Chapter Text
Like so many of their problems, it was all that damn witch, Haggar,’s fault. The mission was simple, go to a mostly deserted Galran research base, take out the general who controlled it and their crew, download as much information as possible, then blow it up. Easy. Especially because most of General Xyra’s crew had sworn their loyalty to Lotor and left. What they hadn’t counted on was this place being one of Haggar’s secret laboratories, or that Pidge’s hacking system would set off one of her experiments. They had thought they had time to escape. Hell, they all made it to their lions before that weird wall of light engulfed them. The comms were flooded with panic for a second before each and every one of the Paladins lost consciousness.
Lance woke slowly before he realized he was slumped over in Red’s cockpit. After that he snapped awake and immediately tried the comms, remembering how he got into that position.
“Guys! Hello? Everyone alright?” He called out nervously. Nothing. “Hello?! Anyone out there?!? Keith? Pidge? Hunk? Allura? You guys alright? Please, come on guys, you’re scaring me! Coran? Shiro? You guys there?” He asked desperately. Still no voices, but at least this time there was a blast of static, at least that meant someone was trying to reach out. After a while the static cleared and he could hear Pidge calling out much in the same way he was.
“Hello? Can anyone hear me now? Everyone ok?” her voice laced with concern.
“PIDGE! I’m ok! Everyone else?” Lance replied quickly, thrilled to hear his teammate's voice.
“I’m alright, though blue’s completely down and I have no idea where I am” Allura replied. Lance noticed he was in the same state. Red was completely unresponsive and the landscape outside his window was not that of the planet the base they just attacked was orbiting.
“Yeah, same with me and Yellow,” Hunk chimed in immediately after Allura spoke.
“Same here,” Pidge announced.
“Red’s down too,” Lance added, then a thought occurred to him “...Hey Fearless Leader, you alright? You’re acting kind of quiet for the guy that’s supposed to be in charge,” he teased, trying not to let his concern show through. The stupid mullet had just probably stormed off to investigate without his helmet. He still needed to work on his impulse control.
“Sorry, I’m fine, Black’s down, I don’t know where I ended up. It’s just...I got distracted,” Keith responded quickly, still sounding as though his mind was somewhere else.
“Got distracted? Dude! We nearly died like 5 minutes ago! We’re all lost and our lions are down! Also, friendly reminder, as Black Paladin it’s your job to lead us through this! How could you possibly get distracted?” Lance asked ludicrously, over-dramatic as always.
“I think I see one of you...I can’t tell who, but I’m nearly certain that’s a Lion. I’m heading over,” Keith answered still very obviously in his own head.
“Hey, Leader, what are the rest of us supposed to do,” Lance asked, annoyed at how bad at his job the Black Paladin was. He knew Keith could be a great leader. The Black Lion wouldn’t have chosen him, let alone let him return, if he couldn’t be. Keith just needed to adjust to the role, which in all fairness, was going a lot better now that they had the real Shiro back to help him, but it was still slow goings. Until he adjusted though, Lance was still basically his common sense and as much as he liked the guy (much more than he’d ever admit) it was still tiring.
“Head out and try to get a bearing on your surroundings, but stick close to your Lions so we can find eachoth-” Keith’s voice cut out suddenly in a burst of static. Lance could hear a few indistinguishable voices through the static for a moment before everything went silent again. Lance cursed, but followed his orders, exiting Red through the emergency hatch.
He looked around. He seemed to be in some sort of desert because pretty much all there was to see were dunes of fine, light grey sand. He kept his helmet on, with Red and any sophisticated functions of his suit down, he had no way of knowing if the environment was hospitable to humans. He did know that it was blisteringly hot. Not only that but it was a dry heat. Lance could handle humid heat like it was nothing, he was from Cuba after all, but dry heat was miserable. He looked up at the pretty lilac sky and searched for source of the awful heat. According to the position of the sun, it was about midday. Whatever that meant on this planet.
From where Red had landed, he was sort of in a valley between two rows of very tall dunes. Deciding that no one would be able to see him from this position, he decided to climb one of the dunes to see if he couldn’t find anyone else. Sure enough one of the first things he noticed was a Lion sticking straight up out of one of the dunes a ways off. As he got closer he noticed a figure in paladin armor trying to dig the Lion out with their helmet. The only thing was that Lance didn’t recognize the figure at all, they seemed to be around his height, maybe a little shorter, though it was hard to tell from his distance, curvy, and they were wearing red armor. As Lance got even closer he could see the paint on the legs of the buried Lion. Also red. What the actual hell? Lance summoned his bayard, but didn’t activate it and continued his approach.
The other red paladin didn’t seem to notice him as he came close, working furiously to dig out their Red using their helmet as a shovel. “Need any help?” he called as soon as he was within ear shot. The other paladin jumped and whirled around so quickly they nearly came tumbling down the dune, only catching themself last minute.
“Uncle Lance?!” They called out in utter confusion and surprise. Lance stood there equally as confused. He could now get a good look at her. Firstly, she was Altean, her ears didn’t look quite as pointed as any other Altean he had met, but the warm sunset orange markings on her cheeks confirmed her heritage. She had soft lilac eyes, wavy long black hair, and had a deep, warm complexion. Her sweet-looking, round, naggingly familiar face was twisted in confusion and distress until it fell into one of annoyed resignation, “Alright, I’m hallucinating now, that’s lovely, that’s what I need, some force-ghost bullshit of my uncle to just stand there and judge me. Thanks brain. That’ll help me fix the situation,” She slowly shook her head while covering her face, clearly trying to make him disappear. Lance, of course, remained, even more confused than before.
“Umm, who are you and what are you talking about?” Lance questioned.
“So... you aren’t a hallucination caused by me overworking myself in this heat,” She questioned back. Lance shook his head. “Ok. That’s actually much worse. I’m Samantha, I thought you were some sort of hallucination caused by the heat because you look my age and I’m really concerned by that paired with the fact you don’t know who I am,” she rambled anxiously, her eyes slightly watery. Something about her was really, really familiar.
“Why did you call me Uncle?” Lance asked, it seemed like the most pressing concern.
Samantha paused then sighed, “I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but I already fucked up, so why not. I’m Hunk’s daughter,” She answered, anxiety still tinting her tone, but she seemed much more in control now.
Lance was just more confused, “Hunk doesn’t have a daughter. I mean we’re 17, he literally couldn’t have a kid your age! Also, how are you a Paladin when there are already Paladins! Are you trying to suggest your from the future or something?” He knew the answer before he finished his question.
“...Yes. If you really are in your late teens and not in your late 30’s and just fucking with me, then yes, from your perspective - and possibly in truth, I have no clue how I ended up here- I am from the future,” she replied. Well, she certainly had Hunk’s anxiety and paranoia.
“So you’re really Hunk’s daughter? From the future?” Lance clarified. She nodded. This was one of those things that was nearly too weird for him to be able to just roll with, until a thought came to his mind. “So if you’re really from the future, then you’d know about the future Mrs.Red-Lion then,” Lance suggested grinning.
Samantha burst out laughing, to the point where she was literally doubled over, tears streaming down her face. Lance was actually a little worried until she calmed down enough to speak. “I-I’m sorry. It-it’s just your spouse would kill you for calling h-them that,” She managed to choke out. She laughed a bit more before continuing, “I knew you’d ask about your spouse, but I was not expecting you to phrase it like that,” she cleared her throat now that she had calmed back down completely, “But seriously, all I can tell you is that yes, you are happily married,”. Lance was grinning like an idiot and he knew it, but if this was real, and this girl truly was his niece from the future, he would get married, he would find the one. Ever since he was little one of his major goals in life was to find true love and have a family of his own. Now he knew he would find love. He couldn’t be happier.
Then another thought occurred. “Do I have any kids?” he asked eagerly.
“Yes,” was all she would say, but Lance still beamed, then his eyes went wide.
“Are they a Paladin?” he was practically bouncing. As much as he didn’t want to pass this war onto his children and wanted them to be safe and happy, the thought of his child being worthy of a Lion made him really proud. Besides Allura and Coran had said that Voltron was created during a time of peace, so maybe Samantha and his kid would just be keeping the peace.
Samantha chuckled, “Yes. I’ll be honest, the whole team is at least 2nd generation,” she looked as though she immediately regretted saying that, but whatever damage there was was done.
“Really? Tha-” Lance was going to continue to probe Samantha for information but there was interrupted by a loud burst of static coming from Samantha’s helmet. She barely shook it out before slamming it back on her head, causing her face to become dusted with the fine grey sand.
“Yes? Yes? Hello? I’m here! Anyone still there?” she called out urgently into her comms. Someone must have responded because she appeared to be listening. “Yes, I am the Red Paladin of Voltron...Why do you have one of my teammate’s helmet?” she asked seriously. One oh his teammates must have stumbled across one of hers. “She’s WHAT? Is she OK?” Samantha yelled back into the comms with concern. She paused as she waited for his teammate to finish their reply. “Ok...I can’t get to her myself, my lion is down… Buuut, I may be able to get a ride if your guys’ lions really are booting back up. Send Lance your coordinates” She replied, clearly taking her time to think. His teammate, apparently Pidge, must have agreed to that because he did in fact receive coordinates to the green lion, and apparently their lions were rebooting, because they powered most of the suits higher functions, which were now running again. Looks like he was giving his future-niece a lift.