Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Something about the ground below him felt odd. It wasn’t the grass he fell asleep on, it was softer, plusher. Lance was initially napping under a tree, taking a small break from his work. Maybe more time has passed than he thought. Did someone carry me back to my room? I’m kinda surprised no one woke me up. 

Lance arose from his nap, and slowly became adjusted to his surroundings. His eyes widened with surprise. The floor around him was messy, cluttered, everything scattered about, more so than usual. The walls were a weird metallic color. The bed he was sleeping in wasn’t his own. Where am I??? He thought to himself looking around. 

This wasn’t his room. 

He frantically jumped out of his bed to figure out where he was. Thankfully, he wasn’t trapped in there, as the door was unlocked. Once he walked right up to it, it just slid away, and he was able to run out into the hall. Just like the room, the halls were a metallic color, except it was illuminated with blue lights, and had seemingly no end. Everything around him felt vaguely familiar. No one was around. 

Was I kidnapped? Lance tried to shake the thought away. 

I mean, if I was kidnapped, surely there'd be guards all around me? And no one’s even here. 

With his realization, he had a new problem. How was he going to get out of here?

With no other options, he had to walk down the ominous hall in hopes of finding an exit. He cautiously walked down the hall trying his best to adjust his eyes to the lighting. As he walked through the hall, he felt a weird sense of deja vu. Actually it looked a lot like… No, it couldn’t be.

The hallway felt endless. He didn’t know how far he’d have to go, and he felt his thoughts begin to swirl with anxiety. Why is it so dark? What if I can’t find my way out? What if I’m stuck here? 

His palms were sweaty. He ran his fingers through his hair, trying to figure out what to do. He couldn’t help it, something about this place made him painfully nervous, like he wasn’t supposed to be here. 

Suddenly, after walking for what felt like forever, he saw another door. With no hesitation, he ran to it and started furiously banging on the door. When that didn’t work, he tried scratching it. Anything to pry it open. “Hello? Where am I???,” he pounded as he desperately tried to open the door. 

Nothing he was doing was working, and at this point, he was really starting to panic. Oh my god, am I ever gonna get out of here? What if I never get out of here? What if I-

“Uh, Lance?”

That voice, it sounded similar to someone he knew. He slowly turned around. 

… Hunk?

There was an awkward pause. “Um, why are banging on my door like that?”

He couldn’t respond. He just stared bug eyed. Hunk looked younger. Way younger, no goatee or nothing. He tried to say something, anything, but it just came out as random sputtering. He couldn’t really articulate a sentence. 

Hunk didn’t really know how to react to his friend's erratic behavior. “I was wondering when you’d finally wake up,” he said. “We need to go see Shiro.”

Hunk led him to a dimly lit room, surrounded by similar blue lighting, except much more spacious. At the center of the room there was a staircase that formed a circle in the center. To the left of that there was a glowing, blue pod. Someone seemed to be inside of it, and there were more people surrounding it, but Lance couldn’t make out who. 

Hunk called out to them. “How’s Shrio doing?”

“Sometimes the healing process can cause involuntary brain wave reactions.”

“He looks like he’s having a bad dream.” Hunk responded.

“He just got blasted by a space witch and mauled by giant lizards. Of course he’s having a bad dream”

These voices. They all sounded familiar.

Lance’s eyes began to adjust, and when they did, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

It was… everyone . Hunk, Keith, Pidge, Shiro, Coran and… Allura. After all this time, they were all here. But how???

Lance rubbed his eyes to make sure this wasn’t all just some mirage. Everyone was really here. Not only that, they all looked younger. Keith doesn’t have his scar, Shiro doesn’t have white hair, Pidge has her old hairstyle, and Hunk doesn’t have a goatee anymore. And Allura, despite dying, was standing just a mere few feet away from him. 

He just couldn’t believe it. He so badly wanted to run up to her and embrace her, to tell how much he missed her, how much he loved her, but he just stood there, completely dumbfounded on what to do, as if there was a wall between the two of them. He looked around the room, and slowly began to realize where he was.

The Castle of Lions.

Am I… dreaming? He wondered to himself. This feels too real to be a dream. Did I… somehow… go back in time?

That sounded too impossible to be real. There’s no way he isn’t dreaming. He looked down at his arm and without thinking, pinched himself, quickly yelping in agony. 

“Lance, seriously?!” Keith glared at him. 

“Gah! S-sorry…” Lance muttered. 

It wasn’t too long after that Shiro woke up, and Pidge hooked up some machine to his arm. He slowly began to explain what he dreamed about. How the Galra had kidnapped him, how he was experimented on, and how he escaped because of a Galran named Ulaz. This was then followed by him, Keith, and Allura bickering about the black lion. As he was explaining, Lance, still silent and in awe of the situation, blinked several times, as if he heard this somewhere before. 

Then it clicked for him. He had heard this before. Shortly after their first fight with Zarkon, they were all separated, and Shiro and Keith got attacked by wolves, knocking Shiro unconscious. Now, they were all reunited back in the Castle of Lions. A new thought popped into his head. 

Wait…this must mean that we should be meeting Ulaz soon, right?

Lance had managed to catch the tail end of their conversation.

“There’s no point in arguing,” Shiro said. “We should find the coordinates and see if we can locate allies on Zarkon’s side, we may be able to take him down.”

“We can check the location, but I do not like this,” Allura said. “The Galra are not to be trusted.”

─ ⊹ ⊱ ☆ ⊰ ⊹ ─

In no time at all, the ship took them to the outskirts of a galaxy, filled with weird crystal-like chunks, just as Lance had remembered. They were all in the control room, with Allura standing at the center.

“We checked, and there’s no one here.” Allura said, very annoyed that they came out here in the first place.

“We should wait a little longer,” Shiro responded. “We don’t know what’s here.”

Sure enough, shortly after he said this, Ulaz appeared on ship in the usual Blade of Marmora uniform. Lance watched him through the cameras.

After not saying anything for a long time, he had finally decided to break his silence. He stammered a bit more before clearing his throat. “Shiro, should we suit up and deal with him?”

“For now, yes. But let me deal with him first.”

After ten years, he had the chance to slip back into his paladin armor. It felt nostalgic, he never thought he’d get the chance to wear it again. He remembered what happened next, him, Pidge, Hunk and Keith would try to catch Ulaz, but fail to do so. Only when Shiro tries to fight him will he reveal himself. 

However, they had all been instructed to let Shiro deal with the threat first. Not quite how he remembered it, but it did save Lance the hassle of having to go after Ulaz. Shiro quickly entered the large, empty hall, seemingly to confront the Blade member. Meanwhile, Lance and the others weren’t too far behind. When it seemed as if they were going to engage in combat, they locked eyes, and Ulaz quickly revealed who he was, causing them both to pause. “Ulaz…” Shiro said, with a mournful look in his eyes.

Before he could get anything else, Allura quickly pinned him to the wall. “Allura, stop! This is Ulaz!” He said. “Put him down! He’s the one who rescued me.”

With some reluctance, she eventually did as she was told, but not before cuffing him and bringing him upstairs to their lounge for interrogation.

This goes about the same as Lance remembered it. While the others were interrogating Ulaz, he stood silently, taking it all in. Ulaz told them all that he was a part of the Blade of Marmora, and that they had a base behind the zanthorium clusters, in a hidden pocket of space time.

“You think you’re going to get me to destroy my ship, just because you say so?” Allura narrowed her eyes at him.

“We came here because we needed answers, Allura,” Shiro said calmly. “We can’t turn back now.”

They manage to get into the pocket easily, allowing Shiro, Keith, and Pidge to all board the red lion and go to check out the secret base. This left Lance alone with Allura. Just the two of them, in the lounge. There was a long, awkward pause. Lance wanted to say so much, but could hardly utter a single word. 

Where would I even begin??? Allura, I can’t believe it’s really you, you look so beautiful? You know, we actually end up dating in the future? Allura, you’re actually gonna sacrifice yourself in like, a year and end up losing your life? I mean, what are the consequences of telling someone their future? Would she even believe me?

Before he realized it, he found himself looking at Allura. Their eyes met and she glared at him. “You’ve been spaced out, Lance,” she said. “You need to be on our guard, we’re dealing with a Galran intruder. We should meet up with Coran, in case we need to make a quick escape.”

“R-right…” Lance muttered. 

They walked together in awkward silence back to the control room, where he was waiting for them.

“I just… don’t get it,” Allura was venting to Coran. “I mean, how could there possibly be Galrans working against Zarkon.”

“I’m not sure, princess.” Coran responds. “My only hope is that we don’t run into any trouble with them.”

Right after he said this, Shiro, Pidge, Hunk, and Keith all called to warn them that they had been tracked, and were being followed by a robeast.

“I knew he could not be trusted!” Allura exclaimed.

“It definitely wasn’t him,” Shiro said. “Everyone, get to your lions, but don’t launch.”

─ ⊹ ⊱ ☆ ⊰ ⊹ ─

Being back in his lion felt odd. Even stranger than wearing his paladin armor. Surprisingly however, he found himself able to maneuver it just fine, almost as if they never left. Forming Voltron after all this time came pretty easily to him. The problem was whether or not he would be able to fight off the robeast. He remembered it well, it had an ugly, gaping hole that it used to suck in clusters and shoot out lasers.

From what he could remember, it could use the zanthorium clusters to generate power for an attack. The best way to defeat it would be destroying it from the inside out. And to do that, someone’s going to have to kill themselves in the process, Ulaz.  

He remembered vividly what was going to happen next. Ulaz left, and they were going to try and fight the monster, but to no avail. And in a final act of bravery, Ulaz comes back and flies into the robeast to destroy it, but dies in the process. 

The thought caused a pit to form at the bottom of his stomach. Surely, there had to be something they could do to save him. But what?

They were able to perform their first attack on it with no problem. They were able to deliver a few blows to the beast easily. However, it tried to gradually pull them in, and tha pull made it hard to dodge its attacks. Voltron kept colliding with the clusters, causing massive explosions, leading to them to be flung every which way. Thankfully however, Pidge was still able to form the shield and shove it into the creature’s mouth. This allowed them to push it into a giant cluster, distracting it for a little while.

This was not enough to stop it from shooting a massive laser at them, which they barely had enough time to block, leaving Voltron stunned. Hunks face quickly appears on a hologram, projected on the dashboard for each of the lions. “We may not be able to beat this thing.” 

“Hold on!” Their call was interrupted by Ulaz,

Oh no, Lance thought. We’re too late.

Any hope of possibly saving Ulaz had been lost. He felt defeated, knowing he’d have to watch him die before his very eyes. That was until something caught his eye. His bayard. At that moment, he remembered something that gave him the smallest small spark of hope. As fast as he could, he made another call, specifically to Hunk.

“Hunk! We only have a few seconds before Ulaz goes in that thing and kills himself! Do you trust me?!”

“What?! Of course!”

As soon as he said this, both of their control panels started to shift to include a slot for both of their bayards. 

“ Lance ?! What are you doing?!” Shiro exclaimed.

“No time to explain,” he responded, forcing his bayard into the slot, with Hunk doing so as well. 

Suddenly, a giant, blue cannon formed in the hands of Voltron, causing Ulaz to stop in his tracks. “Everyone, we need to use the last of our energy to shoot at the Robeast.”

“Blue Paladin, what’s going on?” Ulaz asked in confusion.

“Sorry, Ulaz. I know you wanted to sacrifice yourself, but not today.”

In the blink of an eye, the cannon was aimed directly at the robeast, and with the help of Keith and the Red Lion, they pulled the trigger.

A massive blue beam shot out at a rate Lance didn’t think was even possible. It landed square in the middle of the robeast, right into its mouth, causing it to stop its attack. From its mouth, ice crystals began to form, until it was completely frozen over, encased in a gigantic block. Only then did the cannon stop firing.

The creature could no longer move. For a few short seconds, they all watched it squirm in agony, as the ice seems to have caused it to short-circuit. Smoke started emitting from the ice, and just as quickly as the cannon formed, the robeast blew up, causing both Voltron and Ulaz’s ship to fly in completely different directions. The blast was so powerful that it split Voltron back into the five lions. Bits and pieces of ice and metal were strewn about in all sorts of directions. 

Everyone was in complete shock and disorientation, including Lance. Suddenly, as if to break the silence, a call came through his lion. “Is everyone okay?” It was Shiro.

Lance shook his head in an attempt to regain his consciousness. “I’m fine,” he responded.

“Lance, while what you did was incredibly risky and dangerous, I'm very thankful you did it,” he said with relief.

Hunk interrupted the call. “Oh my god, Lance! You actually beat the robeast!” He said excitedly. “How did you know how to do that???”

Not really sure how to answer that, he sneakily side-stepped the question. “Where’s Ulaz? Is he alright?”

With some hesitation, Ulaz joined their call. “...I am alright,” he finally said. “It seems that this was your doing, blue paladin. Thank you for saving me.”

“Don’t give him too much praise. Or it’s gonna go to his head,” Keith joked.

Ulaz hesitated again. “...I wish I could stay here and answer all of your questions. Unfortunately, Zarkon now knows our location, so it’s best if we split ways for now. I hope to see all of you again very soon.”

With that, he disappeared into the cosmos, just as quickly as he had reappeared. 

“We should all get back to the ship and make our own escape,” Shiro agreed.

─ ⊹ ⊱ ☆ ⊰ ⊹ ─

Lance was now relaxing with Hunk and Pidge in the dining area, eating weird space goo. Eating, talking, and even joking with the two of them, something he hadn’t done with either of them in a long time. 

“I mean, we just formed a giant laser like it was nothing, then BOOM , it was completely gone! How does that even work???” Hunk was regaling Pidge and Coran of Lance’s exploits, as if neither of them were there.

“Lance, you’re being strangely humble about this,” Pidge pointed out. “You have Hunk doing all the bragging for you.”

Lance was a little quieter than usual, but still, he had no idea how to process any of this. He went back in time by ten whole years and in a short amount of time, formed Voltron and even saved the life of someone who had previously died . How was he supposed to react to any of that?

The doors slid open and Shiro, Keith, and Allura walked in. “Hey guys! I thought we could maybe have a celebratory dinner together!” Shiro said, taking the spot next to Lance.

Everyone was talking, eating, and having a good time. Shiro turned to him. “Hey, Lance, you have no idea how thankful I am for what you did today,” he said in a private, hushed tone. 

He tried to act natural. “Oh, you know, I just did what anyone else would do,” he answered smoothly. “But of course, I don’t mind the constant praise.”

“How did you know to combine the bayards?”

The question caught him off guard. “Oh, uh, it sorta just came to me, I guess. I mean, uh, it just felt right in the moment. Yeah”

Shiro didn’t answer him right away, but instead stared at him. It was only for a few seconds, but to Lance it felt much longer. It was as if he was assessing him. “Hm, alright, Lance,” he said casually, before going back to eating. 

Hm, that was a little strange. Lance thought to himself, but all of the sudden, the table erupted into laughter, and he turned to see the commotion. 

The others were all laughing at some joke Hunk had made, but he wasn’t focused on that, he was focused on who was laughing at the joke, Allura. She was more beautiful than he remembered. Every single white curl placed perfectly into a bun. 

He could stare at her forever if he wanted to. But he felt so anxious, he couldn’t bear the thought of losing her for a second time. 

A new thought popped into his head. ...What if I could change Allura's future, just like Ulaz?

Just like that, Lance's eyes widened, and he felt a fire light inside of him, unlike anything else he had ever felt before. He now had a new goal.

No matter what, I am going to stop Allura from sacrificing herself.

Chapter Text

In between missions, Lance had started working on a plan that would save both him and Allura. In his room, sitting on his bed, he began to recount various events he remembered from the past ten years. Some of the most important he had remembered included but were not limited to: Zarkon initially piloting the black lion, Keith becoming a Blade of Mamora member, Shiro getting replaced by a clone, Lotor keeping a secret colony of Alteans,  Honerva trying to destroy all realities, and Allura sacrificing herself. 

They were a problem however, how would he keep track for all of these events?

Aha! Lance has an idea. What if he had some sort of clue board? He smiled deviously to himself while he thought about how he could use it. He could note all of the most important memories and figure out a way to prevent certain events from happening. However he would need some materials for his little project, specifically a cork board, sticky notes, some string, pins, and pens. And he knew just the place to go to get them. 

The mall. If he remembered everything correctly, that trip was coming up soon. They went to the Olkari planet and were able to free them from Zarkon easily. Over the past few days, they had been figuring out how Zarkon had been tracking them. With some strong persuasion from Shiro, he had managed to convince Keith and Allura that they were being tracked through the black lion. This made things much easier when evacuating the Taujeer. That meant that now, they all got to go on their little trip to the mall. 

Lance casually slid out of his room to go meet up with the others in the control room. There, Shiro was further driving the point that they were being tracked through the black lion, and they were all discussing how to stop this predicament. Lance strutted up right next to Keith and put his hands in his pockets. Soon, the topic of scaltrite came up, and Coran suggested going to the Unulu “trading outpost”.

“We need to get in, find the scaltrite lenses, and just get out,” Coran stated.

“Oh man, the mall! It’s about time we go shopping,” Lance said, stretching his arms, ready to go.

“This is not a mall,” Coran said, glaring at him. “It’s a trading outpost.”

─ ⊹ ⊱ ☆ ⊰ ⊹ ─

Lance, Keith, Hunk, Pidge, and Coran got to the outpost in no time. The place itself was much bigger than Lance remembered, filled to the brim with colorful shops selling all sorts of knick knacks that were used for who-knows-what. Of course, by the time they got there, they had all changed into their space pirate getups, standing at the entrance. Hunk lifted up his mask to look around. “Wow, this really is a mall.”

Lance simply had no time to waste. He had to find his items. The only issue was that he didn’t know where to start. He began to walk briskly along the second floor, where the entrance was. He came upon a collection of small, alien boutiques, adorned with shiny dresses and jewelry. Surely, one of these places must have string.

He walked into the biggest dress shop he saw. This one had a purple window, displaying dresses with galaxy patterns. An old Unulu lady was working at a small counter in the front of the shop. Inside and to the left, they had a wide variety of dresses hung up on racks. To the right, there were shelves full of textiles that had almost every pattern imaginable, and of course, spools of thread. He slowly picked up a red one.

“Excuse me miss, how much for some string?” He tried his best to be as polite as possible.

“Not for sale,” She said, rather bluntly.

Not for sale? Huh??? Lance was a little puzzled.

“Maybe I could trade something to you, in exchange for it?”

“Not. For. Sale.” She said again.

How rude. Lance thought to himself before looking down at the thread. Hmm…? What if… I stole it?

The thought was crazy to him. He had never really stolen anything before, at least something that was someone else’s. But did he really have a choice? He needed it, especially if it meant keeping Allura alive in the long run.

He noticed the lady wasn’t looking, and as sneakily as he could, slid it into his pocket. The lady still wasn’t looking, and he slipped out of the store. “Thank you, miss, have a nice day!”

He quickly walked, almost ran away from the store. Somehow that had worked flawlessly for him, and that was one item for his clueboard down. He only needed like, four more items.

Suddenly, he saw Keith, he looked like he was at some sort of knife shop. He saw him discussing something with the Unulu working there.

“I just had a question,” Keith said, pulling a knife out of his pocket, placing it on the counter.

Wait a minute. Lance recognized that blade. Could it be… Keith’s Marmora blade???

Lance didn’t realize that Keith brought the blade to the mall. Is that why security was called on us? I’m gonna have to buy us some time.

Lance walked to the counter and put his arm around Keith, placing his hand on the knife, to keep the Unulu from stealing it. “There you are! We’ve been looking everywhere for you! Let’s go!”

“Wha- Lance?” Before Keith had the chance to say anything, he yanked him and the knife away from the booth, before the shopkeeper had any time to process what was going on. “We gotta go, have a nice day!!!”

He tried to walk with Keith around his arm as nonchalantly as possible, at least until they couldn’t be seen by the clerk. Lance let out a small sigh of relief, before feeling a painful jab to his side. Keith managed to push himself away, looking visibly pissed.

“Lance! Why did you butt in like that??? I was trying to ask a question!” Lance could feel the anger in Keith’s voice.

He simply crossed his arm and raised an eyebrow at him. “Why did you bring a knife to the mall ?” he questioned. “Are you trying to get us all in trouble?”

“What? You think I’m gonna rob someone with it?”

“Maybe? I don’t know.”

He narrowed his eyes at him. “You’ve been acting strange for the past few days. What’s that about?”

Lance had been more reserved during the last few missions. Mostly because he had been taking everything in. Lance decided to act the only way he knew how. “Nuh uh. You’re acting strange.”

Keith just glared at him. “Give me back my knife,” he demanded before snatching it away from Lance.

“Seriously though, don’t wave that thing around. It’s gonna draw attention to us.” Lance said. “Anyway I have a few items to get, so I best be on my way.”

“What do you mean? We’re only supposed to get scaltrite?”

“Well, yeah, but I wanna pick up a few other things.”

“Like what?”

“Oh, you know, important things.”

Lance began to walk around, and Keith followed. It wasn’t too long before they happened upon the Earth shop, and Lance saw something that made him stop in his tracks. 

Kaltenecker! He completely forgot that this was where he got her from. He still had her, even after all these years, likely because she made him feel nostalgic. He needed that cow back. 

Lance and Keith casually walked into the store, and shortly after, Lance found even more items he was looking for.  The cork board, sticky notes, and pins. Perfect! Now I just need to figure out a way to buy this…

Pidge suddenly walked up to both of them. “Guys- c’mon, we have to be back in half an hour- WOAH WAIT IS THAT,” Pidge started. “IS THAT ROBOT KILL PHANTASM 1???”

Lance had a new idea. He vividly remembered hunting for gak in the nearby fountain. The only problem was it was to buy Pidge’s game. He needed to think of something in order to divert her attention from that game. 

“Are you sure you want that game…?” Lance asked. 

“I need this game.”

Lance hesitated. “You could just… pirate it?”

Pidge looked at him in shock. “Lance! Are you crazy! Why would I do that???”

“Well, they only make it available on that one console, and they haven’t made any of them in like ten years! And incredibly expensive to own. It’s virtually inaccessible, making piracy the best option. And besides, all the stuff I want is only 500 gak.”

“I mean, when you put it like that- wait what are you getting?”

“I’m glad you asked. I’m making a clue board.”

She had an exasperated look on her face. “Lance, really, a clue board?”

“Hey! It’s gonna be really important, it’ll help us keep our mission on track,” he retorted. “Anyway, who wants to help me fish money out of a fountain?”

Keith and Pidge now shared the same exasperation. “Seriously?” Keith asked. 

“Yeah, people throw money in there, c’mon!”

Much to his surprise, Keith and Pidge actually trudged into the pool with him. It wasn’t particularly hard to get, probably because it was cheaper. They bought all the items, which of course, came with a free Kaltenecker. 

“Awesome! Let’s find Hunk and Coran and get out of her-“

“HALT! Space pirates!”

Much to their dismay, they all turned around to face a middle-aged Galran on a scooter. 

“I have footage of you stealing and disturbing the peace,” he said, playing a small hologram video of Lance stealing the spool of thread. “You are all under arrest!”

Lance looks at them sheepishly, to which both Keith and Pidge glare at him. “Sorry! I had to have it,” he answered. “Don’t worry I know how to get us out of here. Hop on the cow.”

Before the Galran had any time to grab them, they all got on the cow and zoomed away. They jumped off the balcony and into the food court, where Hunk was cooking up some strange cuisine. He then noticed the guy next to him, he looked like another Galran, but a chef, and he was writing on something, likely some sort of food order. Lance needed to get that writing utensil, and he had a plan. 

The cow was hurtling straight to Vrepit Sal’s, but in the nick of time, Lance stopped it, just inches away from the food stand, causing Sal to drop it out of shock. This allowed him to grab it and for Hunk to hop on Kalteneker. They sped through the ground floor, pushing everything out of the way. They all saw Coran exit the pirate’s shop, and he latched on to the cow. They all exited through the main gate where the Galran could no longer follow them, and made it back to the Castle of Lions safely. 

─ ⊹ ⊱ ☆ ⊰ ⊹ ─

In the main control room, Lance, Hunk, Pidge, and even Allura, all sat down to work on the clueboard, with Keith and Shiro watching them from a distance. Together, they started writing down small, mostly basic things, such as gaining new allies, defeating Zarkon, and returning to Earth. Soon enough, Lance remembered, they would have a much more developed plan.

When he thought no one was looking, Lance took some of the sticky notes and pen to his room, with the hopes of writing down some of his memories. Unfortunately, Lance couldn’t really use the clueboard for its intended purpose anymore, now that everyone knew about it, but it could potentially be used to keep them on track for whatever problem was hurled their way. He was furiously scribbling away when he heard a knock at the door. “Lance, can I come in?”

Keith? As fast as he could, Lance shoved everything under his bed. “Yeah, sure! Come on in!”

He walked in, and leaned on the wall right next to his door, watching him. For a few long seconds, he didn’t say anything. For a brief moment, he looked as if he were going to ask something important, but brushed the thought away. “So, why’d you steal some of the sticky notes? And the pen? What are you doing?”

“Uh, it’s personal! None of your business!”

Keith just stared at him in response. “Lance… seriously, is something going on?”

He thought for a brief second, and side-eyed Keith. “Would you believe me if I was a time traveler?”

“Be serious about this!”

So much for trying to tell the truth. “Alright look, I’m just… writing some extra plans down that I’ll post on the board later. There’s no need to interrogate me like this.”

Keith furrowed his brow at him, as if he knew he was lying. He just sighed at him. “Alright, I’ll leave you to it,” he said, leaving his room.

Finally, Lance was alone. He slowly pulled everything back out from under his bed, and began writing. He knew there were several important events coming up. Very soon, Keith and Shiro are gonna go off to the Marmora headquarters, and figure out that Keith is part Galran. Then in their battle with Zarkon, Shiro’s going to be “absorbed” by the black lion. Thankfully, once Keith and Shiro leave, he’ll have some more time to think about what his next move should be, and his ultimate goal of saving Allura. He slowly drifted off into sleep, thinking about thinking about the future and what’s to come.

Chapter Text

Today was the day that Lance knew that Keith and Shiro would be flying into the Marmora base, and of course, the perfect time for him to strategize. As once they get the Blade of Marmora on their side, they’ll be on the constant move for more allies, and preparing to fight Zarkon. Lance got out of bed to check on his sticky notes. Nice! They’re still here!

He had walked out into the control room to join the others. Coran and Shiro had located their base, which was between two black holes and inside a blue star, and were now trying to connect with the Blade of Marmora. Pidge and Hunk were talking about food or something, Lance didn’t really care, and Keith was just brooding, sitting in a chair. Allura was in the center, very hesitant to enter the headquarters. Oh Allura, you’re as apprehensive as you are beautiful.

Oh man, I’m gonna have all this free time, where should I start? I should probably plan a way to prevent Shiro’s conscience from going into his lion. Having Shiro present for future fights will likely help us out for the long term. Clone Shiro causes a bunch of unnecessary problems, so it’d be best to avoid him if at all possible. But then, how would I even prevent that? Surely, there must be some sort of battle tactic that-

There was a disconnected voice from the screen. “The blue paladin and one other may enter. Come unarmed.”

Lance froze in place, his eyes bulging out of his head, mouth agape. The room went dead silent, all eyes on him. Pidge said what they were all thinking. “They wanna see Lance ?!”

“Yeah, they wanna see me ?!”

“Well, uh, maybe it’s because you saved that one guy?” Hunk guessed.

“Why would they only want to see two of us?!” Allura questioned.

“ Enough ,” Shiro spoke up. “This is a very… unexpected development. Nevertheless, we should agree to their demands.”

Shrio walked over to Lance, staring intensely, making him sweat. “Lance, you will take Keith with you. His lion is the only one that can withstand the heat,” he said bluntly.

Lance looked away, unable to meet his gaze. “Are we sure this is a good idea?”

“I’m not happy about this either, but we need to do what we must.”

With that, Keith and Lance were off to the Blade of Marmora headquarters. The trek was long, quiet, and awkward, as Keith was mainly focusing on getting them in safely. Lance tried to think of something to say, but the air around them felt so tense, you could cut it with a knife, so he said nothing.

Eventually, they landed on the comet-like base and exited the red lion. They waited for a brief minute, and two rocky doors slid out from the floor, and two blades slowly rose through the doors on a platform. There was no greeting, and they were simply beckoned to the platform, where they went down an elevator to the main hall.

Lance didn’t want to say it but, their headquarters was surprisingly beautiful. The walls were lined with grey and black metallic paneling, creating intricate, geometric patterns. In between the panels were purple lights, giving everything a violet glow. On both sides of the hall, Blade members were lined up. At the end of the hall, there was a small set of stairs, where three more members stood. One on the left, one on the right, and one in the middle, who stood at the top. He had a choker around his neck. 

Now that Lance thought about it, he didn’t think he’d ever been in here. This was his first time, and that made him even more nervous. 

They walked up, and the man introduced himself. “I am Kolivan, leader of the Marmora.”

Lance figured it would be best if he introduced them. “I’m Lance, and this is Keith. We’re the blue and red paladins.”

He eyed the two of them. “We’d like to thank you for returning one of our members. He can be very reckless and follow his impulses.”

Lance had to choose his next words carefully. Despite the situation being uneasy, he felt he had a bit of wiggle room to negotiate. He looked at Keith for some sort of approval, and then looked back at Kolivan. He took a deep breath. “We were looking for assistance in our fight against Zarkon’s empire.”

“... You were told to come unarmed.”

This caught him off guard. “W-what? We did come unarmed. What are you talking about?”

Suddenly, a member stepped out of line and grabbed Keith, knocking him to the ground. Lance rushed to help, but was blocked by another member. They pulled a knife out from Keith’s boot. It was obviously Keith’s Blade of Marmora knife. 

“Not only did you lie to us, you also stole one of our blades.”

“The blade is mine! I’ve had it all my life.”

Kolivan looked at Lance. “Can you corroborate your friend’s story?”

“Yes, I can,” Lance said without hesitation. “He’s had it before any of us even knew the Blade of Marmora existed.”

Kolivan looked as if he didn’t really believe him. “And how long ago was that?”

“Uh, well, I did see him with it before we met Ulaz…”

“How do you know he didn’t acquire it in a different way?”

“Because me and Keith went to school together on earth. And neither of us had ever met someone that wasn’t human until we encountered the blue lion.”

“So he was with you? All the time? Everyday? You two never left this school at any point?”

Lance paused. “Uh, n-no… Keith uh, kinda dropped out…”

“Lance-“ Keith’s pleading was muffled. 

“So you two actually weren’t together all the time. Do you know where he went after he dropped out?”

He felt defeated. “N-no…”

“So you actually can’t corroborate anything. We initially brought you here to discuss the possibility of working with Voltron, but that likely won’t happen anymore.”

Lance didn’t know what to say, he just stared at the ground. Dammit, it should’ve been Shiro here, not me.

“Kolivan, that’s enough.” One of the members stepped out of line. “You know we need to work with Voltron. They’re our only possible hope of beating Zarkon.”

“This is not your place to speak, Ulaz,” Kolivan said. 

“I am not sure how he acquired a blade, but we have no evidence he’s lying,” he continued. “And that’s no reason to pass up working with a powerful ally.”

Despite wearing a mask, Lance could feel him glaring at Ulaz. However, he did call off the other members, allowing for Keith to finally stand. Kolivan then spoke directly to Keith. “Hmm, This is quite a predicament,” he said. “A human, with a Galran blade.”

Finally, it was Keith’s turn to speak up. “I don’t know how I got this blade, but I want to,” he said. “I need to know how this blade got on Earth.”

“There’s only one way for someone to attain knowledge here,” he stated. “And that’s through the trials of Marmora. If you wish to keep the blade, you will complete them”

“Kolivan, that’s way too much-”

“I’ll do it.”

This surprised everyone, including Lance. Lance put his hand on his shoulder. “K-keith, are you sure about this-” 

“I have to do this, I need answers,” he said, swatting Lance’s hand away.

In a short amount of time, Keith managed to change into the Blade of Marmora uniform to prepare for the trials. As he was walking to the testing room, Lance managed to catch up with him. “Keith, wait,” he said.

“What is it now?” he snapped, staring at him, annoyed.

“I just- I wanted you to know that I’m here for you,” he says. “But please be careful, we need you.”

Keith’s gaze softened. “I know,” he said. “Thanks, Lance. I’m actually a little surprised you said that.”

Keith looked to the metal testing room, and then back at him. “I have to go.”

Lance didn’t really think about it, but Keith had been awfully quiet up until now. Probably wracked with anxiety about his knife and has so many questions about his past he wouldn’t even know where to start. Frustrated, because for the longest time, he had now way of answering any of them. It was a far cry from the kind of person Keith becomes in the future.

He watched Keith go off into the testing room. He knew Keith had done this before, but he couldn’t help but feel worried for his friend. He tried to convince himself that nothing would go wrong. Then again, Keith had Shiro before.

He met Kolivan and Ulaz in the control room, where they would all watch Keith fight countless blades. He stood there, fidgeting, hoping Keith would be fine. The other two stood in silence. 

Lance watched in anticipation as Keith took on one soldier, then another, and then another. Despite getting punched, kicked, and scratched, he held his ground. But just watching him made Lance uneasy, worrying if he would last.

“I was wondering, Lance, do you know how Keith acquired his blade?”

Ulaz was speaking to him. He looked down to avoid his gaze. “Honestly, I’m not sure, but I know he’s had it for a while,” he answered.

He didn’t really wanna tell him that he got it from his mom, Krolia, as that would require a bunch of explaining. “And how close are you two?”

“Me and Keith? He’s kinda my rival,” Lance thought it was okay to stretch the truth a little. “We were always neck and neck in school. But I think we’ve laxed on our rivalry a bit since we’ve started our mission.”

“How are the others? How’s Shiro?”

“About as good as you can be when fighting a war,” he said. “But Shiro seemed a little disappointed he couldn’t come here with Keith.”

“Oh? And why’s that?”

“Well, Shiro and Keith are kinda like brothers,” Lance explained. “And he’s our leader. These trials probably would’ve been easier for Keith if he had been here…”

Ulaz didn’t say anything after that, he simply looked at the screen. They continued to watch Keith fight for his life. After a while, however, after dodging a swarm of blades, he jumped down through a hole in the floor, and found himself in a new room. He looked exhausted, weary, and after taking a few steps, he collapsed, passing out, causing Lance to gasp in shock.

Suddenly, the room around them started shaking violently, knocking Lance to the ground. A blade rushed in. “The red lion is attacking!”

More members rushed in, grabbing Lance. “Call off your beast!” Kolivan demanded.

“I can’t! It knows Keith’s in danger.”

In an instant, their grip on him loosened. He turned around and saw that Ulaz had knocked both of them out, allowing him to slip free. Before he could say anything, he grabbed his arm. “We need to go get Keith,” he said, running out of the room.

Because of Ulaz, they were able to find him easily, still collapsed on the floor. He slowly awoke when the two of them rushed over to him. “Lance? Ulaz…?” he was still dazed.

“Don’t talk, we’re gonna get you out of here,” Lance said.

They were both able to carry Keith, with each of his arms wrapped around their shoulders. The other blades had followed them into the room. “Ulaz, this is mutiny,” Kolivan said.

“I’m sorry Kolivan, but we need Voltron.”

“Out of the way!” Lance interjected. “We’re heading back to the castle of lions!”

“Not with that blade you're not.”

Oh no. Lance thought. Are we going to have to fight our way out of here? Can we even take them in this state?

Ulaz pulled out his own blade, clearly ready for fight, and Lance was mentally preparing himself to pull out his bayard. Keith was mumbling something, but Lance couldn’t make it out. Ulaz lunged at the other members, but all of the sudden, there was a shout.

“Wait! Just take the knife.”

There was a pause. No one was expecting that, not even Lance. “Keith, are you sure-”

To his surprise, the blade transformed, with a purple glow emitting from it. The blade became larger, darker. The Blade of Marmora members were in awe.

“The only way this could happen is if there’s Galra blood running through your veins,” Kolivan said.

Ah, so this is how Keith finds out he’s half Galran.

─ ⊹ ⊱ ☆ ⊰ ⊹ ─

With the Blade of Marmora now on their side, they all went back to the Castle of Lions and explained the situation to everyone else. Now comes the next part, their plan to defeat Zarkon.

They all met up in the main control room, where Shiro, Kolivan, and Ulaz set up a small hologram of Zarkon’s spaceship. The plan was simple, using someone on the inside, they’d infect the ship’s technology with a virus, push the ship through a wormhole to somewhere alone, and then destroy it using Voltron. The plan was pretty similar to the last one, at least that’s what Lance remembered. Hunk and Keith would go look for scaltrite to help execute this plan, and then Shiro, Pidge and himself would go look for Slav.

Kolivan, Shiro and Ulaz were in the middle of forming said plan, and Hunk was taking a nap. Lance thought that now would be a good time to sneak off back to his room. He looked around and quietly turned to the door to make a swift exit.

He quickly walked back to his room feeling a bit tense and nervous. He didn’t have much time left, but maybe if he looked through his notes again, he could think of something. He rushed into his room and looked under his bed, and…

His sticky notes were gone. 

He stared at the floor, absolutely dumbfounded. …What?

Sure he must have just misplaced them. He looked deeper under his bed, and still, they weren’t there. He looked all around his room, through his drawers, shelves, anywhere he could think of. They just weren’t there. He ran his fingers through his hair, trying to figure where he could have placed them.

Did… did someone steal them? No, that’s just not possible. Yet it was the only explanation he could come up with. Someone must have came in and snatched them while I was away with Keith. Does this mean that everyone knows…?

He gulped. This meant he’d now have to tell the truth. He didn’t want to go back out and face them all. What if they think he’s lying, or crazy? Reluctantly, he decided to head back to the main control room, and tell everyone everything.

The walk there felt long and painful. No, this is a good thing, he thought. He wouldn’t have to keep any more secrets from them, and could even use his knowledge to help everyone. He took a deep breath before re-entering the control room.

He thought everyone was going to be staring at him, asking him questions, but when he went inside they were all just… acting completely normal. Hunk was still asleep in his chair, and the rest were still discussing plans. This certainly wasn’t the scene Lance was expecting.

“The savagery that’s poisoned our universe can finally be cleansed. You’ve done it, Shiro,” Ulaz said.

“No, we’ve done it together, thanks to you,” he responded, reaching out to shake his hand.

“As long as everything goes according to plan, everything should work,” Allura said, glaring at Keith.

“So, what is the plan?” Hunk got up from his chair.

There was a small pause, yet to Lance it felt like forever. Suddenly, Shiro turned to him. “Lance, aren’t you gonna explain the plan?”

“Oh? Sure, I can do that,” he said, as casually as he could.

He explained all details as in depth as he could remember, all with a similar excitement he had before. It was a little hard, as he was trying his best not to freak out, but he thought he did a good job overall.

Now came the tougher parts, actually executing said plan. Shiro, Pidge, and himself all flew to Beta Traz in his lion, and were able to break in pretty easily, as they had before. However, this time it was much less stressful, as he knew where Slav actually was, and didn’t get some yupper. They had some minor trouble with the prison’s warden, but it wasn't anything they couldn’t handle. Slav, as he remembered, was incredibly annoying, talking about realities and statistics and what not, which drove Shiro up a wall. However, they all made it out in one piece. When they got back to the Castle of Lions, Keith and Hunk were already there, scaltrite in hand. Allura was waiting for them in the control room. Keith was the first to speak up. “Allura, have you heard from Coran?”

“No, not yet,” she said coldly. 

There was a long pause in the room. “We got the scaltrite,” Hunk said. 

“Ah, thank you, Hunk!”

“No problem… you know, Keith was there too.”

She glared directly at Keith, refusing any sort of acknowledgment, which really surprised Lance. Huh, I certainly don’t remember this. 

─ ⊹ ⊱ ☆ ⊰ ⊹ ─

In a short amount of time, they landed on Olkari, where they met up with Coran, who was working in the teleduv. However, Lance couldn’t shake that earlier interaction away. He never remembered Keith being treated that way, or maybe he just didn’t want to. The more he thought about it, the more it didn’t sit right with him. The glares, the remarks. He wanted to say something, but how would he even bring it up? And he didn’t want to ruin any chances he had of getting closer to her. 

He found her standing by herself on a balcony in one of the Olkari buildings, looking out at the teleduv. He smoothed his hair back as he prepared himself to talk to her, trying not to sweat. She turned around in surprise, “Ah, Lance, hello! What is it?” She said, curiously.

He found himself choking up trying to think of a response. He didn’t actually think about what to say. “Um… well– you see– the thing is, about Keith…”

Her ears drooped down in annoyance. “Oh? And what about him?”

“Uhh-”

He felt a hand on his shoulder, causing him to jump. “I think what he means to say is he doesn’t like the way you treat Keith,” he heard Shiro’s voice behind him.

Allura crossed her arms, backing away from both of them, shooting them a nasty look. “What’s that supposed to mean exactly?”

“Well, it isn’t a secret that you haven’t been very nice to him,” Shiro sighed. “Allura, becoming distant towards Keith over something he can’t control is only going to keep us from being a team. And we need to be a team if we’re going to defeat Zarkon.”

“So, you’re saying I should just suddenly trust him? After everything?”

“Allura, he hasn’t even done anything that would make you lose your trust in the first place. Look, we know that you’re sensitive because of what the Galra did to your people, but please, be sensible about this.”

She stared daggers at the both of them. “And both of you feel this way?”

Lance looked away from her. “Well, yeah…” Lance finally said.

Allura looked like she wanted to say something, but instead took a deep breath and sighed exasperatedly. She walked off, very irritated, clearly not wanting to talk to either of them for any longer. Lance finally looked at Shiro. “Don’t worry, she’ll get over this eventually.”

“Oh… Thanks, Shiro.”

“No problem, do you wanna go find the others?”

“Yeah,” Lance liked the sound of that.

Now the only thing they all had to do is actually fight Zarkon, and hopefully it’ll go better than the last time.

Chapter Text

In a short time, they all took off in the Castle of Lions from Olkarri, and began to set their plan into action. They all stood in the control room, where Shiro went over their plan one last time. “Listen up everyone, I’m going to lure Zarkon’s fleet using the black lion to the teleduv. Slav, can you handle that?”

“Oh, of course!”

Lance was scanning the room. He still didn’t know who took his notes, or why. Mentally, he started making a list of the others, and their possibility of them being the culprit. 

Well, there’s Keith, but he was with me when they were stolen, so it couldn’t have been him. It also can’t be the Blade of Marmora, as they weren’t here. I don’t think it would be Hunk, because if he knew, there was no way he’d be able to keep a straight face for this long. It can’t be Pidge, she’s not the type to keep her mouth shut about things like this. It obviously can’t be Allura, she would be acting differently if she saw them. It could be Coran, he can be a little eccentric, but surely he would’ve said something about it by now. 

As Lance was trying to analyze everyone, he found himself looking at Shiro. 

Could it be Shiro? No, there’s no way he’d do something like that. 

While they were discussing, Lance thought it would be a good time to slink back to his room. He tiptoed away from the scene and back to his room. He had to check if they were still gone. 

He slid into his room and peeked under his bed. To his surprise, the notes were actually there, right where he initially left them, in a spot he had to have checked at least ten times. He picked them up, hands shaking in absolute disbelief. No way… 

How did these even get back here??? Lance could feel beads of sweat form on his forehead, as the idea made him feel very uneasy. Someone must have put them back, these definitely weren’t here a few days ago. But why would they do that? 

Lance tried to go through several possibilities in his head, but couldn’t think of why someone would do this. Maybe they want me to think they never saw them? But that doesn’t really answer much. Could there be Galra spies on the ship? But that’s unlikely. Could it have been someone on the ship, like I originally thought…? But, who would want to go into my room without telling me? And then go through the trouble of putting my notes back? Does this mean that… I’m not the only person who remembers the future?

Lance smacked his head multiple times, trying to think of some sort of answer. His head was spinning, and he tried his best to collect himself. I wish I had more time to figure it out, but I need to get back to the others before they realize I’ve been gone for too long.  

He sneaked back to the main control room, where they encountered a new problem. They had lost contact with Thyace, their spy in Zarkon’s base, and were no longer able to hack the ship. They were arguing about what should be done, if they should wait, or continue with the plan. Just as Lance remembered, Keith volunteered himself. 

This greatly shocked everyone, except for Lance, who was still stuck on his notes. Even though there was some back and forth, he still went to the Galra headquarters out of his own volition. This left the rest of the paladins to pilot their lions and attack the fleet surrounding the Galra headquarters. They had managed to get rid of a good chunk of the ships, allowing an opening for Keith to sneak in. Once this was complete, Slav cloaked the gravity generator. The paladins tried to buy Keith some time by destroying the rest of the fleet and lure Zarkon’s ship to the teleduv.

This part was much longer than Lance remembered. He was worried about Keith, even though he remembered that he’d be fine, there was a possibility that he may mess up that lingered in Lance’s mind. There was an ill feeling in the pit of his stomach, one that he just couldn’t shake away. The gravity generator lost power, and Allura had to divert some of the castle’s own power to keep it on. Thankfully however, everything went according to plan. They managed to upload the virus and shut down the ship’s power, allowing Keith to escape safely. Zarkon’s ship was successfully lured into the teleduv, along with everyone else following suit. Now comes the next phase of their plan.

Once through, they successfully managed to form Voltron. While everyone else was relieved, Lance was worried. He knew what was going to happen next, that they would lose Shiro soon. He was scared that it may be too late to save him. “Alright everyone, there are four targets we need to hit, and the power’s only out for twenty minutes,” Shiro said. “We need to act fast. Form sword.”

They withdrew the Blazing Sword, and made several gashes on the ship, trying to destroy all the necessary spots. “Everyone, still be on your guard, we don’t know what they may hit us with.”

Just as Shiro said that, a black portal opened up beneath them, right under Zarkon’s ship. Oh no , Lance remembered what this was.

He didn’t know how, but he remembered that this was one of Haggar’s spells, used to stun them for a long period of time, and incredibly dangerous. Lance braced for impact, terrified of being hit. 

But something else happened, different from what Lance expected. They never got hit, and instead, detransformed and split in all different directions. Lance and the blue lion were flung at turbo speed, his lion doing barrel rolls in the process. Once that finally stopped, Lance looked out his window, and saw that Haggar had just finished the blast. They had all narrowly escaped.

There was a voice on the intercom. “Is everyone ok?!” It was Shiro.

“What was that???” Hunk asked.

“We were going to be hit, so thought the best way to avoid it was to detransform,” Shiro said, a little guilty. 

Pidge and Keith also said they were fine. Lance lied and said he was ok when in actuality he felt like puking. Despite that, dodging Haggar’s attack seemed easier than what he remembered. Not to mention, he had no idea how Shiro even managed to separate Voltron, but now wasn't the time to ask questions.

Lance’s odd relief was interrupted when Zarkon exited the ship, in his mech suit clad with steel wings and a retractable sword. There was no time to reform back into Voltron with him speeding towards them. 

They tried to keep their distance from him, but he was a lot faster than Lance remembered. He was trying to get to the black lion, with the others trying to keep him away. However, they were all getting hit by Zarkon’s sword, which electrocuted and stunned them for several seconds, leaving them wide open for an attack. Suddenly, Shiro started speeding towards Zarkon, heading directly for the center of his mech. The black lion’s wings transformed into something bigger, more intricately detailed, as he collided with Zarkon. There was a bright, blue light that emitted from the attack. 

“Shiro are you alright?!” Keith’s voice could be heard on the intercom.

“I… have Zarkon’s bayard.”

“ Your bayard now.”

“That’s true,” Lance heard Shiro laugh on the intercom.

With that attack, Zarkon was left stunned for a moment, allowing them to reform Voltron. “Hunk, Lance, form the cannon,” Shiro commanded, causing Lance and Hunk to jam their bayards into their control panels.

“Everyone, aim for the right arm. We need to stop him from using his weapon.”

Slowly but surely, Lance and Hunk’s ice cannon got pointed at Zarkon, and they pulled the trigger. A giant beam of ice shot out, hitting the shoulder. Once the blast was done, the mech’s arm had been chopped clean off, rendering it utterly useless.

This infuriated Zarkon, who’s attacks become faster, but with only one arm, did much less damage than before. This gave them a small frame of time to devise a plan to detach his other arm. “We need to figure out how we’re going to detach the other arm,” Shiro said. “Maybe we need new bayards.”

From this, Keith and Shiro input their own bayards into their lions, forming blazing sword. They lunged towards Zarkon’s mech, and chopped through his shield, slicing his other mech arm off, and launching them several hundred feet in the process.

“Alright, time to go in for the kill, Zarkon is completely defenseless,” Shiro said. “Is everyone ready?”

They all affirmed, including Lance. He still felt slightly troubled, as he remembered this fight being much worse.

They bolted towards the broken mech suit, hurling at speeds Lance didn’t think was possible, gearing to stab Zarkon. He was still trying to fight, but it was more like flailing around at this point. They stabbed the soft belly of his mech suit, driving it up towards his chest, all of them screaming in the process. A vibrant pink light started glowing from inside the suit, before a massive explosion knocked them all back, turning Voltron back into its five original lions.

Once the commotion finally settled, a new worry popped into Lance’s mind, Shiro. He hurriedly went to his intercom. “Is everyone alright?”

One by one, they all started talking, Hunk, Keith, Pidge, and…

“Ugh, I’m fine, how about you, Lance?” It was Shiro.

Oh my god, he’s alive!

─ ⊹ ⊱ ☆ ⊰ ⊹ ─

There was all out celebration at the castle, so much joy compared to the gloom that plagued them after their initial fight. There was partying, dancing, food, and even Shiro! Lance still couldn’t believe it. 

They were all sitting in the common room, talking about their goals for the future. Pidge wanted to find her family, Keith wanted to know more about the Marmora, and Hunk was excited to go home. Of course, Lance knew it would take a little longer to go back to earth, but he didn’t want to ruin the moment. He was curious about something though. “Hey Shiro, what kind of weapon does your bayard make?”

Shiro turned to him with a contagious smile. “Hm, I don’t know. Do you guys wanna find out?”

He grabbed his bayard, and it transformed into something huge. A war hammer, with a black grip and white handle. The head had a black center that was outlined with white, and the “v” engraved on the sides.

They all jumped back in surprise at the size of it. The hammer was huge, almost the size of Shiro himself. None of them had ever seen a weapon quite like it. Pidge grabbed the handle and tried to raise it, but was left squirming as it was way too heavy for her to hold.

However it was no problem for Shiro, he picked it up and turned it around to get a better look at the sides. “Huh, I didn't really expect something like this, but it’ll do.”

Despite the party atmosphere, Lance couldn’t help but feel something was… off. The fight earlier almost felt too easy , something he wasn’t anticipating at all. Maybe it's because he knows what could’ve been, or that his notes mysteriously reappeared, he honestly wasn’t sure. Now that Shiro’s here, surely we’ll have an easier time fighting Lotor and getting back to Earth , Lance could only hope.

Chapter Text

Chapter 5- What’s The Deal With Adam?

Ever since their fight with Zarkon, things had been pretty chill. Taking back planets from the empire had been a breeze, now that Shiro was here, they could pretty much form Voltron whenever they wanted, putting the locals mind at ease. It was a big help now that they were trying to form the Voltron coalition, and could finally get other planets on their side.  

After defeating every last Galran soldier on planet Puig, they showed off Voltron and chatted with the locals. They were incredibly thankful for being freed, Lance decided to take a few selfies with them, just like old times. However, he still had one problem, and that was he still didn’t know who took his notes. 

While he didn’t know who took them for sure, there was one suspect he knew that he could trust, Hunk. He knows that his friend would never lie to him, he couldn’t keep a straight face to save his life.

After what felt like an eternity, he and Hunk were finally alone, in a pit away from everyone else. Lance thought that now would finally be the proper time to do some interrogating.

“Soooo…. Hunk?”

“Yeah, what’s up?”

Lance side eyed him. “Were you guys in the control room the entire time me and Keith were in the Marmora headquarters?”

“What do you mean?” Hunk tilted his head, a little confused.

“Did anyone ever leave the room at any point?”

“Um, I did, to use the bathroom and grab a snack. Why?”

“But what about the others? Did anyone else leave?”

“I mean, you guys were gone for almost two hours. I’m sure the others left to go do similar stuff. What are you getting at with this?”

Lance narrowed his brows, scratching his head trying to figure out what to say. “Well, did you see anyone go towards my room…?”

“No? Why would anyone go in your room?”

“W-well, there’s just a few- things that were moved around…”

Lance stammered a bit as he was trying to come up with a response, causing Hunk to raise an eyebrow at him. He got in closer, his voice got quieter, and he raised his hand towards Lance’s ear. “Things, you say? That’s incredibly vague,” Hunk questioned. “You don’t happen to have any… adult things in your room, do you?”

His face turned crimson red as he violently shoved Hunk away. “ WHAT ?! That is not what I’m talking about!” 

Hunk giggled at his response. “I’m kidding! I’m kidding!”

Lance scoffed. “Look, I just have a small journal,” Lance lied. “And, it just had some personal issues about my family and stuff. When I came back from the Marmora mission with Keith, it was gone. But a few days later, it just appeared in a spot that I checked in at least ten times!”

Hunk scratched his head, pondering what his friend said. “Hmm, sorry, Lance. Wish I could help you, but I never saw anyone go into your room. I’m sure you just misplaced it and forgot.”

“What are you two knuckleheads doing?”

They both jumped. They turned to see that Pidge was standing before them. “We gotta go meet up with the others.”

Hunk put his arm around Lance. “Don’t worry too much about it. I don’t think anyone here would steal your stuff, and especially not tell you.”

This put him slightly at ease. Only slightly.

Night time on the planet rolled around, and they boarded the ship. Before getting some sleep, Pidge and Lance went to the kitchen to watch Hunk do some baking. 

“Man, this is so great! Once we free all these planets from the empire, we’re gonna get to go home!” Hunk reminisced. “I can’t wait to see my mom.”

“I’m definitely not going home immediately,” Pidge said. “I still don’t know where my family is…”

They both looked at Lance. “So, what are you planning on doing once we free everyone?” Hunk asked.

Lance raised his eyebrows, somewhat confused. “Me? I thought it was obvious, I’m going home too.”

Hunk cocked an eyebrow at him, and Pidge just stared at him. “Go home? You? But what about Allura? She’s obviously not going with you,” Pidge said.

That… actually made sense. Lance hadn’t really thought about that. “Well, maybe I’ll go home for a little while. But of course, I’ll come back to Altea to visit, and of course, I’ll work up the courage to ask her out.”

“Hmm, well, you better act fast then,” Pidge chuckled.

“What is that supposed to mean?” he said, annoyed.

She grinned deviously at his question. She glanced at Hunk and then back at him. “You see, I heard some of the locals talking amongst themselves earlier, and they were saying that Allura and Shiro must be a couple,” she elaborated. “You know, him being our leader, and Allura manning the castle. They said they looked pretty cute together.”

This absolutely gobsmacked Lance. “WHAT?! That’s ridiculous! I can’t even believe you would suggest that!” Lance said angrily, but then he remembered. “And besides, Shiro has Adam, why would he be with Allura?”

Both Hunk and Pidge looked at eachother, and then at Lance, tilting their heads. “Uh… who’s Adam?” Hunk asked.

Lance blinked in surprise. “You know… Adam!” he said, trying to make some sort of gesture, but failing.

“No… we don’t know,” Hunk said, clearly still confused.

He was trying to find the right words. “You know, Shiro’s fiance!” When he said that, their jaws smacked the floor.

They stood there for a few seconds in complete silence. “What?!” Hunk finally collected himself “How do you know?”

Lance began to realize that he messed up. “I-I thought everyone knew.”

“Shiro has a fiance, I had no idea” Pidge said. “Uh, don’t tell anyone I said that then.”

Shortly after that conversation, they all went their separate ways to bed. Lance just got out of the bathroom, gingerly walking to his room, when he found Keith leaning outside his door. His brow was furrowed, his arms crossed, and a nasty look on his face. Lance was a little perplexed. “Keith? What’s up?”

He glared at him in response. He walked towards him with a brisk, irritated pace. “Why are you going around telling everyone about Shiro’s personal life?”

Oh crap. He must have heard me earlier. “Look, I’m sorry-” 

“You’re sorry ?!” Keith said, taking a step closer. “Is that seriously all you have to say? God, you are so careless!”

Lance’s mouth went slightly agape with shock. He couldn’t really understand why Keith was this mad, especially this late. “I-I’m not really sure what you want me to say…”

Keith looked as if he was about to yell at him, but thankfully, took a deep breath instead. He let out a sharp exhale. “Whatever,” he snapped, walking past Lance.

Left utterly confused by the interaction, Lance simply looked back to see Keith, walking away. He was left scratching his head. Huh, I wonder what that was about.

 ─ ⊹ ⊱ ☆ ⊰ ⊹ ─

The next few days weren't too much better. Keith seemed to be completely ignoring him. During meetings, downtime, whenever, if Lance said anything, Keith would simply avert his gaze. Things were tense, and Lance couldn’t figure out for the life of him why. 

After a hectic talk with the Puigians and the Blade of Marmora, Lance left feeling burned out. Of course, Keith didn’t talk to him there either. This is getting frustrating, Lance thought to himself. What did I even do to piss him off this much?!

Lance thought a little bit harder. I mean, I guess I did out Shiro to everyone else. That would make most people mad. Hah, I’m such an idiot…

“Lance! Let’s go!”

He turned around to see Pidge walking towards him. “Hm? What’s up?”

“Shiro wants us in the main control room, we gotta go.”

They both went to meet Shiro, where the others were already there, waiting for them. “Alright everyone, good job in there,” he started. “However, I think it’s time we expand. And I have a few ideas. I was thinking we could start reaching out to previous planets to join our coalition. We’d need a buddy system of course”

He walked over to Lance and Hunk. “How about you two go and visit the Mer?” He then looked over to Keith and Pidge. “You guys should pay the Olkarri a visit?”

He finally looked at Coran and Allura, who were waiting in anticipation for their mission. “For now, how about you guys stay on Puig with the Castle of Lions? As for me, I’ll travel to the Taujeer.”

Allura and Coran looked a little annoyed, but they made no complaints. Lance, on the other hand, felt a bit uneasy. From what he remembered, Lotor could strike at any moment, and he was a force to be reckoned with. 

Before he got to say anything however, Keith spoke up. “Shiro, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be alone,” he said. 

“We need to cover as much ground as we can,” he answered. “And I believe this is the best way to go about it.”

“I agree with Keith,” Lance spoke up, despite feeling Keith’s glare. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to separate for now. While Zarkon isn’t a threat for now, it’s possible we run into his generals, so it may not be safe.”

“That may be true, but even so, we need to take advantage of the time we have to gain as many allies as possible.”

That does actually make a lot of sense, Lance thought to himself. I wish I could say something against him, but if I do I might sound crazy. 

He sighed, a little exasperated. “If you think that’s best.”

They all set off into space in their lions. They all started off in the same direction, with Shiro heading to Taujeer first, leaving the rest of them alone. All of the sudden, Hunk stopped in his tracks, causing the others to stop as well. 

“Hunk? What are you doing?” Lance questioned on his intercom. 

“Well…,” Hunk was a little hesitant. “It’s just that, I know you really wanted to visit the Mer, but I was thinking, what if I went to the Balmera instead?”

“Hunk, you heard what Shiro said, we need to stick together.”

“But he also said that we should gain as many allies as possible, and besides,” he said sheepishly. “I would like to see Shay again. It’s been a while.”

“Lance, if you’re afraid of being alone, why don’t you take Keith?” Pidge chimed in.

“What?!” Both he and Keith said simultaneously. 

“Well, I’m just meeting up with the Olkarri. They’re pretty much our allies anyway. And getting the Balmera to join shouldn’t cause any issues,” Pidge started to trail off. “But that does make me curious, why would Shiro want us to visit planets we’re already pretty close with…”

Keith let out an annoyed sigh. “Whatever, I’ll go.”

“K-keith, are you sure-”

“It’s fine,” he snapped.

Pretty soon, they came across the frozen planet and slowly descended into its deep, blue waters in silence. The place was almost exactly what Lance had remembered, beautiful undersea buildings, plants, and of course, mermaids. Queen Luxia and her advisors came out almost immediately, greeting the two of them. “Ah, Lance!” she said. “What do we owe this visit to?”

Lance gave a humble bow, while pushing Keith to do the same. “Hello Queen Luxia, me and the red paladin, Keith, are here to formally invite you to join our Voltron coalition.”

“Ah! How wonderful! Thank you for coming all this way, of course we accept,” she said, clasping her hands together. “I think this calls for a feast, don’t you?”

The queen led them to the banquet hall where her advisors were waiting. They were all there, Blumfum, Swirn and… Plaxum! Wow, it had been a while since he’d seen her, he’d barely remembered what she’d look like. She looked excited to see him and he wished he could share her enthusiasm.

The table was spread with all kinds of foods that Lance had never seen before. He wished he would have eaten more, but couldn’t. While he was catching up with Plaxum and the others, Keith was in the background, silent, and he was distracted because of it. Eventually, Plaxum noticed. “Is there something wrong with Keith?"

He hesitated a bit. Is this right? He thought to himself. It’s been over ten years since I’ve seen her, but it’s Plaxum. I trust her, so maybe she can help. 

“Um, to be honest, it’s because of me,” he admitted. “I ended up telling everyone a secret about his close friend.”

She scratched her chin. “Yeah, that does sound like your fault,” she answered matter of factly, causing Lance to sigh annoyed. “But, I think it’s something you can come back from.”

“You think so?”

“I do! Actually, I have a plan.”

“Oh?” He said reactively. “Uh, are you sure? I don’t really want you to get involved?”

“Of course! We’re friends after all.”

Something about what she said made him feel uneasy, but he had no reason not to trust her. “Ok Lance, so you’re gonna need to go outside the palace to collect a few things…“

Following her instructions, Lance went outside the castle into the aquatic wilds to collect all the various plants Plaxum had told him to. He couldn’t really remember their names, but he knew what they looked like. Several pink and purple coral-like plants, some yellow anemone-like plants, and blue jelly fish-like plants. Using his lion, he scanned the terrain. Slowly, but surely, he started to stockpile them in his lion. 

After a good few hours, he felt that he finally had enough plants for Plaxum’s plan to work, whatever that was. He was about to start his lion up, then he noticed a weird… glint in the distance. It was dark, and he couldn’t make out quite what it was. It seemed to be… some sort of ship…?

As he got a closer look, he realized it was one of Lotor’s ships. What?! Lance gasped in shock. How did they even get here?!

Instinctively, he shot back at the ship, trying his best to maneuver around its attacks. The ship was fast, and no matter what he hit it with, the ship just kept dodging. There’s no way it’s Lotor, is it? Lance was incredibly worried that it was. 

If wanted any chance of beating this thing, he had to find Keith. But he could risk bringing the ship to the Mer, which he didn’t want to do. He tried to use his intercom to contact him, but got no response. Crap, it looks like I’m gonna have to deal with this myself for a while. 

Lance, instead of darting around left and right, decided to go up, towards the surface of the ocean, trying to dodge whatever lasers the ship shot at him. With the ship under him, he fired an ice beam that just narrowly missed. The ship shot back at him, landing a blow on his side, sending him spiraling. Dammit , he thought to himself. What am I gonna do now?!

As Lance finally regained control of his lion, he heard the firing of another beam. He closed his eyes, bracing for impact, but that never came. He slowly opened them, to realize that that ship wasn’t the one firing the shots. It was Keith, in the red lion. He could hardly believe it. 

He quickly got on the intercom. “Keith!” He exclaimed. “I’ve been trying to call you. How’d you find me?!”

“You’ve been gone for three hours!” He said exasperated. 

“Oh, erm, sorry about that,” Lance said sheepishly. “I promise it’ll all make sense later.”

“Who is this, what’s going on?” He asked regarding the ship. 

“It’s obviously one of Zarkon’s ships, who else?”

“That’s not true!”

Someone had hijacked their intercom, leaving the two of them completely speechless. 

“Ahem, I am not an associate of Zarkon. I’m Acxa, a general for the new empire. Lotor’s empire,” she explained. “And if I remember correctly, you attacked me first.”

He could feel Keith’s glare through the red lion, causing him to sigh bashfully. 

“Anyway, I’m not here to cause any harm, contrary to what you believe,” she explained. “Instead, I’m here in place of the new emperor. We’d like to invite Voltron to join our new empire, as allies.”

Lance could hardly believe what he was hearing. Join as allies? What a joke. 

“…Lotor? Who’s that?” Lance heard Keith speak over the intercom. 

“Why, he’s the heir to Zarkon's empire,” she said. “And he’s the one who’s going to save it.”

“There’s no way we could help them!” Lance stated. 

“I know you have preconceived notions about the empire, but Lotor genuinely wants to improve it, making it beneficial for everyone,” she said. “It will be nothing like before.”

“And how do we know we can trust you?” Keith said, skeptical. 

“I think you’ll find Lotor to be very trustworthy,” she said. 

“If you want to prove yourself as trustworthy, then leave this planet,” Keith said. “Its inhabitants don’t want you here, certainly not if you’re a part of the empire.”

Those words caught Lance off guard, but he was right. 

Acxa seemed to be taken aback by his words, as there was a pause. “Fine, have it your way, we’ll meet again though,” she finally said, speeding off without a fight. 

Finally, the two of them were alone. That whole interaction was incredibly strange. I thought for sure she’d try and attack us to steal our lions, Lance thought. She came all this way just to convince us to join Lotor? That’s so different from last time. 

“Zarkon has a son?!” Keith said, more to himself. 

“It seems like it,” Lance said, trying to play it cool. 

He heard Keith let out a long sigh via the intercom. “So, Lance, do you wanna explain to me why you’re all the way out here,” he said annoyed. “And don’t tell me this is some ploy to get a date?”

Lance was a little hurt by his words. “No!” He said. “I told you it’s a surprise, follow me.”

Keith begrudgingly did as he was told, and followed Lance back to the palace. Once there, he told Keith to wait as he went to look for Plaxum. He found her by the palace gates.  “Yo, Plaxum, I got the plants,” he said, walking towards her. 

“Ah! Wonderful!” She said. “Follow me! And bring your lion!”

He did as he was told, and followed her up to a small cliff side, overlooking the palace. There, she set up a small blanket, decorated with bioluminescent fish, as if to set the atmosphere. It almost looked…romantic. 

“…uh, Plaxum, what is this?” Lance asked, a little nervous. 

“Hurry up and get the flowers you picked, and call your friend over!”

He started to get them all out. “Flowers…what?”

“Place some around the blanket, and then take the rest of them and make a bouquet!”

“Wait, what?!” Lance exclaimed. “Plaxum, this seems like a date…”

She was currently rearranging flowers, but stopped in her tracks. “Why wouldn’t this be a date?”

He stood there, bug eyed. He ran his hands through his hair, thinking he might pull it out. “Plaxum, I thought you were going to help me make up with my friend . Why would you think we’re dating?!”

“Well, I don’t know! You seemed really upset when your girlfriend was mad at you, so I thought I’d help!”

“Keith is a man!”

She blinked at him. “So like… is he your boyfriend?”

Lance slapped his palm directly to his face. He could feel his legs growing weak. Flowers?! Seriously?! There’s no way he’s gonna want that! I’m gonna make things better between me and Keith, am I?

She tried her best to comfort him. “Hey Lance, look at it this way, I’m sure he’ll at least appreciate the gesture…” she said. “… And I also told him to meet you here…”

Just as she said that, the red lion landed at the spot. Lance’s eyes widened with terror, as he sat there helpless, knowing that he’d probably feel Keith’s wrath. Plaxum gave him one final pep talk. “It’s ok Lance, you got this,” she whispered to him. “Just apologize sincerely, and I’m sure he’ll understand.”

With that, she swam away right before Keith exited his lion. Keith walked outside to see Lance, sitting in the middle of a blanket, holding a bunch of weird underwater plants, with a look of despair on his face. “Uh, Lance? What is this?”

He looked up at Keith, beads of sweat visible on his face through his air bubble. He stood up, and speed walked to Keith. “These are for you,” he said, violently shoving the bouquet into his arms. 

“Huh- what?!” Keith was greatly surprised. “These are for …me?”

Keith was now even more surprised, and greatly confused. He had never expected a gift like this to come from Lance. 

He hesitated, shaking, clearly nervous about the situation. His hand was scratching the back of his neck. He knew he had to get this over with, and took a deep breath. “I… look Keith. I’m really sorry about the last few days. You’re right to be mad at me. I shouldn’t have outed Shiro to everyone. I’m sorry.”

He raised his eyebrows in surprise, his eyes wide with shock, but this was quickly with him furrowing them, and looking away. “Oh… yeah… that.” 

He turned away from him. “If that’s all you wanted to say, I think we should head back.”

“Wait, what?! Keith!” He said, trying to get his attention. “Look, I’m really sorry. Please, if there’s anything I can do to make it up to you, I want to know!”

“Whatever, it’s fine, just drop it,” he said curtly. 

“It’s clearly not fine,” Lance retorted. “You’ve clearly been upset about it.”

“Why wouldn’t I be?!” He turned to Lance, his eyes narrowed at him. “How could Shiro tell you but not me?!”

He widened his eyes once he realized what he had said, and turned his head away from Lance. 

Lance stood there in absolute shock. “…What? Shiro never told you?” He could hardly believe what he was hearing. “Why?”

“I don’t know!” Keith said, almost shouting. 

Lance stood there totally baffled. Keith… never knew? He had to mentally repeat it to himself for it to make sense. 

Lance paused, trying to process everything. Now that he was really thinking about it, he realized something. … I don’t really know that much about Keith and Shiro’s relationship. Why would Shiro never tell him that he had a fiancé?

That’s when he realized something else. How much do I know about Shiro? 

He thought back to all the time he spent with Shiro. Well, I mean, I talked to him a bit before he was replaced by that clone. I then went to his wedding. Was Keith there?

He couldn’t really remember talking to Shiro much after the wedding, he sort of just lost touch. As hard as he tried, he couldn't really wrap his head around it. 

He looked at Keith, still turned away from him, clearly in distress. He doesn’t know if he can help him, but he has to try. 

He reached out, putting a firm, but reassuring grasp on his shoulder. “Keith… listen,” he said, trying to remain calm. “The truth is- I don’t really understand what you’re going through-“

“No, you don’t!” He said, swatting his hand away from him. “How could you?! You don’t know what it’s like to have your only friend hide things from you!”

Keith ran his fingers through his hair, enraged. “You have a family at home, friends, everything. If I don’t have Shiro, then, who do I have?!” His voice was faltering.

Lance winced. He never really thought of it like that. That’s right, Keith viewed him as his brother… and before they found the blue lion, didn’t have any real friends to speak of… wow. I guess I didn’t think about that.

“Keith, you have us,” the words came to him oddly, very clearly, and he took a step closer. “Look, I don’t know why Shiro wouldn’t tell you, but I promise you, you have me, Pidge, Hunk, even Allura. I don’t know how you wanna handle this, but no matter what, I’ll be there to support you. I got your back.”

Keith looked at him, his eyes seemed to gleam, possibly with hope. “Do you… really mean that?”

“I do,” he reassured.

Keith’s body language seemed to change, becoming much more open than before, he had a small smile. “Thanks, Lance, I don’t know what to say….” He finally seemed to be feeling better.

In the back of Lance’s mind, another question emerged. I wonder how the others are doing?

 ─ ⊹ ⊱ ☆ ⊰ ⊹ ─

In the outer corners of space, two Galran ships were hot on the trail of the black lion. Not that the lion seemed to be putting up much of a fight. It seemed to be just drifting around space, almost aimlessly. The ships were following at a distance, enough to be noticed, but too far to shoot.

One ship called the other. “Gah! I can’t take it anymore! How much longer are gonna have to follow this guy?! Why don’t we just contact him,” Zethrid said impatiently.

Ezor from the other ship, rolled her eyes at her, even though she couldn't see. “Lotor said we needed to follow this guy,” she explained. “We don’t want to scare him, so we need to keep our distance from him until he lands.”

Ezor could hear visible grumbling from the intercom. Not that it mattered.

After what felt like an eternity, the lion seemed to land on a desolate planet, devoid of any inhabitants. The two ships followed suit. The planet was filled with rocky terrain, forming great mountain peaks and caves. The sky was a colorless grey, and a light fog covered the planet.

The two of them slowly got out of their ships, and made their way to the black lion. Once they got there, it seemed deserted. “That’s odd,” Ezor commented. “The black lion seems to be missing its paladin. Almost like it flew here on its own.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Zethrid said. “That’s impossible.”

As the two of them were bickering, a few feet away, in a cave, something caught Zethrid’s eye, a small flash of light, and it was coming for them. “Ezor, watch out!” she said, pushing her out of the way.

It was the black paladin, wielding his bayard.

Chapter Text

Lance and Keith headed back to the Castle of Lions, to meet up with everyone else. Something that would regularly be relieving however, was actually quite anxiety inducing for both of them. 

As the two of them landed in the docking bay, Lance could feel the tension radiating from Keith’s lion. He knew Keith was very nervous to see Shiro again, but he’d help him every step of the way. 

The two of them walked in silence to the main control room, unsure of what they’d come across. Once they went inside, the others were already waiting for them, sitting in their designated chairs, along with Allura and Coran standing by the teleporter. The blade of Marmora was off to the side, with Kolivan and Ulaz. “Keith, Lance, there you two are.” Shiro said, looking at them both sternly.

They both took their respective seats, and Shiro turned to Hunk and Pidge. “I told you all not to go off on your own, that we needed a buddy system.”

The both of them laughed awkwardly, causing Shiro to let out an exasperated sigh. “I’m just glad nothing bad happened to either of you.”

Lance raised an eyebrow. “Wait, what do you mean?”

“Well,” Hunk intervened. “I was kinda followed by a Galran ship.”

Pidge nodded her head. “It didn’t look like any of Zarkon’s ships or the Blade’s. But it didn’t seem friendly either.”

Oh crap. They must’ve been followed by one of Lotor’s generals. 

“I think me and Lance were followed by a similar ship,” Keith said, his arms crossed. “And if that’s the case, we may have a new problem on our hands.”

Keith then recounted to the rest of them their meeting of Acxa, and how she was working with Lotor, Zarkon’s son, heir to the empire. Of course, he left out the details of their little picnic. 

“Zarkon has a son?!” Allura was shocked. “This is terrifying news.”

“For now, we’ll have to wait and see what he does. In the meantime, we should train and strengthen our bond with the lions. Be careful everyone, we don’t know what he’s capable of,” Shiro said, his eyes furrowing. 

The rest of them went off to contemplate the possibility of running into Lotor, or to train for when they inevitably meet him. The only people left in the control room were Lance, Keith, and Shiro. Lance looked at Keith, as he stared apprehensively at Shiro, squeezing his arms. 

It was then he looked at Lance, with almost an anxious look on his face, as if he wanted him to stay. Lance stared right back at him, with a reassuring gaze. It’s ok Keith, I know you got this.

Keith took a deep breath. “Shiro, we need to talk.”

He looked up at him, surprised. “Hm? What’s up?”

Shiro seemed calm and cool, unlike Keith, who was looking away from him, clearly anxious and uncomfortable. “…Why didn’t you tell me Adam was your  fiancé?” He got straight to the point. “Why did you keep it a secret from me?”

Shiro seemed a little shocked upon hearing him. “I- how did you know that…?”

“That’s not important,” he said, causing Lance to sigh in relief mentally. 

Shiro rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m sorry, Keith. I wanted to tell you, I did, but I just… lost track of time.”

“Is that seriously all?” He said, agitated, raising his voice. “That feels more like an excuse.”

Shiro was a little taken aback by his tone. “Keith, I-“

Shiro glanced at Lance, who was standing there, listening to them. “Lance, could you give us some time alone?”

Keith reluctantly nodded in agreement, and while Lance was unsure, he decided to leave the control room. However, he didn’t go too far, once he stepped outside the door, he waited just out of sight, listening in to the rest of their conversation. While he felt bad for being nosy, he also felt like he should stick around for Keith, just in case things went south. 

“You’re right, I should’ve told you,” he heard Shiro’s voice speak. “It wasn’t fair of me to keep that from you.”

“So why? Why did you wait?” He heard the pain in Keith’s voice. 

“Well… the truth is, I was worried,” he explained. “To be honest, I was scared you wouldn’t accept me. Worried that you would push me away…”

“Shiro…” his voice softened. “I would never do that…”

“I’m sorry, Keith,” he repeated. “I was selfish.”

“It’s ok… but I don’t want any more secrets from you. Promise?”

“I promise.”

“You swear there’s nothing else you’re keeping from me?”

“There’s nothing else. Things will be different this time, I swear.”

Lance was listening in, and everything seemed ok. By all means, Shiro seemed to be telling the truth. But even so, Lance couldn’t help but feel like something was off…

Suddenly, Shiro’s voice could be heard on the intercom. “Everyone, get to your lions. Now.”

The command left Lance scrambling, sprinting to his lion as to not let Keith or Shiro know that he had been listening in on their conversation. Practically in the blink of an eye, they were all in their lions, descending from Puig. 

It was then they were all greeted by a few, small Galran spaceships. They were fighter jets, and while compact, knowing who was inside, it sent chills down Lance’s spine. 

There was a voice over the lions’ intercoms. “Paladins of Voltron, I do not wish to fight you,” a deep voice could be heard over the intercom, and Lance knew who it was. 

“I am prince Lotor, the heir to the Galran empire,” he explained. “We come unarmed, and wish to speak with you.”

As if on reflex, Lance hops on the intercom. “No way! Work with you? As if we’d ever work with someone like you!” He spat. 

“Lance! Let’s not be hasty,” Shiro intervened, hesitating before deciding to speak further. “Is this your only ship? Are there others with you?”

“…No. Just me and my generals. This is our only ship,” Lotor answered. 

“Let’s not talk here. Let’s talk on Puig, away from the city,” Shiro responded. 

They all landed in a valley, away from any innocent civilians. They reluctantly got out of their lions, to talk with Lotor face to face. Once Lance stepped out of his lion, he saw Lotor, standing on the ground, a few feet away from his ship. It almost felt surreal to Lance, seeing Lotor again all this time. He was the cause for so many problems, all he’s done was manipulate and use everyone around him. Lance couldn’t help but feel apprehension and disgust just looking at the alien prince.

“Finally, we can actually talk,” Lotor said, eyeing them all. “Anyway, let me cut to the chase. My father was a cruel, merciless man, but I am different. I do not wish to destroy Voltron, but instead, work together peacefully.”

Lance just glared at him with his arms. He knew what Lotor was saying was total bull. Thankfully for him, the others weren’t too keen on working with him as well. 

“How do we know we can trust you?” Shiro asked. 

“We have no weapons of any kind with us. Feel free to search us or the ship if you don’t believe me.”

The paladins along with the Blade searched the ship thoroughly, and gave a pat down to Lotor and his general, Acxa. Sure enough, he was telling the truth. 

“As you can see, I want nothing more than to build a rapport with you all,” Lotor explained. “I simply want to build a symbiotic relationship with the empire, Voltron, and all the planets that side with it.”

Lance had to bite his tongue from snapping at Lotor. Everything he said made his skin crawl. But he knew speaking up would only make things worse for himself, and complicate the situation. 

“There’s no way we can trust this man,” Kolivan intervened. 

“Maybe we could take him as a prisoner?” Ulaz questioned. “Make sure neither he nor his general have any weapons on them. If they’re willing to cooperate, they may have a potential future for working with us.”

Lotor and Acxa put their hands up. “If that’s what it takes for you to trust us, then we have no problem cooperating,” Lotor said.

Lance didn’t like this one bit. There’s no way Lotor would just hand himself over to them like this. “How do we know this isn’t a trap?!” Lance butted in. 

“Because I have been completely honest with you all,” Lotor answered. “And I’ve meant everything that I said. I really do want us all to work together, and if that means imprisoning me and my general here, so be it.”

All Lance could do was glare at him, but for now, there wasn’t much else he could say. So far, Lotor hadn’t actually done anything bad. Shiro and the Blade members walked over and cuffed Lotor and Acxa. “There are a few places we can hold them in the Castle,” Shiro said.

─ ⊹ ⊱ ☆ ⊰ ⊹ ─

For the next few days, Lotor and Acxa were chained in a small jail cell. Lance was currently standing guard, as they all took turns. He didn’t want them pulling anything weird. He was silent, keeping a watchful eye. “Blue Paladin, I must say, you’ve been giving me the evil eye for quite some time,” Lotor said, trying to make conversation. 

“Shut it,” Lance snapped. 

“So mean!” Lotor pretended to be hurt by his words. 

There was something else bothering Lance. He couldn’t help but notice that Lotor had only come with one of his four generals, Acxa.

“Hmm,” Lotor was musing. “To be honest, blue paladin, I’m not really sure how I could work with you all if I’m stuck here.”

He just rolled his eyes at him, choosing to ignore him  this caused Lotor to let out a long sigh. 

“Honestly, I don’t know what you guys have against working with me. You’re not even giving me a chance…”

Lance couldn’t help but feel annoyed that out of all people, he had to guard Lotor. Just being near him filled him with rage. He wanted to be as far away from him as possible, he felt almost as if he was suffocating, that he wasn’t ready to face Lotor after all this time. The silence that followed felt deafening. He had so many things he wanted to tell him, but they would all be incomprehensible. In the midst of his panicked state, he said the only thing he could think of, as calmly as he could compose himself.

“There are others, aren’t there? Where are they?” Lance asked, turning to Lotor. “Are there other generals?”

Lance blinked in surprise at his own question. He worried about the implications of his question. Lotor’s smirk faltered, just for a split second. He sat back in his cell, a little apprehensive. “That’s awfully perceptive of you, blue paladin,” he gaze was piercing. “And what makes you ask that?”

Lance gulped. “You’re the son of Zarkon. There’s no way you’d come unprepared. And I know that your general, Acxa, followed me and Keith, and that the others were followed as well.”

Lotor’s smirk turned into a sour grimace, but Lance didn’t know why. “So that was you then, wasn’t it? Where are my generals?” His voice was low, yet commanding, both intimidating and surprising Lance.

“What do you mean?” Lance said, shocked. “What did I do?”

Lotor raised his eyebrows, as if he realized what he was saying. He leaned back into the wall, pinching the bridge of his eyebrows. “… It seems that I’ve accidentally let some information slip,” Lotor sighed. “Fine. Some of my generals went missing. I haven’t been able to contact them over the last few days.”

Lance's eyes widened. “You’ve been contacting your generals in secret?!”

Acxa looked as if she wanted to intervene, but Lotor stopped her. “Oh come on, don’t be ridiculous. You know that I have other generals, I’ve obviously contacted them.”

Lance just stood there dumbfounded. Lotor! That conniving little…

But now, he had a new problem, that being that Lotor seemed to be missing some of his generals. But he didn’t know if this was one of his tricks…

“Look, I know you don’t trust me, but without my generals, I’m going to need your help, and whether you like it or not, you’re going to need mine.”

Lance flew out in his lion, with Lotor and Acxa joining him in their respective ship, to meet the others. Shiro was the first to notice. “Lance! You should have left the prisoners in their cell!”

“I know that, but I think they can help us!” Lance yelled over the intercom.

Fortunately for him, they had no time to argue, as they were all quickly thrust into the heat of battle. The Galran ships were attacking, shooting lasers at both Lotor’s ship and the lions. It would have been too overwhelming for the paladins if Lotor hadn’t been there. He was able to distract the ships for just enough time for them to form Voltron. Lance and Hunk formed their ice-cannon and started attacking the ships, blasting them back easily. Thankfully, the threat was easily neutralized. Even Lance was a little surprised at how easily they were able to defeat them.

They all transformed and landed on the ground, with Lotor following them close behind. There was now a new problem at hand, and that was what they should do with the prince. The paladins got out of their lions to convene with the Blade of Marmora. Shiro looked rather irritated, staring at Lance and sighing. “Alright, I suppose we should figure out what to do about this…”

“They want our trust, right? I think for now, we should just stick them back in a cell,” Lance tried to suggest.

He certainly didn’t want Lotor roaming around free, especially since he knew what he was capable of. He knew that sooner or later, they would all find out that Lotor was responsible for draining Atleans of their essence. And the worst part, he’d try to get between him and Allura. It made his blood boil just thinking about it.

“Mind if I join in on this conversation?” Lotor casually interjected himself. “I know you all don’t trust me, but I did just help you beat back several Galran ships, and I know who sent them, Sendak.”

Lance looked around, and the others looked shocked. At this point, it had been a while since any of them had seen Sendak. He looked to Shiro and saw his jaw clenched, his brows furrowed, his entire body looked tense.

“You see, with my father in his current state, the empire will need a new ruler. Of course, there have been other contenders besides myself vying for the throne, including Sendak. With your help, we could get rid of these contenders… and possibly put a stop to the terror my father has been causing.”

The group was silent for a long moment. Shiro finally decided to speak up. “Ok. We’ll work with you, for a while. But if you try to double cross us at any point, make sure to know there are grave consequences.”

Lotor smiled, almost a sneer. “I promise you, you won’t regret it.”

The two of them shook hands. The others looked a little uncomfortable, Allura in particular. Lance was silent, he couldn’t help but feel off about the whole encounter, but he couldn’t put it into words. He knew nothing good would come from dealing with Lotor, but for now, it was too difficult to say no. He’d have to wait and see what he’d do.