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Lance should have been over the moon at the turn of events that had just happened in the past twenty four hours. He had gone from getting yelled at by Iverson to discovering the existence of aliens to being a total badass and saving the missing Captain Shirogane to finding a giant blue lion robot in the middle of the desert to piloting said giant blue lion robot. This should have been the greatest moment of his life!
And it was.
Except for the fact that Captain Shirogane was a fucking asshole. Seriously, how could someone who was such a good pilot be a total dickwad?
“I am the commanding officer here and I order you to fly through it,” he said.
Lance, despite wanting to see what was behind the glowy magic door that had appeared out of nowhere as they were zooming through the solar system trying to escape a very angry and very hostile alien spaceship, did not think it was necessarily a good idea to fly through said glowy magic door.
Hunk seemed to agree. “Are you sure? I mean, what if that thing’s with the other thing that’s chasing us?”
Lance could feel Captain Shirogane’s irritation growing. “It’s not Galra tech. I should know, I’ve been there for a year now.”
“What is a Galra?” Pidge asked, throwing his hands in the air and finally snapping at the man. “You’ve withheld information from us the moment you woke up. Just give us a straight answer!”
Shirogane’s eyes narrowed. “You should watch your tone. You do want to find your family, correct?”
Oh, that was a low blow. Lance didn’t know much about Pidge, but apparently the dude’s father and brother were also lost on the Kerberos mission and the reason he was out in the desert in the first place was to find information on them.
“Look, maybe we should go back to the garrison and ask them to help. This is kind of their whole stick.” He was trying to keep the peace and felt like he was failing. Between Pidge’s drive, Hunk’s anxiety, and Shirogane’s asshole nature, he would gladly take a week’s worth of detention and lecture from Iverson instead of be stuck in a cockpit for god knows how long with this group.
“No,” Shirogane snapped. “If we do, they’ll just put me under again. I spent a year being poked and prodded and experimented on. I came back to warn them, but they won’t listen. The Galra will attack Earth and we have to stop them.”
Oh, now Lance felt like he was the asshole. Shirogane had clearly gone through some shit while he was missing. Being missing in space was bad enough. Being missing in space as a prisoner of what sounded like space nazis, was even worse. And he did have a point about the whole evil scientist setup that the Garrison had. If they went back to Earth, it was likely they were going to get in a hell of a lot more trouble than detention, and Lance might lose the cool lion ship he had gained.
Besides, the Lion was trying to get them away from the evil space nazis and was telling him to fly through the portal. He sighed, ignored Hunk gagging in the background, and urged the ship forward through the magic space door, hoping that whatever was behind it, was friendly.
oOoOoOo
When Allura had gone into the cryopod, her father had assured her it was just for a few quintants. Zarkon’s attack on the palace had left her badly wounded and she needed to heal. When she awoke, however, her worst fears had been confirmed.
“10,000 years, we’ve been asleep for 10,000 years.”
Luckily, Coran was there, holding her up as the reality of the situation washed over her. Her father, her mother, her friends, her family, they were all gone. She and Coran was all that was left of Altea.
“I’m so sorry. I wish there was more I could do,” Coran said softly. She could tell he was reeling from the knowledge as well. Though, she didn’t remember Coran being particularly injured the day she went into the pod. She wondered if he knew what her father was planning.
She would mourn later. They still had the three mice (she’d have to think of names for them later) and what appeared to be the new paladins of Voltron. Zarkon had to be defeated, and he would be. These new paladins brought hope with them.
She took a deep breath and turned to them, explaining the situation to them.
“Pidge, you will pilot the green lion,” Allura said.
Pidge did not look happy about that. He actually looked a little ill at the thought.
“Now… um, where’s the fifth one?” Allura asked, peering around to see if the fifth paladin was hiding behind “Shiro”.
The paladins all looked at each other. “What fifth one?” the one who caught her, Lance, finally asked.
“The fifth paladin. Were you not listening? There are five lions so there are five pilots.” Allura could feel her eye twitching. It wasn’t like she was telling them how to assist in teladuv lens repairs.
“Um, we’re kind of the only ones here,” Hunk said. Despite being one of the taller paladins, he was shrinking and hunching in on himself and was exuding some of the strongest nervous energy Allura had ever felt.
“Do the paladins all have to be the same race?” Pidge asked.
“No, of course not.” Coran puffed out his chest and launched in to a story about the original paladins and their races, skipping Zarkon’s involvement for now.
“Then maybe the red paladin is an alien, and we just have to find them!” Pidge said.
“That won’t do. The universe is impossibly large and we just don’t have the time.” Allura bit her lip, trying to figure out a way to deal with this. They needed a red paladin, but they couldn’t waste time trying to find one. Determination set in her bones. “I will fly the red lion.”
Coran started making worrying gasping noises. “Princess, you can’t.”
“I can and I will,” Allura said, walking to the computer to try and locate the lions.
“The princess is right,” Shiro said. “Besides, the red paladin will be drawn to the lions. He’ll turn up eventually.”
Allura paused her search. “How do you know that?”
Shiro looked away. “There was a lot of chatter about Voltron when I was a prisoner. That was one of the things I heard.”
She didn’t believe him. Then again, why would he lie to her? From what she understood about these humans, they had no contact with the Galra empire before now. He was probably overwhelmed by the information they were being slammed with. She decided to let it go for now and turned back to her task. She would do her father proud.
oOoOoOo
Allura knew the red lion was the most temperamental out of the five, but did her father’s lion have to be so difficult to work with?
“Look,” she huffed, trying to push through the particle barrier, “I know I’m not your paladin but they aren’t here at the moment so let me in.”
The lion made no move to bring down the barrier and Allura could hear the galra soldiers getting closer.
“My father piloted you for deca-phoebs! Shouldn't that count for something?”
The particle barrier stayed up.
Allura crossed her arms and stared up at the beast. “If you stay here, you won’t ever find your paladin because you’ll be property of the galra empire which means we won’t be able to form Voltron which means your paladin will probably be killed. Open up!”
The lion stayed motionless, but then the barrier slowly faded away.
“Thank you! And I promise, this is temporary. We’ll find your paladin, eventually.”
Despite not being fully connected with the lion, Allura could feel the sadness and resignation deep within Red. She patted the console. “I’m sorry. I promise, this isn’t forever.” She pulled the lion out of the hangar. “Alright, Shiro, Pidge, I’ve got the red lion. Let’s get out of here.”
Across the universe, Keith felt a shot of strong emotions fly through him.
“What’s the matter?” Shiro asked, pausing his sad attempt at fixing the fuel gauge.
Keith thought for a moment. “I don’t know. It’s like someone else’s emotions just came flooding through me.”
Shiro straightened up. “Oh, what emotions were they?”
“Sadness, disappointment, acceptance.”
Shiro clapped his right hand on Keith’s shoulder and looked into his eyes. “It’s okay, lil’ bro, you don’t have to lie.”
“What?”
“You’ve finally come to terms with the fact that you’ll never be as tall as me, and you won’t grow any more,” Shiro sighed a tad dramatically.
Keith punched him in the side. “Fuck off. I’m still growing.”
“Ow.” He coughed and stepped back so Keith couldn’t hit him again. “One, language. Two, don’t punch your brother. And three, keep telling yourself that kiddo. You still have to ask me to get stuff off the top shelf at the knife store.”
Keith didn’t say anything else, just crossed his arms and sank down in his seat. The feeling had already faded, but he couldn’t help wonder what had happened. The fuel gage sparked, shocking Shiro and starting a small fire in the cockpit.
Keith sighed and went to put it out. The feelings would have to wait for a time less chaotic.