The second the red haired man heard those words, his shoulders relaxed from a tension he didn’t even know he had, he released a breath he didn’t know he was holding, his hands stretched from the punch like form he didn’t know since when he had. He for the first time through this trip felt a sense of certainty that everything will be alright. He took the commanders advice and decided to take a small rest and so he went up and took his sit from the commanding desk and closed his eyes for the next 3 vargas. Dreaming for what would come for him when he visits his small family of paladins…
Harsh shacking, strong struggling. That’s all he felt. An unsettling movement that didn’t help with the resting plans his commander set for him. What could be happening? Is it perhaps an attack…? Yeah it could be… It feels like that… Like an attack… wait. An attack? An attack. An attack!! SOMEONE WAS ATTACKING THEM!!
The man brutally stood up ready to attack whoever stood in his way of defending his crew only to notice that everything was perfectly, but then where did that shacking came from?
He looked around the room where the other alteans worked silently to make sure the ship was running smoothly. He felt something touch his shoulder, making him turn and grab whatever it was, almost at the speed of light.
“Sire, sorry for having to wake you so suddenly, but we arrived at Earth location. The landing will take approximately 5 doboshes. We’re waiting for your cue to enter Earths’ atmosphere.” The commander said with plain face yet a peaceful voice to not startle the leader anymore then he already was.
With that Coran looked at the hand he was holding. He gave a small cough releasing the commanders’ hand and with a sigh he straightens his back as he walked to the front of the room. It wasn’t the first time this has happened. Even after realizing the war has ended, there were still some rebels among the Galra that every so often believed attacking them was the right thing to do and he couldn’t risk losing the alteans once again. Even so that was no excuse to give the commander a headache, much less the alteans. They were manipulated, mistreated, used, and murdered and now they were healing from those memories, those sequences of events and who was him to add them more stressed with his little situations going on from time to time. It was nothing compared to what they are going through.
Once he stood at the front middle of the room and stared straight at the planet we call Earth. He gave the small, young planet a warm smile.
“Permission to land, sir?” an altean from the crew asked.
“Permission granted!” Coran exclaimed with such an enthusiastic voice that left the rest of the alteans surprised. Their leader isn’t one to show such… such enthusiastic emotions. Yes he jokes and smiles here and there but never with such emotion. That brought a smile to every single one of them. He deserved a break. They’ve never met such committed person that truly cared for them as individuals not for their abilities… like they did…
And so they prepared the ship for landing.
5 doboshes turned to 3, 3 doboshes turned to one. Coran could already feel the grass on his shoes, he could already smell the salt of the ocean, he could hear the sound of the wind traveling through the lands. What excited him the most was the fact that he could see the Lions of Voltron parked in a straight line one beside the other.
But what he couldn’t help but notice was a young man was laying at the paw of the blue lion. The man looked rather similar to the current Red Paladin Lance, but you could never be too sure. Either way if it isn’t Lance then why would the Blue Lion let the young man lay on her paw… unless the lions are already choosing their new paladins… but why? There weren’t any dangers going on that couldn’t be done with their current paladins… And if it was Lance… then why is he with the Blue lion and not with his current lion, the Red Lion? Whatever the case was he would get the bottom of it…
It was around 9am, the time Latino would usually wake up. The time when the autumn like cool fresh air softly touches the young mans’ skin as the morning sun painted a golden like shimmery spray to the already golden tanned skin.
Blue Ocean eyes slowly opened at the very, very gentle brushing, he felt on his hair. It felt like a mothers’ loved touch. The one his mother used to give him back when he was still a child. He slowly focuses his vision on the individual brushing his hair ever so delicate, in an almost ghostly matter.
‘Lance, my love, wake up’
What a beautiful voice. He could fell in love with this person just by their voice. He wouldn’t doubt it one bit.
‘Lance…’
There goes that angelic voice again.
‘Wake up dear, you have visitor who await your arrival’
Visitors…? Who? He wasn’t expecting anybody... Not that he knew off.
‘Why don’t you wake up and see?’
But you see that was the problem, he wasn’t in the mood to talk to visitors, much less unknown ones…
‘This visitor is far from unknown for they were and still is a very close family… for the both of us.’
As Lances curiosity started to get the best of him, he forces his eyes open fighting against the suns morning rays blocking his vision. All he can properly see is the color orange.
‘Coran’ said the voice in the warmest yet mournful voice he has ever heard in his life but he couldn’t help but wonder who was this voice and how did it know about him and Coran.
‘Soon Lance… soon we’ll meet again and talk properly.’
Lance had a suspicion of who the voice belonged too. It sounded motherly yet not enough to be Blue. It also knew about him and Coran so it most likely knows about the rest of the crew. Leaving aside how it said their name with such passion and emotion is noticeable they had a past together, the whole “We’ll meet again” pretty much gave it away… The voice wanted him to know who they were… who… she was… isn’t that right?
Allura.
And just like that his eyes flew open, his body shot up rapidly and all connection with the voice…. with Allura… was cut off. He stared at his shaken hands lying on his lap. He took deep breaths in order to calm himself down and so far it wasn’t working. Fuck he needed Blue’s help now. Where was she again? Oh god he was so screwed wasn’t he? His breathing started picking up again, his hands started shacking more vividly, and he could feel the buckets of sweats running down his forehead as if he were currently bathing under the rain.
Suddenly a hand touched his back, it was a gentle touch, he could barely feel it, but it was enough to trigger his senses, especially now that they were already up and running at a concerning speed. He rapidly looked up from his lap to see who was the owner of the hand currently touching him, only to see Coran. What was Coran doing here? What was the meaning of his visit? And why was he with him out of all the people he could go see?
“Now now young boy. Everything is alright. Is just little Ol’ me Coran!” the red haired man said with a passive yet charismatic voice as if to calm him down and cheer him up at the same time.
“Coran…?” he still couldn’t believe that he was still, after a whole year of not seeing the man for a whole year since he had problems to resolve with the whole taking care of an entire supposed extinct race and destroyed planet.
“The one and only my boy!” Coran exclaimed proudly making Lance chuckle.
“Is good to have you back Coran but how exactly did you find me? And when did you arrive? I didn’t hear you and much less see you.”
“We arrived about half a varga ago. You were in a deep slumber. We landed in that small hill not too far from here.” Coran said as he pointed at the hill not too far from where the last lion was sitting comfortably on the ground. “I got here with the help of a few alteans who accompanied me through the long journey from Altea to here, Earth. I hope you guys don’t mind them coming along to visit your planet…”
“What? Of course I don’t mind. I’m sure nobody wouldn’t mind them staying. The least we can do is provide them is some food and shelter after the travel. You know just as much as I do that Altea and Earth are anything but close.”
“A sad truth my boy…”
The atmosphere changed into a sad, almost depressing tone, but as quickly as it became depressing, it quickly became a more peaceful environment as Coran started to talk about his travels and his accomplishments back on Altea. He could feel how proud Coran was and still is of how far Altea has grown to the Altea it is today. He was also very happy and proud of not only Coran but of the other alteans as well. Is not easy living a life where you believed your home planet was gone forever and that there was no hope on ever going back. Leaving aside the whole catastrophe of being manipulated, and used for plans that were anything but good. He was happy that they got their Altea back, he was proud of them for moving on from that horrendous past and most of all he was mostly proud that they are still this optimistic race and still have the strong spirit to fight for an even better future.
Yet he couldn’t help but feel jealousy. They have done so many wonderful things in the last year and what has he done? Nothing… absolutely nothing. He was happy for them, he truly was, and he wouldn’t do anything to take away the happiness they so much deserve, but he still couldn’t help the empty feeling he had on the lack of achievements he has done throughout the year. He slightly shook his head to stop is own train of thought and continued to listen to Corans’ stories.
“What about you Lance? What were you doing here all alone?”
“Uh well… I wasn’t felling too tired last night and I kept hearing a voice… It made me feel safe and warm… so I decided to follow it, which ended up being a good thing because apparently the owner of the voice was Blue. Blue just wanted to have a little chat with me. Thought the talking I started getting tired and ended up sleeping with her.”
“Fascinating. I’ve never heard of the lions being able to talk to their past paladins after changing to a new one”
Lance chuckled at Corans’ excitement of this new knowledge about the lions. “They can actually talk to their fallen paladins as well. We found that out when fighting Horneva. The lions just couldn’t do it since Horneva had their souls… I think it was… trapped in her mind or something like that”
“I see. That’s really something. Them being able to have the honor to communicate with the fallen warriors that fought alongside them”
“Sure is Coran.”
It certainly was, but it was also sad. Now that he thought about it he know understood Blue when she told him how she, along with the other lions, that they had to constantly repeat their errors they did with their last paladins that caused them to be… gone…
Lance couldn’t help but guiltily think how the lions at least had the ability to talk to the last paladins face to face and be able to fix their errors, miscommunications, differences, and so on…
Maybe that’s what… Allura… meant with the whole “we’ll meet again and talk properly” but if she would talk to Lance through Blue then why did Blue told him, last night, to pretty much move on from Allura? Especially know that Allura wanted to tell him something? Does Blue knows something important and is hiding it from him…?
Lance looked up at Blue as if questioning her plans and ideas just from looking at her robotic eyes. He knew something wasn’t fitting correctly and whatever it was. Something inside of him kept telling him that the faster he knew the better to get over it.
He couldn’t put much thought to the situations since he snapped out of the trace of thoughts when he heard his mother called for him in a way that was nothing close to happy and much less pleased.
“Fuck.”
“Oh dear she does not look happy at all” Coran said with a small concerned face.
“Thanks for confirming how screwed I am, Coran, really helps with calming my nerves…” Lance said with a sarcastic tone. Coran noticed how distressed the poor boy was and decided to take matters with his own hands. As the angry woman started directing herself towards them he patted Lance on his back replying in a whisper “Don’t worry my boy; let me take care of this. You can trust on me.”
“Lance! Where the hell where you all night!? I came to look for you this morning for breakfast but you didn’t reply and I let it slide thinking you were still asleep. I go back to look for you for lunch and what did I find? AN EMPTY ROOM! You better have a reasonable explanation or I swear lance you’ll be in big trouble!”
Coran couldn’t believe what he just witnessed. A mother screaming at her son as if he were a mere child, not like the paladin he is. It took everything for Coran not to snap at the women, for he also couldn’t blame her for he too would be worried if something ever happened to the alteans or the paladins.
“Good afternoon ma’am” said the red haired man making the mother look at his direction.
“I’m Coran, the new leader of planet Altea and close friend and partner of your son, Lance. I came to Earth in hopes to see all of the Paladins of Voltron in hopes to discuss about the few garla rebels still running around. I wanted the reunion to be small and simple, a brief explanation of what was happening before we have a more serious reunion about said topic. I made this small reunion early so the paladins could have the rest of the day to search for more intellect about such matter also to grab some supplies in case we needed to go out to the planets who are in need. The reunion finished not too long ago as a matter of fact. The reason of why Lance left unnoticed was because I specifically told the paladins to not tell anyone about this reunion since I didn’t want to cause an unnecessary racket for a false alarm. I’m deeply sorry for the inconvenience I might’ve caused because of my plans.” With that Coran made a small bow that lasted less than 2 seconds before he straightens himself up and without a single care in the world stared directly at the womans’ eyes.
“I… I see… I’m sorry for my… exaggerated actions…” the mother responded in a soft guilty voice
“Everything is alright. I understand your worry. I for one wouldn’t know what to do if something bad ever happened to my people. The feeling you just felt is completely understandable.”
Lance was rather shocked at what he just heard. While yes he isn’t surprised that Coran would be worried from the wellbeing of his people but the way he said it broke his heart. He has never seen such a vulnerable side of Coran and honestly he was hoping to never see it again. He was so used to seeing Coran as the weird, funky, charismatic guy that it was hard to see him be so down and… passive… he personally didn’t know how to respond to this, so he stayed quiet.
“Well that will be all for today young man. I’ll be contacting you for the next reunion or if I need of your assistance. Here have this communicator.” Coran hands Lance a white device that looked similar to the orange one Pidge created when they were still on the castle of lions. “If you find the equipment I asked contact me right away. You’re dismissed for the day, wouldn’t want to make your poor mother worrying. I’ll be going to the ship for the time being to cover up some intellect I told you early, until next time. ” and with that Coran gave Lance a small smile almost invisible to the naked eye, only for Lance to see. He turned around and just like he said he made his way back to his ship.
“Son, mijo, let’s go home” his mother called for him with a sweet smile on her face.
“Yes mama… I’m sorry for worrying you though… I know that I couldn’t say about the reunion, but I should’ve at least told you I was going out or something…”
“No Lance I should learn to let you go as well… you’re a big boy now… I know you can take care of yourself… but when I didn’t see you in your room I thought… It was going to be like… like the day you disappeared and didn’t come up for a very long time… and during all that time presumed to be… dead… but I should know better… You have Voltron, the crew, an entire planet, an entire galaxy, universe covering your back, but as a mother… I still worry…”
“Mom…”
His mother didn’t gave him much to talk about since the second he called for her, she stood up and started walking towards their home as if telling him that she wasn’t ready for this talk and just wanted to go home. So he stood and quietly walked next to her. He holds her hand, like when he used to do as a kid and looked at her.
“Everything will work out in the end momma. I promise you” He saw how her shoulders relaxed, how her lips curved slightly up, and how a single tear fell from her small lashes.
“I promise” and with that they carried their little journey home peacefully. He knew that Allura would have to wait once again. His mother needed him now more than ever, it was obvious. He only hopes she can forgive him…
When Lance arrived home, along with his mother, he was crowded with his siblings and nephew, but he couldn’t help but noticed how Nadia was sitting at the front porch of their house glaring daggers at the floor. He has never seen her so down in his life and that bothered him quite a bit. So he gently pushed his way through his family and slowly walked towards his little niece. He took her little hand, which she rejected, shoving her hand away rather brutally. This surprised him; she wasn’t one to reject his affection, or anybody’s for the matter. He shook off the surprised feeling quickly and decided to figure out the meaning of her actions but she started talking before he could ask what was wrong…
“Why you run away?” she asked in a serious tone string directly into his eyes. “Why would you leave me…?” tears formed on her eyes, breaking his heart.
“I wouldn’t dream of doing such thing Nadia…” he replied with a broken voice.
“Then why did you?”
“I didn’t Nadia. I’m right here. I’m not planning to leave any time soon”
“Just like you didn’t plan to leave us all those years ago…”
This shocked Lance even further. He didn’t know what to say other than “You’re too young to understand…”
“Then tell me. I’m old enough to understand, or am I wrong?” Lances’ father stood tall as ever with his arms crossed with the most intimidating aura he has ever seen his father had. Not even when he was grounded he made the atmosphere felt so heavy.
“Father…” he slowly stood up and while it was rather hard for him to do, he started at his fathers’ eyes and kept saying “I was in a small reunion, with Coran, the leader of Altea, and it only required the paladins. We made it a secret, since it wasn’t anything to big, we didn’t want to cause an unnecessary racket over a small meeting… that’s why I left unnoticed…” he decided to stretch the lie a little bit further. He knew it would eat his ass later on, but if would help lower the tension of the moment then so be it.
“Perfect that explains why you left. Then explained this to me, why did Hunk appear at our house looking for you during your ‘reunion time’? He had no idea where you were. Oh and he was looking for you since he needed help with his restaurant. Nothing paladin like.” Well there goes his left butt cheek…
“Oh… I mean he arrived really late to the reunion since he was the one looking for all of us. I... I left early and uh since we couldn’t tell about the reunion he must have lied about the restaurant…”
“Hmm that seems logical, but then why was he accompanied by one of his many workers? If the reunion was so secret, and something only the paladins could know, then why bring an outsider?” and now his right cheek waved farewell…
“Oh I mean we sometimes bring helpers every now and then… uh someone we consider like a… a second in command! Yeah, I just haven’t found someone for the position for my lion, that’s why I go alone”
“Lance. Honestly shut up. You truly think I would fall for that crap.” And adios my ass. “While I do agree that some reunions between the paladins are meant to not be notified to the public in order to not make a scene, but you and I both know you didn’t go to a reunion. I saw the altean ship land, but I didn’t see any paladin near the ship, not even once. You’re a young man, Lance. You’re old enough to take care of yourself, but you’re also old enough to know that running of is an immature action not fit for someone as yourself.” His father looks at the flowers in the garden for a brief moment and continues. “This has gone long enough. A year Lance, is been a year. Running of, staring into space, talking to… things… Is time to stop, Lance. Either you put yourself together or I’ll matters into my own hands.”
And with that the man walks inside of his house not looking back even once. Lance didn’t know what so say and much less do. He didn’t dare look at his family, the one burning his skin with their stares. He knew they agreed with his father, even he did. He knows is been a year. He knows he’s barely at home. He knows he’s not spending time with his family as he should. He knows, he agrees, he’s aware of this, but he still isn’t done with his duty as a paladin, nor as Alluras’ guardian.
He feels his family slowly approaching him and honestly he doesn’t feel like he is in his right mind at the moment to properly talk to them. So while staring at the ground he shakes his head and puts his hand slightly up, as in telling them to stop and leave him alone. He doesn’t wait for their response and starts heading to the small farm where Kaltenecker is, to cool himself down, ignoring his families’ calls as he walked farther and farther away from them.
When he arrived to the small stable like farm he was greeted by a soft, gentle ‘moo’ making him forget instantly all of his tension and stress. He noticed how tired she looked while lying on the hay on the ground. He was about to ask if she was alright, but just when he was about to, she mowed and looked at the open space next to her, as if telling him to lay down next to her. He smiled and chuckled making him way towards her. Kaltenecker didn’t give him much time to think on how to lie down, she grew impatient and bit the side of his shirt pulling him down towards her, making the hay fly everywhere when he fell directly on it. She made a deep sound that sounded like a chuckle. He couldn’t help but find himself laughing along with her. Calming his laughter down, he put himself in a more comfortable position with his back laying against her side. There he stayed, against the comforting warmth of his little lady for hours without end…
On the McClain’s house, however, it wasn’t as calming. It was full of tension, no matter what part of the house you went. Lances’ oldest brother Luis along with his wife Lisa stayed in their rooms with their children Sylvio and Nadia. Lances’ other two siblings Rachel and Marco waited in the living room while things cooled down. Lance’s parents on the other hand stayed in the dining room discussing Lance’s behavior… and by discussing… from them meant planning. Veronica did everything in her power to cool her parents down, but by the looks of it wasn’t going to happen anytime soon, much less by the plans they already have in mind…
“Father, please. I want you to think twice about that. Would it really help if we-”
“Veronica. You know better than anybody else how many times I’ve ‘thought things twice’ because of your pleads and I’m not falling for it again. Is been a year and that’s long enough. My decision is final.”
“But do you really think that would help? You know how much it means to him. You can’t just pick them up and throw it away.”
“I can and I will. Ever since those things got here they’ve been not only destroying our family but Lances’ stability. He wasn’t like this… He was so full of energy and light, even when he returned after the war, while it was obvious he matured in ways that were unimaginable for his age, he still had the same energy and light… It all happened afterwards… when he brought… those flowers…”
Her mother, who hasn’t said a word ever since they made their decision, finally said started stalking. “Veronica… we know fully well how much value those flowers have and we certainly know the reason why… we aren’t blind. Is because we know is that they have to go. How do you expect to help him move forward if he keeps having those old memories be constantly be shoved in his face every single day?”
“We don’t want to hurt him” continued her father. “I’ve already done it enough after accepting those flowers into our life. I thought… that having those flowers would help him heal… pero Dios… I was so wrong…” The old man curled his hands into a pair of fists and lowered his gaze to the table. “By wanting to cure him… I ended up hurting him and as a father… that’s the biggest disappointment I could have ever done in my entire life…” He took a deep breath and looked back up to his daughter. “Veronica, all we want is to have our son back that is all”
Veronica didn’t know how to respond to this. She knew they were right, that the flowers had to go in order for Lance to take a breather of the depressing memories, but outright throwing the flowers away, wasn’t the right thing to do either. This will only hurt them all faster. She would have to think of a better approach later. While she will help heal Lance, she will not help to rip off the innocent flowers. So she left to her room without saying a word.
Lance woke up to a ‘Slirp, Slop, Slurp’ like sound right next to his ear as something brushed his hair harshly get softly. He touched his head as to feel who or what was making those noises only to feel his hair soaking wet. He opened his eyes to investigate as to why his hair was so wet only to notice that what he felt was nothing other than Kalteneckers’ saliva.
“Aww come on! Kaltenecker you know how hard it is to wash off your saliva!” he then kept touching his hair… or what was supposed to feel like hair and not like a birds nest… He pouted as he realized the hours it would take to make his hair look presentable once again… This made Kaltenecker make her little deep laugh and with a sigh he stretched his back and gave Kaltenecker a hug “While you may be a horrible hair designer” he felt the cow make a loud huff, making him chuckle. “I still love you” and with that he gave her a small peck on her cheek. He stood up wiping the hay stuck on his body and clothes.
“I should be heading home now is already dark outside” the cow mowed as if agreeing with him. “Yeah… I should…” he slapped himself, with both of him hands, on his cheek to counter attack the negative thoughts that were starting to crawl on his mind. He walked to the from door of the stable, waved at Kaltenecker with her mowing him a farewell and continued his little travel back home. Besides nothing bad was going to happen, everything will be just fine.
Oh boy how wrong and naïve his past self was. He underestimated the situation he was currently.
The flowers…
Were gone...
He looked at the dirt scattered around the small garden where the flowers used to stand. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing… Everything he was working so hard for… gone… in a blink of an eye… Oh god he needed to know what happened.
With shaky hands he wiped the sweat forming on his forehead and the tears falling from his eyes. He took a deep breath and stared at the sky above him as he ran his hands through his hair all the way to his neck and finally resting on his shoulders.
Just when he felt ready to walk inside of the house to ask what happen, his mother appeared in front of the porch calling for him.
“What happened?” he asked going straight to the point.
“What do you mean dear?”
“Don’t you ‘dear’ me and just tell me what happened.”
“Lance… Why don’t you come inside?”
“Whatever you have to say, it can be said here. It’s obviously where the cause of the problem is, so tell me mother, what happened here?”
“Lance I won’t repeat myself. Come inside. We can talk better in a more comforta-”
“MOM” he glared and exclaimed in a way even he surprised himself.
“What’s with the whole racket?” his father asked as he made his presence noticeable with a confused look on his face until he noticed that Lance returned to their home. “I see you finally decided to come back home son. Let’s get inside. Is getting cold and we don’t want to get sick now do we?”
“No father, I won’t enter the house until you tell me what happened here!” he exclaimed once again, this time pointing at the damaged garden. “What happened to the purple juniberry flowers?”
“Yo, what’s going on?” asked his older brother Marco with Rachel right behind him.
“I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?” asked Lance still pointing at the ground.
“Oh…” Marco looked down not daring to even give a small glance at his little brother. He knew this would happen, but is a step they had to take to help lance… even if he got hurt at first…
“We got rid of the flowers Lance. Your mother and I came to the conclusion that those flowers were causing our family to separate and so we got them out of our property.” Their father replied firmly.
“Jesus no beating around the bush eh?” joked Rachel, trying to ease the tension, but the second her father give her a stern glance she shut her mouth, joining the staring contest against the floor with her brother Marco.
“You. Did. What?” he couldn’t believe what he just heard…
He heard someone sigh and say “I knew this was a bad idea.” The owner of the voice was none other than his sister Veronica the one he least expected to turn against him.
“You knew about this Veronica? Did everyone know about this? Did you know too Rachel? Marco?”
“Everyone knew Lance…” replied Rachel not taking her gaze out of the floor.
“I’m sorry little bro… we had too…” answered Marco with a guilty look in his eyes.
“While we didn’t agree to rip away the flowers” Veronica said while giving her parents a small glare. “We did agree on wanting to help you heal from… from the war… from the anxiety… from… your loss…”
Lance still couldn’t believe it what he was hearing. Even after the confirmation he was just given. He knew his family was capable of anything, but he never knew they would go this far. Never in his life has he ever felt so betrayed. Not even when Kuron was pretending to be Shiro he felt such betrayal. Not even when Lotor turned against them. Because the difference between them and his family is that they were being controlled by a dark force. They didn’t know what they were doing, but his family isn’t being controlled, they know exactly what they are doing… and that breaks Lance… He stares at the mistreated ground as his family tried to explain to him why they killed the flowers… they had no fault… they didn’t had to pay for his actions… but they did… they did…
‘Lance…’
Huh?
‘Look… down here…’
Lance desperately looked at every inch of the ground. He knew that voice belonged to a flower. He knew their voices like the back of his hand. He moved closer to the garden ignoring his families’ words and turning them into distant noises, to later notice a single juniberry flower lying broken in the dirt. Sitting on his knees he picked the poor flower in his hands. He saw the horrible condition the flower was. He knew it was still alive. He could feel it. He needed to hide it, to take care of it, to bring it back to health, to prote-
‘Stop…’
Why? Why did it ask for him to sto-
‘You are not going to be able to protect us… from the pain of this…’
Realization hit Lance hard as if a bus had just crashed him. He knew what the flower meant. He knew it was dying, that there was no way on saving it. A knot started forming of his throat as he buried the flower in hopes it would heal on its own. Soon after the knot cut lose making a sob escape his body. Silence consuming Lance, it was almost as if his surroundings turned mute. He brutally stood up and ran… ran as fast as he could… he heard their calls, but unlike other times, he knew his siblings were running after him… He heard them… Rachel, Marcos, Veronica… He heard them right behind him… but he couldn’t deal with them right now…
He ran….he ran to Blue… she’ll know what to do… He could feel her aura. She was near and that alone made him force his legs run faster. Knowing his siblings they won’t stop until they get him back.
When he finally saw Blues’ body he screamed for her. Blue responded to his call quickly in an excited way, not really fitting the situation at hand.
‘Oh! Just in time Lance. Red here has-’
“Blue! Help!”
‘Lance, what’s wrong…?’ she properly looked at him and noticed how Lance was being followed. She knew who they are. She recognized their faces. They are Lances’ family but from the way Lance is desperately running away, something bad must’ve happening. So she stood on all her four legs ready to protect her cub.
‘Lance, keep running to Red. She will activate her particle barrier so nobody bothers you. I need you to run as fast as you can. Got it?’
He didn’t stop, not even for a split second, to question her plans and made his way to Red. He called her name loudly and she started activating her barrier as soon as she heard him.
‘Hurry little cub’ Red told him and so he did.
Blue lowered her front legs and head into the humans’ level to slow them down. She growled notifying them that if they dared hurt her paladin, her cub she would do anything to protect him.
The siblings didn’t dare to anger the lion any further nor get close to her even when she started backing away from them slowly and moved, at Lances’ pace, closer to red lion. All they could do is called for him from afar, but so far that didn’t stop him. After a few more attempts, all they could do was watch as Lance finally approached the Red lion as she successfully closed her barrier. They knew there was no hope on trying to get Lance back now, not when he was being guarded by two of the lions. He wouldn’t be getting out of the lions protection any time soon, so they looked at one another deciding to head back home and deal with the situation in the morning when everyone was well rested… or at least kind of rested…
Things with Lance aren’t easy either. As he entered Red’s cockpit, with shaky legs from the emotional run he just experienced, tears fell from his eyes making his vision blurry and his walk complicated. He barely touched the arm of the chair when his legs broke down and he fell to the floor with a loud bang.
Broken sobs were echoed around the room as Lance hugged himself with his back against the side of the chair. Minute after minute Lances’ sobs grew longer and louder. Red couldn’t keep hearing the poor boy crying anymore and purred a small melody in hopes that her baby would relax. While Lance did stop sobbing, tears were still sliding down his cheeks like a waterfall down the mountain.
Yet what worried Red the most was the fact of how silent Lance was. While he was loud with his sobs, he was silent with his words. That meant his mind was louder than a star taking its last breath. No matter what she did, he wouldn’t utter a word and so she decided to start the conversation herself.
‘Lance… my child… I need you to calm down…’ yet that sentence alone was enough to make him snap.
“NO, NO, NO! I CAN’T, I CAN’T, I CAN’T!” lance started sobbing louder “IT HURTS RED! JUST MAKE IT STOP PLEASE… PLEASE MAKE IT STOP…!”
Even though Lances’ outburst surprised the lion, she knew she couldn’t show weakness or Lance would too so she calmly reply to Lances’ pleads ‘I will… I will… I promise, but I need you to… to breathe… can you do that?’ She could sense how Lance took deep breaths and slowly, but effectively calmed himself down. Once she felt he was calm enough she continued ‘Sweet heart… you look a little tired when was the last time you properly slept…?’ No response. ‘You know, you can come here any time you like. Make yourself at home; stay as long as you need.’ No response. ‘Tell me… Is something wrong?’ No response. ‘If something’s wrong you can count on me.’ No response. With a sigh she finished ‘Is alright if you can’t find the words… I’ll wait for you as long you need to put your thoughts in order-’
“Red please… stop… Why do you care what I think anyway…? I don’t even count, right? I could disappear forever and it wouldn’t make any difference…”
‘That’s where you’re wrong Lance. It would make an impacting difference. Without you there wouldn’t be a Voltron, without you the universe would’ve been in Zarkons control, without you we would’ve been part of the ‘conquer of the universe’ and it most certainly wouldn’t have been pretty, much less when we most like be under their manipulative power. Lance you are a huge part of our universe.’
“Then why could I die so easily…?”
‘Excuse me?’
“They died Red… the juniberry flowers… they were, is, a huge part of my life… of the alteans life… and yet they were taken away so easily… treated so lightly… died so… cruelly…”
That certainly confused the lion greatly. She knew how much Lance cared for those flowers. She knew all the love and dedication he gave the flowers in order for them to bloom healthy. So how… did they die? What did Lance mean by ‘taken so easily, treated so lightly? Was that perhaps the reason of why Lance was running away so desperately? Did… Did his family have anything to do with the death of the flowers…? She decided to Lance calmly continue, she knew he will tell her along the way as long as he didn’t felt pressured.
“If I’m this great hero, guardians, paladin… then why I couldn’t protect a single flower…?” hugging himself even tighter he said “Maybe… I’m not good enough…”
And without wasting a breath Red quickly replied ‘Yes you are.’
“No… maybe I’m not…”
‘Yes you are’
“Maybe I’m not”
‘Yes you are’
“No. No, I’m not”
‘Yes. Yes you are’
“What if you’re wrong?”
‘I’m not, because my human, my partner, my paladin, my child, my cub is no second best, is no replacement, is no substitute, is no clown much less a goofball-’
“How do you-”
‘I can hear Lance. I’m not deaf. I hear both your thoughts and the other paladins comments. While the commentary at most times, didn’t please neither me nor blue, we couldn’t interfere. We can only give pieces of advice, but at the end it is up to you paladins what to do with those advices. You have no idea how many times Black had to put me in my place for wanting to interfere.’ The lack of response worried Red. She was actually hoping for him to interrupting, just to know if he was paying attention and not swimming on his thoughts again. She decided to end quickly. ‘Lance… you may not believe me at the moment… but you are truly a valuable person’
“You seem to be the only one to think that…”
‘No lance, Blue here-’
“Besides Blue, Red, nobody else car-”
‘Lance. Have you forgotten about him?’
“Him? Who are you tal-”
‘Keith.’
“What… what about him… what does he have to do wit-”
‘Keith cared Lance. He cared about you. He worried about you. He knew you were hurting ever since you talked to him about you… about you questioning your position as a paladin… After that he was paying extra attention to you, but he was still a kid, he didn’t know how to deal with it… especially when he also had problems of his own to deal with… but he still cared. Still does.’
“But is Keith, the leader, of course he needs to care for his team but that doesn’t mean anything…”
‘Yes, he is the leader, but that doesn’t make it any less meaningless.’ To prove her point she activated her screen and showed a folder filled with videos, records, voices messages and written message all by the name Keith.
“Red… what is this…?” Lance asked as he slowly stood up and made his way in front of the screen.
‘Messages Keith left this past year all directed just for you.’
With watery eyes, Lance, with the most delicate touch, pressed his hand against the screen. “Are… are they all… really for me…?”
‘I mean there are a few for the garrison and for the other paladins.’ She said as she separated the messages into different folders. ‘But the majority is for you.’ Once she finishing organizing the folders Lance saw that indeed his folder was the fullest one out of all. He couldn’t hold the smile his lips were forming. Exhaling a small single laugh, he covered his mouth as, for the first time in a whole year, he shed tears of joy. 1,460 messages just for him, even putting everybody else’s messages together didn’t reach such number.
‘He messaged you every day sometimes twice a day, sometimes three, sometimes more.’
This caused Lance to fully cry his heart out. He wasn’t alone. Somebody else other than Blue and Red cared for him… understood him… Keith was truly an extra individual… There was literally no stopping Keith and his plans. That in mind made Lance laugh… His laughter was interrupted by another voice talking to him. He opened his eyes, which he didn’t remember when he closed them, seeing none other than Keith right in front of him.
/ “Hey Lance. Uh I’ll have to make this video a short one, sorry about that…
I’m leaving for a planet located near the Milky Way. I think is called Centauri not sure if that’s how you say it… I’ll properly check and let you know later. I… uh…” Keith coughed looking away for a few seconds before looking back at the camera. “I wanted to ask if I could uh… come visit you after this, since I’m close and all… Of course if you’re busy… uh need time or… space that’s alright!” Keith exclaimed waving his hands a bit defensively. “But if you change your mind then… I’ll be arriving Earth in approximately ehh…” stopping for to pick a small tablet like pad and quickly reading he continued “3? Yes, 3 quintants. If we finish giving the civilians their resources early then we may arrive in 2 quintants. So yeah that’s pretty much it… um… hope you’re doing alright and um yeah good night. See you soon.” /
And with that the video ended. Lance started at Keith for another small period of time. 3 quintants… 3 days and Keith will come back… that is if he already landed on Centauri. Lance checked when the video was sent. 5 hours ago it says. If that’s the case then Keith should have landed on said planet by now… or he assumes… This made Lances’ chest warm and fuzzy.
Then Lance realized… if Keith has been messaging him for the past year then how come he was finding about this now…? “Red… did everyone else know about the messages…?”
‘They knew about their messages, but not about yours.’
“Why did everyone know about there’s…? Why did I found about this now…?”
‘Lance… The other knew through their lions… They told their paladins about their messages and the ones for the Garrison were sent directly to the Garrison. I just decided you show them all to you… Don’t tell the others I did though” Red whispered the last bit, making Lance smile and agree. With that red continued. “And uh… you didn’t know because… our link was weak… After our fight with Horneva, you started cutting our link… It was actually a miracle that Blue was able to find a small chip of connection after your separation…’
“I… I’m sorry…” Lance should’ve known he was the one who caused this… He should’ve known this was all his faul-
‘Is not your fault Lance. Never was, never will be… this type of things just happen… the only thing we can do is move past this and continue on forward.’ And with that Red decided that it was too late to keep pushing any more emotions on Lance. He desperately needed his rest, but as she was about to shut everything off and put it on sleep mode. Lance played other of Keith messages. She then decided to let him be, if hearing and reading Keith messages would help him relax, then she will let him.
As Lance took sat down on his chair, Red curled herself on the ground in order to rest her body. Soon after, Blue, who has been waiting patiently outside of Reds’ barrier, moved closer as if asking for permission to enter the barrier. Red weaken her barrier as Blue activated hers. When Blue laid herself pressing her body against Red both of their barriers clashed syncing into one big barrier comfortable enough for both of the lions. Blue pressed herself even closer to Red to create some warmth between their metal bodies. Rubbing her head against Reds’ she purred in order to calm the stressed and tension Red was radiating. Thankfully it worked and she felt Red visibly relaxing making her relax as well.
Not so far from them the other lions observed silently. They knew Lance was the most emotional person from all of the paladins, but never did they expect to see him so torn down and vulnerable. While he was sentimental, he always used it in a very positive and optimistic way, preferring to push away his doubts in order to help his team, a characteristic they respected from the young man. Yet seeing him after a year and see that the thing they most respected from him turned into something they cringed with fear.
What bothered them the most was the fact that Lance has only visited them twice during the year and he already is a completely a different person… They knew they couldn’t interfere, but they knew they couldn’t stand in the sidelines forever… They couldn’t let another paladin be thriven by negative emotions… They couldn’t let their new team crash, much because of their lack of assistance from the lion’s part. And so Black made the decision that enough was enough, they couldn’t let the team separate any further.
Black turned to Green and ordered her to inform the paladins of the situation. Green didn’t wasted a heartbeat and was already hacking Corans’ ship and leaving a message from him to read when he wakes up in the morning. Once the message was successfully send she informed Black. With a nod Black told the lions to rest, tomorrow was going to be a long day.
Coran was woken up by the alarms ringing through his room. He quickly threw his bed sheets off and quickly ran to the control room. He started slowing his feet as he noticed how the rest of ship wasn’t ringing with the alarms. It must’ve been a malfunction, nothing he couldn’t fix it the morning. So he made his way back to him room. Along the way he started to hear the alarm once again and the closer he got to his room the louder the alarm became. He stood in front of his door step and stretched his back along with a loud sigh and made his way back to the control room. He knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep at all with that alarm trashing his ear drums all night.
He finally arrived at the control room that was also basting the alarm at a very high volume. If the alarm on in his room didn’t properly wake him up, this one surely did.
He reached the control panel and shut the alarms on the ship. What was weird for him was the fact that the only alarms that were on, was the one on his room and the one in the control room. He shook it off as a malfunction. As he read through the data on what could have triggered the alarms to turn on, he noticed that the ship was hacked. The strangest thing it was that the one who hacked the ship was none other than the green lion herself. He suspected that it could’ve been Pidge playing a prank on him. While he hasn’t greeted the paladins he did inform of his arrival to the Garrison so he isn’t surprised if the paladins already knew of his arrival. Leaving aside that his ship was anything but subtle.
With a sigh he smiled as he fixed the few errors the ship had from the hacking. The girl has always been a little trouble maker but he couldn’t help but love her. He was excited to see them all in the morning and catch up. Yes they still had to make their classic serious Voltron reunions; they could still catch up afterwards. He made the last few fixes so he could head back to bed and rest up for his big day tomorrow.
Just when he believed he was finally done with the fixer upper, a message appears in the screen. He thought it was another notification that there might be something he left without fixing. He checked every single data possible about the ship, but nothing came up as damaged, hacked, out of function, or something along that line. So he opened the message to see what exactly was going on.
He carefully read the message and the second he finished reading, he ran to the communicator on the left side of the room. He made a call to all the paladins and thankfully, one by one, they all picked the call rather fast. They all looked tired, he couldn’t blame them… he did just call them in the middle of the night. He was about to call it a false alarm just so they could rest, but the memory of the message he just read, made him stay put. When they all finally appeared on the screen, before they started questioning him, he started talking.
“Paladins, I’m sorry to call you at such a horrible timing.”
“You can say that again” Hunk interrupted. “Why did you call us? Is something wrong?” He finished asking with a long yawn.
“Yes well-“
“It had to be something big for you to call us suddenly” Pidge interrupted with her stretching her back. She smiled sheepishly “Oh.. sorry Coran.. continue..”
“That’s alright, I understand that you are very tired knowing what time it is.” Coran sympathized. “Well as you may or may not know, if the Garrison informed you, I arrived on Earth earlier today-”
Pidge made a loud gasp and she exclaimed “You’re back!? Why want I told about this!? Shiroooo why didn’t you tell meeeeee? You were in central command all day you must’ve known!”
“You were all day in the labs. I didn’t want to disturb you. You always get moody afterwards because you ‘lose your line of ideas’ and I didn’t not want to be on the other side of your glare” Shiro answered Pidge as he rubbed his eyes with both of his hands.
“Wait. Pidge you didn’t know of my arrival?” Coran asked looking at Pidge through the screen.
“No I didn’t because big mean Shiro here didn’t tell me” Pouting, Pidge looked at Shiros’ face from her screen. This worried Coran greatly. The message was clearly send from the green lion, but if Pidge didn’t know, does that mean the Green lion herself send the message? If so that made things far more complicated.
“Guys. Let Coran finish. Whatever the reason of this call, it must be important, but we’ll never know if we keep interrupting.” Keith ordered with a sigh. “Please continue Coran.”
“Right…” the red haired man rubbed his hands together trying to ease the shakiness. “There is no easy way to say this… but…”he paused as he licked his lips, putting his thoughts in order. “It seems that Voltron will be needed once more, for a mission far greater than any other…”
“What happened, Coran?” questioned Keith with a worried look in his eyes.
“I need you here, first thing in the morning.” Coran stated firmly. Turning his line of vision towards Keith’s’ direction he continued “You included Keith. I know you’re currently helping with blades, but I need all of you here.”
“Yes Coran. I’m currently on planet Centauri. It should take me at least a quintant to arrive if I leave now, maybe 12 vargas if I use one of the fighter jets, 6 vargas at full speed. Point is, I’ll be there… but Coran what happened that Voltron is needed back on the field….?”
“Voltron isn’t needed on the field” Coran looked at all of the paladins faces “Voltron is already where it should be” one by one “I don’t know exactly what happened, but I know who is the cause of this commotion…” until finishing with Keith. “It’s Lance.”