Chapter Text
The dining hall was quiet. Too quiet. Lance picked up his spoon for the third time and watched the gelatinous green ooze slowly drip back down into the bowl. He hadn’t put a single spoonful into his mouth despite the fact he sat down over an hour ago. He wasn’t really hungry, but the routine was supposed to keep his mind off of things. Only, it wasn’t working.
Shiro’s strange and sudden disappearance had shaken the whole team to their very foundations. They had defeated Zarkon, the universe’s biggest threat, and yet it felt like they had lost. There was no trace of their leader. Black was silent, and Allura couldn’t pick up a trace on Shiro anywhere.
Nobody slept. The nervous energy led to a lot of arguments and speculations about what happened and what to do next. It was almost as if the bond that had kept them together as a team was fractured, and Lance could almost feel it start to break apart.
Pidge hadn’t left their room in days. Hunk no longer spent time experimenting in the kitchen. In fact, Lance hadn’t heard him complain about being hungry in days. Allura never left the command room. She had dark circles under her eyes only highlighted by the blue glow of the screens around her. And Keith? When he wasn’t silently brooding, he and Lance were constantly at each other’s throats.
Lance wanted to look into the Galra and Zarkon, and find out more about the strange magic he used before they summoned that wicked fiery sword. He had sworn he saw it envelop the Black Lion before they ended the fight. There was something weird with Zarkon and Shiro and their connection to Black. But Keith said he was looking in the wrong direction, that they should be finding out more about the lions themselves and their creation, and figuring out why Black wasn’t powering back on.
Lance had never felt so incredibly lost in his life. Their story had ended but it wasn’t the ending any of them had wanted. The next pages were blank. Where did they go from here?
He let his spoon drop to the bowl where it clanged loudly in the empty room. He pushed his chair back until he was balanced on two legs and looked up at the ceiling. He saw Hunk’s frame from the corner of his eye hesitate in the doorway.
“Lance? You uh…?” Hunk trailed off and gestured towards the dining table. He looked tired, even upside down. His usual store of overly anxious energy wasn’t even there anymore.
Lance let his chair fall forward again onto all four legs. “Not hungry. How’s the ship?”
Hunk shrugged and stepped further into the room. “Coran said repairs should be done in like, two quintants give or take? I told him we might need to repair some of the outer plating on the ship, and the X1-3 radiator has a damaged cooling panel—"
“Hunk, man. You’re doing it again,” Lance held up his hands just in time to stop his best friend from going on about boring technical crap that went way over his head.
“Sorry,” Hunk shoved his hands into his pockets. He looked like he wanted to say something, but the silence stretched on until it was uncomfortable. And it had never been uncomfortable with Hunk before.
Lance groaned and raked his hands through his hair. “This is stupid! You know what?” He stood up from his chair and pointed a finger dramatically at Hunk. Before he could answer Lance continued.
“We’re going to get together and do another team building exercise. You, me, Pidge, and… and Keith.”
“Not to burst your bubble, but I don’t think you’ll really be able to drag Pidge out let alone Keith. And your last team building exercise sort of ended…uh…” Hunk gestured vaguely.
“Awesomely? I mean look at us! If I hadn’t dragged you out that night we never would have found out about Voltron. We never would have piloted giant mechanized lions or become space badasses fighting as a giant robot against purple death aliens trying to take over the universe! P-r-e-t-t-y awesome,” Lance rested one hand against his hip and flourished his other hand outwards.
There was a beat of silence before Hunk sighed. “There’s nothing I can to do stop you, is there?”
“Nope,” Lance let the word pop on his lips before he grinned. He reached out and jovially slapped Hunk on his back before he pushed them towards the door. Hunk of course was a lot stronger than him and easily could have rooted himself in place or said no, but he went along anyway and that was why Lance loved the guy. There was a resigned anxiety in Hunk’s eyes, but it was more familiar than his earlier expression.
One down, two to go.
Lance led them towards Pidge’s room as he bounced ideas off Hunk. “What about red light green light? Oh! We could do it in the Lions. Or, ghost in the graveyard—more like, Galra in the galaxy? Hunk, what’s that look for?”
“Lance—”
“No wait! We’ll just go for tried and true,” Lance waved his arms as he talked, and deliberately ignored Hunk’s skeptical looks. “We drag everyone to the space station on Severin and find space pizza. They’ve gotta have something like pizza, right?”
Hunk rubbed the back of his head but Lance could see a faint spark of curiosity in his eyes. “You know space pizza sounds awesome, but I don’t think you can convince Pidge to abort—”
“Ah-ah-ah, you leave that to me,” Lance wagged his finger before he stepped up to Pidge’s door. The door was on autolock, but he knew that Pidge was inside. He could hear the soft clacking of keys on the other side of the door. He knocked. And then knocked again when there was no answer. His smile slipped and he knocked a little louder.
“Pidge! My favorite computer genius, open up! We’ve got a very important mission to go on.” When there was still no answer, Lance tried again, “Pidgeeeee,” he whined in his best annoying little brother voice that never failed in his family.
“Go away, Lance,” Pidge’s voice came from the other side of the door. The typing didn’t stop.
Lance gasped audibly and looked to Hunk with slight hurt.
“I tried a couple of times, too,” Hunk shrugged, “Left some food out but when I came back it was untouched.”
Lance frowned as he turned back to the door. Pidge had to eat something. Or at least get out of their room. Everybody wanted to find Shiro, but if they got sick or hurt it would only make things worse.
“I’m not giving up,” he started to bang on Pidge’s door, occasionally stopping to whine their name. Constant annoyance seemed to work with the kid. “Pidge,” Lance crooned as he leaned heavily on the door, “Think about all the—”
Lance was interrupted as he heard a loud groan or maybe a murderous scream from the other side of the door. And then there was no door, and he was falling forward. He made an admittedly ungraceful noise halfway between a shriek and a gasp as his support was removed and he crashed on the floor.
“What do you want? Because you better have a good reason for interrupting me and acting like a three year old,” Pidge glared at him, arms crossed as they waited for an answer.
Lance pushed himself up and dusted himself off mostly for show. Pidge’s floor wasn’t really dirty. Even in the dim light from the computer, he could see the same dark circles under Pidge's eyes as Allura, and despite their crossed arms he could see the way their hands shook.
“When was the last time you stood up from your floor and got something to eat?” Lance shared a glance with Hunk who hesitantly stepped into the room.
“I’m not hungry,” Pidge pushed their glasses up and glanced over at the device on the floor that was emitting a low hum. There were two dials and a speaker, and next to the radio a set of large screens all filled with rows and rows of code connected to their main computer.
Lance frowned. Pidge definitely hadn’t eaten in at least two days and he doubted they had slept much if any. “Hungry or not, you still have to eat something. So, we’re all going to Severin to find space pizza,” he continued before they could interject, “Think about all of the incredible alien tech you could see in a main hub like that,” he purred.
Pidge was about to say something when they stopped. They were thinking about it, but the bait was still dangling. So Lance pressed on.
“Astro-explorers, soldiers, and space pirates all with a wide variety of equipment that you’ve never seen even in your wildest dreams? I bet we could even find a thing or two that would help us find Shiro.” Lance wiggled his eyebrows. Pidge drew in a long breath. Something alights in their eyes that Lance recognizes as the same burning curiosity he saw in Hunk’s. Check and mate.
“Maybe, it might be worth looking into,” Pidge relaxes slightly. But Lance doesn’t miss the way that their legs shake and he knows that he had been right about them being locked in here for so long.
“Nice,” Hunk seemed to exhale a breath that he had been holding. Lance grins smugly over his shoulder and they exchange a high-five.
“Now we just need to convince Keith,” Lance crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe.
Pidge frowned and adjusted their glasses. “Seriously? You think you can coax Keith into pizza?”
“This is a team building exercise, Pidge,” Lance looks over at them and tries to keep his confidence from wavering. “We need the whole team.”
Although the thought of getting Keith on board was daunting and part of Lance debated even asking. Lately all they did was argue, even though half of that was admittedly his fault.
For a while there, Lance thought they might even be friends. It had been a long time in the making, but Lance was proud of that little bit of progress. He had seen Keith smile, and laugh like a normal teenager. And it reminded him of how he used to be. But ever since finding out he was part Galra, Keith hadn’t smiled, and Lance felt that particular observation like a knife to the chest. He missed their playful bickering and competitions without the venom and the hurt. Not that he would admit it. Especially not to Keith.
“And how are you going to do that?” Pidge moved to the radio and turned the knob to silence the steady static that had been quietly filling their room. It had been sort of creepy actually, and Lance wondered how Pidge could sit on the floor in the dark listening to that without getting paranoid.
He was silent for a minute. He really had no idea what he could use to coax Keith into coming because honestly Keith took everything too seriously and Lance knew for a fact he was blaming himself for Shiro even if it wasn’t even his damn fault.
“I’ll think of something,” Lance crossed his arms behind his head and turned from Pidge’s room. Hunk and Pidge shared a look. One he did not miss. “What? I’ll think of a plan on the way to his room.
“He’s been distant ever since…” Pidge trailed off but left the connotation hang in the air. Ever since the Blade of Marmora incident.
“Yeah, he was pretty tense when I asked him stuff. But he’s still like, exactly the same Keith,” Hunk shrugged.
“What kind of stuff?” Lance felt a strange twist in his chest he realized was jealousy. He hadn’t really gotten a chance to talk to Keith about the fact he was part Galra, and it sounded like Hunk had been able to get him to open up, even if just a fraction.
And the fact he was jealous of his best friend for getting close to his rival was seriously weird. Okay, rival and ex-crush. But still, he and Keith got along as well as oil and water so it shouldn’t have bothered him that much.
But before Hunk could answer, Allura’s voice came over the ship’s speakers and they all jumped.
“Paladins,” Her voice held its usual tone of authority Lance figured was a trait all royalty possessed. But it also sounded tired and strained even over the speaker. “Please come to the command center at once. We have received a distress signal from a nearby planet.”
The three of them looked up to the speaker in the hallway and then towards one another.
“Distress signal?” Pidge frowned.
“Looks like space pizza might have to wait,” Hunk looked over at Lance.
“Man…” Lance sighed before the three of them raced for the main bridge.
There was a noticeable tension in the air as they approached the command center. Distress signals really never ended well for them, and without Shiro… if anything were to go wrong they couldn’t form Voltron. Even without Zarkon around, the thought of any lingering Galra threats hung heavy over their heads.
“Princess,” Lance purred as they entered the command room. He gave her a lazy salute, which she ignored as usual. Allura had taken Shiro’s disappearance hard. She felt a personal responsibility, despite the fact they had all agreed to go into the fight willingly.
Her eyes no longer held their usual fire, and she seemed smaller somehow. Lance wasn’t sure how to bring her back to her old self. Even his lame flirting and pun-tastic jokes went ignored.
“What’s the situation?” The main door opened once more with a quiet woosh as Keith stepped inside and made his way towards the screens. He had been on the training deck, Lance could tell even if he didn’t know Keith spent all day on the simulator. Keith still had a bit of sweat on the back of his neck where a few strands of hair curled underneath the top of his jacket, and his face was mildly flushed from exertion.
Keith had changed more than any of the others. Or at least, Lance had noticed those changes most. He frowned a lot more. And he had a perpetual crease between his constantly furrowed eyebrows. His shoulders were always tight, and his eyes didn’t hold any light. It wasn’t like Keith smiled a lot, but Lance hadn’t seen him smile once since Shiro disappeared. And it was pretty obvious when he did, because his whole face changed, and lit up even if for only a second or two. Shiro and Keith had always seemed close. Undoubtedly they had shared a lot between them that the rest of the team wasn’t privy to. At least, Lance wasn’t. He was pretty sure Keith and Shiro had some history.
And yeah, he was totally jealous. Shiro was his hero after all. But it certainly hadn’t come as a surprise. Keith was a genius. Maybe not like Hunk or Pidge, but a genius pilot and an unbelievably strong fighter second only to Shiro. And again, Lance felt like he was trapped in the middle, neither smart nor really strong just…there.
Keith looked up and Lance swiftly dropped his gaze. He silently cursed himself and prayed he wasn’t as obvious as he thought.
“Kestia is a small planet about one jump from our current location,” Allura moved her hands over the controls and brought up the screen that depicted a grey and violet planet roughly the size of Pluto with two small moons. “I heard the distress signal just now… a ship carrying a group of refugee Eluzians suffered a main engine malfunction, and they crash landed on the planet. Kestia used to be a Galra base of operations. I don’t believe there are any Galra soldiers left, but we must be cautious regardless.”
Allura trailed off as she zoomed in on the planet. It was a thick jungle of purple trees and unusually bright blue water. Among the thick tangle of jungle trees, a large black building stood. Allura turned from the screen to look at each of them in turn. The air was heavy as her eyes lingered for a moment in the empty space where Shiro should have been. But she quickly returned to giving orders.
“Keith, Shiro wanted you to lead the team in his absence did he not?” Allura looked over at the red paladin.
“Wait, what?” Lance blinked, a whole new wave of shock and disbelief crashing over him. “Keith is our new leader?” Since when did Shiro say that? And wait, did everyone know?
“I—”Keith looked away from Allura’s gaze. “He said...yeah.”
“Keith?” Lance repeated.
“Yes,” Allura sighed. “Without your leader, the team is…fragile,” she looked uncertain, maybe even uneasy.
“Fragile is an understatement,” Coran pulled the edge of his mustache as he looked over at the four of them. “You have to keep it together now, for the good of the galaxy! No time to waver.”
“I understand it may be difficult to adjust, but you must rely on the bonds you have with each other to move forward. The fight is not yet over, Paladins,” Allura’s voice was soft but steady.
“Listen,” Keith sighed and turned to face them. “I know I’m not… I’m not Shiro, and I’ll never be Shiro. But we made it this far as a team, so…” He trailed off.
Lance felt his fingers twitch at his side. He clenched his hands and looked away. Neither Pidge nor Hunk looked particularly surprised, so either they know or they figured. It made logical sense. Of course their leader was Keith. He was strong and collected and never afraid to throw himself into danger, skilled and brave, and everything Lance wasn’t. The divide between them just seemed to keep getting bigger.
“Awesome speech,” Lance replied dryly. “Good pep talk,” He didn’t mean to say it, not exactly. Not like that. And he hated that his words came out bitter and resentful and childish. He felt weirdly, unjustly upset which was stupid.
Lance cursed himself again as Keith turned to look at him, his mouth turned downward in that way he did when he was agitated and trying to hold something back. Before he could say anything though, Hunk chimed in and Lance silently sent him waves of gratitude.
“So we just go in and help repair their ships? I mean, we’ve got some spare parts around. We were going to use them to repair the cooling panel and stuff but we can pick up more later, I guess?”
“Actually, yes. I’ll go and purchase some new parts for our ship, and you can take what we have and help the refugee Eluzians.” Coran folded his hands behind his back.
“I’ll stay here and keep the scanners open for any sign of trouble. I don’t anticipate any Galra still being on the planet, but be careful regardless,” Allura closed the screens with pictures of the small planet.
“Suit up, and I’ll take us through the jump. The box of supplies is on the main hangar. And one more thing,” Allura stopped as if she had suddenly remembered something important. “Kestia is very close to its star, and its atmosphere is thin. The radiation affects technology a great deal. I believe that’s why it took so long for the refugee Eluzians to get their distress signal through. Our equipment may be affected, and that’s why it’s vitally important you stay together.”
Everyone was quiet as the ship made the jump, and they all moved towards the hangar and to their lions. Lance's hands moved to the controls once inside, and he felt Blue stir underneath his touch. His fingers slotted into the grooves easily and he relaxed. He felt the familiar push against his mind as his lion sent him a silent inquiry.
“Mm’fine, girl,” he responded. He could almost feel how his lion didn’t quite believe him, but he heard a soft purr before the lights on the console flared to life. And then he heard a voice on his comm.
“Alright. Pidge, Hunk, you go down to the ship and find out how bad the situation is, and asses how much time we’ll need to get it up and running. Bring the cargo box with you and attend to any injured Eluzians.”
“Roger,” Pidge sent Green forward and it soared into empty space.
“On it,” Hunk replied at the same time. His lion roared from his chamber before it followed Pidge.
Lance tensed, and his fingers wrapped tightly around the controls. Because if Pidge and Hunk were branching off, that left the two of them. He silently prayed that Keith’s next words were not to team up. He always said the wrong things around Keith.
“Lance, you take patrol to the North and East of the city, I’ll take patrol to the West and South. If you see any sign of Galra, report in before making a move. And don’t wander too far, we don’t know how our lions or our suits will react to the atmosphere.”
“Yeah, yeah. Don’t wander off, got it,” Lance pushed forward and Blue raced along until they were out in open space. The descent through Kestia’s atmosphere was rough. He felt Blue shake as they sped up, and he adjusted the controls accordingly to slow their descent.
They landed hard on the strange planet. The air had an unusual color, like a soft purple filter covered everything in sight. He moved slowly through the thick jungle, checking the direction on his console.
“North and East, huh,” Lance slowly increased speed until they were moving through the thick trees as quickly as possible. He pulled up the scanners to search the area for any sign of activity. The radar remained blank even as they plunged further into the jungle.
It seemed like Allura was right, he didn’t see any sign of Galra anywhere near here anymore. Which was probably a good thing for them, considering they only had four lions.
Lance yawned and leaned back in the chair. His hands lazily moved Blue through the thick line of trees and foliage. He hadn’t heard Keith in a while, so there probably wasn’t anything on his end either.
Man, his eyelids were heavy. He blinked once, and twice. His head started to fall forward as his vision blurred. Blue gently poked him and he murmured a nonsensical reply. His hands started to slip from the controls.
He almost didn’t see it in time when it appeared. But the small white form in the jungle pathway in front of him looked so out of place in the dark purple landscape that his brain processed it just in time. He yelped and yanked on the controls to stop Blue, his heart hammered in his chest as they skidded to a halt in front of a small white child.
Everything from her hair, eyes, clothes, and even furry ears were a soft white, like snow. She didn’t appear frightened or confused even as Blue skidded to a halt in front of her. But when she held up a large clawed hand Lance felt something shock him and then the screen went dead. The light from the console inside Blue went dark and Lance was left in a quiet, unresponsive lion.
“Blue, hey… you alright?” He blinked and rubbed his hand, and tentatively tested the controls again. But he felt no response, no voice. There was a strange static in the air, like everything was lightly charged. His body felt a little strange. What the hell was up with that kid? Lance groaned and slowly stood up to move from the cockpit.
“Hey, little girl! Or… or boy,” He jumped out and landed on the ground, but when he looked up the small child was gone. “Hey! Oh come on…”
He flipped the switch on his helmet to activate his communication device. “Blue is down. I can’t seem to get a response out of her. Also, there’s a creepy kid around here that really wants to play a game of hide-and-seek.”
He heard the soft sound of static and then bits and pieces of voices on the other end.
“Keith?” He tried again. But all he could hear were muffled words, like a radio station just out of tune.
“L…c…ge…he…r.e…don…too far………”
“Oh,” Lance winced as he realized that the comms were acting up. He hadn’t even gone that far! They shouldn’t be out of range already. Unless… Allura did say that the radiation affected technology.
He heard a giggle and definitely did not shriek at the sound. He spun around and saw a flash of white. Okay, so this was definitely the beginning of every horror movie ever and he did NOT want to end up the first casualty. Or any casualty really. He liked living.
But it was just a kid. They probably needed help. He sighed and started to follow them.
“Hey, come back! I’m here to help you. We’re here to rescue you!” Lance grumbled as he made his way through the thick jungle foliage, pushing aside branches and stepping over large black roots. He saw the child again, just a flash before they ran off and he ran to catch up.
“Wait! Seriously, you’ve gotta come back it’s not sa—”
The ground beneath his feet became weirdly soft, and hard soil became a slippery mess of foliage and a tangle of roots. He tripped and fell forward, and the ground was suddenly way too steep and wet and… oh he was falling.
His hands grasped wildly for anything but he couldn’t find purchase, and his body slammed hard into the ground again, and again. Bolts of pain racked through his body and he screamed, everything rushed past him at insane speeds, a blur of purple and black as he tumbled down the side of a ravine. He hit the bottom hard. His hands moved to try and catch him, but his body landed at a funny angle. His wrist throbbed in sharp pain as it bent and he felt his head connect with the ground with a sickening smack. His helmet cracked and flew off after the impact. The world was spinning and pain exploded through him like a white-hot bolt of lightning. And then, everything stopped.