Work Text
It was more of an accident, really. Pidge was simply searching the ship for bits and pieces of junk she could include in her new project and asked Hunk for help.
She was building some kind of robot, much like the sentries the Galra used.
And since Keith was by far their best fighter, they obviously asked him for help as well, to analyse how to defeat the sentries other than just deceive them.
In short, they wanted to build a robot that looked exactly like the Galra´s, but was far stronger than them. That was also, why they asked Shiro to let them scan his robotic arm that held both knowledge about the Galran technology as well as keys to their control systems, which would also be included in the programming.Additionally they would ask Allura for help as well, as she knew about quintessence. This was supposed to be included in the robot as well.
Last but not least, they asked Coran about the mechanics of the robots in the castle. They used to fight them on different levels in training and wanted provide the robot with other different fighting methods and so on.They were so focused on their little project, everything else became peripheral vision.
So, when Pidge was rummaging through the library with Allura, they did not expect to find a “truth device”.
Which in itself was, with all these alienating things going on around them, not much of a surprise at first. Until even Allura seemed perplexed at it´s existence.“Wanna try it out?”, Pidge asked with an amused smile on her face. Moments like these, were even Allura was at a loss, were pretty rare. And Pidge liked to treasure them.
You see, the device they found was not necessary something you used to scan someone or let someone say stuff and it would tell you whether or not the person was telling the truth.
It was more like some kind of search machine, like google or bing that answered all of your questions truthfully.
Except for questions regarding the future, since they were not included in the programming yet. At least that was what they could make of the instructions.The device itself looked kind of like the phones they brought along from earth. Except, the holographic screens were blue, not orange, and the text was in Altean.“Pidge pressed a little button on the side of the phone, as they both sat down on the table near the shelves. Somewhere in the middle of the library.“Do you think it can translate to English?”, Pidge asked and immediately the phone responded with a simple “yes it can”. Just as Allura had opened her mouth to answer, so she just closed it again.“What should we ask...?”, Pidge wondered allowed and again, the device responded.
“Anything you want”. Pidge snorted at that.
“Alright, what is Hunk doing right now?”, she asked, grinning disbelievingly. This was a question she didn´t think the device could answer, since it didn´t know Hunk at all. To her surprise, however, the screen switched to a map of the castle of lions.
A small dot blinked somewhere that Pidge recognized as the castle´s kitchen.
“Hunk Garret is currently cooking pasta.”, it said.“No fucking way. How did it know?”, Allura whispered.
This time, the device did not answer. Pidge raised her eyebrow. “Why isn´t it answering you?”“Honar has a programm that only answers to it´s holders questions, in a way they may prefer. The holders implications are the key to the answers. While Honar may hold an infinity amount of information, it is limited in the curiosity of it´s holder.”, Pidge read out aloud. “This makes sense. So, it calls itself Honar, I see.”Suddenly, Allura stood up, her eyes beaming. “This is perfect! Don´t you see? This device may be the key to defeat the Galra! If it works as it says it does, we may use it to improve our systems and we will know everything they are planning and o my, this is such a huge advantage!”Pidge grinned as well. “That is, if it works as well as it says it does. We should surely test it first, don´t you agree?” (“she does”)
“I do!”, Allura laughed again.---------------------------------------Keith looked at the device in curiosity. “And why exactly should I try it?”, he asked, eyes fixed on honar in his hand.
“Because, Allura, Hunk and I need to analyze the results. And you are literally the only one who we could ask.”“What about Shiro? Coran? Lance?!”, he asked, mildly confused.
“Because, Shiro is busy with black, and Coran and Lance would probably destroy the device.”, Pidge answered.
Naturally, Keith sighed in understanding. Until he looked at the device again. Then, he frowned.“Pidge is actually afraid, Shiro´s arm might have an influence on Honar´s programming. She is afraid it might send it´s information to the Galra.
Coran might actually mess with Honars system.”, he read aloud and Pidge´s eyes went wide.“That is – ehm”, she blushed in shame. “I´m just-”
“It´s fine.”, Keith answered. “I understand why you wouldn´t trust a technology that was made by the Galra.”
He ignored the last sentence, that made him stop in his tracks a bit. ,Pidge didn´t think of Lance.´, honar said, but he didn´t read it out.“Anyway, would you mind asking it a few questions?”, Pidge asked, as she sat down criss cross on the ground, note pad in hand. Allura followed her example, unusually quiet.Keith felt weird, still standing, so he kneeled down as well. What an improper way to use the common room that had more than one totally functional couch standing around.“Alright, ehm. What to ask... Who is the leader of Volton?”, he asked, ignoring the groan Pidge made.
`Voltron´s leader: Formerly King of Daibazaal Zarkon. Currently: Takashi Shirogane, a human pilot.´, honar answered.“Ok, ehm. What is my favorite color?” ,Purple´.“Oh, my god Keith. Can you please ask the device something productive?”, Pidge asked, already annoyed of the stupidity Keith just portrayed.“Sorry Pidge, I just don´t know what to ask. Oh, wait, I know. Hey, honar. What is it that I most want to know?”
At that, Pidge perked up, while Keith read the answer that made him blush even further.,Does Lance remember the bonding moment?´
Keith didn´t say anything. “Well, just ask it already!”, Pidge said, impatiently.Keith brain, however, was working highwire. Way faster then normal, because he certainly did not want to ask this out loud.
But at the same time, he did not have another question to ask. And now that he knew he could ask this, he felt trapped.“I- ehm. I don´t think I can ask this while you two are listening.”, he said shyly.
Allura looked at him with kind eyes, the blue of her eyes crystal, but not the eyes Keith would be most afraid to look into right now.
“You can trust us, we are a team, remember?”, she said, her voice full of kindness.“Really?”, he asked. ,you can´, honar said and Keith felt a calmness falling over him at the reassuring words.
“Alright. This might sound a bit weird, so please don´t judge me.
Does- does Lance remember what happened when we fought Sendak, right before he became unconscious?”
Pidge furrowed her eyebrows at the vague question. Keith didn´t want to get his hopes up, so he had his eyes closed for a while. His heart suddenly beating way too fast in his chest.Slowly, still unable to tell whether or not he wanted to know the answer, he opened his eyes again.
,he does.´
Keith jumped to his feet. “This motherquizznacking liar!”, he shouted, surprising both Pidge and Allura as they looked at him in confusion. They shared a glance.
“Why did you want to ask that?”, Allura asked, feeling less helpful then she did all day.
“Not important! Why would he lie about it?”, Keith stated, rather then asked, but honar answered anyway..
As he stared at the screen again, his arms went limb. ,he wasn´t ready.´
Keith took a deep breath.“Ready for what?”, he finally managed to ask. ,To face his feelings.´
“What feelings?”Keith felt himselff ask impatiently, while Pidge and Allura continued to watch. Forgotten their sense of privacy, forgotten why they did this in the first place.,Lance faces a constant struggle with multiple feelings. The loss of his home, his family. The fear of loosing people he is close to. Especially through the war.
He feels a constant lonliness due to the fact that he may be the weakest and least important member of Voltron.
Additionally he faces a high amount of pressure of keeping the team together, while assuming he doesn´t contribute enough for the team. He is afraid of becoming nothing more than a replacement, ever since he shared classes with the school´s best pilot and being constantly compared to him.Another factor may be that the whole world depends on Voltron, but upon seeing him, the former blue paladin who apparently wasn´t enough for blue and barely a replacement for red, they appear disappointed.
He is afraid of loosing people´s trust and his own faith. He feels left out and ignored, while simultaneously people tend to point out each of his flaws.Lance experiences the dread of being the class clown nobody finds funny. To ease his worries he compensates his feelings by trying to flirt with girls.
The bonding moment reminded him of his internal struggle with his sexuality, intensified through the fact that the moment included his self proclaimed rival, as the guy he always tries to reach. Moreover the guy he replaced as the right hand man as well as the guy who had to leave to even promote him to fighter class, back at the Garrison.
Because he finds that his feelings are far less important than the universe´s current state, Lance continues to deal with his anxiety on his own, while falling more and more behind and trying to find his place on the team.´Keith stopped reading this out loud and suddenly a heavy silence fell over the room.Allura was the first one to return from her frozen seat. “This- this is not true is it?”
Keith just stared at the answer to his question. Again, he found himself in a state of heavy thinking, replaying the current last events that brought them here.“Did either of you include Lance on your plans to build the robot?”, he asked, wondering.
Pidge looked at him incredulous. “Of course we did, he ehm...”, she stopped and Keith sighed, as he showed her Honars answer.
,They did not. Lance is unaware of the project.´“But-”, Pidge said, thinking like crazy to find something she might have done with the Robot, Lance in mind.“Also, you didn´t even think about giving Honar to Lance. As I asked earlier, that was Honar´s answer. I didn´t think much of it, but now -”, Keith stopped helplessly.What was happening? A second ago he had hoped for an answer that may give him a hint that Lance liked him. And now that he had a reason to hope, he felt nothing but dread.
Was Lance dealing with all of this alone? How did nobody see him struggle at all? Lance seemed so happy all the time.“Since when is Lance feeling these things?”, he asked instead and looked at the holographic screen once again.,Lance has been dealing with most of these feelings ever since he joined the Garrison. Voltron intensified his anxiety rapidly.´“Have we really been ignoring him all this time? I mean, Hunk is his best friend, this would not happen with him around, right?”, Keith asked further, worry in his tone as well as disbelieve.,Lance´s personality is a heavy mask he created to perceive Director Iversion. His friends and family have been proven unable to look through him.´Keith just gaped at the last answer.“But... He seems so happy all the time. Is he constantly lying to us?”, he asked, waiting for his answer. This time, however, the answer appeared surprising vague.
,Lance is overcompensating.´Keith went quiet after that.
It was Pidge who broke the silence soon after. “Well, ehm, any suggestions how we could include Lance more in our .. well.. the things we normaly do? I mean, no offense but I think Lance is barely any help. Sure he is a pretty good fighter. Surprisingly so as our sharpshooter. I mean, he is aware of our strengths and is our sharpshooter for a reason and therefore top priority, if we fought the entire team of Voltron head on. His knowledge for mechanics however- I´m not sure about that.”Keith looked at her, really looked. He didn´t even waver as he asked his next question.
“What does Lance provide to the team.”
Pidge´s eyes widened at the sound of Keith´s strained voice. Because this should not be a question on a team that fought an intergalactic war.,Lance McClain takes care of all of the other members of Voltron.
He makes sure they eat, sleep and take breaks. He eases the mood which is often strained in a war.
He takes care of the mice whenever Allura is too busy with making plans with Shiro.
He makes sure that there is always someone awake at the castle, in case of an emergency. He and Coran take shifts after Allura and Pidge go to bed far later than their immune-system prefers.
He helps out each of the projects if so required. This includes the cleaning of the castle as well as individual needs of his friends. Such as Hunk´s cooking, Pidge´s game night, Keith´s training obsession and Allura´s meditation routine.
He makes sure nobody ever feels alone. He also takes care of the injured after the healing pod of the castle has done it´s job.
He asks for their well being and convinces most of them to trust in team Voltron.
This proves that he pays attention to their needs and strengthens the bonds between the coalitions. Especially since he keeps in contact with each of the people who dared to exchange their contact information.Lance pays a lot of attention to Allura´s and Shiro´s plans and leaves notes on how to improve them if he finds necessary. Neither Allura nor Shiro are aware of this fact, since they tend to leave each other notes as well.´At this point, Allura interjected with a low whispered: “that was Lance?”Keith stopped in favor of his irritation, but continued reading either way.
,Lance has mastered both the Galran as well as the Altean language which could have been of some help, if Pidge had not created a device that translates them automatically.He also made sure to listen to Hunk and Pidge, whenever they talk about mechanics. Despite understanding barely half of what they say, he tries to translate their rambling into easier words, so Shiro and Keith may also understand them. His sentences may come of as a bit oversimplified, but are incredibly precise.
Lance is capable of shifting his overdramatic, joking behavior to a quite serious one that rivals Shiro´s calm manner and even exceeds him sometimes.
He was also able to keep Keith calm and collected as the Lion switch occurred...´,
Keith stopped. “This list seems endless. Do I have to read all of this?”, he asked, unsure of what else to say.Pidge still stared at him with wide eyes. She almost seemed to tremble as she tried to progress what she had just heard.
“I- I didn´t realize Lance was paying so much attention to us. I thought this was normal. I thought he was just bored when he played games with me. I didn´t think he considered it his duty.“What would happen, if Lance suddenly disappeared from our life´s?”, Keith slowly asked, afraid of the answer.
,Impossible request. You may ask a question that does not rely on Variables.´Keith sighed, almost laughed at the answer. “Should have known.”, he said, shaking his head.“Still, I wonder what the most plausible answer to that would be.”, he smirked at Pidge, barely noticing how suddenly the answer on Honar changed. Pidge, on the other hand, did.
“Keith-”
“What?”, he asked, looking back at the device. And his smirk fell. Really fell. Slowly, but steadily as he stared at the answer.
Perhaps is was the fact that he had changed the nature of his question into something that didn´t require the ability to predict the future but it´s possibilities. But nothing could have prepared him for this answer.
He would have predicted an answer like “the paladins would be unable to form Voltron”, or “the team would constantly be depressed”, perhaps even, “this or that person would die, because Lance was unable to save them.Keith whispered the answer into the common room, disbelieve weighing down his tone and creating a silence that felt heavier than any funeral Keith ever attended. His own father´s included.“If Lance were to disappear from existence, indifferent to the team keeping their memories of him, the most probable future would be the destruction/obduction of Voltron by the Galra as a result of the current paladins mass suicide.
The suicide being a side effect of loosing Voltron´s spirit as well as loosing the ability to pilot the lions. Furthermore, this would end in the abandonment as well as destruction of the blade of Marmora, whose hopes and dreams and achievements were made in search for the magical Robot lions.
The coalition would fall apart in it´s root, same planets being destroyed for quintessence research or completely taken over by Galra forces.
Earth would be destroyed, the entire reason for the rebellion would disappear and the Galra´s reign would take on at least another ten thousand years.”Keith looked up, staring into Allura´s widened eyes. Pidge just stared at the screen blankly.“I- I don´t understand, why would we be unable to pilot the lions? We´d be five paladins, it should be possible. Considering we loose our memories of Lance? This doesn´t make sense.”
Keith looked at her and handed over the device. “You tell me.”Allura took honar from him, requestioning her previous request.
“Lance is the spirit of Voltron. He keeps the paladins calm and connected. Without him, there may be pairs in the team or small groups, but no connections. Pidge and Keith are most likely to keep to themselves without Lance being their reason to complain to one another.
It is Lance who convinces the other paladins to follow the plan of their leader. If Lance were to disappear, Shiro may take the lead of Voltron, but there would be rebellions within the group. Without Lance to take the blame for small mistakes on the team, communication would be the first thing to be jeopardized.
Isolation would be what follows. As the spirit, Lance reminds the team of what to fight for while watching each of his comrades back. Without him, even the lions would cease to understand the purpose of the war and may or may not stop responding to their paladins.
If any other paladin, however, were to suddenly appear, Lance would be able to fill up their places. Both in the team balance as well as in taking over their responsibilities of being paladins...”Again, the room fell silent.
This time, however, there was no follow up question. Nothing disrupted the quietness.
They knew now what this device did. It really did tell the truth. They had not thought about how important all of this information had been.
But now that they had heard it, they just felt the depth of it, felt the honesty.
They had just failed to see it up until now. How valuable their “weakest” paladin truly was.
If only they were not so absorbed in their own confusion and surprise, they might have heard the steps that halted somewhere in the hallway.
Clearly eavesdropping on every single word they read aloud, stumbling backwards as the questions suddenly hit way too close to home.And if you payed a little more attention, or were right beside him, you may be able to see the silent tears streaming down Lance´s face as he sank to the ground right beside the magical front door. You could see the devastation in his eyes at the realization, the relief but also the massive fear of all this responsibility lasted on his shoulder.And finally, you may notice how nothing of what was said up until now had ever even been lied to him. You´d realize how he sat on the floor alone, isolated, not even briefed of any of the plans his friends had with Voltron. He was simply left alone with all of his burden. Now that they were told his worth? Who knows if they´d ever tell him.