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Red was a burst of passion Lance was not prepared for.
The first time she’d pressed down their bond, Lance had stumbled as he walked and had to lean against the wall to support himself. He was used to Blue and her gentle touches, how she only reached out to soothe him, but Red was adamant that he give her attention near all hours of the day. She was a fury of emotion and passion and for the first time in his life, Lance knew what it was like to be Keith.
It didn’t help that piloting Red was difficult and Lance was absolutely deplorable at it. Allura and Blue had bonded so easily. It was a seamless connection Lance was instantly jealous of because no matter how hard he tried, he never felt like he could connect with Red. He couldn’t match her passion and fury and it was obvious during battles with the Galra.
So, it was with great reluctance that Lance stood in front of Keith’s bedroom door (because Lance was loathe to ask Keith and his infamous scowl anything nowadays) and knocked.
Because enough was enough. Lance was going to learn how to pilot Red.
After a few seconds, Keith opened the door, rubbing the back of his head and yawning. His eyebrows lifted at the sight of Lance, standing fully-dressed at the space-equivalent of four in the morning.
“Lance?” Keith’s voice was groggy and annoyed. “What are you doing?
There was another surge of presence down the mental link with Red and Lance winced.
“I need your help,” he said plainly.
“Can it wait for the morning?” Keith grumbled.
“We’ve got training in the morning,” Lance crossed his arms over his chest. “And I refuse to spend another night before 6 AM training with new-strict Shiro tossing and turning because Red won’t stop purring.”
“What do you want me to do about it?” Keith was already a step away from the door, his hand hovering over the command to close it. “I can’t stop her.”
“Yeah, but you were her Paladin,” Lance waved his long arms, wincing as another passionate purr flooded his head. “Can’t you like...make her shut up or something?”
“Key word, was,” Keith said. “The mental link between us is still there, but I can’t do anything with it or about it.”
“Yeah but don’t you have some secret trick to make her shut up during the night?” Lance demanded. “Seriously! I’m losing beauty sleep here, Mullet! I’ve got eye bags. Eye bags!”
“Just work with her, Lance,” Keith told him, rubbing his forefinger and thumb underneath both of his eyes. “Strengthen your bond with her and you’ll be able to handle her.”
Lance scowled. “You’ve been out there with us. You’ve seen how well strengthening our bond is going.”
Keith shrugged and popped his neck. Lance winced at the sound. “Well, I used to go on flights with her some nights when I couldn’t sleep. Maybe that’ll help you get used to her controls and how she connects with her Paladin.” When Lance didn’t reply Keith’s scowl deepend. “Look, Lance, I don’t know what to tell you. I’m too tired for this.”
“Midnight flights, huh?” Lance said instead. He had considered doing the same with Blue a few times, but he was always either asleep or too busy to ever do it.
“Are we done?” Keith asked impatiently. “Can I go back to sleep now?”
Instead of answering, Lance fired back with a question of his own. “Can you help me?”
“With what?” Keith groaned. He crossed his arms over his chest to fix Lance with a glare. Lance did not back down.
“Midnight flight thing,” Lance said. “Let’s go on one and you can help me figure out the controls!”
“ Now?”
“Yes, now!” Lance pressed his fingers to his forehead. Red was apparently very pleased with the promise of a late-night flight. “I’m going to go crazy if this keeps up.”
Keith sighed wearily. He rubbed under his eyes again. “If I help you, will you never bother me at four in the morning again?”
“Deal,” Lance said instantly.
With another tired sigh, Keith reached for something to his left. He returned with his jacket (Lance was still bitter Keith had refused to wear it like a crop-top) and shrugged it on. He jerked his head down the hallway.
“Let’s go.”
Lance liked to envision the bond between Lion and Paladin as one long rope that extended and retracted the farther and closer they got away from each other. If that was true, then the rope connecting Lance and Red was absolutely vibrating with the force of Red’s excited purrs as he and Keith approached her hangar.
Lance had no idea whether or not it was the nostalgia of having her old Paladin come back into her cockpit or just being able to leave the hangar, but either way it was getting hard to deal with. He could hardly hear himself think over the flurry of presence that was Red. He tried his best to quarantine it to the far reaches of his mind but every time she found a way to be even louder.
Keith’s lips lifted into a tired smile as Red lowered her head to let them on as they approached. He patted her paw gently as they passed.
“Hey,” he told his former lion. At once, the link between her and Lance exploded with fire and a rush of excited emotions.
“Okay, nope don’t do that-” Lance staggered. “She really liked that and I didn’t. Can we just go? I’d like to sleep before we have to fight another universe-ending battle.”
Keith rolled his eyes. “Sure thing.”
Lance climbed into the cockpit. It felt weird to not be wearing the Paladin armor as he plopped down in the seat. The dashboard lit up as Keith walked up to drape his arm over the back of the seat and lean against it.
With a simple tug and a gentle mental nudge from Lance, Red was practically blasting out of the hangar. Lance winced at the pure speed while Keith seemed generally unimpressed. He sighed heavily, resting his chin on the chair and shutting his eyes.
“Don’t put so much energy into the command,” he said through a yawn. “Red only needs a thought. Not a push. She’ll understand what you want.”
Lance heaved out a sigh. “Right. Got it.”
He closed his eyes, trying to focus on Red’s enormous presence in the back of his head, when Keith shifted from behind him. He inhaled sharply and Lance craned his neck curiously to see what had caught Keith’s attention.
“What...is that?”
Lance turned his head in time to catch a shockwave practically blasting off of the planet the Castle - and subsequently the two of them - were orbiting by. Lance narrowed his eyes.
“Maybe it’s some weird thing the planet-” he was cut off instantly as Keith gasped sharply and there was what felt like an explosion of emotion in the back of his head. Fear, worry, understanding and through it all, Keith’s shout.
“ Get down!”
He pressed his palm onto Lance’s head, forcing it to duck down. He didn’t see if Keith did the same. He didn’t have the chance to. In the next moment, the entire cockpit rattled as the shockwave collided from it. Lance could hear alarms blaring, feel Red’s body buckle and go still, and a jerk as they were caught in the planet’s gravitational pull. Lance’s stomach turned inside-out as he was overcome by a distinct feeling of falling.
He heard Keith cry out but was unable to turn his head to see what happened. He barely managed to lift it to see the clouds of the planet part before them. He could see a huge sprawling city surrounded on all sides by tiny trees that looked like they belonged in a savannah back on Earth and the ground rushing to meet them.
He didn’t even have the time to scream before they crashed.
Lance’s head snapped forward, head smashing against the console and then-
Everything went black.
Lance became dimly aware of alarms blaring in his head.
He moaned, wondering if this was just another false drill Allura and Coran were pulling when he also became aware of the sharp pain cutting into his leg and forehead. Carefully, he blinked his eyes open, lifting his hand to wipe at his face groggily. He couldn’t remember what happened. Had he finally passed out from exhaustion after hours of fighting Red’s presence to get some rest? Or had he hit his head and knocked himself out?
Lowering his hand into his lap and Lance leaned forward, trying to sort out his disoriented memories. He froze when he caught a glimpse of his sleeve.
It was red.
Instantly his hands flew back for his forehead and came back even redder. There was a cut on his forehead - a sizeable one at that. Was that the source of his headache? Oh God what happened-
Lance’s eyes fixed on the console before him and everything came rushing back.
Red, the shockwave, falling, and Keith-
Oh no, Keith.
Where was Keith?
Turning his head, Lance tried to see around the chair to see if he could find him. After a few frantic moments, he found him. Or at least his legs, his torso hidden by the chair. But from the angle his right leg was resting at-
It didn’t look good.
Lance’s blood-covered fingers fumbled for the straps still holding him in place in the seat and the moment they released he jumped to his feet. However, as soon as his leg took weight, he crumpled with a loud gasp of pain. Instinctively, his hands flew to wrap around his calf on the way down. He risked a glance down.
His jeans had been ripped by some sharp piece under the console that had cut deep into his skin. It was a long, thin line with blood seeping down the front of his leg and seeping into his sock. He hissed in pain, slowly straightening back up. Keeping as much weight as possible off of his injury, Lance tried to focus. Keith was what mattered right now.
Stumbling, Lance made his way to Keith. He was completely unresponsive and unmoving, lying on his stomach with his eyes shut. He was breathing though. That much Lance was certain of after a moment of watching his back for any sign of movement.
“Keith-” Lance lowered himself carefully next to his teammate’s side. He reached out to roll Keith over onto his side so Lance could get a better assessment of his injuries and inhaled sharply when he saw the angle Keith’s shoulder was hanging at. He swallowed back the lump rising in his throat and instead glanced down at Keith’s leg.
It was even worse than he thought it had been when he’d first seen it. The bone looked like it had been snapped clean in two, part of his thigh twisted in a way that it wasn’t supposed to. Blood wet Keith’s sweatpants. Lance winced at the sight of it.
I did this.
The sudden thought made Lance jerk back a little. For a moment he held his breath, wondering where it had come from, but the longer he stared at Keith, the more guilt pooled into his stomach.
I did this.
I did this.
If he hadn’t been so insistent, Keith wouldn’t have suggested the midnight flight. If he’d been more attentive, he’d have seen the shockwave he was now starting to suspect was an EMP. It was his fault they were in this situation to begin with.
“I’m sorry,” Lance whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
Keith did not respond. Lance hadn’t expected him to.
Carefully, he turned to stare back at Red’s console. The whole Lion had gone completely dark. Even the front screen was blank, leaving Lance in the dark as to what could have happened. There was only one thing that he was certain of and that was they had been hit with an EMP powerful enough to disable a Voltron Lion. Deliberate or not, it was what caused this situation. It was as responsible as Lance.
Ignoring the writhing guilt in his stomach, Lance sucked in a deep breath and decided first and foremost was to deal with the injuries. He was sure they wouldn’t be here long (someone would have to notice if two Paladins didn’t show up for training, right?) but that didn’t mean that bleeding out for either of them was an option.
Awkwardly, Lance scooted across Red’s cockpit to go retrieve her first aid kits. For once, he was grateful he’d forgotten to ask Keith to get his kit out of Red. It - and all of the antiseptics inside tailored specifically to Keith’s genes - was a lifesaver right now.
Retrieving the first aid kits, Lance made his way back to Keith as quickly as he could manage with one leg practically unusable. The wound trailed blood all across the ground as he went and Lance tried not to think about how he’d have to clean it up later. Instead he stretched out the injury beside Keith and reached for the first aid kit. He popped it open (Coran had written ‘For Keith’ in barely legible chicken scratch on a piece of masking tape on the top) and rummaged inside.
Desperately hoping he remembered more from the first aid classes at the Garrison then he thought he did, Lance reached over to roll up Keith’s pant leg. He tried not to be nauseated at the sight but failed miserably as soon as he saw the injury. The force of the break in his leg had broke through the skin and there was a flood of blood spewing all over Keith’s thigh.
An open fracture, Lance remembered with a roll in his stomach when he looked for bone but found nothing. Carefully, he reached out with a bottle of disinfectant in hand and used it to clean up the wound and the blood around it. The rag he was using turned red with blood within a few minutes. When he was done, he set to work bandaging as best he could.
Lance’s head pounded as he worked. Every few minutes he had to wipe his face to keep blood from getting in his eyes and he grew more and more lightheaded with every passing second. He hoped the others would come for them soon. He wasn’t sure if he could handle much more of this.
Red had gone completely silent in the back of Lance’s head. For once, he missed her constant purring and hoped she’d come back online sometime soon. Maybe Lance could get them back up to the ship if the others didn’t come.
There was nothing Lance could do for Keith’s shoulder. He knew it was dislocated, but his limited medical knowledge stopped just after ‘how to bandage wounds’. All Lance could do was roll Keith so less weight rested on the dislocation and hope for the best.
His head was pounding. He’d neglected his own wounds for far too long. Lance leaned heavily against Red’s side, trying hard not to think about how dizzy he felt, how the pain in his still-bleeding leg was becoming nothing more than a dull ache and-
Lance’s head lolled and everything went dark.
He was dimly aware of voices. A scream of a name - his name? - and then someone moving him. He was cradled in something warm and soft that smelled distinctly of cinnamon. A warm, comforting smell that reminded him of home, made him think of the beaches he loved so much.
Lance blinked awake.
For a moment, he had no idea what was happened. He didn’t recognize the sleek silver hallways he was being carried through. He didn’t recognize the broad back in front of them carrying Keith, whose eyes were still closed and his head fell back awkwardly over the person’s wrist-
He stiffened.
Keith.
He started thrashing, wondering if the aliens of the planet had managed to get inside Red and kidnap the two of them. He should have stayed awake, should have kept watch, should have-
“Lance! Whoa, hey, calm down!”
Lance froze. Carefully, he lifted his head to see who was holding him. He saw a familiar yellow sweater. An orange bandanna.
“Hunk?” he croaked, his throat feeling like sandpaper.
“Hey, buddy,” Hunk said with a soft smile. “Try not to move. You lost a lot of blood.”
“What...what happened?” Lance looked back at Keith. The back he now recognized with Shiro shifted as his leader turned to look at him, concerned.
“The Castle was hit by an EMP late last night from the planet we were orbiting on,” Hunk told him. “They thought we were a spy for the Galra trying to assess their planet for takeover. We were going down to correct them when we realized you and Keith were missing.”
Lance didn’t even have the energy to be relieved that the team had come for him and Keith. He let out a low keen of pain as his thigh pulsed with another wave of pain. The wet blood from it was sticking what remained of his pants to his skin. Hunk gave him a sympathetic look.
“We’ll get you and Keith in a pod and the two of you will be just fine,” Hunk said softly.
Lance nodded and shut his eyes against the pounding in his head.
He could feel Red again but her presence was so much quieter. It made him hum softly and lean into the warmth and comfort she was providing.
For the third time, Lance let the darkness claim him. But this time, he knew, everything was going to be fine. His family was there. Everything was fine.
And it was.