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Lance was preparing for the usual battle simulation, adjusting his gear before swinging wildly at a punching bag. Walking away to finish brushing his teeth and fire off a few poses into the mirror. Before he left he spotted the poster of a princess he had taped to the punching bag.
“Hey Princess. You looking at me?” Lance threw a final kick to the poor bag.
“All squadrons report to the training area immediately for evaluation.” Lance ran off at the sound of the intercom.
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Lining up with his teammates, Lance couldn’t help that someone was missing. “Psst, anyone seen Keith?” James simply shrugged while Ryan and Ina shook their heads. “Aggh, not again.”
“At attention cadets. Your simulation is about to begin, here’s your scenario. You’ll be passing through the treacherous Whispering Woods to reach the heart of the rebel insurgency, Altea.” Ina swallowed nervously in her place next to Lance. “Your mission is to defeat the King and the princesses and liberate Altea in Lord Lotor’s name.” Their mission leader turned towards them. “Where’s Keith?”
“He will be here. I promise.” The mission leader made a noise as if to say, ‘yeah, sure’ at Lances’ statement, before turning back to the screen.
“The Whispering Woods is full of princesses, vicious, violent, instigators. They will take you out if given the chance, don’t give it to them.” The doors to the simulation opened. “Good luck recruits.” Lance pressed a button on the side of his visor to scan for the Empires’ princess stand-ins. Robots. Then a holographic purple figure appeared and Lance had to dodge the laser that came soon after.
“Watch out!” They all separated, Ina shouting the whole time. Dodging and weaving through the columns, Lance tossed a grenade that attached itself to the robot and exploded. “Come on, this way!” He led them further in. As they ran a cat-like figure could be seen perched atop of one of the many columns.
With a screech Ina was shot in the chest and fell to the ground, a red X appearing on her breastplate. “Awwww dangit.”
“Seriously Ina?”
“Bravo.” James’s tone was dry and Ryan shook his head in disappointment. The sounds of robots readying their lasers drew the group's attention. “Seriously Ina?!” They all brought up their shields before Lance called out.
“Run!”
They made it to an open area when a buzzer noise greeted them. “Lance!” At James’s shout Lance quickly stepped backwards as the tile he was just standing on fell. Another robot, this one bigger than the others, appeared from the floor. Their visors told them it was supposed to represent the King. Lance ducked and weaved around the lasers shooting out, drawing his staff and running forward. He knocked the laser guns off of the robot and smashing it’s top in. The metal beast sunk halfway back into the pit. Lance lay splayed out on the floor from when he jumped away from the robot. He looked up as the cat-like figure passed by him, kicking the robot’s leg and sending it the rest of the way into the pit. Lance sat up and looked at the figure, and they pointed towards the floor. He screamed as it fell out from underneath him.
“Hey Lancey. How’s it hanging?” Their missing teammate, Keith, looked down at Lance as he used his staff to keep himself from falling to the bottom.
“Keith. Did you really show up late and let us do all the hard parts? That is low, even for you.”
“Awww, you know nothing’s too low for me.” Keith purred. He held his hand out to Lance as he began laughing. “Now come on, you look stupid hanging there.” Lance rolled his eyes as the buzzer rang out a final time and the intercom sounded.
“Training exercise successfully completed.”
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Lance was hanging up his gear while Keith was laughing at him. “You should’ve seen your face. You were like ‘Ahhh No! Betrayal!’!” Keith giggled as he flopped on the ground.
Lance grabbed his coat from his locker before addressing Keith. “Oh come on Keith, we’re senior cadets now. I can’t believe you’re still pulling such childish, immature -IS THAT A MOUSE?!”
“WHAT? WHERE?!” Keith shot up like a bullet, ears perked and tail puffed up. Lance laughed.
“Are you ever going to not fall for that?”
“I dunno, are you ever going to LET IT GO? It was one time.” Keith crossed his arms and pouted.
“I know, but for some reason it’s always funny.”
“Lance.” A familiar voice caused Lance to stand and move slightly in-front of Keith.
“Haggar.” Lance saluted her.
“You have done well, you’ve completed your training course in record time.” Lance beamed under her praise, wrapping an arm around Keih.
“Well it wasn’t just me y’know. Keith did too.”
“Ahh yes.” Haggar glared. “How someone as unmotivated as you could keep the course in that time, I’ll never know.”
“Always serving up those pep talks huh, Haggar?”
“Silence. Do not be flippant with me, cadet.” The shadows behind Haggar seemed to move and consume the room. They were reaching out for Keith when he spoke again.
“Sorry, Haggar.” The shadows retreated.
“Lance, walk with me.” Her voice had regained it’s sickly sweet tone she always seemed to use for Lance himself. Lance had moved to follow her but stopped to check on Keith first. “Lance.” Haggar’s voice called again and Keith pushed him forwards.
He caught up with Haggar in the hallway. “Lord Lotor had been watching you. He thinks that you are a fine candidate for force captain.”
“Really?” Lance couldn’t believe it. “Force captain? Lord Lotor said that about me?”
“Oh yes. He sees great promise in you. In fact, he’s elected you the honor of leading a squadron to the invasion of the rebel fortress of Feymore.”
“Feymore?” Lance stopped walking, causing Haggar to turn and look at him. “I mean...we’re finally seeing active duty?”
“YOU are seeing active duty.”
“But I’ll be able to bring my team along, right?”
“Your team is not ready, they’ll only slow you down.” Lance tried to ignore the ugly feeling those words brought up.
“Haggar, with all due respect. They’ve been training hard for this too, and Keith...all he wants is to get out there and prove himself.”
“Then he should work harder to prove himself to me.” Haggar got closer and presented Lance with a force captain badge. “This is what I raised you for Lance. Now is your chance to prove yourself.” Lance took the badge. “I saw talent in you the moment I found you as an orphan child, and took you in. Is this not what you’ve wanted since you’ve been old enough to want anything?”
“Yes.”
“With you at the forefront we will crush the Altea rebellion once and for all. Do not disappoint me.” And with that Haggar disappeared back into the shadows.
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“Send her in.” Allura approached the throne where her father sat.
“Your majesty.”
“I’m told you disobeyed orders, and led the rebellion into a dangerous combat situation AFTER you were ordered to retreat.”
“I was trying to protect a village from falling into the Empire’s grasp.”
“YOU were reckless, and put yourself and the other rebels in danger.”
“Fighting is supposed to be dangerous. How are we going to hold our own against the Empire if we keep retreating?! Soon we won’t have anything left to defend!”
“I’m growing tired of your back talking, Commander Allura.”
“Why did you even make me a commander if you won’t let me fight?!”
“THAT'S ENOUGH! You’re...GROUNDED!”
Allura gasped. “DAD!”
“You heard me!”
“You never let me do anything!”
“We are not having this discussion tonight!” King Alfor lowered his voice to a whisper. “You are embarrassing me in front of my royal court.” The guards looked at eachother.
“Ohhhh. I’m embarrassing you!”
“GO TO YOUR ROOM!”
“I’M GOING!” Allura grabbed her cape and tried to make her exit as dramatic as possible. Alfor sighed.
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Lance admired his new force captain badge, smiling before putting it on his coat. Out of nowhere he was tackled to the ground by an excited Keith. “What’d Haggar say...Hey, what’s this?” Keith grabbed the badge off of Lance’s coat and jumped out to reach.
“Hey! Give it back.”
“No way! You’ve been promoted?” Lance rubbed the back of his head bashfully.
“Well, kinda, I mean, yeah, I guess. But it’s not a big deal.” Keith jumped down and grabbed Lance by the shoulders.
“Are you kidding? That is awesome. We’re gonna see the world, and conquer it. Lance, I need to blow something up!” Keith’s purring was cut off when Lance had to explain.
“Um, Haggar says, you’re not coming.”
“What?! My time was just as good as yours today. What is her problem with me?”
“I mean, you are kinda disrespectful.”
“Why should I respect her? She’s just bitter that she doesn't have any real power that comes from Lotor and everyone knows it. I guess it sure must be easy being a people pleaser like you.” Keith finished his rant and ran off before Lance could finish his sentence.
“I am not a- Keith wait!”
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“Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t even think you wanted to be a force captain.” Lance had found Keith sitting on the top platform of the building.
“I don’t. Here, take your stupid badge.” He tossed the badge over his shoulder and Lance managed to catch it in time. He wrapped his tail around himself and Lance spoke again..
“Look, Keith. This is what I’ve been working for my entire life. I was hoping you could be, I dunno, happy for me.”
Keith groaned. “Whatever, it’s not like I even care. I just wanna get out of this dump before I die of boredom.” He leaned up against Lance. “I wonder what’s even outside of the Empire anyway.”
Lance smirked, holding up a key. “Why don’t we go find out?”
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“I TAKE IT ALL BACK! YOU’RE OFFICIALLY AWESOME! I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU STOLE A SKIFF!” Keith had to shout to be heard over the rushing wind as they sped through the desert.
“BORROWED! PLEASE DON’T MAKE ME REGRET THIS!”
“I’ve always wanted to drive one of these things… here gimme.” Keith shoved Lance to the side.
“Woah there, save us enough fuel to get back.”
“That is a problem for future Keith and Lance.” The boys argued and scuffled over the controls for several minutes. Stopping just outside of the Whispering Woods. “What is it?”
“I think this must be the Whispering Woods, people say that there are strangle old monsters in there. A-And the trees move when you're not looking. Every Imperial squadron they’ve sent in there had never come out again.”
“Let’s go in.”
“Wait-What?” Lance screamed as Keith drove the skiff further into the woods. They raced forward, Keith laughing the whole way.
“Keith, slow down!” Lance’s cry distracted the other boy from the path ahead. “Keith tree! Tree!” Lance grabbed the control out of Keiths hands and took them past the threat. They dodge trees and vines until one caught Lance by the neck and he fell from the skiff. The last thing he heard was Keith crying out his name.
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Lance woke up face-first in a pile of leaves, “Keith?” there was no sign of his friend anywhere. “Whoa.” There was no sign of Keith, but there was a glowing sword wrapped in vines just a foot or two ahead of him. “Cool.” Lance approached the sword and reached out, just barely grazing the hilt before a flash of light overcame him.
“Balance must be restored.” Images flashed in his mind, planets and castles. “Ethiera must seek a hero.” A person bathed in golden light. Lance could hear a baby crying. “Lance, Lance---”
“Lance! Lance!” Keith was on top of him, face clouded with worry.
“Keith?” Lance sat up, holding his head. “W-What happened?”
“You fell off the skiff after you drove it into a tree.”
“No you drove it into a tree.” Keith’s squeak after Lance pushed him off was wonderfully familiar after those visions.
“Up for debate. Now come on, lets go.”
“Wait, where is it where’d it go?” Lance was panicking at this point.
“What?”
“There was a sword! It was right here, I tried to touch it but, it got really bright-”
“Are you brain-damaged?” Keith grabbed his face with both hands. “Don’t be brain-damaged. Oh, Haggar’s gonna kill me.”
Lance pulled away. “I’m not brain-damaged, it was here! I saw it.”
“Well, there’s nothing here now so come on, lets go.” Keith dragged him by the back of his jacket. They boarded the skiff and Keith piloted it back, Lance staring back into the woods the whole time.
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A shadowy figure leapt from tree to tree, stopping to peer into the window. Allura’s voice could be heard. “Dear, Dad. I know you’ll never hear this, but I have to say it somewhere.” She continued to write in her diary. “I feel like you...don’t...respect me. Ahh!” The princess yelped in surprise as an arrow embedded itself into the wall inches away from her head. A note unrolled itself and pointed towards her window.’Look Outside!’. Allura groaned, yanking the arrow out and leaning out her window, she whisper-yelled. “Watch it. You almost hit me.”
“Hey Allura!”
“Shhhhh. Hunk, what are you doing here?”
“What did you say?! Come down here!”
“I can’t. I’m grounded.”
“What?!”
“I’m grounded.”
“What?!” Allura smacked the window sill with a fist.
“I’m-” She teleported to Hunk’s side, ignoring the little shreek he gave at her sudden appearance. “Grounded.” She teleported them both into her room. “Ugh, I’m so mad at my dad.” Hunk sucked in a breath.
“Is this about the siege of Elberon?”
“I was just trying to defend one of our villages from falling into the Empire’s clutches! He’s the one who stationed me all the way out there because it’s too remote to get attacked, but then it did!” Hunk continued to pick up the shirts and other random items off of the floor and put them away. “And it was my one chance to prove that I could do this. But he has to act like, I can’t do anything, because I’m-” She grabbed her cape and wrapped it around herself. “Just a princess.”
“That doesn't make any sense, everyone here is a princess.” Hunk stared off into space, sounding a little sad. “I’m like the only one who’s not a princess.”
“Ah, tell that to my dad.”
“Hey where does this go?” Hunk held up another shirt.
“Bottom drawer.”
“Anyway, maybe your dad is right. The only reason you got out of there is your teleportation powers. And let’s face it, they don’t always work that well.”
“Looking for support here, Hunk!”
“I’m just saying, if you wanna prove yourself it’s gonna take more than running off recklessly into any old battle. Luckily I’ve got just the thing.” He held up his scanner. “Check this out. I’ve detected a piece of First-One’s tech in the Whispering Woods. A pretty powerful one too by the size of these readings.” Allura grabbed one side of the scanner as he showed her. “You find this one and bring it back, your dad is bound to be impressed.”
“Did you forget I’m grounded?” The two startled when a knock echoed throughout the room.
“Allura? Are you in there?” Allura panicked and teleported herself and Hunk outside, before teleporting back inside. “Allura?”
“Everythings fine Dad.”
“Is someone else in there, I heard voices.”
“No one else is in here, can you please just leave me alone?”
“I don’t appreciate your tone right now, young lady.”
Hunk stood outside and attempted to ignore the arguing father-daughter pair. A door slammed and Allura appeared beside him again. “I’m in.”
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Lance tried to sleep, but the images and the voice he had heard inside the woods wouldn’t leave him be. He jolted up in bed when the voice sounded like it was in the room with him. Making up his mind, Lance moved carefully, so as not to wake up Keith, who was sleeping curled up on the lower half of the bed. Little did he know the galra halfbreed was already awake.
Lance left the room in a hurry, putting on his jacket and belt quickly. “Hey. Where are you going?” Keith’s whisper caught his attention, and he turned back towards the door.
“Back to the woods, there’s something I need to figure out.” Keith made a noise of disbelief.
“What? You’re not-” Lance cut the other boy off and hid them both from the passing sentries. “What is wrong with you? You’ve been acting weird ever since we got back.” He grabbed Lance’s face again. “Are you sure you’re not brain-damaged?”
“Look Keith. I know I saw something out there. I jus-I just to get another look. It feels important somehow.”
“Sounds good, Let’s go.” Keith froze when Lance put his hands on his shoulders.
“No. I don’t want you getting in trouble on my behalf. Just...Cover for me okay? I’ll be back before anyone else knows I’m gone.” Lance ran off towards the skiff bay, ignoring Keith’s whispered shouts of his name. Maybe if he had stopped and let Keith come with him, maybe things would’ve turned out different.
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“Come on, come on.” Hunk shook the sensor as it’s screen flashed and glitched. Allura groaned.
“Please tell me we’re not lost.”
“No. This thing is just acting up. Looks like it’s being overloaded by the tech’s signal. We must be getting close!”
“Uhhh. I think it’s that way.”
“What makes you say that?” Allura pointed towards the glowing light. “Oh, yeah. That’ll do it.”
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“Look, what are you doing out here Lance? Keith’s right. You’re crazy. Maybe we should just go home, forget about all this…” Lance trailed off, the glowing light that he had seen earlier told him that he wasn’t as crazy as he thought.
Lance had stopped in his approach of the sword when he overheard two voices arguing. A tall, white-haired girl and a chunky boy stopped when they saw him.
“Imperial Soldier!”
“I see him!” The two started screaming, and Lance made a run for the sword. He was shocked when the girl appeared in front of him, grabbing the sword before vanishing and reappearing again.
“Hunk catch!” The girl tossed the sword and the boy caught it with a distressed noise.
“Give me the sword.” Lance ran for the boy, but the girl had teleported herself onto Lance’s back. “Get. Off.” He threw her off over his head, running past as she landed. He pulled out a tripping device and threw it, causing the boy to fall and throw the sword. “Stay down. I don’t want to hurt you.” The girl appeared in front of him again.
“Since when do Imperial soldiers not want to hurt anyone?” The girl blinded Lance with a sparkling ball. The three of them struggled to get the sword before the other party could. Lance grazed the gem in the swords hilt, and suddenly he was in a different place. A spaceship-like area surrounded him, and a woman appeared from the light.
“Hello Lance.”
“Who are you? What’s going on?”
The woman moved closer. “I am the Black Lion. I have been waiting a long time for you. But I could not reach you until you forged a connection with the sword.”
“You sent the sword?”
“The sword was meant for you. Ethiera has need of you Lance. Will you answer it’s call? Will you fight for the Honor of Voltron?”
“What are you talking about? What’s voltron? You’re not making any sense, I don’t understand.” The light behind the woman shone brighter.
“You will.”
“Wait!” Everything went dark.
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The Imperial soldier woke up with a groan. “Hey he’s awake.” Good observation Hunk.
“What happened?”
Allura decided to speak up this time. “Quiet Empire spy, I’m asking the questions. How did you make it this far into the woods?” The soldier raised an eyebrow at her.
“I just...walked in? And I’m not a spy!”
“Sure. Sure. You just so happened to stumble into the Whispering Woods, like you just so happened to try and steal OUR sword.”
“Uh, it’s not yours! I found it first!”
“The Whispering Woods is under the rebellion's protection, you were lucky enough to make it as far as you did. Come on Hunk, let’s get this spy back to Altea where he can be interrogated properly.” Allura grabbed her friend and stood out of the soldiers range of hearing. “This is perfect. Not only do we have First-Ones tech for the rebellion, we’ve also captured an Imperial Spy! My dad is going to be so impressed.” She went back to addressing the “spy”. “Now come on! On your feet.”
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Lance wasn’t sure if the people who had tied him up were professionals. “Are you positive we’re going the right way Allura?”
“I know what I’m doing Hunk!” Oh man, Lance could practically hear Keith’s insults for these two. “Can you please just trust me for once?”
“You know I always trust you, but I’m starting to get a little freaked out. I mean- I pretty much grew up in these woods and I’ve never even seen this part of them. I’ve heard stories about weird stuff out here.”
“It’s fine, okay! Just let me figure this out!” The girl, Allura, vanished once again.
“Okay, touchy.” He moved some moss so that Lance could duck under it. “Sorry about her, usually she’s really nice...Not much of a talker huh.”
“I prefer not to share pleasantries with my captors.” Lance rolled his eyes, seriously? Did these people know nothing?
“Alright, suit yourself.” The boy helped Lance over a tree root.
Lance watched Allura appear and reappear over and over again before leaning over to Hunk. “You know she’s a princess right? How can you follow her? Princesses are a dangerous threat to everyone on Ethira.” Hunk looked surprised.
“Is that what Lotor told you?”
“Well I thought it was common knowledge. They’re violent instigators who don’t even know how to control their powers.” Lance gestured towards Allura who had let out a frustrated groan and teleported away again.
“You’ve never actually met a princess, have you?”
“Well, maybe not in person but…” Lance was cut off by the sounds of the princess crying. Hunk and him ran to her. Lance was frozen by what he saw. A settlement, a completely destroyed one at that. “What happened to this place?”
“Don’t you play dumb with me,” Allura’s voice was like venom, “I bet you were apart of the raiding party that did this.”
“What are you talking about? The Empire didn’t do this.” Lance was seething at her accusations, but kept silent as the princess led him to a destroyed Imperial bot.
“Oh yeah?” Allura’s tears had dried, all sorrow turning into rage. “You’re a heartless destroyer! Just like all the rest of your people!”
“I’m not a destroyer! Lotor says that we’re doing what’s best for Ethira! We’re trying to make things better! More orderly!”
“THIS IS WHAT’S BEST FOR ETHIRA?!” She snapped and gestured towards the ruins behind them. “Ever since the Empire had got here they’ve been poisoning our land! Burning our cities! Destroying everything in their path...and you’re a part of it! How’s that for orderly?” The princess stomped off, leaving Lance alone with Hunk.
“This doesn’t make any sense...the Empire would never do something like this.” Hunk took the chance to speak his part.
“Did you really not know any of this? I mean, your army is called the Evil Empire…”
“Who calls us that?!” If the situation wasn’t so serious he would’ve laughed at the disbelief on Hunk’s face.
“Everybody!”
Lance looked to the ground, heart hurting from just thinking about it. “The Empire rescued me when I was a baby and gave me a home. You-you don’t know them like I do.”
“Maybe you don’t know them like you think you do.” At the boys' words Lance thought of everyone back home, of Haggar and James and Ryan and Ina and… Keith. He knew them right???
“AHHHHH! There’s something out there! Something big!” Allura had come screaming out of the nearby flora. Hunk pulled out his bow and Lance ran forward with him to meet the princess halfway.
“How big?” The ground shook and a beady-eyed insect crawled out of the ground. Hunk made another distressed noise and Lance wanted nothing more to be back in bed with Keith nearby. “So pretty big then.” The bug screeched and stabbed one of it’s legs into the ground where Allura had been just moments prior. “Watchout!” The trio backed away as the bug got closer, breaking the ground as it walked. Lance let out a squeak as his leg sunk into a crevice and got stuck. The bug had set his marks on the poor boy when Hunk stepped in front of him and released an arrow. A green substance had covered the bugs mouth and kept it from screeching for a short time. It had broken said green substance quickly, and Allura ran at it. Firing off the sparkling orbs at it’s head. She screamed when her attacks proved ineffective and the bug tossed her aside. Her back hit a tree and the breath was knocked out of her, Hunk tried to help by using an arrow lasso? Okay then. Lance had managed to pull his leg free, spotting the sword close by. He turned to see how the others were doing and watched as Hunk was thrown into the same tree. Lance grabbed the sword and was going to walk away but...he saw Allura struggling to defend herself and Hunk...something felt wrong about leaving them behind. The sword sparked in his hands and he could practically hear Keith calling him an idiot but...Lance was never one to betray his heart.
“Hey bug brain!” Diverting the bug’s attention to himself, Lance fumbled with the sword. “Come on magic sword, ohhhh where’s a blinding flash of light when you need one?” He screamed when he saw the bug running at him full speed. The monster was about to crush him with one of it’s legs, when Lance managed to get a proper grip on the sword and held it abod his head, stopping the bugs’ blow as a colorful light overcame him again.
“Lance.” He could hear the voice of the Black Lion as the images he had seen once before flashed through his mind again. “Lance, Lance...Will you fight for the Honor of Voltron?”
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Allura and Hunk could only watch in awe as the Imperial boy held the glowing sword in his hands, holding off the bug from the killing blow. Everything seemed to still for a moment, before his face hardened and he shouted, “FOR THE HONOR OF VOLTRON!!!!” The light from the sword seemed to consume the boy, before fading to a glow around his body. That’s not what surprised them the most though, no. It was the fact that the boy, though quiet tall before, had gotten taller. His hair had turned a light silver color where it had previously been brown. His clothes had changed into a blue and white battle armor, and they could see glimpses of a black skin-tight suit underneath. Allura was shocked by the sudden change, Hunk was shocked that the change came with a cool blue cape that blew in a nonexistent wind. The bug backed down and the two were left to wonder, ‘what just happened??’.