Chapter Text
Lance knew that allying with Lotor would only cause trouble for them in the long run. Let it be known that Lance was right, Lotor was not to be trusted, and if the listened to him in the first place, he wouldn’t even be in this situation.
On second thought, he wished he was wrong about Lotor because now that he was right, he would never be able to tell the team about Lotor’s betrayal, and he wouldn’t be about to die a horrible death.
“Lance focus. You can bitch and moan about how you are right after you find a way off of this ticking time bomb,” he muttered to himself.
Lance looked at the map of the Galran facility he was now stranded in, trying to decipher where the escape pods were. It would be a lot easier if it wasn’t all in Galran, the room wasn’t bathed in red, and if the stupid computer’s stupid voice would just stop counting down the ticks until this place blows.
“Five dobashes until self-destruction,” the computer reminded him oh so helpfully.
Focus Lance. He closed his eyes and took a deep breathe, trying to calm his racing heart. Channel your inner Pidge.
Okay this map doesn’t show any room that would resemble escape pods, and if he were Lotor he would have disabled all pods anyways. Plus, the pods are probably less durable, and not fast enough to escape the blast zone. So escaping is a big no go.
The next logical step would be to… to-
“Four dobashes and thirty ticks,” the computer said.
“Go to the room that would be strongest,” Lance muttered to himself. If any room would survive the explosion, it would be that room.
Quintessence. This, according to Lotor, was an abandoned Quintessence processing plant. Of course Lotor could be lying about that like he probably lied about everything that no good asshole.
“Focus, Lance,” he muttered to himself as he turned to walk back across the room. When did he start pacing? Doesn’t matter, get back to the topic.
The Galra definitely wouldn’t want to leave their most precious resource completely unprotected, and Lance remembered seeing the storage room on his way here, the control room. God if he were as smart as Pidge he would be able to just hack into the controls and disable the self destruct no problemo.
But he wasn’t Pidge and he needed to fucking focus because the computer just called out three dobashes so whatever he was going to do he needed to do it fast.
The quintessence room. It’s his best bet, but it could also be the worst place to hide from the explosion. If he were Galra, or Haggar or whoever it was that kept track of the quintessence experiments he wouldn’t want the enemy to get their hands on it. He would probably make sure that all of it was destroyed.
So it’s a risk, but Lance was out of ideas and out of time, and going there was better than staying here and doing nothing. The computer informed him that he had two and a half dobashes left.
Fuck it, Lance wasn’t going down without at least trying to survive. He grabbed his bayard and put on his cracked helmet- fuck you too Lotor- then booked it out of the control room.
It was a right, then straight for five turn offs then two lefts. That would take him to the elev-shit would the elevator even be functioning?
Lance ran to the elevator door and- and he couldn’t open it because he wasn’t Galra. Great.
Think Lance think. If Keith was here he would have easily been able to operate the elevator. But Lance isn’t Keith, so he has to find another way. Two dobashes left.
Keith… Mullet would just destroy whatever was in his way. Lance activated his bayard, aimed, and shot the control panel. He held his breath for a moment as the door didn’t move, but then it cracked open, and Lance sprang back into action.
He pushed the door the rest of the way open to see an empty elevator shaft with a thick metal wire in the middle. He would have to jump to it. Lance looked down and saw the elevator stopped one floor, about thirty feet down.
He took a couple of steps back before running and jumping across the small chasm. He grabbed the wire, and his breath hitched as he slid a couple of feet down before he was able to slow himself down to a speed that wouldn’t break his legs when he landed. Thank god for his gloves and armor or his hand and leg skin would be destroyed.
Now he needs to get into the elevator.
Shiro would have just been able to use his arm. Lance didn’t have a glara arm, but he did remember one movie that showed an elevator with an escape hatch on it’s roof. It wasn’t impossible for the galra to have the same basic design.
He dropped to his knees to find the edge of the possible escape hatch. There was no light in the elevator shaft, not even the dim red lights that have been slowly blinking all over the rest of the ship. It was smooth, smooth, smooth- there! A small dip, just enough to fit his fingers into and pull. The hatch barely budged enough to stick something thin under it.
Hunk would have easily been able to open the hatch. He has muscle to spare. Lance could never open this on his own.
“One dobash,” the computer’s voice echoed down the shaft. Lance could feel his heart threatening to burst out of his chest and destroy his chestplate in the process.
That’s it! A piece of his armor could fit under the small space, and he can use that to leverage it enough to get a better grip and throw it open. He unstrapped his right leg’s shin guard, positioned it right next to the hatch with his knee positioned to push it in, then lifted the slab of metal and pushed the armor under it and dropped the sheet. Pushing his weight down on the armor, he grabbed the raised hatch and pushed it open the rest of the way.
He hopped into the elevator and found the door to the rest of the floor was wide open. Someone must have been pitying him up there. Thirty ticks left.
The quintessence room was at the end of the hall. Lance sprinted to it. Earlier Lotor had opened the door and it seemed that he never closed it. Again, small mercies.
Lance ran into the room and slammed the door pad behind it. Amazingly, the door listened and closed as he ran between the stacks of specialized quintessence. This was the stuff Keith was researching with the blade. The storage room wasn’t super big, in fact it just barely fit him. If the rest of the team were there, they’d be screwed.
Ten. Oh god the team. He was probably going to die here, and his team would never know the truth.
Nine. He would never get to tell Hunk that he was the greatest mechanic to ever live, his hugs were to die for, and he was the bestest friend a guy like Lance could ever hope for.
Eight. Pidge just found her brother, but she’ll never know that Lance thinks of her as family. He could never tell her how glad he was that she was put onto his team back at the garrison, or that she should never let her spirit die out because she can do anything that she set her mind to, including finding her dad.
Seven. He would never get to properly thank Shiro. He was Lance’s hero, and he inspired Lance to be better and never give up on his dreams.
Six. He would never get to apologize to Allura, or thank her for taking such good care of Blue. He never wanted to make her uncomfortable with his flirting. Sure he may have been serious at first, but now he respects her too much as a friend and a leader to be serious about his advances.
Five. Speaking of Blue, he wouldn’t get to tell her he forgave her. She hurt him by shutting him out, but he understood why she would do such a thing. Plus she’s his beautiful lady, he could never stay mad at her for long. Plus he wanted to thank her for the adventures they had together.
Four. Coran would probably need to delegate a new person to help him with the Castle chores now. Lance wouldn’t be able to tell him how much it meant that Coran was there as a willing ear or as someone to fill the space when he was unable to.
Three. Keith probably wouldn’t be too phased with Lance’s death. He had to admit that when Keith left Lance was beyond hurt. He thought Keith and him had bonded, that they became really close when Shiro disappeared. Now Keith would have to return to Voltron to pilot Red again. He can’t say that he’s sorry about that but he was sorry that he never told Keith how important he was to Lance. He urged Lance to work harder, to be better, and he put up with Lance’s shit about being rivals, or the bull about not remembering the first bonding moment.
Two. He never got to say goodbye to his family back on earth, and now he can’t say goodbye to his space family or tell them that he loves them.
One. If he focused he could feel the bond connecting all of the paladins together. The intelligence of Pidge. The raw passion of Keith. The leadership and strength of Shiro. The compassion of Hunk. The heart of Allura.
He wrapped himself in the strings that connected him to the others, curling closer to his knees, tears leaking out of his eyes despite them being shut so tight he could see stars. He was shaking, his lip trembling despite how hard he pressed them together.
He didn’t want to die. He was just a kid. He didn’t want to die. He imagined his team hugging him instead of him being surrounded by tubes of quintessence. He didn’t want to die. He felt the shockwave of the explosion rip through the room, the canisters of quintessence shaking. He didn’t want to-
The secret galran base went up in flames, glowing brighter than a supernova, with a lone paladin trapped inside.