Chapter Text
Pidge was really expecting this plan to go better. She probably shouldn’t have set her expectations so high, their plans never work out.
“All paladins, please retreat to the ship, we are opening a wormhole.” Allura’s voice came through the comms. Pidge glanced behind her at the twenty Galra sentries chasing her Lion. “No complaints from me, making my way back now.”
“We’ll meet you there.” Shiro’s steady voice came through. Followed by agreements from Keith and Hunk.
Nothing from Lance.
“Lance, buddy are you there?” Hunk called through his comms. Where was lance? Pidge wondered, she couldn’t see him. All the paladins had been separated during the fight but she had managed to keep track of most of the lions, however, Blue was nowhere to be seen.
“This isn’t funny, Lance.” cold dread started to settle in Pidge, Lance liked to joke and play around but he always took situations like these seriously.
Static cut sharply through the comms, “guys I’m in a lot of trouble right now” Lance's voice finally came.
“Pidge, get a reading on Lance’s location” Shiro was cut off by a shrill scream “HOLY SH-” the comms shrieked then cut off falling back into static.
An explosion erupted amongst the panicked shouts for Lance to respond. A purple wormhole materialised out of nothing, bigger and darker than anything the castle ship had ever created.
Pidge just managed to catch sight of a certain blue metal feline being sucked through during all the chaos. “Lance!”
A ring of delayed aftershock sprung from the alarmingly fastly closing wormhole, shattering the Galrun ships in its path, coming straight for the green lion.
Pidge didn’t even have time to think before it slammed into her Lion, the force causing her neck to snap back as her head smashed into the back of her seat. Black crawled its way through her vision as Pidge faded into unconsciousness.
xxx
Pidge woke up staring at a pure white ceiling. She could hear faded muttering but couldn’t place who or where it was coming from. What happened?
“Katie? Are you awake? You’ve been out for about an hour now.” Shiro's white puff of hair came into her view. Sliding her heavy eyes over she took in all of Shiro's glory, still in his paladin armour she noted. Behind him stood four others... There should be five… Oh crap, Lance. The earlier occurrences hit her with the force of a truck.
“Where is he?” she gasped out. Shiros' already sullen face sank even further. No, she couldn’t lose another brother… Again she looked at everyone in the room, Allura stood hunched, opposite to her usually straight and regal stance, Keith looked especially dark and dangerous leaning against the back wall, Hunk stood close by her feet, tears in his eyes.
Coran stepped forward “I’m sure Number 3 is well, Lance has never failed to make the best of a situation.” Hunks chuckled wetly, “He’s probably lounging on a beach waiting for us to come and get him.”
The unlikeliness of that went unsaid but Pidge still found comfort in the fact that this is Lance they were talking about. Lance never missed a chance to explore a new planet and talk to the local aliens. She just hoped he had made it to a planet at all.
With that in mind she needed to get to work, hoisting herself up she swung her legs over the edge of the infirmary bed and moved to leave. “Woah, Woah” a metal hand held her in place.
“Katie, you just woke up and you hit your head earlier I don’t think you should be moving around yet” Pidge huffed, grabbing her glasses from the table beside her and pushing them up her nose. “Look boss, I need to track down the Blue Lion, Lance isn’t exactly finding himself.”
Shiro looked over at Coran for reassurance, “Number 5 sustained no serious injuries in the blast and will be fine!”
Looking between the two of them Shiro finally sighed, lifting his hand off Pidge’s shoulder, “fine but listen to your body! If you need a break, take a break.”
Pidge was already halfway out the room, Hunk at her heels “Don’t worry, I’ll find him quickly. Lance will be back in no time.”
xxx
Lance was not back in no time. It had been four days to be exact. The castleship had never been so silent.
Keith had practically barricaded himself in the training room, whenever Shiro wasn’t with him he was with Allura talking in hushed voices. Coran had been practically invisible doing his everyday tasks, now without the accompaniment of a certain Cuban boy. Hunk had spread himself between the kitchen, stress baking and being with Pidge, helping in her search for Lance. Pidge herself had not left her computer screen more than five times through the four days.
It was like Lance had simply ceased to exist. There were no traces of the Blue Lion or him anywhere, nor any clues to where the wormhole could have spit them out.
That was until Pidge had managed to decode a certain broadcasting signal.
Pidge opened the new rabbit hole eager to get her hands on anything at all. She was met with something that chased all the tired out of her. There in front of her was six videos, all with Lance’s face as the cover, dating from 4 days ago to exactly 43 minutes back.
Unable to contain her excitement she slammed her hand on the comms button. “I found something, come to me as soon as you can.” Within seconds Hunk came bursting into the room, oven mittens still equipped.
“Please tell me it’s good news.” The desperation in Hunk’s voice pulled at her heart. “I’m certain he’s alive. When everyone's here I’ll show you.”
In the next couple of minutes, the rest of the Voltron team made their way into the room, Coran being the final member to enter.
“What’s the news Pidge? Have you found Lance?” Allura asked.
“Not exactly” she could see Hunk frown beside her, “There was nothing, no signals, no connection to the blue Lion, The only thing I could find was a practically untouched transmission signal. It was well locked up but definitely Altean technology. Now, look at what I found on it.” Pidge showed the videos on the big display screen.
“It’s Lance” whispered Keith. “Not only that, their videos and the last one is from only 45 minutes ago! Lance has to be alive and using these I can find his exact location!”
“That’s great Katie. Have you watched them?” Shiro wondered, studying the videos closely. “Not yet I was waiting for everyone.”
Pidge scanned the videos for the earliest uploaded, clicking on it the team sat in thick silence as they waited for the black screen to load.
“Is this thing working?”
Pidge had never been happier to hear that voice.
The relief was short-lived. Lance looked horrible . He was slumped in his pilot seat, the blood running down his forehead had completely covered his left eye and from what Pidge could see above the under armour, every inch of him was purple with bruises.
“Damn it Blue out of all the things that could still be working” regret flashed across Lance's face. “Sorry I didn’t mean it, beautiful. Please start working.” He sheepishly patted his seat.
Lance looked up at the camera, “I’m really hoping you manage to find this Pidge... Crap I don’t know what to do.” He rubs his face with his hands.
“Okay, okay, don’t be useless Lance. What does Shiro always say? First a body scan… concussion, broken wrist… maybe broken ribs?” he pushes down on his ribs. “Oh- yep, broken ribs.” he wheezed. Lance moves slowly to pick up the chest piece of his paladin armour that was lying behind him. “I had to take this off, I think it caved in when I hit the surface.” Lance paused, “Oh right! I managed to land on a planet after I got sucked through the wormhole, I think I passed out, I don’t really remember anything.”
“He looks terrible” Hunk said what they were all thinking.
“I only have two water bottles, eight of these weird alien nutrient bars and the first aid kit. There is a blanket though! Cosy.” He huffs with dark amusement.
The paladins silently watch Lance’s attention fade as he sits still staring into nothing.
Lance shakes himself out of his thoughts, “Well I’m going to sign off now.” he said with a smile. “I’m waiting for you guys!” the screen goes black with a flash.
The silence didn't lift even after the video ended, even Pidge’s tapping at her keyboard had paused.
Finally, “Can you find him?” Keith looked over at Pidge.
“Of course I can.” her glasses glinted with determination. “I just need to get a more stable connection.”
“Don’t you think he was acting weird, not very Lance-like,” Keith said.
“You’d be acting weird too if you had been sucked up into an unknown wormhole and spit out only to slam into a planet and be alone there for four days.” Hunk countered getting defensive even in the absence of his best friend.
“Stop fighting, Let’s watch the next one,” Shiro interrupted.
Pidge pressed play then went back to working on her computer.
“Great news guys!” Lance's smiling face filled the screen. “I got Blue’s door to open and hooray! The planet's air is breathable. Bad news though I landed right in the middle of a forest and I can’t see anything for miles. I tried climbing a tree but there was nothing to grip.” he said with disdain.
“I think it’s been about 8 hours since my last log.” He rubbed his chin in thought, all of a sudden clicking his hands into finger guns. “I came up with a name for my videos, He drummed his hands against the control table, “Lance’s Log!” He arched his hands above his head as if he was presenting a life-changing idea.
She was glad to see this experience hadn’t changed him, Pidge thought warmly.
“What do you think? I’m liking the Alliteration but I’m not too sure if it’s too boring.”
The room's occupants chuckled at Lance’s antics.
But the room's mood dropped just as quickly as it rose when Lance started to grow serious on-screen.
“It’s really cold here, one blanket can only do so much and Blue’s still not responding. I already ate one nutrient bar and drank half a bottle of water.” looking back at the water bottle lying on the floor. “I’ll have to ration my supplies until I can find water and food. Too bad my ribs and wrist are making life so much harder. I can barely grip my bayard, I think I made them worse when I tried to climb that tree.” Lance winced rubbing at his side with his uninjured hand. “I think I’ll try to sleep now.” he yawned. “This is Log #2, signing off.” The screen goes black again.
“Should he be sleeping with a concussion?” Hunk asked, looking over to the group.
“It should be fine, until we can get him in a pod he must try to retain as much energy as possible so his body can heal,” Coran answered, twisting his moustache.
“He said he was cold,” Keith stated. Pidge thought back to all the concerning things Lance had seemed to brush over, the thought made her speed up her typing, even more rushed to find Lance’s location.
“There are more logs, at the very least Lance has to be conscious and able to talk.” Shiro pointed out using his leader's voice, trying to reassure the rest of them.
“Let’s watch the next one.” Allura moved to press play.
Yet again Lance's face appeared on the screen.