Chapter Text
Lance pulled the blue lion sharply to the side for what felt like the hundredth time. They had been on a mission to liberate another Balmera that'd been turned into a Galran mining colony- except it was 10 times the size of the Balmera Shay and her people had lived on, and subsequently- somehow both surprisingly and entirely unsurprisingly- housed Balmerans that were also 10 times the size of the ones they had met before. Hunk and Pidge had been tinkering with the castle's systems again, and had greatly expanded its communications range, making it possible to pick up weaker signals from even farther away- and they had immediately picked up significant distress from the very large Balmera they were currently being attacked from, and of course because they were Paladins of Voltron, Defenders of the Universe, they had to respond to the call, and were now being shot at by a very large laser that had a very short cooldown, that was mounted on a very large building, on a very large Balmera with some very large Balmerans hiding nearby.
Anyways, all of those extremely large things aside, Lance, along with the rest of the team, was being repeatedly shot at and they weren't able to form Voltron or do anything to the laser because they all were extremely occupied with dodging it.
Shiro's voice came through the speakers, "Alright everyone, this- ugh," another blast from the laser cut him off and he took a second to dodge it, "obviously isn't working, so let's pull back and regroup."
Lance sighed in relief and turned Blue around to fly back with the rest of the team towards the castle, which was stationed outside of the planet’s atmosphere, safely out of range of the laser. "Finally. I feel like I've been dodging these blasts for hours!"
Keith deadpanned, "It's been ten minutes, Lance."
"Ten minutes is still a pretty long time to be dodging a deadly rapid fire laser!"
"How do we even know it's deadly?" Hunk chimed in, sounding both hopeful and nervous at the same time, "We don't know for sure what it does. Maybe it's just a harmless light beam to illuminate the mines at night, or something."
"I don't think the Galra would just be firing a big flashlight at us, Hunk." Shiro chided gently, "We need to find a way to take it out. Voltron is too big of a target and its firing too fast for us to take it out while split up."
"Maybe I could try sniping it with Blue?" Lance suggested, "I mean, I am the team sharpshooter." Even though they were all just on voice comms, everyone could practically hear the smirk in Lance's voice.
Shiro's voice sounded tired. "That's not a terrible idea, but unless you can shoot it from where we are right now, that laser is definitely going to target and hit you."
"Red is fast- I could probably draw the fire away and let Lance get close enough to shoot it"
"What, do you think Blue isn't fast enough to draw fire? She's plenty fast!"
"If you're drawing fire then you won't be able to shoot the laser, Lance!"
Shiro cut in sharply, "Enough, you two!" He let out a deep sigh before continuing, "That's a good plan, but I don't want you going in alone, Keith. We can all draw the fire while Lance lines up his shot."
"If you don't mind my saying so, Shiro," Pidge chirped, "I think it might work better if Keith goes in alone. It’ll be more difficult for Lance to get a clear shot if we’re all flying around in his way. Especially you. Black is huge."
"That makes sense... Keith, are you sure you can do this without getting hit? Hunk had a point earlier, we don't know what this blast is or what it might do."
Keith steeled his voice, "I'm sure."
"...Okay. Keith, go down there and get the attention of the laser. Lance, follow him and stop off when you think you're close enough to make a shot. Hunk, Pidge, and I will stay here out of your way and watch, so let us know if things start going south and you need cover to pull back. Everyone got that?" They all sounded their agreement. "Alright team, let's go!"
Keith took off, and Lance followed closely behind. "Woah there, slow down mullet, you're gonna leave me behind."
"I'm supposed to go in ahead so I can keep the laser off of you, Lance. That won't work if you're right next to me."
"Whatever, I'm close enough anyway. I'll let you know when I'm lined up."
Keith didn't reply and continued to fly straight for the laser.
Lance muted the comm channel. "Someone's grumpy.” He let out a long exhale, “Let's do this, Blue." He shoved the control handles forward and summoned Blue's back cannon. Along with its sonar abilities, the Lance had discovered that canon doubled as a giant sonar sniper rifle to match his bayard weapon. The scoping overlay booted up on his dashboard and Lance zoomed in to watch Keith close in on the laser. As soon as it was locked onto him, Lance started moving in closer, since he lied about being in the right position to avoid any further conversation with Keith. For a while they had been getting along better, but recently Keith had started acting very cold towards Lance for seemingly no reason. Lance's bi ass was too nervous to confront him about it, because it would be weird to admit that he missed spending time with the guy who was supposed to be his sworn rival, and that he maybe probably had a crush on him. Not that Lance would ever admit that, because Keith was gross and never showered but somehow still had smooth shiny hair and soft-looking skin, and- okay, no, new train of thought, focus on shooting the laser, not on your non-existant crush on Keith.
Lance turned his attention back to the task at hand, and watching Keith dart around, just narrowly avoiding the laser’s quick blasts, was making him a little nervous. He took a few shaky breaths to try to calm himself down, and un-muted the comms. “I’m in position. You doing okay, Keith?”
“I’m fine. Just trying to focus on dodging possibly deadly laser blasts, no big deal.”
“O-kay, touchy. Lining up now.”
“Try to make it quick, I can’t do this forever.”
God, what was his problem? Lance had half a mind to call him out on it, but he figured the middle of a delicate mission wasn’t the best time for a confrontation he’d been putting off for weeks. Especially when it could end with Keith getting shot. “Could you fly higher and make it shoot upwards? I want to hit the joint, see if I can pop it off or something.”
Keith said nothing, but maneuvered Red higher above the laser, revealing where it was mounted.
Lance zoomed in close to the laser took another deep breath. “Taking aim,” and another, while he slowly moved the crosshairs to rest right where it was mounted to the building, “locked on,” and one more, as he rested his finger lightly on the trigger “firing in three, two, one…”
A few things happened in quick succession. Lance pulled the trigger, and a powerful blast left Blue’s cannon. Just before it hit the Galran laser and knocked it off the building it was attached to, it fired one last shot at Keith. And hit. The moment passed, and Shiro’s voice seemed to blast in Lance’s ear when he asked, “Keith, Lance, is everything alright?”
Lance continued to sit in stunned silence.
Red had disappeared. Keith was gone.