Work Text
Lance was once a normal child.He had dreams of going to space. Travelling among the stars and planets and the infinite universe. He had planned to join the Galaxy Garrison, a prestigious and sought after school for aspiring space cadets. He wanted to be top of his class, a fighter pilot, adored and loved by all. He wanted to meet his hero, Takashi Shirogane, or Shiro as most people refer to him, and be just like him. He could remember a time when his biggest worry was passing the entrance exams and getting a crew that he actually liked. In retrospect, it all seems so frivolous now.Lance never got that chance. He never got the chance to be a fighter pilot with a great crew. He never got the chance to meet his hero. Lance never even got to say his last goodbyes. His familia back home in Cuba must think he dropped off the face of the Earth, abandoning them. Or perhaps they thought him dead. He might as well be, for as long as he has been gone.Lance can’t even really tell you how long that is himself. He could have been gone for a month, or he could have been gone for a year. Space is weird like that. Especially where he is right now. Time doesn’t exist here. His hands are cuffed in front of him with tech far more advanced than his home planet, the metal cool to the touch, and tight around his wrists.His ankles are chained in much the same fashion, a strip of what he imagines is purple electricity being the only connection between his cuffs. Logically, he should be able to snap the electric band by moving the cuffs beyond its reach, snapping the connection, but they stopped as if the purple electricity are metal chain links. Lance is shoved forward a little by one of the guards behind him. Another logical thing, is that the creatures leading him through the dark hall lit by an eerie purple light are just really tall humans. Because there is no such thing as aliens.Logically. Or at least he himself never believed in the idea. He hoped but he wasn’t one of those fanatics about aliens. But these monsters are no human.They stand at a whopping seven or eight feet tall, towering over him as if he’s a child. They don’t have skin, or at least not any skin that Lance has ever seen before. These creatures’ skin is purple, and sometimes covered with a coarse looking purple fur. They have eyes with no pupil, which glow a creepy yellow from one corner of the eye to the other. No whites, no pupil, no irises. Just yellow. Some, if not all of the creatures bare fangs in place of where a human would have canine teeth, though not quite as long as an actual canine’s. Still, they’re long and sharp enough to scare Lance shitless. No matter how many crazy things he sees as he walks in chains, no matter how scary other creatures can be, these purple aliens that tower over him are terrifying. Especially those with the prosthetic weapons. Some of these prosthetics are even detachable and can still be functional, away from the body. Now that, that is some scary shit.There is dark magic- which, yes, apparently exists- within those limbs.Unfortunately, Lance is no exception to this terrifying type of ‘upgrades’. Lance, contrary to popular opinion from the native English speaking jerks back on Earth, is not dumb. He can’t afford to be, not in a situation and environment like the one he is in now. He can’t play dumb, because if he does, he gets hurt, and if he gets hurt, it’s all that more difficult to survive in the Arena.
The Arena.
They make it sound like some sort of stadium, where a harmless game of football (American, European, doesn’t matter) is played. It sounds like such an innocent thing when on its own. It sounds nothing like the ring of death and pain that it really is. The Galra- which Lance has learned is what the purple species is called- like to watch prisoners of war and prisoners in general fight to the death. Like a horrific re-run of the Ancient Roman Gladiator matches.The Galra are an evil, powerful, world conquering and destroying race, who have no remorse for the pain they cause. They harvest the ‘lifeforce’ of planets, turning that strange energy Lance has yet to fully comprehend- and maybe never will- into a corrupted form of itself. Then they use this corrupted energy (quin-something) as a fuel source for their weapons, ships, and droids. Which would be fine, if collecting the energy didn’t mean killing planets and civilizations.The Empire, which of course it’s an Empire and not a kingdom, is ruled by a Galra named Zarkon.If he wants to believe everything the prisoners gossip to him about, he would have to believe that this Zarkon has managed to live for ten thousand years. He’s not sure if that is even physically possible, but then again, aliens. Maybe humans just have a shorter life span than some. Lance hopes he never meets the Emperor in person.Zarkon is borderline obsessed with Quin-what ever (quin-essence? Wait no, it's quintessence). As much as he's learned about this quintessence, the closest thing he can understand it to be is something akin to spirit, soul, or nature, like a person's ‘nature’. In its natural state, or the only state Lance knows of before the corruption, the quintessence is a bright yellow, plasma in nature. When he's in close proximity he can feel the plasma-like stuff pulsing, throbbing with life energy. As if it's a living, breathing, sentient being in and of itself. He's only come into close contact with the yellow quintessence once in his stay as a prisoner and gladiator, but the quintessence had called to him. Drawing him towards it like a lighthouse on a stormy night.His entire body ached, blood positively boiling just to get closer to it. Perhaps that's odd though, given the looks he got from other prisoners when he tried to explain the feeling. Lance could tell, despite more than half of the aliens not being even close to human-like in features and expressions. Lance is knocked out of his reminiscing by a harsh shove forward.He nearly went sprawling to the floor, but he's lucky, having stayed on his feet. Falling to the ground meant weakness, and weakness gives the guards ample reason to ‘discipline’ him. He wishes he could show these giant purple space cats just how disciplined he really is. Preferably using one of their high tech blasters they carry strapped to their chests or held in their hands.Lance grits his teeth as an older injury in his ankle flares up from his stepping wrong. Just you wait, Lance thinks to himself, you'll all get what's coming for you. Real soon. Lance is surrounded by four guards, which is, admittedly three more than usually used for transporting normal prisoners. But, again, Lance is not normal, not anymore.Unlike most prisoners, he's never heard of the Galra. He didn't grow up with the fear of the Galra in his veins. It's because of that lack of fear, that lack of knowledge, that he refuses to conform. Every step of the way he's fought, every step of the way he's been unruly. For every moment he stays a prisoner, it's a moment he's hard to handle. As a gladiator the rule of thumb is simple. The longer you live, the more you fight. The more you win, the more popular you become. And after a certain point, you get popular enough that you get a title. Few ever make it long enough to receive a title, so when Lance- who is arguably one of the smaller types of alien races in the known universe- lived through his first match, it was inevitable that his time would come. Lance is being led to another match, his biggest yet apparently. All the guards can talk about is the fact that the Emperor Zarkon will appear. As if the monster is some big celebrity. Zarkon must brainwash his entire empire, because surely he's not this loved, even by his own race. As they get closer and closer to the Arena, Lance can hear the steady roar of cheering from the crowds grow louder with every step. They shove him none too gently into the cage that would bring him up to the Arena, and the noise of the crowd scream like the angry waves on Varadero beach with a raging storm overhead. It's thunderous, vibrating the metal beneath his feet. Even going so far as to make the metal of his handcuffs quiver in motion. Lance grits his teeth even harder, fighting with himself to not snap back. To not resist. He resigns himself to the dreaded match looming ahead of him. He's always hated what he resorts to when in the Arena. Sometimes his opponents will be seasoned gladiators such as himself, and others are merely lambs to the slaughter. All for the cruelty of entertaining the Galra.Lance made the mistake of allowing his opponents to live one time too many. A kid was the breaking point, more humanoid than most he has seen throughout his months, and it was the child that was made to suffer for it. They broke something inside of Lance that day, something crucial to his humanity, and now it's time to make them pay for it. After that, unless it's Lance's turn to die, he never let another being survive the ring. It's a cruel mercy in his eyes.Lance sucks in a breath, the air hissing between his teeth as the noise of the crowd reaches a crescendo. There's a familiar chanting that makes his entire core feel tight with nausea. “Fin-ish him! Fin-ish him!” The words echo in his ears and any remorse he may have had after today is gone. These monsters don't deserve his remorse. His victims, yes, but never these monsters. Lance braces himself for one last time, shutting away all of his horror and pain and sorrow into the deepest parts of his being, locking it away and throwing away the keys. He doesn't open his eyes as the cage begins to ascend. The cage soon stutters to a stop, the distinct hum coming from the technology hidden beneath the sleek metal panels being drowned out by another load roar from the crowds.He doesn't open his eyes as the cage doors open and the dull roar becomes a deafening wall of screams. He's moved forward a few steps, his feet leaving metal and hitting packed dirt. Only two of the guards step out with him. Suddenly a hush descends upon the crowd, leaving behind a ringing in Lance's ears. It only lasts a few seconds before being replaced with a slow thumping resounding across the large Arena. The Galra have seen the new fighter, recognized him, and are stomping their feet in tandem. That's when he hears it.His title.
Hun-ter. Hun-ter. Hun-ter.
Lance, known as the Hunter galaxies wide, all because he never allows his ‘prey’ to escape. Lance listens, eyes still closed, as his opponent is brought onto the field. Even with his eyes closed he can figure two things out easily. One, his opponent is popular but untitled. Two, nobody seems to believe Lance will survive this one, if the rush of hushed and frantic whispers are anything to go by.He pushes the thought from his mind. Instead he opts to listen, allowing his ears to take the brunt of the sensations surrounding him. The chatter of the crowd, the slight buzzing emanating from his cuffs, the shifting of his guards. With a conscience thought, a click sounds in his head. Lance doesn't care what the Galra think. He's a fighter, a survivor, and tonight will go one of two ways. A plan, his plan, one he has been working on for weeks with an outside force, will finally come to fruition. Should things go as planned, he'll finally see the outside of these metal walls for the first time. Lance will be free.Or he will be dead.Should the plan fail, the Galra will kill him for his attempt to escape, or he will willingly succumb to the gladiator fight and die in captivity as the Hunter. Either way, Lance is never returning to a cell. Not if he has anything to do with it anyways. Another sort of hush falls upon the crowd. One that is filled with excitement, and a nervous energy. The two Galra move behind him, the shifting of their not-quite-perfectly-fitted armor giving them away as clear as day. Lance breathes in, and feels the shackles on his ankles be removed.He stays still.Holds out his wrists, as if he would willingly go into this fight without resisting. Let them believe he has conformed. Let them believe him a monster of their own creation. The shackles came off and Lance opens his eyes.His vision is darkened in a purple glow.Numbers and calculations, a circular target moving in and out of focus like a camera lense; they seem as if they're floating in mid air, but Lance knows better.This is Lance's upgrade, the one Zarkon’s witch did to him.He calls them computer eyes, because essentially, that is what they are. Although it isn’t both of his eyes, the change was only done to his right eye, and in this mode, his left eye was pretty much closed while still wide open. His handcuffs flutter to the ground, moving in almost slow motion. The moment the sound of his cuffs hitting dirt filters through his ears, Lance strikes.Lance smiles ferally, like an animal.And the arena is filled with screams.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Lance looks away from his wrist screen, the map on his screen far nicer than the actual system he’s travelling through. According to the map, he was in the right place. According to his eyes, he’s clearly not. He’s looking for a computer genius escapee from the Galran Empire. The guy should be right here, but ‘here’ is in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere. An irritated snarl curls on his lips against his will as he watches his hard work go down the drain. This genius used to willingly work with the Galra, but he soon defected to go into hiding, protecting his vast knowledge of the Galra tech. As much as Lance despises the Galra Empire, that has no effect on his need to be returned to normal. This guy, this genius, used to help the witch with her upgrades so perhaps he could assist him in freeing himself from the Witch’s control.If the guy wants to join the Freedom Fighters, or the Blade, then good on him.He subconsciously raises a hand to touch his face, trying to press into the technology lined mask that covers his artificial eye and ear, making him half blind. He’s stopped short by his helmet, the only thing keeping him from suffocating in the emptiness of space. Lance just wants the tracker in his eye either permanently blocked or removed completely. He knows it’s there because of how easy it was for the Galra to locate him before he got the signal jamming mask.However, this is just unbelievable. Lance float weightlessly through space, faced with a deserted and almost completely destroyed ship, blasted into pieces. For miles debris scatters, thus making this small pocket of space a ship graveyard and a nightmare to navigate. Of course, Lance being Lance, he still tried anyways. About halfway to the ship however, he was forced to travel by jetpack.The ship’s gravity generator is in shambles. The outer hull boasting huge gaping holes where metal used to be, frayed wires and cords floating lifelessly from where they’re snapped and destroyed. Lance pushes off a piece of debris and floats into the biggest hole of the ship, then easily finds his way to the main control panel. It’s relatively intact, if not worn and distressed. He fiddles around in the wires to try and restart the control panel, diverting all left over power should there be any. There’s a faint flicker of a holoscreen, giving Lance hope to find out if the defector lives.Then it promptly dies.Not discouraged, Lance races back to his ship as fast the debris allows after downloading all the information left using his suit for power. Then he gets out of there, navigating the debris as best as his distracted mind could allow. He finds a nice little planet nearby showing no signs of obvious life. It’s covered in a burgundy sand that sparkles in the nearby moon’s light.Most of the information left is useless to him. It’s mainly just logs of previous coordinates and a little jotted note of the defector’s movements, plus a lot of digitally corrupted data. After skimming through all of the useless information on the log, he stumbles upon what he's been after in the first place, evidence on whether or not the defector lives. He pulls up the emergency camera logs. Most older ship models don’t have the Emergency Camera, but Lance got lucky today with this ship.He pulls up the last video and settles in his piloting chair with his arms crossed, waiting for the show to start.The screen that displays the outside of his ship turns black. It lasts a tick or two, and Lance takes the moment to roll his neck.Next thing he knows, Lance is falling out of his chair with a yelp. The sound of explosions shock his system and he automatically goes to grab his pistols. He calms down when he realizes the noise is coming from the video feed. He settles back down as he takes in the scene laid out before him.The screen is split down the center, cutting the screen into two different views. The one on the right is a picture of a Galra male, older than most of the Galra he’s had the displeasure of meeting face to face. He looks like an older, grumpy looking, giant purple space cat. His eyes are still that Galra yellow, no whites or pupils with fur trimmed close to his face, which sags a little with age. The Galra man is gritting his teeth, focused on the fighter jets at his flank. On the left side of the screen, Lance sees what the defector saw.The left side of the screen spins as the man did a flip, stars blurring and a large Galra warship rising into view. It rises from the bottom, but upside down on the camera. Following the warship as it comes into view is a full fledged army of fighters that fly after the defector’s ship. The Galra is a damn good pilot, and one by one, the hoard of fighters diminish with every shot. Noise is lost in space, so the only explosions and lasers Lance can hear are the Defector’s own.Lance bites his lip as he watches the Galra defector spiral out of control, yellow eyes clenched and teeth gritted, lower fangs piercing his purple colored lip. The defector starts talking, and it takes a tick for Lance to realize the Galra was calling out for assistance. The thing is, the man was hiding in an uninhabited pocket of space. Lance watches with wide eyes- er, eye, since one of them is covered by the mask- as the defector gets overpowered. He’s shot into submission, and Lance watches as he draws a blaster.The defector faces away from the camera now, his back the only thing Lance can really see. He fires off five shots, one after the other. The muscles of the Galra’s back are tense and hunched, and he faces the control panel. Lance guesses he’s wiping the drives on the ship, before turning back to hold back the Galra boarding his ship. After about twenty shots and five dead Galra, the defector falls to the a Galran sword and dies.The soldiers retreat and the warship fires two ion cannon shots at the shuttle, and soon after the feed dies.All of that effort to escape the Empire, and no one will ever know. No except Lance, and Lance doesn’t know the guy’s name. He sighs and clears his screen, leaning back into his seat. He closes his eyes and rubs at his forehead to stave off a headache. The next day he needs to return to his crew, and his does, flying in silence. Every once in a while his fingers ghost over the mask he wears while he resigns himself to another failed attempt at freedom. When Lance had escaped the Arena, he joined with the people who helped him escape. He’s now a ranked officer of the Rebel Alliance. However, it became clear, after a series of destroyed strongholds and bases, that Lance was being tracked. They did a few short tests, and determined that his special ‘gift’ from the witch was also a way for her to track him. They sent him away from the bases, and pretty much stripped his rank down to that of a mere ship captain. He was told, in uncertain terms, to come back when he’s not spying unwillingly for Zarkon’s witch.That being said, they didn’t leave him high and dry.They provided him a trustworthy(ish) crew, and gave him the supplies needed to act out against Zarkon on their own terms. Lance is pretty much a pirate at this point, supported but not fully affiliated with the Rebel Alliance. He does as he pleases, and every once in a while checks in with his superiors. His crew like to engage in what Lance calls the ‘Robin Hood Tactics’. They steal from the Galra and redistribute the spoils of battle. Sometimes it’s small shipment of supplies, sometimes a large carrier holding valuable information, sometimes they free a couple f prisoner convoys. Whatever can’t be traded planetside, he sells either to the Rebels or the Blade of Marmora.Intense guys, the Blades.Rebel Galra who band together to infiltrate and spy on Zarkon from the shadows. The Marmorites- which is Lance’s little nickname for the members of the Blade- prefer information on Empire presence. Where they like to frequent, the most heavily guarded bases and ships, things of that nature. The Rebels on the other hand, prefer information regarding the Arenas. Prisoner transports, up and coming gladiators, shipping and trading routes, slavers. Between the information he sells to the Rebels and the Marmorites, and the near constant trading on planets, Lance is practically living the good life. He’s even one of the Empire’s most wanted.Not number one, yet, but he’s working on it. Getting on the Empire’s bad side is his favorite past time since discovering freedom from the Arena. With every exchange, he’s also paid in information on possible people who can free him from his shackles located in the right side of his head. Until that day comes, he will keep getting on the nerves of the Empire, and maybe one day he’ll be free to return home once and for all. Lance arrives back at the rendezvous point without incident, and he climbs onto his fairly large ship with a scowl. His crew meets him at the docking bay, every single one of them. He removes his helmet to inspect his crew.Lance’s crew comes from all over the universe, no two species the same, but they all share a common hatred for the Empire. Most were once prisoners, others enslaved, and only one other member of Lance’s crew came from the Arena. That’s Thorak, his Second in Command, his First Mate, whatever title fits in the moment. His species is a large one, taller than Galra, hairy all over with shiny blue bristles like a porcupine. Fists the size of Lance’s thigh.Thorak is a quiet sort of guy, usually only responding in grunts and mutters unless he’s yelling out threats or commands. His voice sounds like a car engine, low rough, rumbling and reving. Lance trusts Thorak the most of his crew, and he doesn’t trust the guy as far as he could throw him. Nama is his target coordinator. Which means she handles which Empire controlled spacecraft they target. She steps forward, her holo-computer raised with the orange screen blinking at him. The letters, numbers and images are blurred to him, seeing as he’s looking at it from behind. She’s a shorter specie, with skin the color of lavender and her body thin and sharp. Lance can’t count the number of times he’s hit on her, because for an alien she’s very pretty. Most aliens are if they aren’t terrifying.“What’s up my pretty Lavender flower?” Nama doesn’t know what a lavender is, but she rolls her eyes anyways and turns the computer towards him. It’s an image of a ship, a very large one, though Lance guesses it to be only a little bigger than his own. The technology the ship carries seems on par for Galra tech, and he stiffens at the thought of the Galra getting smart and changing their designs. The only reason it’s so easy for Lance to get what he wants is because the Empire is overconfident in their technology, and hardly change it up.“What is this?” Lance asks. Nama turns away and starts walking, and Lance shoos away the crew as he follows, Thorak close on their tails. “It’s an unfamiliar and unregistered spacecraft with technology I have never seen before. We came across their description while you were,” She pauses in her words and gives him a side eyed look. “Away.” She finishes. Lance never tells them where he’s going or what he’s doing when he searches for someone who can fix him. Not even when Thorak threatened to get physical did he reveal why he went out alone. They don’t need to know about his ‘upgrades’.“There’s nothing in the system that comes even close to matching a ship of this type before. At least, not that I can find anyways.” Nama continues. Lance hums, fighting a smile at her disgruntled expression.Nama walks into the debriefing room, the one with a couch, waiting for Lance to remove his space gear to get more comfortable. Off comes the bulky jetpack on his back, followed by thick gloves and the long brown cloak of a leather like material, with double clasps at the throat. Lastly he shucks off the breastplate and lays it all out on the couch beside him. Nama sits in front him patiently with Thorak standing to the side, arms crossed. He crosses his legs and gives the Nama the go ahead to continue and she plugs the computer up to the console. The blue screens blink on and the ship they were looking at becomes a 3D model, slowly rotating.“We know very little about the ship. However, we do know it is completely omnidirectional. We also know they have a particle barrier, but that’s fairly common in large spacecraft. We know that whoever this ship is ran by, they’re enemies of the Empire, or at least based off of circumstantial evidence they are.” Nama says. She pulls up an image of a Balmera. The poor creature is dull, pale and dying. Balmera are sentient creatures, not planets, who live in a state of paralysis. Not only that, they produce a very valuable type of crystal. The Empire controls all known Balmera as far as he knows, so it’s nigh impossible to get hands on the crystals. “Just recently, while you were off doing whatever, this ship landed on an Empire controlled Balmera.” Nama says. She takes a moment to type into the control panel, and the image changes to a video feed. It’s short, fuzzy and hard to see, but he can tell the gist of what’s going on. It’s a video taken by a Galra fighter jet. How Nama got ahold of it is beyond him, but hey, that’s what he keeps her around for. Why else keep someone he knows would stab him in the back if it met their needs on his ship? Hell, that’s pretty much his entire crew at this point.Bunch of bloodthirsty, power hungry bastards, the lot of them.The video shows the ship landing on the Balmera, and wow, much bigger than Lance expected. There’s a short moment in the clip at the end, where there is five brightly colored streaks, and one slow, gigantic monster. Lance leans forward to try and get a better look at the streaks, but the camera feed is too blurry. “Soon after landing on the Balmera, they freed the citizens. I’m trying to figure out their weapon systems, but the ship is impossible for me to track or hack into. It doesn’t run on the same wavelengths as most ships.” Nama continues. “And, not only that, but whatever they did on that Balmera healed it.” She pulls up a second image of the Balmera, healthy and free from Empire control.
Save a Balmera? Heal it? How?
The Balmera in question was no longer dull, or crumbling slowly into death. Even from a space wide view he could see the shimmer of unmined Balmera crystals coating the skin of the beast. Lance leaned forward for a closer look.Nama smiles smugly as she sees him interested, her semi-sharp, shark like teeth gleaming at him.“Go on….” Lance trails off, trying to read the words on the screen, written in Nama’s native language. He fails miserably. Most of the time Lance has a natural ear for language, but whatever nama speaks is so difficult to read and speak himself he gave up trying. No human can make the noises she claims are words.“That’s all I’ve got.” She says. Her smug smile is gone now, replaced with a scowl.“What is that supposed to mean?” Lance asks. Nama shrugs, almost casually it seems, until he notices the crease of frustration at her lips. “I can’t find anything else. If you wish,” Nama says, then grits her teeth as she bites out the next word. “Sir, we can get into contact with the higher ups and see if the Rebel Alliance has anything to offer.” Lance visibly winces at the idea of bothering Rebellion officials. The rebels on average are pretty okay people, bent on freedom from the Galra. Which is great and all. However, most of the time the High Commanding Officers of the alliance always seems to have some sort of bone to pick with him. In simple terms, Lance annoys them far too easily.“Set up the meeting.” Lance relents with a sigh. “Meanwhile, do we have a new target?” At this, Nama practically glows. The image on the control panel shifts from the sleek unfamiliar ship to a Galran ship in seconds after Nama types a few commands into the panel. He feels fire rush through his veins as he pushes away his new questions. Right now, he has a Galra ship to ravage and Gak to rake in.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Meeting with the Rebellion leaders was a waste of time.After, and only after, he endured hours of a boring meeting, that of which he spent three quarters of it arguing, she still left with as much as he went in. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Ze-ro. They know the ship is only piloted by a handful of people. They know the ship is called the Castle of Lions, and it’s a ‘castle’ apparently due to the fact that when landed, the ship is a literal castle. They know that whatever weapon was used in the Battle of the Balmera (a stupid name that is used to reference the spectacle) is exceptionally strong and unlike anything else the universe has ever seen before.They know whoever pilot the castleship has the rare ability to create wormholes at will. Meanwhile the rest of the universe is forced to rely on lightspeed, seeing as Wormhole Technology is both nearly- nonexistent, and half impossible to control. And they know whatever saved the Balmera must have used a lot of magic, almost like the witch, haggar uses. Except different apparently.
That’s it.
Everything the Rebellion could pull together on this strange spacecraft is so minimal it filled only a page on the computer file. However, for once in his long stay in space, luck is on his side. Although it makes him suspicious- because Lady Luck hates him- he still grasps the opportunity with both hands and holds on for the ride. Despite the very idea of it is basically throwing the orders he was given back in the Rebellion’s faces. Lance’s ship, which he call the Mermaid- mainly because no one on this ship knows what a mermaid is and it’s absolutely devastating- has crossed streams with the Castle of Lions. Lance and his ship had touched down on a small planet for resources and rest. When they exited into space, not even a click away was the Castle of Lions engaged in a heated battle with Galra forces. Lance watches in shock as what looks like four giant lions begin to decimate the enemy troops, even as they are steadily losing. The lions have to be the super weapon. Lance twists his lips to the side in thought. He has a quick debate on whether to listen to his CO’s and hang back and watch, or throw caution to wind and jump in the battle. The debate is short lived and he turns to his gathered crew with a wicked smile. “Nama, establish communication with the castleship. Thorak, ready the fighters to scramble. Prepare for battle but don’t move until I give the command. Everyone else, clear the bridge.” Lance says, not allowing room for discussion in his tone. A flurry of movement erupts in the room and everyone except him and Nama leave. “Ready, sir?” Nama asks, still having that bite on the word sir. Lance pushes it out of his mind and adjusts his pirate hat- because the Rebellion are pretty much pirates in the Empire’s eyes, Lance would be damned if he doesn’t wear a pirate hat as hell. He then gestures for Nama to set up the connection, rolling his shoulders back and standing tall and confident. He smiles his signature smile, the one that disarms both deadly situations and a woman’s hold on her virtue. Not that he’s had the chance lately to indulge himself in such wiles, except perhaps a little innocent flirting.The screen before him flickers to life, and he came face to faces with two humanoid aliens. One of them is set up in the center of the room, a female alien, who has both hands on two pedestals. Lance has no qualms in admitting the fact that she’s drop dead gorgeous. She has silver hair that falls down her back, two strips of bangs pinned at the back of her head and showing off her long pointed ears. On the tanned skin of her cheekbones are two pink triangular marks. Could be make up, or a tattoo, or perhaps it’s a natural marking for her species. Despite how far she stands from the screen, he notices how blue her eyes are, practically glowing. Sat delicately upon her head and nestled into her hair is a golden circlet. She wears a dress that is reminiscent of Earth’s renaissance age, long and flowing all the way to her feet. This female alien, presumably a princess or queen or empress, stands tall and proud, her lips twisted like she has just eaten a lemon. In front of her, closer to the screen, is a man with paler skin and similar marks to the woman on his cheeks, teal instead of pink. His skin draws tight around his eyes and nose with stress wrinkles, and his hair looks sort orange, slicked back and with a matching orange moustache. His eyes are a darker blue, and he’s wearing a form fitting suit that looks similar to the woman’s.“My name is Princess Allura of Altea, who are you?” The princess, Allura, demands through gritted teeth. Lance raises an eyebrow at her calmly, a little put off by the venom in her tone. He has no idea where the planet of Altea is, but from his brief experience of it’s princess, he suspects they are not a very welcoming people. Lance clears his throat and smiles brighter.“The name’s Lance. I’m apart of the Rebel Alliance, and it looks to me like you need some assistance.” Lance says, invoking every ounce of charm he has in his body. He likes this princess, she’s a fiery spirit. Princess Allura adopts a look of conflict, stumbling due to a heavy blow from the Galra. She’s scrunches her nose.“Princess!” The older man says, looking more than a little panicked. “Shields are down! I repeat shield are down!” Another blast hits the castle and Lance starts to feel a little worried for them. The princess stumbles with the rocking of the ship and nearly falls to the ground. Lance can visibly see the exhaustion on her face, even through the screen. It takes a few more ticks and another blast before Princess Allura is relenting and agreeing for the assistance. Lance smiles wide, dropping the charming smile for his natural one. “Coming to your rescue Princess!” Lance calls out. He presses the button for the intercom, and speaking to his eagerly awaiting crew, These people he flies with are warriors. Fighting and bloodshed are in their blood, especially if it’s against the Galra. Within minutes he sees a swarm of mismatched ships joining the fight. He lasts only five ticks on the bridge.“Nama,” Lance says, turning to the startled woman and gives her a double fingered salute. “I’m giving you control of my ship. Run interference on Galra radio waves, don’t allow them to call for backup. I’m going to join the fight if you don’t mind.” Nama rolls her eyes with a scowl, but raises her arm in a salute anyways.Lance practically skips out of the bridge and hops into his fighter jet as soon as he gets close. Then he takes off into space, heading straight for where the big yellow lion is being cornered and surrounded by a line of Galra fighter jets.The Galra fighter are kind of similar to his own. Sleek, small, and flat for maximum speed, with small jets in the back in pairs. With a whoops and a holler Lance shoots down half of the fighters surrounding the yellow lion, enabling it’s pilot to break free and ram the rest into a pile. In front of him two screens pop in view. One is Nama, the other the Princess. Lance goes to ask for a status report, but Nama beats him to it.“Fighters have been deployed and half the enemy fleet has been destroyed. Do you want me to request backup from the Rebellion?” She asks. Lance knows what she is really asking, is if she needs to alert the Rebellion that they’ve come into contact with the strange castleship. Lance shakes his head no, glaring at her when she narrows her eyes in disapproval at him. In his moment of distraction, his ship is hit, damaging his fighter’s left wing. Red alarms blare in his face as he tries to regain control of his ship, making it that much more difficult and giving him a headache in the process. Lance curses, yanking his ship to the right to avoid being hit by debris, and suddenly his power steering is out of commission. He bites his lip, hard, and regrets it a small bead of blood escapes the stinging skin. Stupid space, with its stupid lack of chapstick. “Lance!” Nama calls out, sounding actually a little concerned for once. Huh, Lance figured she would have jumped in glee at the prospect of his demise. His muted connection with the castleship shows Allura shouting and stumbling as they take another hit. Lance activates his mask and prepares to evacuate. “I’m fine Nama, but I’m dead in space. Coming in hot, watch out.” Lance says before jumping ship and curling into a ball to avoid the blast of his ship exploding. His ship hurtles towards a stack of mottled Galra fighters, and on collision the blast sends Lance flying in open space with a grunt.He curses as he tries to stop his quick approach to the Galra cruiser. He activates his jetpack and smacks into wall of metal debris hard. It knocks the breath out of him, but he uses it to his advantage, pushing off the metal as hard as he can to float towards his ship or the castleship. Whichever happens to be closer. It takes him a while, full of short bursts of using the jetpack to conserve energy, and pushing off debris but he finally closes in on the Mermaid. The entire ordeal takes about as long as it takes for his crew and the castle ship's crew to clean up the last of the fighters and the Galra cruiser. Lance latches onto the side of the Mermaid and keeps a hold on the ship to ease his way to an airlock. That in itself takes a lot of effort and a bit of time, but he manages it at last. He collapses in the airlock, shutting off his mask when the door closes, gasping for breath. His arms and legs burn in that way that only happens after an intense workout. Lance is positive he just used up his energy for the next few months, but he crawls out of the airlock and works his way to the main bridge. His poor pirate hat is lost to space now, but he just shrugs and forgets about it. If he truly wants another, he can make or buy one. So all in all, an uneventful battle.Lance and Nama are the only ones left on the ship now, and he waits for his crew to board the ship again. After that he gets permission to dock the Mermaid in the castleship. Allura, of course, looked like she wanted nothing more than to blast his ship to pieces, but Lance will take what he can get.He heads to the castleship’s main bridge, after getting detailed instructions on how to get there.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Before he goes to meet the princess, Lance changes outfits. Can’t meet a princess looking like some pirate right? He adopts a dark blue coat that’s tight down to his waist, and the front and back split down the center to make two tails the length of his legs, nearly brushing the floor. The color is dark, almost black, with three shiny silver fasteners at his side, causing the fabric to wrap around his body to the his hip. It’s his favorite coat, and his fanciest. The only part of his clothing that has no evidence of battle.Underneath that’s his black bodysuit that regulates his temperature, underneath a shiny armor breastplate. He keeps his cargo pants on, tucked into his nicest pair of boots that come just below his knees. The coat is pressed to his skin at the forearms by two gauntlets. The right is used for scanning, hacking (done remotely by Nama more often than not), and connects to the jetpack controls in his black gloves. The left calculates the air to see if it’s breathable for humans, health scans, and his own miniature database. It also has a map of the known universe coined to his location by default. And to finish off the ensemble, his mask. Then there’s his weapons, because you can never be too careful.He has a pair of blasters shaped like pistols, designed specifically for him, strapped to the small of his back in an ‘x’ formation, one on top of the other. It’s a rare situation when he needs to draw the second blaster, but shit happens. Along with the pistols are his matching daggers, tucked inside both of his boots, and were given to him by a prisoner he had once freed. Feeling both threatening and fabulous, he slips out of the ship and follows Nama’s directions to the bridge. The first that draws his eye when leaving his ship is a gigantic metal lion the color of the sea. Blue and bright and fearless, calling out to him. Lance is captivated, practically hypnotized to walk up to the lion’s barrier. Lance gets close, really close, the lion looming over his head like a titan. He swears to himself he can feel it’s eyes on him, a buzzing energy filling the air. He reaches out a hand, eyes locked onto the blue force field. There’s a buzzing from his wrist comms that smack him out of whatever trance he was in.Lance shakes his head, getting rid of the odd feeling of want he knows isn’t his own. Lance slowly pulls his hand back, then takes a step back, and another. It feels like pushing away from an impossible gravity with nothing but his free will. He hurries towards his original destination, fighting the urge to look back. He’s kind of afraid that if he does, the lion will have moved. All on its own. Which is crazy.Right?Right.When reaches the bridge, which is actually easier to get to than he would have thought with a ship this large, the battle is over and done with, his crew slowly filing onto the castleship and then into his own. Lance walks forward, ready to announce his presence, but Allura beats him to it. She rounds on him, hands finally leaving the weird pedestals as she approaches him. Lance gets ready to diffuse that serious look on her face with his corniest pick up line he can, but she cuts him off before he can decide on which one. “You’re a human aren’t you?” Allura asks, without any preamble. Lance blinks at her in shock. Most aliens don’t know what a human is, let alone how to spot one. There are plenty of humanoid creatures throughout the universe of course. That being said, none are so closely human as whatever this Princess Allura seems to be. Behind him the bridge doors open, but he ignores them for the more pressing matter at hand. “That I am. And how would you know what a human is?” Lance says. Allura gestures behind him. “I’ve had the pleasure of living with four of them for a little over a- what is it human’s call it? A month.” Allura says. Lance tenses as he hears intakes of breath behind him, and eyes on him from behind. He takes a mere moment to register what Allura said to him.He turns around so quickly he nearly gets whiplash, and comes face to faces with more humanoid creatures. Except, these ones actually are humans. No obvious extra limbs, no out of place hair or fur, no horns or long ears, not even slitted eyes. They stare at him in just the same amount of shock as Lance stares at them. Nama, who apparently came in the room with the other humans, walks up to him with her communicator out. Lance schools his face into one of indifference before Nama can look up, plastering on a strained smile.“Sir, a transmission.” Nama says, then looks up and hands him the communicator. Lance scowls as he realizes it’s from headquarters. He tries to hand it back to her. “I don’t want it, you take it.” He tries. Nama shakes her head at him with a smirk. “Not for me. Labeled urgent if that helps.” Nama says. Lance bites off a groan and sighs. “Fine.” Lance says. “Princess, if I may take this in private?” Allura purses her lips but nods, gesturing to one of the humans behind him. It’s the tall one with the scar and Galra arm. He starts to follow the scarred man when he hears Nama call out from behind him. “I call your ship if you get suspended again!” Nama yells. He stops and tenses his shoulder before turning to her with a scowl.“Don’t dream on it sweetheart. She is my ship, and only mine. Remember that.” Lance says, watching as Nama scowls like she usually does. He should be careful, she would swipe his ship and command right out from beneath him given the opportunity. His crew are a bunch of scoundrels, he really needs to get a new crew. Preferably one that doesn’t hate him for all he stands for. Even in freedom his title as Hunter stays with him everywhere he goes. The scarred human, who he refuses to look at as much as possible, leads him to an empty lounge room. It’s bare, only decorated with a rounded couch, set a few steps into the floor. Lance waits for the man to leave, the communicator in his hands still buzzing away. Damn, he was kind of hoping they would give up by now. When he’s alone, he breathes in deep and prepares himself for a headache. He so does not feel up to this right now.
“Captain, so nice of you to pick up…”
------------------------------Allura turns to look at her paladins when Shiro returns.She might be a little paranoid, but she doesn’t trust this new ship full of people. After the Nyma and Rolo incident, they can’t afford to be so accepting of people. It goes against everything her father taught her as she grew up, but then again, so is the entire concept of this war with Zarkon. Her father is gone now, and she had nearly lost Coran for good in that explosion, it’s up to her to do what needs to be done. No matter how much it pains her to do so.Human or otherwise, she needs to be cautious with this Lance.Perhaps, would this have been before her 10,000 year long cryo-sleep, she would have gladly accepted him as an ally in this fight with Zarkon. However, Nyma and Rolo showed her just how much the universe has changed in her sleep. Trust is far too hard to gain in this new age, and far easier to use it for sabotage.“Pidge, I need the security footage of the lounge.” She says. Pidge automatically goes to comply with her command, but freezes halfway through opening her weird looking Earth computer. “Princess,” Shiro says. “Surely you don’t think he’s an enemy do you?”“Yeah,” Hunk says, eyebrows lowered in a worried frown. “He’s a human.” Like us. Allura understands they’re automatic trust in this Lance, he’s another human, like them. Lord knows what she would do if she came face to face with another Altean. She sighs. “We still need to be cautious, or have you forgotten the Nyma and Rolo incident?” Allura says, eyebrows raised, looking over to Keith. He flushes and looks to the ground with no response. The paladins share a grim look and Pidge pulls up the camera feed, putting it on the screen. The purple alien, Nama, has long since returned to the ship in a huff, so no worries there. The camera feed technically isn’t from the cameras in the lounge, but from Rover.In retrieving the Red Lion, Pidge had commandeered a Galra droid and turned it to their side. Pidge chooses to use Rover instead of the security cameras, because, in her word, “For a supremely advanced society, Altean security cameras suck.” She turns on the sound and everyone quiets to watch what happens. Lance has his head thrown back when the video starts, and he breathes out a breath before looking down. He clicks something on the communicator and a holographic screen appears, orange in color. On the screen for a moment is a symbol and Lance glares at it before pressing on it. Allura braces herself. If the person on the screen turns out to be Galra, or even- Alfor forbid, though it’s unlikely, Zarkon himself- the paladins would strike first and fast, leaving no evidence behind. Yeah, she’s a little paranoid, but who cares.“Captain, so nice of you to pick up.” The person on the screen says when the pictures clarifies. The man on screen isn’t Galra, in fact Allura can’t exactly remember what species they are entirely. His skin is a rough, rock like texture that’s colored in the brightest of green, splotched with circles that change color every few seconds. His eyes bulge from his head like a lizard, and he’s scowling fiercely at Lance.“Whatever it is,” Lance says back with a smile. “I didn’t do it.” Beside her, Shiro muffles a snort of laughter, disguising it poorly as a cough. Allura can understand the humour he’s feeling. Lance sounds like an Altean child trying to get out of trouble. Or rather, he sounds like Allura when she was younger. The man on the screen drops his scowl with a burdened sigh. Lance eyes dart around him for a brief moment before returning to the screen.“Nevermind, Lance.” The man sighs. “About that information you had requested on that unfamiliar ship. What did you call it?” Lance’s eyes widen and he shakes his head with a serious look, the man on the screen isn’t even looking at Lance, instead looking to the side in thought. “It was the Lion Castle right? Or something like that.” The man says. Lance smack himself in the forehead. A sharp buzz zips down her spine and she prepares to move but Shiro stops her with a hand on her shoulder. They share a look, and Shiro wins, so she stays to hear the rest of the conversation. “It’s, uh, the Castle of Lions actually.” Lance says weakly, looking through his fingers. He’s ignored.Allura tenses, preparing herself for another betrayal. At least this one is not as deep seated as Zarkon’s. Shiro’s hand, the human one, squeezes her shoulder in comfort. She relaxes a little. Alteans were always known to try peace before war after all. Then again, they’re already in the middle of a war, so perhaps that tradition is cancelled out. “We have some more information regarding the Lion Castle. I can send it to you immediately.” The man says. Lance clears his throat, and when he speaks his voice is a few pitches higher.“Commander, I’m actually sort of, well. I’m sort of inside the Castle of Lions. Like right now. Already.” Lance says, his sentences becoming choppier and tense. Anger turns the man’s green skin red, the splotches turning almost burgundy in color. When the man speaks though, his voice is eerily calm, belied by the range of emotions so plainly across his face.“Excuse me?” The man says. Lance winces, and leans forward, smiling a nervous smile. “It was an accident!” Lance explains. “We happened to cross paths, and they were fighting the Galra- I have to tell you, whatever those weapons are they’re amazing. They’re like giant metal cats. Wait,” Lance pauses, tilting his head. “Do you know what a cat is? Are there cats in space? Space cats, it sounds like a movie title-” The man on the screen hisses and Lance clears his throat with a cough.“Nevermind. Sorry, getting off track. Anyways-” Lance starts again, but the man, clearly fed up, cuts him off. “What were you thinking!? What if they weren’t friendly? What if this was just another of Zarkon’s latest weapons? Did you even consider the possibility?” The man says. Lance splutters, his eyebrows creasing.“Sir you don’t understand. You know me, I read people like the back of my hand! And Allura-”“You’re on a first name basis!?” The man yells. Lance winces, and Allura almost feels pity for the guy, but desperately wants to know what he was going to say next.“Would you listen? Please?” Lance says, sounding and looking exasperated. The man grumbles but silences. Lance combs his hand through his straight brown hair, causing it to stick up in every direction. He smoothes it back down as he stands and starts pacing.“Allura-” Lance cuts himself off. “I mean Princess Allura and her team were in distress. I couldn’t just stand by while the Galra kill more people, especially people who can fight back! Besides, it isn’t like I came unarmed onto a strange spacecraft. My momma taught me stranger danger and all that you know.” Lance says. The man’s eyebrows crease. “Stranger what?” He asks incredulously. Lance ignores him and continues rambling and pacing.“I have my pistols and my helmet, and I’m wearing that super special armor you got me. My crew is downstairs, but then again, I don’t trust my crew all that much, so there’s that.” Lance says, barely taking a breath between words. “Then I got on board and there are actual humans!” Lance looks at the screen almost frantically with a smile. “Four humans.” Lance pauses. “Correction, four gorgeous humans. If I’m going to meet my maker, let me at least die surrounded by such beauty.” Lance jokes with a playful tone. His smile drops when the man on the screen doesn’t look the least bit impressed. “Joking aside, I want to see this through. Just let me talk to them at least Commander.” Lance finishes off. There’s a moment of silence in the room, with the man staring at Lance with narrowed eyes.“You keep calling me that.” The man says. Lance cocks his head to the side in confusion and the man continues with a scowl, his voice lowered almost enough to not be picked up by Rover’s mic.“Lance, if they are threatening you to say these things, give me a signal and I will be there in two ticks to destroy them.” The man says, completely serious. Lance splutters for a moment, then bursts into laughter. Lance laughs for a good minute before calming down, clutching at his stomach. He even wipes away a fake tear as he sits down again.“I miss your humor, truly. You know I wouldn’t break to something so simple as threats. Give me some credit.” Lance says looking relaxed and amused. The man looks unconvinced, even afraid. “Then why are you using my title? You’ve never been one for titles before.” The man says. Lance blinks, and as suspicious as she is, she still feels amused at how quick the conversation flipped. It went to serious and reprimanding to concerned and playful in mere moments. Lance smiles back like nothing is wrong in the universe, so reassured.“Oh,” Lance replies. “That’s because even humans can be untrustworthy. So I’d rather not give them your name while they spy on me during a private conversation. That sounds like a bad idea even to me. And I’m like, the king of bad ideas.” Lance finishes, and they all freeze in their place as the realize what Lance said. Pidge smashes a few buttons and turns the video off as Lance looks into the camera with a blinding smile.How Lance knew where Rover was is beyond her, seeing as the little robot was outfitted with a cloaking device. It doesn’t become visible until it comes back to Pidge’s side. They can hear Lance’s laughter from down the hall. Pidge is the first to rush out of the room. They follow close behind, Coran left behind to steer the ship through space. Lance sits lazily on the couch, the communicator off when they get to the lounge.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Lance takes the moment after he ends his call with the commander to pop his back. He’s twisted away from the door when it opens, and he turns with a cheery smile. Only to then be blindsided with a face full angry child. They’re so close, all Lance can see are amber eyes set on fire with rage, hidden behind the barrier of glasses clearly too large for their face. Lance blinks once, and then twice, and yet still the small child doesn’t say anything, just stares his one eye down. The door behind them opens again, and Lance hears the subtle sounds of shifting feet and breathing, one of the traits he has yet to get used to since his ‘upgrade’. Super hearing sounds great and all, but it sucks in actuality.Said super hearing is how he knew of the spying little robot in the room. The faint sound of laughter, most likely at his expense- and what else is new?- had filtered through the little robot’s speakers. They thought they could spy on Lance and get away with it, but jokes on them. He’s no longer equipped with full human senses anymore.Perhaps someday, if he dares to dream it, he’ll have that normality back, his true senses. All he needs is someone to fix his goddamn eye, but no. Apparently Haggar rooted the metal wires so deeply into his skull it would be near impossible to shut off the eye, let alone the tracking device alone without damaging something vital. At least he has his signal jamming mask.Lance blinks again and leans back a little to get some space.“How did you know?” The small child asks him, leaning forward even more and practically sitting on top of him to do it. “How did you know about Rover? Are you a spy? Secretly a robot? A druid?” Lance fights his smile at the silly questions. Him? A druid? Oh please. The child is pulled off of him by the neck of her suit, much like a mother cat would carry her kittens by the scruff of their necks. The one who pulls her off is the biggest one, with yellow accents on his uniform suit. He sets her down gently like she weighs no more than a feather. Lance’s smile twitches when they instinctively move around him to corner him on the couch in a semicircle. He coughs as he straightens up slowly.It’s the first chance he’s gotten to really look at the other humans. The big one who picked up the little one like he does it all the time is round rather muscular, but Lance suspects there’s some real power in those arms, natural power, natural strength. He wears a yellow headband around his forehead, thin and tied in the back with a double knot. The ends look frayed from either use or battle wear. Maybe both. However, as intimidating as his body structure makes him, his kind brown eyes tell Lance he’s not mean. The little child, still glaring at him, is the big guy’s polar opposite. Scrawny and short, with wild red-blonde hair cut in a disastrous imitation of a haircut. Glasses almost constantly falling down their nose. Amber eyes seething in barely contained fury. And the kid is so androgynous he isn’t sure which pronouns to use to describe them. They purse their lips at him, looking down their nose at him, and almost having to throw their head all the way back to do so.They look like Lance’s little niece and nephew, Nadia and Silvio, both of them.Lance looks away as he pushes the memories down, he can cry about his misfortunes when he’s home or when he’s dead. The one standing next to the child in the circle is the other tall, this one with black accents on his suit and a scar across his nose. He looks kind of familiar, and then Lance sees the Galra arm. Did they fight in the Arena? No, Lance is sure he would have remembered another human.
Next to scar face is the Princess. She’s even more stunning up close and angry. Her pink markings look like they’ve always been a part of her skin. Genetic markings perhaps. Her hair is loose and wild, falling in white curls and waves down to her waist. She’s tall and slim, and that golden circlet on her head gleams when the light hits just right. Next to her is the one with the red accents on his suit.Long dark hair he can only describe as a messy mullet, and sharp violet eyes. There’s a sneer on his face that reminds Lance of the Galra, always baring their fangs like wolves when angered. He got a weird handlebar thing in his hand, that look like they hardened a pom pom, extended the middle, and elongated the hardened part. It matches his suit too, how cute.“Well?” The child asks again, tapping their foot impatiently. Now they remind him of his mother, great.“Well?” Lance shoots back, having forgotten the question. Sorry if he’s interested in the only other humans in space.“How did you know about Rover?” In that moment the little robot appears from behind the child’s back, and he recognizes the drone. It’s a Galran scout drone, except it usually glows Galra purple, not green. Did they steal it or something? Reprogramming it must have taken a lot of work. “I mean, you were practically begging me to notice if you left the mic on.” Lance points out. He’s a little peeved at how non-cordial this whole affair has become just because he has enhanced hearing. Stupid Galra, always ruining his fun. Now how is he going to have a decent conversation with someone his own species?“What mic?” The kid asks, very demanding. Lance wouldn’t be surprised if they stomped their foot, but is kind of disappointed when they don’t. Silvio usd to do that all the time back on Earth, perhaps he still does. Lance fights back the wave of sadness thinking of his family brings him. He was doing just fine until he saw all of these humans. Now he’ll get even worse sleep than before. “The mic on the front, see? It’s a two way street in these things. Of course, this is an older model so it makes sense.” Lance says, reaching up to poke the robot backwards. The robot seems almost to have feelings as the green glows brighter, and it coming at him. It smacks into his palm almost a dozen times before the child pulls it back protectively. It’s glow fades a little, and Lance is already attached to the little guy. And it’s a robot.“We were just playing.” Lance mumbles, pouting at the little robot. It squirms but doesn’t get free.“Okay, I think we got off on a bad start.” The one in blacks says with a nervous chuckle. “The name’s Shiro, and you are?” Lance narrows his eyes at the black one for a second, before shrugging and shaking his Galra hand without hesitation. Lance knows the feeling someone gets when they get the Look. He used to get it for his eye, when he activated it anyways, and it made him feel horrible. Shiro’s eyebrows twitch and they shake once firmly. Lance still doesn’t shake the feeling of recognition on the edge of his mind. Who is this guy to Lance?“Do I know you from somewhere?” Lance blurts, and it’s too late to take it back even if he wanted to. Shiro’s faces flickers, a metaphorical darkness covering his features for a moment before the smile returns tensely. Lance looks at him harder, narrowing his eyes and widening and then narrowing them again. He tilts his head from side to side and tries his best to see what’s at the very edge of his mind but it’s coming up blank.
“I don’t think so no, I’ve never met you before.” Shiro says, and even his name tastes familiar on Lance’s tongue. “No I swear I do, I just can’t think for the life of me how?” Lance says, fading off into a mumble. Shiro’s shoulders dropped and he held out his arm. “Could it be this?” The arm buzzes to life in a glowing purple haze, the heat so strong Lance could practically see the heat waves coming off of it. Shiro’s lips dropped into a pained line, and Lance raises his eyebrows. Is he supposed to be impressed? Awed? Afraid? If so, he’s not, he’s seen his fair share of Galra prosthetics, hell, he has one in his eye for heaven’s sake. It doesn’t make the recognition flare up in his mind though, so he squints real hard at Shiro’s face and waves the arm away.“No not the arm. Something else, something,” Lance trails off as he thinks of Shiro’s name. Could that be it? “What did you say your name was?”Shiro arches his brow and the pain slips off his face to allow for confusion to settle in.“Shiro?” He says, like he isn’t sure of his own name. Lance waves a hand, waiting for the last name, maybe that’s it. “Shirogane?”Something clicks in Lance’s mind and he smiles brightly, leaping off the couch in excitement.“No way, you aren’t the Takashi Shirogane are you? Star pupil of the Galaxy Garrison? Soon to be Kerberos pilot? That Shirogane?” Lance says, and Shiro slowly nods, then tilts his head to the side.“Kerberos happened over a year ago.” Shiro says, and the smile slips off of Lance’s face slowly as horror dawns on him. He looks at his fingers to count because his brain is so muddled. He was kidnapped from Earth three months before the launch of Kerberos, and add onto that a year, and then the month Allura said she’s been living with the humans, and add on to that however much extra time had passed. If he allows for a three month margin, then he’s been in space for-“A year and a half.” Lance whispers to himself in dismay. He counts it again, but it comes out the same. “What’s a year and a half?” The one with the red accent on suit asks. Lance sinks slowly onto the couch, his shoulders tense. It can’t have been that long. It simply is not possible. But if it is then how long was he prisoner for the Galra? How many months did he spend killing and fighting? It’s been about three months since his escape, so that means he was prisoner for almost a year. A year in the Arena.A year filled with pain.A year he’s missed of his nephew and nieces lives. “Space.” Lance manages to answer, completely on auto pilot now. “I’ve been in space for a year and a half. How?” Lance trembles a full body shiver as he races back through all he’s been through in a fast forward loop. All the pain, and the killing, and the fear, and the hatred, and the sorrow. All of it. It all adds up to a year and a half. The number ricochets in his mind like a bullet in a metal room, round and round and round it goes. He snaps his head up as a hand settles on his shoulder. It isn’t human. It isn’t flesh. It’s Galra technology, and the close thrum of the tech resonates with the technology embedded in his eye. It beats like a heartbeat.Lance is about to go full on Arena Mode, but another humming interrupts him thoughts. His gauntlet is buzzing, and it isn’t from his armor. In a daze he snaps open the small hatch and pulls out a communication device the Rebellion uses to communicate. It blinks with a message. He opens it, reads it, reads it again when the message doesn’t filter right, and then stows it away.His body stands on it’s own, like he’s being controlled, except he isn’t.“I’m sorry, I must leave, I have a new mission.” Lance says, his words choppy. A year and a half. It still pings off the metal walls of his mind. He never even got to know everyone’s name, and now he’s being forced to leave. He’ll probably never see these humans again anyways. The Rebellion Council loathes him, they would never make him an emissary to the new allies. It doesn’t matter.They’ll walk different paths and he’ll continue searching while they fight to their last breath. He has to. Now that he knows how long it’s been, how many nights have passed on Earth, how many days with no word from him to his mother. Now that he knows he missed the kids’ birthdays, and Luis’s anniversary, and his sister Rachel’s send off to the Garrison. He’s missed everything. He doesn’t need to know the humans’ names, they have Shiro. The greatest pilot of their generation and then some. He’ll keep them safe, he’ll win this war, he’ll-“Lance.” There’s that hand again, the Galra one. It shakes him to the core so hard he snaps out of his daze. He’s barely a foot passed the threshold of the elevator. Lance could shake him off, could turn his back on his own species. He could follow orders as he was told and get on his ship and go rob some Galra blind. He could find his cure, his solution. He could, he could, he could. But he doesn’t. He lets Shiro ease him out of the elevator, guide him passed the common room. He let’s Shiro make him some food goo, which looks as terrible as is sounds, not to mention that it’s green. “Shiro?” Lance says, and it’s a question but it doesn’t sound right to his own ears. Too wobbly, too full of emotions. Idiot, emotions will get you killed. You learned your lesson once, don’t learn it again. Somehow the voice silences with Shiro’s human hand on his shoulder. Lance relaxes, almost collapses into the chair.“Everything alright?” Shiro asks, and it’s in that tone Lance knows well. A million words in two, his mother had that art down to a ‘t’. Are you okay? Do you need some space? Do want a hug?
Do you want to talk?
So Lance does what he always did when his mother spoke to him like that. He talked, and he talked, and he cried, and he sobbed. And it was all quiet. Quiet words, quiet stories, quiet tears, quiet sobs. That’s the part that’s different. Shiro isn’t his mother, and frankly, as much as lance idolizes him, he doesn’t trust him. And that hurts him so goddamn much. He used to be the most trusting person in the family. Lance was so trusting he convinced someone who was trying to mug him to come to his mom’s house and eat real food, and shower with warm water and wear clean clothes. Lance was always trusting of people.Until that trust sent him billions of lightyears away in space with to show for it but a load of scars and a demonic eye.So yeah, Lance spilled his guts, his very soul out to Shiro, but he did it in Spanish. And if Shiro happens to be faking that clueless expression, who cares. Because he spills and he talks and he babbles his heart out. His communicator goes off three times within the hour Lance spends babbling. He ignores it.When he finally calms down, it’s to Shiro petting his back. It knocks the pain right out of his mind, shooing it away with every calming motion. Lance is too exhausted to move, and he hasn’t touched his food goo, which is for obvious reasons. “Feeling better?” Shiro asks gently, quiet so as to not disturb the silence. His hand is still rubbing Lance’s back. Lance nods after a minute of enjoying the sensations and Shiro pulls his hand away slowly. He settles his hand in front of him on the kitchen table, which is another part of the castle that’s white. Jeez, they need some color around here. “Sorry.” Lance mumbles. Leave it to him to have a breakdown in front of his idol. Glad Nama’s not here, that would have spelled out disaster in so many ways it isn’t even funny. Shiro shakes his head with a kind smile, a small one, but a smile nonetheless. “It’s okay, I have breakdowns of my own. I know I’ve always felt better when someone is there with me, and besides. You were about to just leave.” Shiro says, and Lance turns his head to witness the blinding smile that overtakes Shiro’s face. Even with the scar and the arm, the man is still handsome. Lance brushes his fingers against his mask in shame.“We weren’t going to let you go so easily. There are so few people in the universe that understands us, as humans, but you do. As hard as we were earlier on you, we do want to make friends. Just-” Shiro continues, or tries to, but Lance cuts him off with a wry smile.“Gotta be cautious right?” Lance says, and Shiro nods. They stay there until Lance’s eyes puff up, sitting in silence and lost in thought.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Shiro invites Lance to stay the night but he declines. Lance stayed long enough to solidify their alliance with the Resistance, but he can’t stay any longer. He feels to vulnerable here, and he can’t be vulnerable with a war going on. He can’t let his crew see him be weak or they’ll throw his ass out of the airlock in mutiny. They may be obligated to follow him, either because the Resistance has ordered it of them or out of personal payment for Lance saving them from the Galra. However, that doesn’t mean they’re loyal to Lance. In their eyes Lance is a weak alien, and weak lifeform unfit for the power he controls. Maybe if he could show off his skills that his cursed eye gives him they’d change their minds, but at the same time, he doesn’t want to use such twisted technology. He at least stayed for dinner, so he could let his eyes stop being puffy. And he feels like he’s hit the jackpot with this group of humans. The conversation they had over dinner- which Lance didn’t eat at because who the fuck eats food goo anymore?- was pretty nice. There were silences but never awkward ones, and they were really open to him. Except for Allura, who gave him the evil eye the entire time they were eating, but he figures you can’t please everyone. His superiors in the Rebellion can attest to that.Lance learns a lot about the humans- paladins as Allura called them- and what they’re in space for and about themselves personally. Hunk- the big one in yellow- told him about how Pidge- the little child and who’s a girl apparently- had dragged them out into the desert when Shiro came crashing from the sky and helped Keith- the one in red- kidnap Shiro from the Garrison. Keith then mumbled out a comment about how they only slowed him down in that rescue mission. Shiro talks about how he doesn’t remember much after getting abducted by the Galra and before he crash landed on Earth. That little tidbit makes everyone turn somber so Lance changes the subject to the weird weapons they had deployed. They told him that there are actually five giant, sentient, robot lions. There’s Red, who’s apparently Keith’s lion, known for being temperamental and instinctual, as well as the protector of the element of fire and the fastest of the five lions. Then there’s the Green Lion, Pidge’s lion, known for being curious and intelligent, protector of nature and is now outfitted with a cloaking device. There’s Blue, who has no official paladin right now, but who sometimes allows Allura to pilot. Blue is known for being adaptable, friendly and the most accepting of the lions and being the protector of the element of water. Then there’s Yellow, Hunk’s lion, known for being the most caring and selfless of the lions, there to lift Voltron(whatever that is) and it’s team up. Yellow is the protector of the element of earth. And lastly, there’s the Black Lion, Shiro lion. The black is the leader and decisive head of Voltron, who needs a born leader to pilot is, protector of the sky and the largest of all the lions.
So the conversation was really enlightening for Lance, giving him at least a little bit of something to report back to get him out of trouble for disobeying orders of not engaging with the Castle of Lions. The entire time they ate dinner though, Allura didn’t look away from him, glaring the entire time. She didn’t even settle down when he flirted with her and called her pretty. Not even a smile. She obviously seemed to be lacking in the trust department, so she might be the hardest to break and get along with out of all of them, even more so than Keith. Who hasn’t really done any different than Allura, just with a lot less malice and a few more words. No matter what he said to her, he couldn’t even get her to crack a small, teensy weensy, itty bitty smile. It will probably light up her whole face when she does.Lance is on his ship right now, setting course for his next mission, watching the stars alone on the bridge of his ship, but all he can think of is Team Voltron. Lance imagines how a smile on Allura’s face would compliment her, making her blue eyes warm up and sparkle. The markings on her cheek stretching and practically glowing pink. Lance wonders if she would be like his sister Maria, who when she smiles, her face flushes with color. Every single time, Maria’s face would burn red, even the tips of her ears.Lance wonders if perhaps instead of Maria, Allura would smile like Veronica. She has the biggest of smiles, but Ronny hates the way her eyes squint when she smiles, so when she catches her smiles getting too big she’ll bite her lip to try and fail at stopping her smiling from growing bigger. Lance shakes the thoughts of his family back out of his mind, trying to think of something else.Lance frowns when he starts thinking of the later part of the conversation, after Allura had slipped away quietly. The looks on their faces when he had tried to give them the ECD. Short for ‘encrypted communication device’. It was fine at first, but then he had went to explain the finer details of the device so that they could use it properly. The ECD is shaped roughly like a slightly flattened egg, with three black buttons in a row, and a big red button below them.The red button actually has a plastic covering on it, the button being inlaid to allow for a smoother surface. The entire look of the ECD is a sleek white metal, though it comes in black and orange as well, all with a decorative blue stripe on the sides. Or well, Lance assumes they’re decorative at least.The device is designed to piggyback off of Galran signals as a ghost transmission, with the messages being encrypted in a specially designed encryption method that only the ECD can decode. To the naked Galran eye, the messages piggybacking off their signals comes off as the usual radio static. Lance went on to explain to the team how to work the ECD for themselves.The left black button is used for playing and deleting messages, the right one only for recording messages. The center button is where the magic happens. Press this button and it will pull up a holographic screen, where the device then becomes touch interactive. Holding down the left side brings up the list of people who aren’t CO’s (commanding officers) who you can send messages to, however these are to be entered manually. Holding down the right button will bring up the CO list, automatically programmed, however they have different clearance levels the higher up the chain said CO is.“And the big red button,” Lance had explained. “Is only used for one thing. In desperate situations, a Rebellion operative can flip up the plastic screen and push the red button, which will then automatically send out a distress signal for all nearby operatives. It will only contain the basic information of coordinates, time of being sent, the name of the owner of the device. Help will be sent as quickly as possible, if possible.”Lance had made sure to warn them that the red button is only for emergencies.Then he flipped the ECD over to show them the back. It’s hardly noticeable unless you know what to look for, but there’s a small stylus sheathed longwise into the back of the device. The only thing to give it’s presence away is the blue tip, which looks like a random blue dot in the center of the back of the device. He had held it up to explain what it was there for.The stylus is put there for a number of reasons. When it seems like help can’t reach an operative in time, they have the option of using the stylus. There’s a small hole on the right side when faced with the button, right below the blue stripe, just big enough for the stylus to fit. When the stylus is pressed into the hole it severs all the most important wires and making the device useless, even to reverse engineer unless you’re someone very good at that kind of thing. Of course, when fully operational, the ECD’s are actually, apparently, very simple to reverse engineer.The stylus is also a miniature weapon of sorts. The tip is super sharp to be able to cut the wires, or to use as a blade, though it would be kinda hard to use it against another. That’s where the blue tip comes in. It’s a drastic measure, only meant to be you in hopeless situations to avoid capture and being a traitor. In the blue tip of the stylus, is a fast acting poison. Though even the poison can be a weapon for escape if you use it carefully, since it can be ingested or applied by skin to work.The looks on the humans’ faces made Lance feel like a monster after he explained all of that.He closes his eyes to the stars as he gets sucked into the memory of that last bit of conversation. After explaining all of the gory details, he had tried to lighten the atmosphere with a smile while they stared at him in varying degrees of shock and horror. He had held the device out to Shiro and then grabbed his human hand gently when he finally did.“It might seem like it’s a little over the top,” Lance had said quietly. “What with the whole stylus thing, but in war there is sacrifice.” Lance had looked away from his hands grasping Shiro’s and into Shiro’s dark grey eyes, almost overshadowed by the sunken scar across his nose.“This war is not like in the video games back on Earth.” Lance had continued. “And it’s not like the stories of the Old Wars on Earth. It’s nothing like the simulators at the Garrison, and it isn’t full of glory like history may make it seem like.”There was a silence in the room as Lance paused to look at the rest of the Paladins.“This war is full of heartache, and pain, and a whole lot of living nightmares. I know you understand the Galra’s cruelty more than most Shiro.” Lance said. Shiro’s eyes had crinkled in confusion, so Lance had laid his left hand hand gently on Shiro’s robotic arm, then lifted it to his own mask covered eye. He’d pressed gently into the metal eye and briefly relived the pain of receiving it.Shiro’s eyes had softened in pain and understanding.“If you all truly wish to fight in this war, you need to be ready for it. That said,” Lance continues, pausing to smile and lift some of the sombre attitude of the conversation. “That doesn’t mean every person you meet along the way is another enemy, or that every where you go will eventually cave into destruction. The universe is a beautiful thing, so long as you don’t allow it’s shadows to be the only thing you see. Hopefully Allura learns this lesson before she falls down into the never ending bitterness the darkness hides. Pass it along would you?”Lance walked away then, without a backwards glance, knowing it could be the last time he would see them.Lance opens again to look out into the stars as he waits to start his next mission. It’s a simple smuggling mission. There’s a few refugees left on a planet thought to have been full evacuated only a few weeks ago, and now they’re all trapped behind Galra lines. It’s Lance’s job to get in quietly, then get out, and deliver the refugees to safety without engaging with the Galra. He checks the time on his gauntlet, and sighs when he realizes just how late it is. Guess it wouldn’t hurt to try to get some sleep before the next few stressful days begin.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
If there is one truth in life, it would be that war changes people. Shiro knows that from experience. Sometimes the Mark of War is physical. It shows by the scars, injuries, even limbs that might no longer be there. Other times the Mark of War is psychological. Memories, nightmares, acute reactions to certain things. Or sometimes it's emotional. Distrust, biased thoughts or actions, paranoia. Shiro knows this is true for all the paladin, who each have their own Marks of War.For Keith it's mainly psychological. He's always training and working himself into exhaustion to stave away the thoughts flooding his mind. What if I'm not strong enough? What if I'm not fast enough? What if someone gets hurt because I'm not good enough? I have to be better, stronger, smarter, faster. His greatest fear is something happening while on a mission and he couldn't be there to save whoever is in danger. All because he isn't strong enough.Pidge has insomnia. The poor girl is always up and about all the hours of the night, being her own personal slave driver. Shiro is absolutely positive the only reason she sleeps is because her body forces her to. It's not an unusual occurrence to find her passed out, dead to the world, in the most strangest of places. On the stairs, in the elevator, the Green Lion's hangar, her work station, the dining room. All of that, of course, are only places Shiro has personally found her. Hunk once found her asleep on top of one of the healing pods. How she managed that is beyond Shiro.Hunk is a nervous wreck. And sure, even Shiro will concede to the fact that Hunk is taking it all better than the rest of them. However that doesn't mean he doesn't have his own Marks of War. Hunk is just of a far more stable set of mind. He talks when he needs to, usually to Clean. He bakes his stress away, sometimes even managing to make actual for out of the green too. Which the Alteans seem to believe is actually called food. Which, no. Definitely not.Hunk also helps the other paladins out when he can. He dinners with Pidge, brings food to Keith when he's training, plays Monsters and Mana with Coran. Shiro is also fully prepared to admit that Hunk has been unofficially declared the mother hen of the group. Hunk is also the only person who can take Pidge to her bed when she passes out in strange places.Pidge may be tiny, but she has an overly abundant amount of crankiness and when she's cranky her tongue is sharper than a blade. Not even Shiro can lay a hand on her to take her to bed without her snapping at him. And that isn't a metaphorical statement, she literally bit him once. He's just glad it was his metallic forearm and not his flesh one. There are still, hardly noticeable, minute little teeth marks denting the metal.After that Shiro never tried again.Shiro's not afraid to admit he's probably the worst of them all. Nightmares, insomnia, not eating. Scars, a missing limb, paranoia. PTSD in general. Shiro is broken, or perhaps still breaking, but he's a leader. The leader. The black paladin, pilot of the hand and body of Voltron, Princess Allura's second in command. Well, actually, perhaps he's third after Coran.Hard to tell.Speaking of Allura and Coran. They themselves have their own personal Marks of War. Allura is generally distrusting of anyone who isn't Coran or a paladin. Her reaction to Lance is proof enough for that fact. Shiro believes, his own personal opinion of course, that Allura and Coran have it worse than the rest of them. Zarkon, before the war began over ten thousand years ago, was a friend to Coran and King Alfor. Princess Allura practically grew up with him around. Perhaps she called him an Altean version of 'Uncle' or something like it. Alfor and Zarkon seemed to have been close after all. No doubt Allura saw him often growing up.Zarkon was the Black Paladin, Alfor the Red Paladin. They had been equals as monarchs, with Alfor being Zarkon's second in Voltron. All of which was thrown away in betrayal after the supposed deaths of Zarkon and his wife. After grieving the sudden loss of his best friend, Alfor was suddenly faced by a declaration of war led by his old- supposedly dead- friend turned enemy. That kind of betrayal sets deep beneath the skin, into the very soul of a person.Coran has had experience in war; he is far too wise (if not a little crazy) to not have seen his own share of bloodshed. So for Coran, it makes a little more sense why he doesn't show his emotional pain so outwardly. Both Allura and Coran suffered from Zarkon's backstabbing, then to top it all off, they were forced into a ten thousand year long cryo sleep. Their families, their friends, their entire civilization and home. All decimated. Destroyed. Wiped off the map and leaving a hole in the stars.That kind of pain and sorrow and anguish can't be so easily brushed aside. Shiro knows they suffer in their own silences. He'd like to help, he'd like to help all of his team and friends. However, he can only do so much when fighting a war. And now, there's another example of the Marks of War that makes Shiro want to scream at the universe.
Lance.
A boy, barely into adulthood. Like Keith. Like Pidge. And Hunk and Allura. All of them are practically children. All of them simply thrown into this war without even a guarantee of victory, let alone the option to go home. They don't even know whether or not the next day will be their last. Allura and Coran know they will never see Altea again. But the others, they may never return home. They may instead be lost to the stars. Lost to a war that never seems to end. Lost to a universe as nothing more than children playing War Hero.Even the thought of that happening makes Shiro's stomach turn. He can be there for the boys and Pidge. He can be there for Coran and Allura. He can and he has been there for them all, whenever they may need him. All except Lance. Shiro knows next to nothing about Lance and his involvement in the war, his ties, his reason to stay and fight. Shiro doesn't know how Lance even got into space, nor does he know when. He doesn't know but the bare minimum of what Lance has been through, or how he even survived so long. Especially since he is one of the only humans in the fight against Zarkon. Alone. All alone.
That's the kicker though isn't it?
They know so little about Lance, who seems to have his own Marks of War. It's the only thing Shiro can understand from that gesture Lance gave him before he left. The touch to his Galra arm. Soft gentle, the slightest of sensation of Lance's calluses over the metal of his prosthetic. The press of Lance's fingers over his own eye. It's covered up by dome weird mask, one that covers his entire eye up to the eyebrow and down to the cheekbone, then over his entire ear. Shiro's glad the others had the sense to not ask about something so sensitive. Shiro even feels guilty for his curiosity for the story of Lance's missing eye. More likely than not, he lost his eye in a fight and he covers it up in shame. Shiro understands that feeling.There are days when Shiro stays holed up in hid room, laying down with his prosthetic covered and pretending he's at home on Earth. The smell of Gracia's Bakery next door wafting into his apartment through his open window. The aroma more often than not enticing him enough to indulge in one of Gracia's popular sweets and cakes. He'd have to work out extra the next day so he stays in shape for the Kerberos mission.He had to stay in shape for lift off somehow. Their bodies, even both the commander and Matt, had to be in tip top shape in order to be able to withstand the harsh conditions of lift off, landing, and months in space with low gravity. Even if the gravity was decently strong for such a small moon. It's the reason why Matt got his eyes fixed and gave Pidge the glasses she would use to fool Iverson. Which is funny since Pidge and Matt look exactly alike with short hair. However, when Shiro isn't imagining home he's worrying about the future. They still have no clue where the Blue Paladin could possibly be. They, whoever they are, could literally be anywhere in the entire known universe. Most of which is behind enemy lines, ruled by Zarkon. It could take years to liberate enough planets to even make a difference and they still might not be able to find the true Paladin for the Blue Lion. Allura is a good leader. She knows how and when to make the hard choices and when to hand control over to someone else. For example, when Blue actually lets her in, she knows to defer to Shiro first since he's the leader of Voltron. And boy was that a hard lesson to figure out.She is a well versed combatant of various forms and weapons, and her shapeshifting ability allows for some prime opportunities to fool, fight, or freak out their enemies. She is also the only person in the entire universe at this point in time that can manipulate wormholes at will and keep them stable long enough to go through safely. Everyone else uses lightspeed or risks being torn apart at the seams. And not only is a great warrior, she a great diplomat as well. Without her the Voltron Alliance would still be yet to exist. As Princess, and Shiro is guessing she's an only child, so as the heir to the throne as well, no doubt she was raised learning all of this. Allura could be a great Paladin. If Blue would stop refusing.If Allura is right, Blue keeps shutting her out because she already has her mind set on another to be hers. That's it. No explanation for why she opened up that day on Earth. No hint for who her chosen is. Not even a reason for her refusal of Allura until she finds her pilot, except and only except when the other lions are in danger. And even then Blue has trouble handing over the reigns. They've not even managed to form Voltron without being forcibly thrown apart as soon as the battle is over. The first day when they had all met, when Allura was assigning them their lions, she had stated the attributes of each of the lions. She then assigned each of them their lions based off of what little she knew of the team at the time. Thus the new generation of paladins was born.The Black Lion is the head and body of Voltron. It requires a natural leader whose team would follow them without hesitation. Someone who is in control at all times. As the biggest of the lions, it takes up more quintessence to pilot. Which Coran had some huge, definitely not Earth math explanation for that even Pidge and Hunk got bored and confused while listening to. So it's pilot needs to be mentally, physically, and spiritually strong enough to withstand the toll it takes on the person's body.The Green Lion is inquisitive, adventurous and daring. Therefore it needs a pilot that will match it every step of the way. Which seems to, unfortunately, fit Pidge to a 't'. The amount of trouble she gets into all 'because science Shiro' seems to be proof enough. As one of the smallest of the lions, it's prone to taking more damage with a single hit, but it's just quick enough to avoid most of the hits in the first place. And as the left arm of Voltron, Pidge's lion holds the shield to protect them all. The Yellow Lion is caring, kind, protective. It puts the needs of others above all else and is usually one of the most trusting of lions, next to Blue. The Yellow Lion's larger size allows it to be a tank in battle, able to take more hits but it's slower than the others. The yellow lion is the left leg of Voltron and as it lifts up Voltron, so to does its pilot lift the team.The Red Lion is temperamental, unstable, difficult to pilot and it relies on instincts instead of skill. It's pilot has to be able to follow their gut without question, even for difficult maneuvers, and have the skills to pull it off too. Red isn't very trusting when it comes to their own pilot, so to pilot her you have to impress her. Red is the fastest of the lions, and the most agile. And if Keith likes to do anything, he likes to fly fast. The Garrison taught Shiro that fact the hard way.And last but not least, the Blue Lion. Despite all evidence against her right now, the Blue Lion is described as the most confident, reliable, flexible and trusting of all the lions. It's first instinct to trust someone at face value, and then want to give a second chance when that trust is used against them. It's the most accepting of new Paladins (again, despite all the evidence against her) it's one of the easier lions to pilot because of this. Which is why it makes no sense for her to keep rejecting Allura.In fact, Blue should be doing the exact opposite. Suffice to say, Blue has a hidden stubborn streak.Hopefully whoever does end up being her permanent paladin isn't quite as stubborn as her, or they'll be butting heads with Keith constantly. God, Shiro wishes there was something wooden to knock on. He feels like he just jinxed everything for even thinking that.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
A couple weeks after meeting Lance met up with Voltron again, though not quite as planned.It was supposed to be a simple solo mission involving his less than human eye. Lance had gotten some itel that an Olkari had escaped their imprisoned home planet, Olkarion, to find help. Supposedly he's hiding only a few galaxies away. As smart as the Olkari are, this one wasn't smart enough to hide his tracks. Now it's a race to see who gets to the escaped Olkari first, Lance or the Galra.Although Lance got there first, he still feels like the Galra won this round. Lance got as far as getting the Olkari guy to take off his mask to take a look at his eye, in exchange for taking him to safety and trying to get help for his people. However they were discovered by a random Galra patrol. The two of them fled in different directions. Which put Lance on one end of a fire fight he had hoped to never find himself in. The losing end, to be precise. His ship, Bessy, wasn't made for a fire fight, it's made for long distances. Now, she's damaged, and slow, and going to get him killed. His comms are knocked out, so he can't contact his crew. They're too far to get here in time to help anyways though. Can't believe he's gonna go down against a measly two dozen fighter jets.Lance flips his shit to the right, dodging both a protruding rock on the planet's surface, as well as a hail of laser fire at the same time. He follows through and into a barrel roll, shooting up into the atmosphere at top speed. His ship rattles and starts heating up as he ascends faster than this ship was built to handle. Sweat drips off of Lance nose, and into the corner of his mouth. Lance swallows as salt hits his tongue. If Lance makes it home alive, Bessy is getting a makeover.He breaks through the atmosphere and he hollers shortly in success as he tries to fly away. Thankfully the temperature is dropping so at least there's one thing to be thankful for. Another, he discovers as he checks his rear cameras, is that almost half the fighter jets burned up in the atmosphere, the pressure and the heat making them explode.Lance takes the second of reprieve to grab his ECD.He's all ready and prepared to call the Mermaid, and then he remembers his earlier realization. Lance thumbs through his list of contacts quickly to find someone to come help him. There's no operatives nearby according to his ECD.Makes sense really.This part of the galaxy is deserted. Unless, of course, you count the many toxic, barren, wasteland planets, all of which are uninhabited by natural lifeforms. Or at least those that don't want to use you as a snack. Why protect planets with nothing to offer? The rebellion is stretched thin enough as it is. Unless there's something valuable here, no sane person or race would willing come here. Except maybe a fugitive looking for somewhere to hide from the Galra. Lance glances at his ECD before sharply turning to the right to avoid more laserfire. Lance is seconds away from gritting his teeth and trying his hardest to shake off his pursuers when he spots the newest addition on ECD contact list. Screaming at him in all caps is 'VOLTRON'. Lance doesn't hesitate to initiate a live call, taking out another fighter as he waits in anticipation and anxiety. Live calls are trickier than simple messages, because the call will only go through if the other person accepts, and depending on nearby Galra signals, the connection could be crystal clear or old timey television static.Luckily for Lance, he's got about a dozen Galra fighters trying to kill him.
Yeah, real lucky.
Lance executes a loop near perfectly, which is impressive when you factor in the fact that Bessy isn't made for maneuvers like that. Exiting the loop, Lance finds himself behind a few of the front fighters. He stays just long enough for the rear fighters to fire before he puts Bessy in a nose dive out of the way.Three down, ten left to go.Lance would love to stay and kick some Galra ass, but Bessy won't hold out much longer in this fight. There's already warning sensors and alarms going off. Which normally would be deafening Lance, but his blood is pumping so hard in his body the sound of his own heartbeat cancels it all out. The fight winds down a little as the Galra fighters try to get over their confusion, which is bad for Lance. The moment he stops having to fight for his life, even if for a minute, his adrenaline dies and fatigue overcomes him. He's mid yawn when there's a hit to his left wing, damaging but not destroying it. He's hardly slept this past two weeks, plagued with more nightmares than usual. All because he met those damned humans. Not that they're bad or anything, they just brought up a lot of bad memories. All he wanted was to get his eye fixed so he can't be tracked anymore and then go home. See his Ma again, and his siblings, and nephew and niece. His cousins and his Angela too.God, or whatever is out there, please let Abuela still be there if he gets home. Another hit to his ship, and Lance is yanked back by his seatbelts harshly. Another alarm starts sounding off, and Lance glances down to see the damage Bessy has taken this time. So far his left wing has a chunk missing and is slowly becoming unstable, his engine coolant is severed and his hull has been pierced.
Wait a second.
His hull isn't pierced, if it was, all the oxygen and loose items would be sucked out into space. Lance yanks his controls to the left and avoids another hail of fire as he tries to get Bessy to tell him where she hurts. He's thinking it's a malfunction with the warning system until suddenly he's pinned to his seat from the force and the air is being sucked out of his own lungs. Lance chokes, grasping at his neck as he tries to breath and then Voltron finallypicks up."Lance?" The voice over the ECD says. Lance grabs it as it flies through the air and slams it into its hook. Still choking to death but no worries right?Lance grabs his controls with one hand to fly while he uses the other to search for his helmet. It's only when his vision starts turning black that he remembers he got a new one, one that transforms into a normal earpiece when not in use. Kind of looks like one of those Bluetooth ear things people on Earth used way back in the day. He presses the button to activate the helmet and gasps in air as his vision turns blue from the visor.Lance quickly unbuckles, letting Bessy nosedive towards a planet's atmosphere at mach speed. He plays leapfrog with the bolted down metal to get to the hole that's steadily growing in size. On the way he grabs a sealant and uses it to plug up the hole until maintenance can be done to fix it. Hopefully the atmosphere's heat doesn't melt it away though, because it took his only supply to plug the hole. He doesn't have enough to do it again. "Lance!"They say again, but Lance is too preoccupied to identify which one of Team Voltron said it. He vaults over the back of the seat and grabs the controls, looking out at a quickly approaching ground of solid rock. Lance pulls up on the controls as hard as he can, gritting his teeth. Bessy starts heating up again, and Lance uses his shoulder to deactivate his new helmet so he could see without fog in his face. The metal starts shaking and Lance actually believes she won't stay together to last through the fall, as even the controls are wobbling. Lance lifts his foot on the dashboard to stabilize himself. He closes his eyes so he doesn't have to see his own death if He decides it's Lance's time. Little Spanish prayers slip out of his lips in a mutter as he waits for either a big impact or a release on the gravity pulling him down."Lance!"This time it's a collage of voices yelling his name in different states of panic. Lance peeks his eye open only to see the ground right below and flinches. He's fairly sure he's dead until the moment the pressure of gravity releases. Bessy flies back out of the atmosphere at top speed.Lance collapses back in his chair in gratitude for only a moment. His relaxation ends when he watches a Galra cruiser exit lightspeed. Lance thumps his head back against his chair with a groan as he realizes he is utterly screwed. "Lance answer me!"Shiro calls out and Lance opens his eyes as he realizes hope may yet be lost. "Well it's about time you guys answered me, kind of fighting for my life here. No biggie though." Lance says. He didn't mean to come off as such an ass but it isn't like this is an everyday thing for him. Usually he at least has a good ship.
Sorry Bessy, but it's true.
"What's going on?" Hunk asks, worry in his tone like usual. "Oh you know. The usual. Just took out two dozen or so fighter jets in a crappy, not-fit-for-battle transport ship with no backup or even good weapons. And now I'm staring down the front end of a Galra Cruiser." Lance says through a scowl as he turns his ship in the opposite direction of the Cruiser. Not that it will help much, but he can try. There's a huge explosion at the back of his ship, throwing Lance forward.He hits his head on his dash, since he isn't buckled in. He leans back with a groan and blinks away the blood dripping over his good eye. "Uh," Pidge says. He still can't hardly see them because they're only static, but he knows their voices well enough. "What the hell was that sound?" Lance blinks through his blurry vision and squints at his dashboard for a reading. He gets the barest glimpse of the reading before it blurs again. Yeah. He probably has a concussion now. Those are fun. "That would be Bessy's engines overheating and blowing up." There's another boom and his ship tilts sideways. He barely stays in his seat because of his arm rest. "And that was my left wing finally falling off.""Oh my god." Shiro whispers very loudly. His voice sounds like it's underwater. "Yeah so could you guys come get me?" Lance slurs. "Also I think I have a-" Lance never finishes his sentence because he blacks out. His last thought is the regret that he will be the reason the Galra get a hold of their communications network. All because he couldn't sever those stupid wires in time.Lady Luck must really be pissed this time.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
"Also I think I have a-" Lance slurred out before going unconscious. Shiro's heart jumps in pace as the ship takes another hit with no one to pilot it away from the blast zone. Alarms are sounding like crazy, drowning out even the laserfire. "Pidge." Shiro calls, turning to look at her where she was standing beside him but she's already at her station. "Already on it Shiro. Tracking the call now." Pidge says, half distracted as she types away at her computers, using more than one at the same time. Shiro turns back to the screen when there's a loud crunching noise on Lance's end of the call. In the background a hole is being pried open in the hull.Slowly but surely the hole grows wider, the sound of thick metal being wrenched open grating on the ears. Lance is still out cold, but at least his helmet is still on when the air starts rushing out of the hole. When the sound of air being sucked out of a space stops, a Galran soldier peaks his head through. "Pidge!" Shiro calls out in growing panic. They can't do anything until they get those coordinates. If only Lance had stayed awake a few seconds longer. No, don't blame Lance. He's just a kid. "I'm trying! But whoever designed this code is crazy paranoid. I'm having to take the long way around all the code since breaking it would take too long." Pidge starts explaining. "I don't care just do it, we're running out of time!" Shiro says, and he feels guilty for pressuring her but he doesn't want Lance to die alone. Not before he sees Earth again. Dear god, the kid hasn't been home in almost two years. His parents must be worried sick. "I'm trying!" Pidge says, her voice strained. "It's okay Pidge." Hunk says. "You can do this. We believe in you."Shiro sends Hunk a brief grateful glance as he stares at the screen in anticipation and worry. The hole grows bigger with another loud crunch of metal and the Galra soldier can fit one arm through with his head. "Got it!" Pidge calls in triumph. "Everybody suit up." Allura says. "Opening a wormhole now." The others race off to don their paladin armor but Shiro stays. He bites at his fingernails as the hole opens up one last time and the Galra soldier climbs through. Then another one does. And another one. They close in on Lance in what seems like slow motion, guns and swords raised in preparation for a fight. One they won't get because Lance is out cold with a possible concussion. There's a pulling sensation in Shiro's stomach as they enter the wormhole but still Shiro doesn't move. The video on the screen blurs a little but Shiro gets the idea of what's happening. Instead of killing Lance, they pick him up like a sack of potatoes. While that's happening another soldier steps onto the ship, this one wearing a different kind of armor than they have seen before. It's dark, and sleek, with markings Shiro doesn't recognize. Most Galra officers where a specific armor to show their rank but this one doesn't look like any Shiro has seen before. The soldiers carry Lance off the ship, but the strange one stays behind a moment. He looks around a little before looking directly at the ECD Lance was using and leaning down to flood the screen with nothing but his helmet. Vaguely through the helmet, Shiro sees slanted eyes, and the soldier holds up something that makes his heart jump. An ECD. One that isn't Lance's. He holds up a finger in a shushing motion then reaches forward and the feed goes black. Shiro sucks in a breath as he tries to figure out what just happened, and they leave the wormhole with another roller coaster drop in Shiro's stomach. He quickly turns and heads for his lion since he's already suited up. He had been training before Lance's transmission came through.
God, Lance. Be okay. Just hang on!
He's just a kid for heaven's sake. One who was both happy go lucky and a sorrowful warning personified last time they met. He'd ignored their calls out for him to focus on steering his ship. He'd prayed in Spanish mutters when he thought he was going to die. Then he had played the suave character when he had both a concussion and a dead ship. Lance is so complicated, and Shiro's only known him for two weeks give or take, and not even really that. That look of relief on Lance's face when he cleared the deadly nosedive like a pro. Then that dawning horror as he realized he wasn't out of the water yet. The fear and then the unfocused gaze and then passing out. It'll haunt Shiro's sleep if they don't save Lance. Which they have to. He's just a kid.Shiro sits in his pilot seat on the Black Lion and wraps his hands around the controls. His muscles tense and he gets that same roller coaster feeling as they exit the wormhole. It had disoriented them all the first time they went through a wormhole. One moment you're in one place and the next you're in another. His lion's control panel lights up as he prepares to take off. Allura tells them to deploy the moment they safely can.Shiro is first out of the hangars so he's the first to witness the wretched sight before him. One that makes the bile rise in his throat and his worry skyrocket. A Galra cruiser waits in the distance, over twenty fighters deployed. Dead center between the Galra and team Voltron is a ship that's falling to pieces. It isn't like Lance's other ship when they first met. That had been a modified version of the Galra fighters painted a vibrant blue instead of black. This one is bigger, clunkier, and barely held together.He's just a kid. Lance doesn't deserve to go out like this. And he won't. Not on Shiro's watch. A red streak blurs past Shiro and he watches as Keith and Red decimate a line of fighters with his fire ray."Get a move on old man!" Keith yells out over the comms. Shiro smirks as he dashes forward, a green and a yellow streak chasing right after. "Who are you calling an old man cadet!" Shiro calls back. "Hunk take care of that cruiser's ion cannon. Pidge, find Lance. Keith and I will handle the rest."There's a chorus of affirmation as everyone breaks off to do their respective duties. A lot more fighters deploy after the Galra get over their initial shock. Shiro and Keith make quick work of them as they wait for Pidge's signal. "Got him. He's aboard the cruiser. Your orders Shiro?" Pidge says. She must really like Lance if she's being polite. "Hunk, Keith. Watch our backs. Pidge and I are going in." Shiro says. They confirm and the team breaks apart their regroup. Shiro and Pidge dive straight for the cruiser, Keith clearing them a path as they go. The Black and Green Lions land on the ship and simultaneously take a bite into the ship's metal. The Lions hold still, acting as a seal to the holes they made until their paladins are back in the cockpit. Shiro closes his helmet and races through Black and onto the ship. He meets Pidge in the hallway and she wastes no time. Pidge leads the way, absorbed in her datapad as she tracks Lance down. How she's doing so is beyond Shiro but if it works it works. He activates his arm and stays in front of Pidge to clear her way. She makes no hesitation in telling him what to do, which honestly isn't surprising in the least.He races forward and takes down another three sentries."How much farther Pidge?" Shiro asks as his yanks his hand out of a sentry's chest. Pidge is already running down the now cleared hall still looking at her datapad. "Not much. Just a few more- stop!" Pidge yells as they run through the halls. Pidge puts on the brakes and Shiro barely catches himself from running right into her. She runs up to another door, and hooks up to the Galra system. Shiro watches her back as she hacks into the door. Within seconds there's a woosh behind Shiro and he turns around to see Lance unconscious and bruised. Shiro reaches down and picks him up in a fireman's carry.
God he's just a kid.
"Lance is secured. Coming out now." Shiro calls out as they race back to the lions. This time it's Pidge clearing a path. Lance isn't exactly the largest of men but boy is he heavy. Shiro grunts as he runs, periodically shifting Lance's weight. Lance's elbow keeps digging into his neck and it definitely not the most comfortable sensation. "You guys need to hurry. The cruiser called for backup and now the castle is taking heavy fire." Allura says through the comms. "We need to get out of here to fight another day.""Working on it Allura." Pidge replies as she yanks her bayard back and rips three sentries in half at once. They take off again, rounding one last corner and coming up to the openings their lions created. "At our lions Allura." Shiro says, huffing from the effort of carrying Lance's weight during a sprint. "Coming to you." They separate to go to their lions and Shiro lays Lance down gently on the floor beside his pilot chair. He grabs the controls and he and Black are releasing the ship and turning around. Allura wasn't kidding. Where there had only been a cruiser and a bunch of fighter jets, now hovers two more cruisers. "Keith, Hunk. Let's get out of here." Shiro commands. They all regroup and fly as fast as possible back to the ship. They slip past the barrier one by one and into the Lion Hangars with hardly any trouble. "Strap in Paladins. Opening wormhole now." Allura says. There's a building curl in Shiro's stomach that suggests the wormhole is opening. Shiro lands Black quickly and launches to the floor to check on Lance. He's still unconscious, but the head wound has scabbed over already, streaks of dried blood running down Lance's face. His mask is loose, almost falling off, and Shiro is almost too tempted to remove it to see what's underneath. He doesn't. Of course he doesn't. That's rude and an invasion of privacy. "You'll be alright kiddo." Shiro mutters. Half to himself, half to Lance. "Just hang in there. We'll get you all fixed up in no time."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
For Lance, waking up is, and always has been a chore.His mother always said he sleeps like the dead, so it isn't unusual for him to wake up then go back to sleep and repeat the cycle about three more times. The difference between his usual routine of waking up and this time is the grogginess though. His mind and body feels lethargic, like he hasn't slept in days and he only got in a few hours of rest. His stomach drops as gravity tugs him downwards. He braces for impact with the floor beside his bed as much as he can, but There really isn't a way to prepare for that when you aren't fully awake.Except it never comes.Lance is enveloped in warm, the kind he hardly remembers these days. Space is cold, but this hold on him is warm, comforting. He sighs into it and relaxes a little as he tries to pry open his eyes. Whatever is surrounding him, the owner of the warmth, almost smells like home. A sort of soft dryness Lance associates with sand, peppered the slightest bit with sweat and metal.Perhaps he'd had a nightmare. It would explain the smell of sweat, if only he didn't feel sweaty. Dirty, maybe, but not sweaty. Lance drags his open against their will, blinking to rid himself of the bleariness. He slowly looks at his surroundings, but his vision is filled with an arm covered in black sleeves. It takes him a moment to realize that the warmth is coming from a body, one he doesn't recognize. Lance is definitely awake now. His body tenses briefly, unwillingly, a quick warning to the person who's holding him tightly. The warning is lost on the person, and Lance takes full advantage of it.He plants his left foot on the ground, using his right leg to hook around the person's, and yanks. Hard. The movement briefly throws his captors body off balance, and Lance uses his weight to push forward, knocking his captor backwards. They both fall to the ground, the enemy going down with a startled shout, and Lance uses what energy he can muster to maneuver the fall. Lance twists the enemy around so they go face first to the floor, crashing down like a tree falling in the woods. Lance falls with them, still too weak to catch his footing, slamming his knees harshly into the metal beneath him.
That'll surely bruise in the morning.
Lance wastes no time hooking his around the enemy's neck, securing them in a tight headlock. He pulls back to choke them, baring his teeth like the animal they deemed him in the arena. The Hunter has awoken from its dormancy, and he doesn't like being caged.The enemy struggles, grasping at Lance's arm, clawing with blunt nails into his skin. Lance isn't in enough of his right mind to question why a Galra doesn't have claws to rip his skin open like tearing through loose dirt. Lance looks up with a snarl, the movement making his head spin just a little, and bares his teeth at the Galra who captured him.Except. It isn't Galra he's looking at. Lance's snarl fades as he looks into the faces of humans, specifically the Paladins of Voltron. His friends. Acquaintances? Allies. Whatever they are, they stare back at Lance with narrowed eyes. Keith has a curious little knife pointed at him, one with familiar metal and a cloth bandage wrapped around the hilt. Allura is standing behind them, looking down her nose with narrow eyes and a little snarl of her own. Hunk and Pidge stare back in concern, Pidge grasping her man-made laptop and Hunk wringing his hands nervously. An Altean man Lance assumes is the infamous Coran stands off to the side with wide eyes and a datapad clutched in his hands tightly.
Which leaves….
Lance looks down at the man who had once been his hero, his head forced back and his face turning red. His clawing hands don't have quite as much force behind the fingers. Lance lets go and just as quickly launches backwards into a giant strange capsule thing. A pod maybe? Something of that nature. Shiro, now released, collapses forward in a coughing fit.Lance swallows dryly, chasing away his cottonmouth as best he can so he can speak. All movement stops as Lance tries to figure out how he got here in the first place. Last thing he remembers is an Olkari trying to help him, then a Galra patrol.
Then there was a Galra cruiser…
But wasn't he alone? Yes. He was definitely alone. And he remembers waking briefly as they threw him a cell, then fighting back as they tried to close the door. Then something hit him in the head. And the next thing he knows he's waking up in Shiro's arms. He opens his mouth to explain, or to apologize."You aren't the Galra." Is all Lance gets out, weakly. Good thing Nama isn't here to see this, his ship would be hijacked by his own crew within seconds. "No." Allura says, slowly and kind of emotionless. Geez, tough nut to crack if ever there was one. "We are not."Lance wills his grogginess away as he tries to stand up from the capsule/ pod/ strange looking device. Lance only stumbles just a little bit. When he's stable enough to stand without help he leans down to offer Shiro a hand up. Shiro takes it without hesitation, using his human hand. "Sorry man." Lance says with a guilty smile. Shiro smiles back."It's no biggie. Really." Shiro says and Lance's shoulder drop the tension he had been holding."What happened anyways?" Lance asks, looking briefly behind Shiro at the others.Shiro's eyebrows curl together as he frowns, his nose scrunching and make his nose scar wiggly a little. It's kind of cute the way he does that. Honestly it's unfair how beautiful all of the Paladins are. And Lance doesn't even mean that in a sexual way, they're just beautiful. It's been a long time since he's seen another human, and their faces are glorious and painful to behold. Painful because they remind him of home and glorious for the same exact reason. "You don't remember?" Shiro asks and Lance shrugs a little, folding his arms behind him and rubbing his left thumb over his right knuckles to help with the relestness he's feeling. He's not used to standing still. Even when he and his crew aren't tormenting the Galra he's always doing something. Cleaning his quarters, polishing his weapons, fixing something on the ship that's broken about the millionth time. Always moving, never stationary.The restlessness helps in battle, the enemy can never pin him down if he's never in the same spot for more than two seconds. "I remember going solo on a personal mission, then getting ambushed by a Galra patrol, and then calling you guys. After that it's just a flash of being thrown in that cell before nothing again." Lance explains. "Well I'm not surprised." The man Lance presumes is Coran says. "You took quite a nasty blow to the head my boy."Lance almost doesn't stop himself from jerking back at the endearment. It's one his father always used on him when he was being particularly fond. The reminder sends a warmth through his chest just as much as it forms a lump in his throat. He's went almost two years without hardly thinking about his family, keeping away from the distractions those memories cause. These humans aren't helping him keep away from them if he's being truthful to himself. Lance reaches up to feel his head, remembering hitting his head on the dashboard of Bessy. He expects to find a cut or a lump or even bandages but his skin is smooth. The only thing inhibiting the smoothness of his forehead is his mask and an old scar hidden in his hairline. "I don't feel an injury though." Lance mutters lowly, almost to himself. "That would be the healing pods behind you." Pidge explains, pointing behind him at the big pod (so it is a pod) behind him."You had us worried for a second there." Hunk says, but it's Keith that draws Lance's attention. His head is bowed, his eyes looking up at Lance through the bangs of his mullet. He's put away that familiar looking knife now and his arms are crossed. Lance doesn't comment on the reaction. Instead he glances behind him at the pod that supposedly healed him up so well there's not even an indention where a scar should be. He shrugs it off as his stomach decides to start eating itself from neglect."Sorry for worrying you big guy." Lance says. "Maybe I can make it up to you by making you guys some actual food, because I'm starving and I refuse to eat that goo stuff."Hunk smiles at the offer, his eyes practically twinkling like stars at the idea. Next thing Lance knows he's being lifted off the ground in a bone crushing hug. For a moment Lance freezes, tensing. Then he practically melts as the cold of space is chased away by a single hug."Sounds good buddy!" Hunk says before lowering him gently to the ground. Lance smiles as he realizes how quickly he's come to trust these people. Enough to let them within touching distance without being armed to the teeth. In space it's hard to trust.Which hurts Lance especially, because he's always been one to trust first and regret it later. However, since that trusting nature of his is the reason he got kidnapped from Earth in the first place, it's become difficult to find people he can rely on. Everyone in the universe are liars and deceivers, every man for themselves in war and oppression. You can never know who will backstab you and who will die to save your life until the choice comes to life.Hence his distrust of his own crew. He tried trusting them all in the beginning, but they all turned that trust against him. Tried to overthrow him, mutiny, whatever you wanna call it. It was right after Lance commissioned the mask he wears to jam any Galra tracking device. They thought Lance to be weak and unworthy to lead, and it took Lance overpowering the entirety of his crew to put them in their place. Now he can't even have friendly banter without worrying about his own safety.Hunk wraps an arm around Lance's shoulder and drags him out of his thoughts. They walk side by side to the kitchen with the rest of the group following not far behind. Hunk rattles on about the Earth meals he's tried to make out of alien ingredients and Lance smiles and nods along. Sadly, after reaching the kitchen and looking through every cupboard and cabinet, there isn't much to work with to make a decent tasting meal. Hunk still manages to make a miracle with the food goo. Lance is in the midst of taking another bite, mouth dropped open and spoon inches away from his lips, when he feels eyes on him. Lance looks up and sees the residents of the castleship staring him down. At least it's only Allura who's looking at him with any kind of distrust. Everyone else just looks either concerned or contemplating. Lance slowly lowers his spoon, feeling his stomach twist."Okay what?" Lance says, scooting his plate to the side so he can have his full attention on the Paladins. Keith makes a chuffing sound that sounds suspiciously familiar."What do you mean what? Why did we have to rescue you from capture by the Galra? I thought you were some big badass warrior or something." Keith says. "Language." Shiro immediately scolds Keith who rolls his eyes and sits back in his chair, arms crossed defensively. "What he means to say, is why were you out there in the middle of nowhere anyways? Our intel on that region says it's barren and uninhabited."Lance sighs and crosses his arms as he realizes he won't be eating anything else for right now. It's a shame too, since all he's eaten were dried rations for a week while he followed that Olkari dude's trail. Too late now. His appetite is gone. Poof. Nothing but smoke. "I told you. It was a personal solo mission." Lance says. He hopes it's enough to satisfy their curiosity but they all just stare back at him with varying levels of expectancy. Lance sighs and tries to find a way to word this without giving too much information away. You can never be too careful when it comes to information. You never know which walls have ears and whose ears those might be. Actually now that Lance thinks of it, he's yet to see the rest of the ship's crew.
Creepy.
"I was tracking an escaped refugee to make a trade. He helps me, I help him. However the Galra decided to crash the party. So they attacked, I called you guys, and here we are." Lance says. He makes it as flippant as possible to try and steer them away from asking the right questions. He won't lie to them, because Lance hates lies. But he can make sure they don't ask the questions he doesn't want to answer. Apparently, though, Pidge is more clever than Lance thought."What exactly did you want from this refugee anyways?" Pidge asks. Lance grinds his teeth together for a moment as he tries to find a loophole in answering without outright lying. He fails. "My eye." Lance says. "I needed help with my eye." "You're," Shiro draws out with a pause. "Eye." Shiro sounds unconvinced. "You mean the missing one right?" Keith says. Almost immediately he jumps in his seat with a yelp as someone kicks him underneath the table. Lance tilts his head to the side in confusion."What missing eye?" Lance asks. Then he mutters a drawn out 'oh' as he realizes what's going through their heads. "My eye isn't gone." Lance watches as one by one they all sink into confusion, even the princess. It's not offensive that they think his eye is missing, it actually sounds like a reasonable assumption. It just amuses him that they don't know the truth. It's been awhile since the matter of his metal eye wasn't mainstream information. Kind of a refreshing moment to Lance. "What do you mean?" Hunk asks and when Lance looks over he snorts as he sees a clump of food goo on the corner of his mouth. "You got a little something Hunk." Lance gestures to his own mouth. He moves on as Hunk flushes and wipes a hand across his mouth. "I mean that I have two eyes. Just that not both of them are human."Lance places a finger over his mouth to shush Keith when he goes to ask a question. Lance waits until it's dead silent at the table. When it becomes quiet enough, Lance taps his fingernail against where his human eye would be underneath the mask. There's a small clinking sound as his nail makes contact with the metal through the material. It's quiet for a moment. "What the fuck?" Pidge says."Language." Shiro scolds right after. Lance chuckles as he leans back in his chair. For some reason he doesn't feel that usual worry and fear when he has to share information about himself with someone. Perhaps these people really are the trustworthy type. "I don't understand my boy. If you have both eyes why cover the metal one?" Coran asks. His accent sounds almost British to Lance, with a little bit of an alien undertone. He still barely holds back a flinch when Coran calls him that. He wants to tell Coran to stop, but at the same time it feels so good to hear in that tone again. Fatherly and kind instead of harsh and claiming. That's another memory though. One he prefers to leave in the back of his mind, locked up tight in the little lock box where the bad things go."Because it's dangerous to leave this particular Galra modification unchecked." Lance says. Shiro's shoulders jerk back at the mention of the Galra."Galra?" Shiro asks. Lance nods."It's a reminder of the time I spent as a gladiator in the Galra Arenas. A particularly bad reminder." Lance explains. He expects to feel a flare of fear and distrust but none come. "You were in the Arena?" Pidge asks with a certain tone in her voice that suggests she wants to know something other than his time spent in the arena. Lance gets that tone from most of his CO's. They always want him to say something specific and always gets pissed when he doesn't comply."Yes but don't ask for details because I won't answer." Lance warns. "Wait you remember you're time in the arena?" Shiro asks. Lance raises an eyebrow."Of course. Do you not?" Lance asks but he gets his answer before Shiro even opens his mouth. His eyes aren't haunted enough. "No. How did you know that I was a gladiator." Shiro asks, and the room becomes tense again. Lance gets the feeling again that they want him to say something specific but he can't for the life of him figure out what. "Your arm." Lance says. "That generation of weaponized prosthetics has been a pain in my ass more times than I can count."
Mainly because it's Lance's generation.
But Shiro doesn't need to know that, for now. "Generation?" Shiro asks. He opens his mouth to ask something else most likely but it is cut off by the battleship itself. Alarms blare through the ship at a decibel that makes Lance's ears feel like they'll start bleeding. Or rather, just one war, and it isn't his human one. He clasps his hands tight over his ears as he tries to drown out the noise. He watches through blurry eyes as everyone around the table launch into action and out the door. Guess they're under attack if these people are that urgent.Lance desperately wants to help them in the fight, he hates being sidelined. However, between Bessy not being outfitted for another battle so soon, wherever she is, and the sound of these alarms paralyzing Lance where he sits, he's pretty much useless. The alarms blare for what seems like hours before they finally stop. Or at least the alarms outside his own head stopped, now there's just that resounding echo-like ringing in his ears drowning him in pain.When the ringing finally stops, Lance peels his hands off his ears. Lance quickly wipes away the evidence of tears and stands on shaky legs to go to the bridge. Hopefully he can make his way there without getting lost. He marches towards the elevator with a purpose, up until the moment the doors are shut and he's looking at the buttons to pick which level of the ship to go to. He hesitates as he tries to remember what button he pressed the first time he went to the bridge with no such luck. He presses for the bottom floor to start at the docking Bay. The doors open mere minutes later, and Lance almost waits in the elevator for the doors to shut. Then, as the doors are closing, he sees a glimpse of silver hair and reflexively sticks his arm out to stop the door from closing. Then he flinches because he doesn't know if these doors have that same kind of sensor that human elevators do. Lady Luck must have mercy today because his arm does not get chopped off.Lance walks slowly down the corridor where he saw the flash of silver hair, and comes up on the only occupied lion hangar left. There's a growling scream of frustration that comes from around the walls separating each hangar and Lance slowly looks around to see what's going on. There, not even twenty meters in front of Lance, is Allura wearing a white bodysuit type of armor with her hair thrown up in a bun. And in front of Allura is the hulking form of the Blue Lion with its barrier still raised. Allura cocks her hip and crosses her arms, foot tapping. What is she doing? There's a battle going on, she can't just be standing around when she's needed to assist. Either as a pilot of Voltron or the pilot of the castleship, she's a key piece in any battle. Lance steps out from behind the wall to confront her.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Allura growls at the Blue Lion as her particle barrier doesn't budge. "What is it this time!?" Allura whines. Blue sends her a thought, and all it tells her is that Blue only wants her paladin. She groans in frustration and drops the helmet to the suit she wears. It's not the armor of the Blue Paladin, because last time Allura wore the Blue Paladin armor, Blue went nuts. She had roared and shook her head and stomped her paws, shaking the floor where Allura had stood."Blue come on!" No response. "The others need our help! Please!""Allura?" A voice says behind her making her jump in place. She whips around and faces Lance. He stands in the center of the hall, arms crossed and head tilted. He's still wearing the med suit from earlier but at least now he's got his weapons on. He was lucky the team got to him before he lost his only weapons too. If it's his only weapons."What are you doing? There's a fight going on, why aren't you out there?" Lance says. His eyes are shifty, looking between herself and the Blue Lion. Her eyes narrow at him when he stares too long at the Lion. When Lance looks back at her he doesn't look away again."Don't you see I'm trying?" Allura bites out in anger."Okay. What's wrong?" Lance asks. Allura nearly growls like a lion herself when he asks her."What's wrong?" Allura begins. "What's wrong!? What's wrong is everything!" Allura crosses her arms in a huff to stop from speaking with her hands. She may be pissed and she may not like this Lance but she will not be improper for an Altean Princess. Despite the lack of a race to rule other than Coran."Why don't you tell me about it then?" Lance says. He crosses his arms too and it makes Allura's shoulders relax when he stops using his hands to speak. Words come out of the mouth. Not the hands. And when someone loses their hearing in the Altean race, the hands they use to speak with are refined and controlled movements. Not all this silly nonsense of wild gestures. For some reason the distraction of Lance's hand movements being removed makes her actually respond. "I am to lead the fight in the war against Zarkon but the Blue Lion refuses any and all possible pilots! Now, my Paladins, my Paladins, are out in battle and are in danger because they can't form Voltron." Allura rambles. "And I'm here, safe on my ship, while they risk their lives!"“It isn’t that big of a deal, the others can manage without the Blue Lion this time. Why don’t you go upstairs and pilot the castle?” Lance suggests. Allura supposes he’s trying to be kind but she’s too angry and frustrated to handle kindness from someone she doesn’t trust.“The Paladins need my help! And to do that I need the Blue Lion!” Allura’s shoulders drop and so do her eyes as she whispers the next part. “I’m useless without the Blue Lion.”A hand lands on her shoulder and Allura immediately shakes it off in complete offense. How dare he touch her without her express permission? Lance’s hands drop to his side but she catches his eye and suddenly he’s got her locked in. His eye burns with a fire and she can’t look away as he becomes dead serious. “Don’t ever say that again.” Lance says with so much fire in his voice it shocks her. “The Paladins need you, this war needs you. All of the people out there fighting? They need you to be the leader you were raised to be.”“I’m trying!” Allura replies as a warmth rolls down her cheeks, and she blinks in shock as she realizes they’re tears. “But I need the Blue Lion to do that!”“No. You don’t. Voltron is just a weapon, it needs a leader, and not just Shiro either. It needs someone who is strong, and brave, and clever. Voltron is only as good as the person who leads it and that person is you.” Lance says, holding her hostage with his bright blue eyes. “Doesn’t matter if you’re the Blue Paladin or the Black Paladin, or just another person fighting for freedom. Those paladins are fighting for you, don’t disrespect their loyalty by doubting yourself.” Lance finishes off.“Try again.” Lance says and nods behind her to the Blue Lion’s particle barrier. She looks back at him to be faced with a gentle smile. Maybe this Lance isn’t so bad after all. Allura takes a deep breath to calm herself and places her hand on the particle barrier. After a few seconds she gets another message, pretty much saying nope, not you. Allura gets so angry she steps back from the Blue Lion's particle barrier and kicks at it in fury. Then she punches at it, and then she bangs at it and throws a childish tantrum to get it to drop but all she gets from the Lion is silence. She screams out in frustration. "Woah, 'kay!" Lance says and arms wrap themselves around her waist and pulls her back from the barrier. The moment she's out of kicking reach she yanks herself out of Lance's arms. How dare he lay hands on her without permission? Again? Who does this man think he is?"I'm sorry. But you need to calm down if you want to help your Paladins." Lance says, sounding every bit sincere. Allura scoffs. "The Blue Lion is a stubborn, frustrating, picky little-" Allura searches for the correct word in Common Tongue but not finding it. So instead she uses an Altean word that isn't polite enough to be translated into any language. "Now now." Lance says, raising his hands in a calm down motion. He plants a smile on his face she assumes is supposed to be charming. Yeah, no. "Don't be so harsh." Lance continues. "Have you tried asking?"Allura can even feel her face drop into something unimpressed. Lance raises his hands again to show that he's backing off. He talks with his hands a lot, which is suspicious. In her home planet talking with your hands is considered rude and distracting. Unless you use the proper hand movements that those who lose their hearing use. But perhaps things are different for humans. Hunk talks with his hands some, but he's really the only one. Shiro might when he's scolding the Paladins, and Keith definitely only uses his hands when angry or overly emotional. The rest of the time Keith keeps his arms crossed on his chest and Shiro alternates between crossing them and setting them on his hips. Pidge always has her hands busy with her computer or a datapad or something so it's hard to tell if she does. "Okay. Have you tried knocking?" Lance says. Allura's unimpressed look moves from just her face to her entire posture. She cocks her hip and crosses her arms and gives Lance nothing more than a raised eyebrow in response. Lance shrugs at her and moves to the particle barrier. It may be irrational, but her first thought is a question of whether Lance will try to steal the Blue Lion. It makes her hate herself just a little. Alteans are a proud people. Ever since she was young, her father drilled it into her very soul that the Altean race values peace over war. If only her father was here. Then the king could tell Allura how to handle this Lance. Trust him? Or be suspicious? Like him? Or hate him? Make him an ally or make him an enemy?"Just do what I do." Lance says. Then he turns to the Blue Lion with a bow. "Hello there beautiful. Would you be so kind as to let me in?" And then he turns to look at Allura and leans up against the barrier. He knocks lightly with the back of his knuckles and smiles at her like 'see? Just like that.'Allura is fully prepared to throw him out of the airlock for this foolishness. And she would have too. If it wasn't for what happened right after. Like in slow motion, the particle barrier drops from behind Lance and he falls down on his behind when suddenly there's no support. Not even moments later the Blue Lion sends out a Claim, a mental message to anyone that is the room. Maybe even further with how much it overpowers Allura, enough to make her stumble back a step where she stands.“Uh?” Lance says as he presses his fingers to his forehead, right over the mask on his eye. “What was that?”“That was the Blue Lion. She has claimed you as hers. You are the Blue Paladin. The true Blue Paladin.” Allura explains, her hands clamping in front of her stomach so she doesn’t lose form and rush Lance with a hug or squeal like a child. Don’t get her wrong, she’s still suspicious of Lance. She knows he’s hiding things, things that could be very detrimental to whether she allows Blue to keep her paladin (not that she’d really do that). She’s just so happy to be free. Flying the castle takes enough energy out of her as it is. Piloting- fighting- the Blue Lion is a completely different kind of energy toll she doesn’t need to deal with.“Yeah okay. Good one Allura. Weapons don’t speak.” Lance says laughing in a tense sort of way as he stands up from the floor. He brushes himself off and straightens up. At that exact moment he jumps in place with a squeak and falls right back down to the floor. He looks around him in sort of a panicked look. Allura only begins smiling.“What was that?” Lance says. He doesn’t get up from the floor again, just stays there shocked and panicky. “That was your Lion Lance.” Allura replies, smile growing.“Ha ha.” Lance says, mocking a sarcastic laugh. “Stop joking Allura.”Allura shakes her head, still with a growing smile. Lance looks at her and narrows his eyes. “Why are you smiling like that?” Allura smiles even brighter and bites her lip to try to keep it from getting bigger. “Stop that, you’re scaring me.” “There’s nothing to be scared of, you are the Blue Paladin. Simple as that.” Allura explains, keeping her hands clasped at her stomach.“No, I’m not.” Lance says. “Stop telling me otherwise. Besides, I thought you didn’t trust me?” “Oh I don’t, but I know a bond when I see one and yours is strong with the Blue Lion.” Allura says, but then she tilts her head in curiosity. “Why do you keep denying the truth?” Lance gets up from the ground and brushes himself off again, though this time with a lot more aggression. He takes a moment to straighten the belt that holds his weapons. “Because,” Lance says, drawing the word out in a very ‘duh’ tone. “I’m no Paladin. I’m not some noble hero. I’m just a boy, from Cuba, who happened to get himself kidnapped and suddenly thrown into a war he never wanted a part of.” “You are the Blue Paladin, it’s your duty to form Voltron and win the war against Zarkon.” Allura starts, fixing to go into a long spiel about the honor of being a Paladin, one her father used to say to her when she asked why he fought as the Red Paladin. Lance cuts her off. “I don’t want to win the war, I want to go home.” Lance grumbles, even going so far as to stomp his foot. Like a child. Honestly, Blue, this one? Allura absentmindedly asks herself, and immediately she gets a response that feels like a purr. Okay then, this one it is. “Lance, we can discuss this later, but for now, why don’t you go help the others? They need you to fight beside them.” Allura says, and Lance’s face gets a conflicted look across it. Lance seems to be a very expressive kind of person, unlike most of the other Paladins. Shiro is always with a neutral expression, Keith with an angry one. Pidge always looks condescending, like she’s judging everyone every second of the day. Hunk is the only exception, who’s all smiles and emotion and openness. Then again, Lance also seems to be able to turn it off at a moment’s notice. She recognized that in their very first meeting. The surprise of seeing the Paladins, mixed with a range of fear and sorrow. Then the moment his crew member, starting with an ‘N’ or something, walked up Lance’s face was neutral and inexpressive. Lance’s face settles into a grim, but determined look, and he nods. He starts to walk towards the Blue Lion, but Allura catches him by the shoulder, then immediately lets go. That was rude of her, but Lance doesn’t seem offended. Maybe casual touch is common with humans. “You might want this.” Allura says, handing him her helmet. It isn’t the Blue Paladin armor, but it will do in a pinch. He pauses for a moment to look into her eyes, and she keeps them shuttered, not allowing him to see into her soul. He slowly takes the helmet, and puts it on, taking a deep and shaky breath. Then he’s running, straight towards the Blue Lion, who scoops him up. In seconds they’re taking off, nearly knocking Allura down with the force of the wind. She smiles quietly to herself, before turning back and headed for the main bridge to assist in the battle herself.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Lance feels like he's floating in the back of his own mind as he and Blue surge out of the castle.It feels like everything that just happened, happened in a dream. That look Allura gave him, like she doesn't trust him but at the same time she does. Getting scooped up by the Blue Lion like he's a fish and she's a bird. Sitting in the pilot seat that automatically adjusts to his perfect leg length. Which, creepy. It all blurs in his head like a fading dream. He places Allura's helmet on his head, automatically connecting to comms with the rest of the team. He vaguely registers Shiro's orders for battle. He's too distracted to focus on the fight, moving purely by instinct and muscle memory.In the back of his mind there's a presence he knows isn't his own. Not technically one that doesn't belong, just one that wasn't there most of his life. When Lance focuses on that presence he feels like he's back on Veradero beach. A very specific kind of Veradero beach.It's cold, but not freezing, harsh but soothing. The presence reminds Lance of the waves at the crack of dawn on a gentle summer morning. When the skies are clear, but the sun is just starting to lighten the sky, not quite peaking over the horizon. The waves crash and tumble as it comes close to shore, like when he and his siblings race for the bathroom every morning. Shoving, chasing, yanking each other back to get there first. Then they calm as they reach the last few feet, settling into a gentle lapping motion over his ankles. Like when his mother snaps at them all for running in the house and every single one of them slow to a fast walk, still pushing and shoving. As the waters touch his ankles, his toes curling into the soft sand, so do the emotions. So many emotions, raging and vying for attention. There's happiness, relief, a giddy excitement. There's a feeling Lance relates to someone pouting. All of it fills his chest and overflows, drowning him but letting him breath at the same time. "Are you saying Lance is the Blue Paladin!?" Someone yells over comms. Lance doesn't register who, but the sound of his name snaps him out of the weird trance he had found himself in. "We gonna fight or," Lance says, drawing out the last word and letting the rest hang free. He really can't think about the implications of being a paladin right now. He doesn't want to think about how being a paladin would make it harder for him to do the things he needs to do. Get rid of the tracker, take revenge on an old enemy, convince the entirety of the universe that he died a horrible death so no one comes after him when he finally goes home. He just wants to fight this battle and get the hell outta dodge. "Right, everyone get in formation." Shiro says. The others immediately abandon the parts of the battlefield they were split up into and regrouped with the Black Lion. Lance waited until the last Lion was in place to figure out the 'formation' he's supposed to get into. When Hunk files in on one end Lance understands that it's a 'v' formation and files in on the other side. "Keith, Lance. You two take the perimeter, work your way to the center. Hunk, take out those ion cannons." Shiro commanded. Lance and Keith simultaneously mumble their affirmatives and take off in different directions for the outer perimeter of the main fighter swarms. Hunk took off for the ion canon of the closest battle cruiser, which happened to be on Lance's way to the outer edge, so Lance gave Hunk an escort. It took him a minute to figure out how to work the controls of Blue, ironically with her helping him along. "Pidge, you and I will take the center of the battlefield and work outwards. We'll meet Keith and Lance in the middle then finish off those cruisers." Shiro finished. Pidge let out a whoop and took off for the center where the fighters were the most densely concentrated. After that, the battle ended soon after, the fastest battle Lance has ever won since being in space. Okay, maybe not since being in space, but since being a rebel. Lance grunts as he and Blue headbutt a cruiser's fuel line, then immediately takes off in the other direction. He looks behind him to see Keith and Red still attacking the last cruiser and his heart jumps. "Fire in the hole!" Lance called out, diving for Keith and tackling the Red Lion out of the way. "Lance what are you-!" Keith starts yelling over comms in a very angry tone. He's cut off with a gasp and they get pushed just a little from the blast of the cruiser blowing up."You're welcome." Lance says, not even putting any bite to his words. He's exhausted, the toll of battle hitting him harder than usual. He doesn't wait for the others before heading back to the castleship. The Blue Lion isn't faced with any resistance to the particle barrier.Lance docks the Blue Lion, which seems just a little too easy for such a huge contraption. Then again, apparently Blue is sentient. Go figure, space is even crazier than the stories of 'alien abductions', which, sadly, actually happened to Lance. He must have taken too long to leave the pilot chair, because when Lance is only just getting to his feet he can see the rest of the Paladins walking up. They all look very professional and sleek in their stark white armor, with small accents to identify the Lion that pilot. Lance feels bile rise in his throat as he imagines himself standing in armor like theirs, blue accents giving him away as the Blue Paladin. Don't get him wrong. Being a paladin would be an honor and a dream. Serving under his childhood hero, saving people, helping people, being generally good. It would be amazing to fight alongside them like they did only minutes ago. However. He's had one goal, one thing on his mind for two years now. Get home, protect my family. That's it. He never wanted to fight this war. He never even wanted to fight in the first place. He wanted to be a cargo pilot, a humanitarian. Veronica was the one who wanted to fight. Rachel's the smart one in the family, she wanted to be a scientist or something. Marco took over one of the family businesses, a mechanics and blacksmithing shop. And Luis took over the other one, the surf shop. It was all going to be so perfect. Lance would rebuild the country, Rachel would move science further than ever before. Veronica would win wars and Luis would support his family while Marco supported everyone else. Then Lance had to go and get kidnapped by aliens, freaking aliens. Lance snaps out of his painful reverie and makes his way out of Blue to meet with the Paladins. Hunk is the first one to reach Lance, sweeping him up in a tearful hug. Lance grunts as his feet leave the ground and Hunk swings him side to side, big arms squeezing the life out of him. Lance pats him on the back awkwardly, even as his wish is to return it wholeheartedly. Nowadays though touch is sometimes, though not always, too much, his skin overly sensitive to the contact that he's been deprived of for two years. When going from constant contact with nice intentions, like hugs and pats on the back and arms around your shoulders, to the only touch you get is meant for pain or fear, your skin seems to reject touch all together. Or at least Lance's did. "Okay Hunk, put him down, he's suffocating." Shiro says with a playful tone and a teasing smile. Hunk sheepishly places Lance gently back on the ground. "It's good to have you on the team Lance."Lance scratches the edge of his mask."Yeah about that-" Lance starts to say. He's cut off by Allura's voice comes booming over the speakers."Everyone to the bridge to prepare for wormhole." Allura says. Everyone shares varying looks of distaste before making their way to the bridge. Pidge challenges Keith to a race and the two of them take off. When there's a loud crash mere moments after they disappear from sight, Shiro sighs and takes off after them. Lance locks eyes with Hunk, but Hunk is smiling so wide Lance looks away. He almost regrets the fact that he can't stay.Almost.
Definitely.
They reach the bridge in silence to find everyone else strapped in. Hunk heads for the chair with yellow accents. Lance stands behind Allura with his arms crossed against his chest. There's an empty chair, one with blue accents, but Lance doesn't even spare it a second glance. "Lance-" Allura starts to say, eyebrows lowered. Lance cuts her off, staring through the window at the Galra ship graveyard they created. "Ready for launch Allura." Lance says. He notices the others exchange glances but Allura fires up the wormhole, setting it right before the wreckage begins. A pulling feeling starts in his stomach and it reminds Lance of rollercoasters. The light of the wormhole grows closer as the ship sinks through, then a mirage of color engulfs the view. Lance imagines if he used his Galra eye he could see what those colors truly are. The pulling of his stomach reaches a crescendo and Lance subtly spreads his feet to anchor himself in case of any turbulence. He almost smirks as the ship rumbles just the slightest bit as the mirage of color fades to a whole new set of stars. It's almost disorienting, but he's used to the disorientation by now due to lightspeed travel. Every single paladin sitting down groans as the ship comes to a stop."That makes me dizzy every single time." Pidge says. Hunk's face turns green."I'm going to throw up." Hunk says, and before he's even finished his sentence Keith kicks a bucket across the floor. Hunk grabs it, lifts it to his face and hurls. Gross. But impressive that Keith did that at the perfect moment. "You good Hunk?" Shiro says, eyebrows low. Hunk lifts a thumbs up and it's enough for Shiro even though Hunk is still retching. "So Lance," Allura said, facing him with her hands folded in front of her. "Did you think about what I said?""I'm sorry Allura, but I can't stay. I can't be your paladin." Lance says, just putting it all on the table. Allura frowns, but it's everyone else's reactions that makes this horrible wrenching in his heart. Everyone looks shocked and hurt, moving closer to the teleduv where Lance and Allura face off."What do you mean you can't? Blue chose you, you have to stay." Pidge says, and her face looks crushed. Lance almost loses his nerve, practically begging himself to just coo at and comfort Pidge. He stays string though. "Sorry Pidge, I have things I need to take care of and I can't be a paladin if that means I can't take care of said things." Lance explains. "Then we'll help you." Shiro says, like it's no big deal. But it is a big deal, a huge one. The things Lance needs to do are not all things a hero should be doing. Lance is no hero, but these people are and they can't 'help' him do very unsavory acts. "You can't help me with this." Lance says, shaking his head. "The things I need to do, well, let's just say you don't want to see that part of me.""We won't judge you if that's what you're worried about." Shiro fires back, shrugging his shoulders. The movement catches Lance's attention because it didn't look right. He takes in Shiro's posture and narrows his eyes (er, eye?). Shiro's shoulders are rolled back and tense, even noticeable through his paladin armor. His arms are laid on his chest, not crossed but the Galra arm on top of the human. That wouldn't have been unusual except for the position of his feet. Shoulder length apart, right foot in front of the other just slightly. Knees bent just a little with the weight of Shiro's body leaning on his forward foot. His left foot is twisted to the side slightly, pointing outwards. That is a very threatening, very arena-like stance. Shiro is trying to intimidate him. And it's working.Lance and Shiro face off for a minute, Lance shifting into his own intimidation pose the arena instilled in him. When Shiro doesn't back down, Lance does with an ounce of respect. No one ever withstands Lance when he goes to Arena Mode. "You aren't giving up are you?" Lance says. Shiro smirks and relaxes his stance."Not a bit.""Fine." Lance sighs out. "But you have to listen to whatever I say. These places aren't going to be very kind to you. Especially since you'll be associated with me.""What do you mean?" Keith asks. He's off to the side brooding again."What I mean is I'm not exactly loved by most of the universe's inhabitants." Lance explains."Well then!" Coran exclaims with a smile, landing a hand on Lance's shoulder almost too roughly. He fights his since as he casually slips out from underneath the grip."May I?" Lance asks Allura, looking her in the eye. She smiles a quiet little smile before gesturing airily towards Coran's control panel. He walks away from the crowd and quickly types in the coordinates. "Alright Paladins, strap in. Prepare for wormhole." Allura says. Lance again avoids the seat, still not comfortable being called a paladin and stands behind Allura. The pulling in his stomach returns and Lance dreads having to take the Paladins to where he's going.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Lance crosses his arms against his chest as he surveys the market in front of him. He had decided to take the Paladins with him on his least dangerous errand, though still just dangerous enough that he needs to strain his ears for any sign of threats. Three of team Voltron's members stand behind him; Shiro, Hunk, and Allura. Lance didn't even bother fighting Allura when she declared she was going to join them. At first she tried to say that it was because she didn't trust Lance, but after Shiro argued her down she pouted and mumbled that she wanted something sparkly. Who was Lance to deny her something sparkly?So in the end Coran stayed with the castleship, Keith and Pidge staying behind in the transport pod as backup and a clean getaway if things go awry. They wear their white armor, and carry their (kind of useless looking) Bayards at the ready. Lance just hopes they don't get into too much trouble.
Wait, did he just jinx himself? Surely not. Whatever.
So here they are. Just docked in a black market, and none of them except Lance are wearing armor. Of course, Lance's armor is his blue coat and all the rest of that. Coran managed to salvage what he could, but the tails of the coat are gone, leaving it more of a suit jacket then a coat. Kind of looks stupid, maybe he'll find a better one here while he still can.Lance has Hunk's Bayard in his inside pocket since Hunk doesn't have his armor to store it in. Apparently the Bayard is that thing Keith had carried on the first day they met, the deformed pompom thing. Not sure how it's a weapon, since there aren't any sharp edges and it doesn't shoot like a gun. It's not even good as a bludgeon because the grip is wrong. It's better for a punching motion rather than a swinging motion. Maybe it's a very complicated form of brass knuckles?Well, probably. If you hold the grip with the long sides out you can break someone's nose and gauge their eyes out! Lance prefers his pistols but the 'Bayard' could come in handy in a fist fight. Lance scratches underneath his mask as he thinks about what he's supposed to do again. There's an informant that lives here, and then there's a few shops he needs to go to. Then he's supposed to be meeting a Blade member to sell some Intel."So?" Shiro says. "Where to?"Lance hums as his eyes sweep the crowd before landing on a very special shop. Lance smiles brightly and makes his way dutifully towards it. He hears thundering footsteps behind him as his entourage runs to catch up. They need to learn how to walk quietly. They come up fast on a shop, whose sign reads in big orange letters BIG MOMMA'S, written in Common Tongue.Lance almost runs into another patron leaving the shop when he tries to enter. The patron, a large scaly dragon like creature, snarls at him and Lance snarls right back. The dragon guy flinches back with a whimper and scurries off. He watches the guy flee and finds his eyes locked onto Shiro and the others. They look shocked. Lance clears his throat before moving inside without another word between them. The inside of the shop is crowded, like usual, though not necessarily by patrons. Shelves upon shelves close in on Lance the moment he steps through the door. Poor Hunk has to turn completely sideways to avoid knocking things over. It gets easier for them to move as they make their way deeper into the shop, the shelves slowly thinning out until the only thing in the way is a counter.Lance glances around to find one other patron in the shop and makes a clicking sound to get their attention.This alien is small, barely reaching Lance's chest in height, with fur up and down its body. When the alien turns to look at Lance, every single strand of fur jumps up in alarm. Within seconds the shop is empty. Lance reaches across the counter and underneath it, looking for a button. Smooth wood gives way to raised metal and he presses it, closing the shop down for the time being. Don't want to be interrupted and all that. After a minute of waiting, Lance leans against the counter. There's a bell there, on the counter, and Lance props one hand beneath his chin while he uses the other one to ring the bell. Constantly. There's a crash from the back behind the long dark curtain the moment Lance starts ringing the bell. He smirks as a slew of curse words calls out, all in different languages, all words Lance learned himself. There's a thunk right inside the curtain and then the curtain starts being moved. Eventually the curtain gives way and someone steps out with a huff.At first glance she looks like a hefty human black woman, big hair and all. Except human women don't have a metallic sheen to their skin. And the big hair isn't actually hair, it's just that same metallic looking skin raised and formed like hair. Her nails are an inch long, pointed and hard as steel, and her teeth are bared, though Lance knows she's not trying to threaten him because the teeth that shoe aren't sharp they're flat. Marva can change them at will."Why hello there Marva." Lance says innocently, even as he still rings the bell. Marva snatches the bell from him with a snarl and Lance backs away. He raises his hands in a mockery of surrender before crossing his arms against his chest."Pekigero you better have a damn good excuse for worrying Mama." Marva says, addressing him by an old nickname. Pekigero means 'tiny warrior' in her mother tongue. In Spanish tiny warrior is pequiño guerro. When she first called him Pekigero he was in a feverish state, and he could have sworn she was speaking Spanish.Lance sweeps his arms back to indicate his friends. "I made friends." Lance says, in that tone that someone would use when supplying a lame excuse. Shiro takes a step closer behind him, and Lance can feel the tension in him, like Shiro's a cat ready to pounce.Marva snarls at him and throws the bell at his face.Lance catches it without even looking away from Marva's black eyes.He sets the bell back down on the counter, then gives it one last ring. Just for good measure. Marva huffs at him, then reaches across the counter and drags him into an awkward hug. Lance has been trying to teach her the finer points of casual touch. She's long since learned the hows of hugging, though not quite the whens. He appreciates it all the same, because it's one of many ways Marva has tried to humanize herself for Lance's comfort. Needless to say Lance holds a special place in Marva's heart. Her specie is the opposite of pack oriented, very territorial, mainly consisting of nomads, and they don't really mate they just have casual sex if they want to procreate. Usually the child is raised by the mother while young, then sent to their fathers until they grow mature and strong enough to leave home. Of course, that's just a generalization, sometimes one of her kind is more pack oriented. Like Marva.She lets Lance go and leans forward on the counter, propping her head on her hand. It's another humanizing trait, since her species are practically statues. They only move when necessary, and they don't really lean on things. Always upright, always straight, always still. It freaked Lance out at first, hence why Marva's become more human in her movements. "What did you need Pekigero? You shouldn't be coming around these parts for a while. At least until the heat dies down." Marva says casually. Even when she leans she's still. Eyes unblinking, seeing as she only ever needs to blink, like, twice an hour. If that. Lance tilts his head at her when he registers what she said. "Why shouldn't I come around? What heat?" Lance asks. Marva's face never really has expressions, again, statues. But Lance knows her face falls into concern when he asks her that. "You don't know do you?" Marva asks, though it sounds more rhetorical than anything. "We should go to the back, get you out of sight of prying eyes. Don't want any trouble in my shop. Bad for business, bad for health."Lance dutifully follows Marva as she disappears behind the curtain, gesturing for his friends to follow him. Shiro leans into his ear as they walk. "How exactly do you know this person?" Shiro asks. Lance smiles and lets the curtain drop between them. The back room is small but cozy, with a long couch and a chair, with a table in between. There's a large holo screen on the wall, sort of like a flat screen TV. Other than that it's fairly bare. All except a picture of Lance and Marva he took right before he left her for the first time. "Have a seat. Friends of Pekigero's are friends of mine." Marva said, gesturing to the couches and chairs. Lance plops himself down in his favorite chair, throwing his legs over the arm. "So." Allura says as the three of them squeeze onto the couch. She sits regally even though Hunk and Shiro sits on either side of her, squishing her in the middle so they can all fit. "How did you meet, uh, Lance?" "Nursed him back to health. Poor Pekigero was half dead when he was brought to my shop." Marva says casually, fiddling through a pile of boxes in the corner. "Do what?" Shiro says. "You know how I was a gladiator in the Arena right?" Lance asks. He can't seem to recall if he told them that little detail or not. "I mean," Hunk says, fidgeting with his hands. "You've never actually said so but we could guess. Why?" "When I was rescued from the Arena I was badly injured, like horribly injured. Marva nursed me back to health and allowed me to stay until I was functional enough to walk on my own." Lance explains, shrugging. It's not the most horrible time he's had after coming to space."Then I got in contact with the Rebellion. And here we are.""Wow. That's-" Shiro starts to say before there's a loud cry of triumph from the corner where Marva was digging. She walks over to Lance's chair and hands him her datapad."This is what I was talking about. Would you or your friends like a drink Pekigero?" Marva says, and Lance cringes at the thought of drinking anything Marva makes. No offense to Marva but her kitchen skills are largely lacking. "No thanks Mama." Lance says, before playing the video Marva pulled up on her datapad. "An enemy of the Empire has returned." Zarkon says, the big man himself, scar and all. "I have learned that in his absence from the Arena, The Hunter has chosen to ally himself against the Empire."Lance sucks in a hissing breath as he hears a title he wishes he would never have to hear again. He pays more attention to what's playing on the screen."There is reason to believe that he has found the Voltron Lions, and that he leads Voltron as the Black Paladin. He has attacked and destroyed many planets under the protection of the Empire." Zarkon starts saying. Lance's eyebrows crease in confusion. He's not the Black Paladin, he's barely the blue one. Destroyed planets? Protection? Doesn't he mean control?
Destroyed planets?
"I am giving a reward to anyone who can bring me the Hunter, preferably alive. He has information critical to the success of the war against the rebellious anarchists." Zarkon continues to say. Anarchists huh? Lance can get behind that. The picture of Zarkon is replaced by one of Lance, a very unflattering one. Lance can’t help but to pause the video to get a better look. Lance looks at a picture of a younger, more feral version of himself. He’s chained to a wall, hair long enough that his bangs brush his chin, and he’s snarling at the camera. His eye, where the prosthetic now takes residence, is covered in a thick bandage. Trails of blood cover his wrists, while trails of tears cover his face. He’s heavily bruised, and the prisoner’s outfits at least cover all of his skin. All of his scars. Lance in the picture is pitched forward like he had just lunged at the cameraperson. Which, of course, he had. Lance sinks back into his memories, feeling the pain in his wrists like it’s fresh, the throb in his eye, the hunger in his stomach. He feels his throat go hoarse like he had just been screaming, and he feels more than a few aches and pains across his body. Everything he’d felt at the time of the picture being taken floods his nerves like it’s happening in real time. Lance swallows thickly and presses play, thankful that the picture changes soon after.It’s another picture of Lance, but a little more recent. Lance is smirking cruelly, in the middle of a battle. In the background there’s bodies of Galra soldiers who had been cut down, just laying around in a bloody and gruesome visage. Lance has both pistols out, which helps narrow down the where and when of the picture, but not the how, why, or who.There have only been a few times when Lance has been in a bad enough situation to need both of his weapons. The first battle on the ground Lance had been in with his guns is the first. A rescue mission in the Falnex sector, which was one of the first on the ground mission Lance had done with his current crew. Then the last one, which Lance suspects is when this was taken, was long after Lance had gotten a name for himself other than Hunter. They had raided a Galra base, and by ‘they’ Lance means his current team, and someone must have given Lance or the Rebellion bad intel because the base was ready for them. Lance barely made it out of that base alive that day.Dread begins to fill his stomach as the picture has a reward amount at the bottom. Ten million GAC, just for Lance. How flattering. Is this why the Galra seem to target him more than anyone else in his crew? Like, Lance just figured it was because they saw him as a threat, not a payday. Which, in Lance’s case, is infinitely worse than them trying extra hard to kill. Lance checks the day this was broadcasted and nearly face palms.Lance is now the most hunted person in the Empire. And it took him two weeks to realize it.“Well this doesn’t seem to be good.” Hunk says, right in Lance’s ear. Lance jumps in his seat, having been too focused on the video to realize the three of them had stood behind him to watch as well. When he realizes Hunk had moved, he rolls his eyes. “No kidding Hunk, no kidding.” Lance says, though not maliciously. “We need to get a move on and get out of here. The faster I take care of what I need to, the better.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Lance is stuck in his head as they weave through the black market's crowd. Marva was kind enough to supply Lance a new coat, and his friends some simple cloaks with hoods. Hunk took back his Bayard once he realized the cloaks had inside pockets big enough to fit a human head. Don't ask how Lance knows that. Lance's coat on the other hand, is no simple accessory. It's formed more like a trench coat, but slimmer and light blue. Kind of eye drawing, but at this point it doesn't even matter. With his head being the biggest payday anyone could get in one sitting, it doesn't matter if he hides himself or not. He'll be noticed, and he'll be hunted. At least he has his pistols. Another cool addition to his new coat is that it's also armor, made of a very rare and very durable fabric that practically reflects laser fire. Marva had been making it since the day Lance left, and spent almost a fortune on it too. He truly is lucky to have met Marva. Lance eases his way into a shop he's needed to stop at for awhile. It's nothing noteworthy, but they have great selections of jewelry. Allura did say she wanted something sparkly. They step into the jewelry shop, finding it empty except for an Unilu playing on a datapad. The Unilu male perks at their entrance, setting his datapad down with one hand and curling the other three over each other greedily. "Welcome. What can I interest you in today?" The Unilu says, jumping right in and offering up his most expensive item. It looks like a necklace of some sort of shiny purple metal. "How about this rare necklace, created in the forges of the Antelex regions. Fine metals purified and formed in a most beautiful design." Lance stops him before he can shove anything else under his friends noses. "We're good to look on our own thanks." Lance says. The Unilu doesn't look the happiest but he spreads his hands wide to offer his selection. None of Lance's friends move. He nudges Allura, who looks almost drowned in her cloak. "Pick out something sparkly M'Lady." Lance says, forgoing using any titles like Princess or her name. Allura moves to look at him, and all Lance sees in the shadow her hood casts on her face are her blue eyes, glowing in the dim light. He smiles at her and gives her another nudge. Allura reluctantly moves towards the display, keeping her hands to herself as she looks over the selection. Lance moves with her, staying by her side and browsing himself. Allura gasps and Lance looks to what she's pointing at. "This one please!" Allura says, and the Unilu gently takes it out of the case. Lance grabs it to look at it while the Unilu starts prattling. "Very good selection miss. A one of a kind necklace, made with the pink crystals grown by the Oplik sector. Woven in a delicate but powerful metal, this necklace will withstand any weather, even the dead of space!" The Unilu prattles on. Lance cuts him off before he can continue filling Allura's head with fanciful lies. He can tell it isn't a one of a kind because he can see the box in the back overflowing with these necklaces. "How much?" Lance asks. "Eighteen hundred GAC." The Unilu says. Allura's shoulders slump and she turns to Lance. He gets enough of a glance at her face to see her heartbroken expression. He waits in confusion. "We don't have that much money Lance." Allura says, almost like talking to a child. The Unilu snatches the necklace out of Lance's hand faster than Lance can tilt his head at Allura. "No GAC, no necklace!" The Unilu says rather rudely. He goes to step away but Lance's hand shoots out to grab the Unilu's wrist, the one holding the necklace. "M'Lady doesn't have the payment but I do." Lance says. Without releasing the Unilu he draws his main pistol. Immediately tension fills the air. Lance rolls his eyes as he cocks back the hammer of his gun. Instead of loading the clip, the hammer causes a chain reaction and a purple crystal releases from the bottom of the handle. Lance slowly withdraws the hand keeping the buyer hostage. He withdraws the crystal from his gun and holsters his weapon. The Unilu practically drools where he stands frozen. "Better?" Lance says. The Unilu nods frantically, and lunges for the crystal. Lance draws it out of reach, clicking his tongue. "I'm not done shopping. How about that pretty necklace made with Balmera crystal?" Lance says, gesturing vaguely at a necklace that isn't quite as eye-catching as some of the others. The Unilu wastes no time getting it out of the case. "That'll be all." Lance says. "Of course of course. May I?" The Unilu asks, being unnaturally polite for one of his kind. Lance hands over the crystal as the Unilu brings his datapad back out. He scans the crystal quickly. The moment the transaction is finished, Lance ushers his friends out of the shop. He slips the crystal back into it's hidden compartment in his pistol. "What was that?" Shiro queries. "With the crystal? Why did he scan it instead of taking the crystal as payment itself?" "Because the crystal is worthless. It's the code embedded on the crystal that's worth something." Lance explains as they walk slowly on the edge of the crowd. "It's a new system the Galra are trying to implement. Think of it as a credit card. The money you own is stored in a Galra money containment unit, something like a bank.""Okay. So how come when we went to the space mall they didn't even think of saying crystal or GAC?" Hunk asks. "Because it's still fairly new. And new things are expensive. The only people who can carry these are people with enough GAC to feed a small planet. Meaning the very, very rich." Lance explains. "So you stole it." Shiro says, very flat like he isn't expecting Lance to answer. "I didn't steal it. This is mine and it has always been mine." Lance says defensively. "How?" Allura asks, finally speaking up. "Because I'm very rich in the eyes of the Empire." Lance says. They wait at a crossroads where hoverbikes make up the crowd instead of just people. "Aren't you an enemy of the Empire?" Allura asks. Lance can practically feel the narrowed eyes on the back of his head when she says that. Lance shrugs. "Lance the Hunter is, but they don't know my last name is McClain." Lance explains. He diverts the topic of conversation as they round the last corner. In front of them lies a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, in betweens and meats of exotic nature. "Welcome to the Black Market Food Market." Lance says. Hunk practically melts at the options of food. He even almost barrels Lance down to get there, but Lance is quick to grab him by the cloak and pull him back. "No running off. Some of this food is inedible to humans. I learned that the hard way. I'll be there to tell you what's good, what's not, what's edible, what's not. You can buy to your heart's content if you want, but fair warning I refuse to carry anything." Lance says calmly. Hunk nods eagerly. They end up getting two huge sacks full of food. One of fruits and veggies and in betweens. The other of meat. Hunk slings both over his shoulder like they weigh nothing and walks along humming. He doesn't even seem to care that most of the food was brought here illegally.
Oh to be in love.
Lance leads them down the streets for another few minutes, getting deeper and deeper into the black market. The deeper they go, the more dangerous the people get. A fight breaks out in a tavern nearby, and someone gets thrown out of a window and into the street. They get back up and charge in again with a roar of anger. "This way. Just a little further." Lance says. The three accompanying Lance start to surround him in a protective circle. Which is kind of annoying. Lance can protect himself just fine. It's Allura they should be protecting, though not that she needs it really. Lance is positive Allura could kick his ass from here to Earth and back.He leads his friends down a dark alley, very sketchy. Lance walks slowly, letting his footsteps be heard, and then whistling a sharp little call. An answering whistle comes back to him, centered on a dark space in the corner of the alleyway. Lance stops walking."McClain." A voice says. It's one Lance recognizes. Ever since he set up a back and forth trade with the Blade of Marmora, this member has been the liaison. Only willing to speak to Lance, and only in very discreet places. Which usually also means dangerous places. "Lokna." Lance replies. "I thought we agreed just the two of us?" Lokna replies, in the gentle timbre of her voice. Lance shrugs casually. "They're harmless." Lance says, then after a brief pause he adds, "To allies anyways." There's a chuff from the shadows. "Got anything valuable to trade or is this a social visit?" Lokna says, her voice rolling in a sort of purring sound. Needless to say, Lokna didn't have to be forced to be the liaison. Lance let's a sly smile curl on his lips."Sorry darling. Duty calls."Lokna huffs. "And here I thought you brought me some new playthings as a thank you gift.""The info you traded fell through. But I'm sure we can work something out in the future." Lance replies, leaning up against the wall beside Lokna's hidden form. She hums. "Maybe when your face isn't plastered on every bounty hunter's wish list from here to the Glavix Sector. Here." Lokna says, and a gloved hand reaches out from the shadows. In her grasp is thumb drive. "No luck on your latest request, the person you're looking for is too good at staying anonymous. Though in my research I found something you might be interested in. Seems your little rebellion has a leak. Everything I found is here."Lance raises an eyebrow, keeping his face neutral. Inside however, he's questioning whether this supposed leak is the same person who leaked all that wrong information to the Empire. "Thank you. I've got some more intel your ninja friends want." Lance says, reaching for his secondary weapon. He pulls the hammer back on the pistol and this time his own thumb drive pops out. He places the drive in Lokna's hand, taking the one she holds at the same time. Lokna goes to pull away, but Lance grabs her hand gently and lifts it to kiss the back of her hand. "Until we meet again." Lance says. Lokna chiefs again."Until then." Lokna replies. Her hand withdraws and then there's a brief brush of wind as she retreats. Lance straightens, then eyes his new thumb drive. A leak is very bad, it means the difference between winning a war or losing it. "A friend of yours?" Shiro asks, in that tone that suggests they're asking something else. Shiro is really good at that tone."Something like that." Lance mutters. He turns the thumb drive over to look at the back, though nothing is there. When he finally stops pondering, he slips the drive into that secret little compartment. To close the hammer, Lance squeezes the trigger just enough for a click but not a shot. "So are we done?" Hunk asks nervously. He shifts in his place and the hood of his cloak keeps shifting as Hunk looks around. Lance smiles at him to comfort him, until his right ear catches the sound of something unusual. Or rather it doesn't catch the sound of something.It's almost silent in the streets. It is never silent in the streets.Lance's smile falls as he squeezes through the tight space between his friends and the nasty walls. He slides up to the corner where the alley meets the street and peaks around the corner. The two suns this small planet uses for warmth have set, so it's too dark for Lance's human eye to see. There's a continuous thumping noise in the streets, so Lance decides to focus on hearing instead of sight. It's hard to tell what the sound is. Too far away, but loud enough to reach Lance's ears. It's sort of a monotonous thumping, like a heavy sounding metronome. Lance sighs and itches at his mask, before lifting it completely so he can see. As he activates the eye, his vision turns purple.In the corner of his vision are a bunch of stats and details Lance doesn't need right now, like wind speed, planet curvature, the works. The dancing target circle focuses and refocuses as he tries to adjust to the lighting. When his night vision flips on his blood runs cold."Lance?" Allura asks. She's too loud, so Lance shushes her. He looks back out onto the streets. Turns out that monotonous thumping is coming from Galra droids. Lots of them.They line up in a march, four lines of five. One in the front leading the march. As they pass buildings and streets and alleys the droids break off one by one. They're still a decent ways away, a couple dozen yards probably. But they march steadily. As one breaks off, another will fill its place. Always with that monotonous marching. The Black Market is being raided. Something tells Lance they came here for him. "Lance what's-" Shiro starts to say. In seconds Lance has his mask plastered back on his face, and he whips around to slap a hand over Shiro's mouth. Lance only has to say two words."Galra raid."Instantly it's like a switch is flipped in his friends. Shiro moves his arm out from beneath his cloak, and it lights up bright purple as he activates it. Shiro goes to run into the street but Lance stops him with a yank of the cloak. "Don't." Lance whispers. The arm deactivates and Shiro gives him a curious look. Lance turns to go deeper into the alley, back to the spot where Lokna disappeared from. He lifts his mask again and activates his prosthetic eye. The world turns purple again, and Lance looks up and down the wall for footholds. Lance has never been one to run away from a fight.When the big kids were bullying him, Lance stood his ground and fought back. He lost, but he fought back. When his sister in law nearly died giving birth to little Silvio, the doctors wouldn't let Luis in the room to see his wife one last time if she didn't make it. Lance was nearly arrested for the mayhem he caused so Luis could slip in to see Lisa. When he first woke up after being kidnapped.Lance has always been a fighter, but not a fighter. That makes sense right?Anyways. Ever since coming to space he's been forced to become a fighter, and surprisingly Lance is pretty good at it. He hasn't found a situation that he can't get himself out of. Talking his way out, fighting his way out, sneaking or asking for help. There's always been a way.A way to get free from his imprisonment. A way to smuggle these weapons or people. A way to get past a Galra patrol. A way to piss the Galra off with hardly any effort at all. There has always been a way. And if there isn't a way set up for him to take, he just makes his own way.So Lance makes his way out of this one. After seeing no obvious ways up the building, Lance pulls his primary weapon and sets it to stealth mode. The shots aren't exactly silenced, they're just really quiet. He shoots at the wall in a zigzag pattern until the top. Thus, footholds have been born. The brick still burns slightly at the indentions where Lance made footholds with his gun."Alright everyone." Lance whispers, holstering his weapon and preparing to climb. "Follow me."Lance is up the wall in no time. He can't say the same for the rest of them. Allura isn't slow but she's not fast. She's up the wall almost as fast as Lance was. Though she exerted herself a lot more to do so, evident by the way she flops onto her back to breath for a second. Shiro is not too much worse. He's heavier than Allura and Lance, so he has more weight to pull upwards. He almost slips and falls a few times but he makes it. He lasts until he can move out of Hunk's way before flopping on his back.Then it's poor Hunk's turn. Hunk's arms start trembling half way up and he looks green in the face. Is he afraid of heights or something? Lance doesn't bother to ask. He just peaks over the rooftop and looks at the progress of the marching robots. They are concerningly close to the alley way. Lance bites at his lip, right over an old and hardly noticeable scar, and looks at Shiro. They make eye contact, and they don't even have to exchange words before they come to an agreement. Simultaneously they reach down over the lip of the rooftop and reach for Hunk. Allura silently grabs their feet to keep them from falling. Hunk eases his way up to grab their hands and Shiro helps him pull Hunk up. They get him up to his chest where he latches onto the roof to squirm the rest of the way up. It's nowhere near graceful, and he too flops onto his back to catch his breath. When they get back to the ship Lance needs to work on their stamina."Shiro. Contact Keith and Pidge. Tell them to ready the pod." Lance whispers. "Tell them to be ready for a fight but not to engage unless absolutely necessary."Shiro nods his head, scooting away from the edge of the building to set up the relay between the escape pod and them. Lance turns to Allura and Hunk. "Either of you good with a gun?" Lance asks. They both nod an affirmative. "Good. Here." Lance hands them both a pistol. Hunk goes to say something but Lance cuts him off."Allura. Eyes on the street. Hunk. Eyes on the alley. Don't engage unless necessary. Retreat when the coast is clear. I'll meet you guys at the pod." Lance says in a rushed whisper. "Where are you going?" Hunk whispers loudly in a very distressed voice.Lance smiles and eases his way over the roof edge. All that's left of his body on the roof are his arms when Shiro comes back over. "Keith and Pidge understand what's- where are you going?" Shiro whispers. He too sounds a little distressed. Lance smiles wickedly. "To do what I do best." Lance says as he eases his body so only his arm is keeping his head is above the roof edge. "Piss off the Galra and have fun doing it. See you at the pod!" And then Lance drops from sight and instantly disappears from the sight of his friends. Hopefully they follow orders as good as they give them.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Shiro would have gladly gone after Lance. If not for the fact that Lance practically disappeared into thin air. He may have called that person in shadows, Lokna, a ninja, but Lance is not too different. "So," Hunk drawls. "What now?"Shiro purses his lips, reverting back to leader mode. It had been nice letting Lance take the lead. It allowed Shiro to relax, to not have to think about what would happen if he made the wrong decision. He feels extremely guilty for feeling that way though. He's the Black Paladin, he should be leading his team, should be guiding them. But it had been so nice."I guess we'll do what Lance said for now. Wait for the coast to clear then book it to the pod. Regroup with Keith and Pidge." Shiro says. Hunk and Allura nod dutifully, not a single doubt crossing their faces. Either they're extremely good actors (true for Allura when she wants to be) or they have complete faith in Shiro. His shoulders feel heavy all of a sudden.Just as Shiro peaks over the edge of the roof to see the progress of the Galra robots, there is an explosion a little ways away. The blast is hidden by all the buildings, but the force is strong enough that some dirt is shaken off the roof edges. Every single sentry takes off running towards the noise, even the one that was starting to clear the alley.Lance is nothing if not flamboyant it seems. The clothes he chooses to wear are a testament to that."Uh." Hunk says again. He sounds extremely unsure of himself. "How is Lance supposed to protect himself without his weapons?"Shiro doesn't answer at first because it doesn't click right in his mind. Lance brought his pistols with him. He's drawn both of them out to make transactions. Why would Hunk think he's weaponless? Shiro turns his head from the roof edge, and he looks at Allura and Hunk holding up a pistol each. "Oh good heavens." Shiro curses. "Well it's too late now." Allura responds, ever diplomatically. "We should retreat back to the pod and wait for him there." Shiro has no choice but to agree.Another explosion, this time farther. "Anyone remember which way to go?" Hunk says, holding the pistol to his chest like it's a teddy bear. It kind of makes no sense that Lance gave Hunk a pistol, Hunk has his Bayard. It would have made more sense for Lance to have given it to Shiro. Then again, Shiro himself is forever armed with his… arm. "I didn't remember it. There were too many turns and distractions." Allura says sheepishly. Sadly neither did Shiro. He had assumed Lance would be the one to guide them back to the pod. His mistake for such a reckless assumption. "Well, I suppose you will need a guide." A vaguely familiar voice says. Shiro whips around, arm hot and raised to attack, his cloak not even burning as it falls against the metal of his arm. He slowly lowers it as he sees Marva perched delicately on the edge of the roof, legs crossed. She's unnaturally still, her chest isn't even rising and falling as she breathes. The difference is startling. She was so human just a few hours ago. Now she's still as a statue. "Marva?" Shiro asks tentatively. She smiles in a sort of amusement, but her teeth are sharp, unlike the flat teeth they once were. She then stills again before speaking."That is me Gerodroso." Marva says. Shiro isn't sure what Gerodroso means but he hopes it isn't bad. "Come. Leave Pekigero to his fun. Those damned rebels run him ragged too much. I will take you to your white ship."Shiro looks back to his friends. Hunk shrugs, accidentally pointing the pistol at Allura. She smacks his hand down. Hunk grins back sheepishly as he lowers the gun. "Alright then. Lead the way Marva." Shiro says. Marva shifts and then she drops to the ground below. Shiro throws his legs over the edge and hops down with a grunt. Allura practically vaults down, landing in a slight crouch before straightening regally. Hunk on the other hand turns on his belly and scoots back until he can't anymore and drops. His legs fold underneath him but he sticks the landing in a kneel. Shiro gives Hunk a hand up and Marva starts moving towards the street. Shiro walks behind her and even the way she moves is different. She doesn't really walk like a human would. Humans kind of have a bobbing motion as they move, but Marva glides like she's a ghost. This is the same Marva right?Marva leads them down a few streets then takes a right. The entire walk there's explosions and gunfire Shiro just knows is Lance's doing. The four of them make it to the Altean Pod with no interruptions, meeting Keith and Pidge outside. Marva doesn't even stop moving once they get there, just walks away without another word. For some reason it feels like she doesn't like them."Where's Lance?" Pidge asks, slipping her helmet off and slipping her glasses back on. There's an explosion nearby, shaking the ground beneath their feet. It destabilizes their footing and making them stumble, and when the shaking stops Shiro turns around to look at where they came from. For a moment, nothing. Then a figure clad in bright blue, clearly Lance, skids around a corner. He's so low to the ground that Lance has to use one hand to slow himself down and then push himself back up on his feet. The moment Lance is standing there's another explosion, and it's from where he had just skidded from. It sends small bits of metal debris flying. Lance comes running to the pod yelling and waving. "Start the ship!" Lance yells and Pidge doesn't even ask questions which is unusual for her. She just darts into the ship and fires her up, Keith and Allura hot on her tail. The smoke clears from behind Lance as he runs and there's at least six droids and five soldiers running after him. "Shiro!" Hunk yells. When Shiro looks to Hunk beside him he has to scramble to catch the pistol before it hits the ground. Hunk pulls out his Bayard and it transforms into his portable canon gun. Lance skids to a halt a few yards ahead, mouth dropped in shock. "Lance duck!" Hunk yells. Shiro watches Lance hit the floor in a second, his hands interlocked behind his head to protect his neck. Hunk yells a battle cry as he plants his feet and starts firing. The shots mainly swing out wide and miss but it's a good cover fire. The droids aren't fast enough in processing to get to cover but the soldiers are. "Everybody on the ship!" Shiro calls out. "We're leaving!" Lance scrambles on his knees until he's behind Hunk. Shiro stands on the landing platform of the pod and waits for Lance. However Lance seems distracted. He stares back at Hunk, who fires away non-stop and is taking slow steps backwards. "Lance!" Shiro yells. Lance snaps his head to look Shiro in the eyes. "Let's go. Pack it in Hunk!" Hunk eases back until he's on the platform still laying down covering fire and he crouches onto the ship as the platform raises. Keith flies them to the ship, laying down a blanket of laserfire upon the Galra pods and destroying them on the way out. Shiro, Hunk and Lance join Pidge and Allura in taking a seat and strapping in. They learned their lesson on entry to the atmosphere. Lance had seemed unaffected, where as for the rest of them, Hunk was not the only one who got green in the face. In fact, Lance was the only one who didn't step outside the ship and immediately throw up. He had even yawned as he exited as if it were completely normal for him. Perhaps it was. They exit the atmosphere with a collective groan, even from Keith who pilots the ship. Surprisingly there seems to be no battleships nearby to back up the miniature army back on the black market planet. Shiro has Keith cloak the pod anyways. Just to be sure. "Well," Lance says as they exit the pod to Coran waiting at attention for them. "That was fun. Let's do that again sometime." Shiro, naturally, is a pacifist. He never gets involved with violence unless he absolutely must. Like in war. So he even surprises himself as he bursts out in anger at Lance."What were you thinking!?" Shiro yells. Lance flinches away from him for a moment before glaring back, crossing his arms defiantly. “You could have gotten killed! Or worse, captured! Why would you do something so reckless?” Lance scoffs at him. “I was doing what I do best, throwing the Galra off my scent.” Lance gestures vaguely in the direction of the planet they’re steadily flying away from before crossing his arms again. “There were sentries and soldiers swarming the black market planet. I took out almost all of them, this is the part where you thank me for saving your sorry behinds.” Oh Shiro could kill him right about now.“We are a team. You don’t just run off on your own without backup!” Shiro argues back. Lance laughs a short sarcastic laugh.“A team?” Lance asks though Shiro suspects it wasn’t one needing an answer. He answers anyways, voice firm and reprimanding.“Yes. A team. You are a Paladin of Volt-” Shiro starts to say but Lance doesn’t give him a chance to finish his word, let alone his sentence. “Oh please. Just because some magical robot lion said so huh? I’m no Paladin of Voltron.” Lance says in a mocking tone. “At this point I’m probably not even a ship captain, Nama has probably already seized control of my ship with how long I’ve been away.”Lance scowls at Shiro, poking him in the chest. His uncovered eye burns like blue magma into Shiro’s soul. There’s so much anger there Shiro isn’t sure what to do about it.“I’m not a part of this team, I’m just some pirate the Empire wants to either control or destroy, there is no in between.” Lance says, and the anger dims a little. He draws away, head up but jaw clenched, his crossed arms so tight against his chest they bunch up the fancy new coat.“You guys are better off without me anyways. I’m just a magnet for the Galra, a map to dominating their enemies. Just drop me off at the nearest swap moon and we can go our separate ways.” As Lance finishes there’s a silence in the room that could choke someone to death.“How can you say that?” Pidge snaps. Lance turns around to look at her, only for the smallest paladin to get right up in Lance’s face. Her own cheeks are stained red with anger, her glasses off and held in a death grip in one hand as the other shoves her finger between Lance’s eyes. “You belong with us, we’re your friends! I see right through you and you should know that we don’t care about some bounty! Blue chose you, not me, not Keith, not even Allura. You are her paladin, don’t throw us away because you’re afraid!” Pidge yells, huffing as she finishes. She takes a breath and steps away, her shaking hands replacing her glasses on the edge of her nose before pushing them up. “If you truly want to leave you can take the pod, we won’t stop you. Meanwhile we’ll be in the training room.” Pidge says, for once acting like a leader instead of a mere pawn. It fills Shiro with both a sense of pride in how much she’s grown since the day Shiro met her on the takeoff platform for the Kerberos mission, as well as a sense of sadness. Knowing that it was war that forced her to give up that childish mischievousness in order to win against Zarkon saddens him. “If you don’t know the way, go to the bridge then take the hallway to the right of the bridge doors. You’ll hear us when you reach the training room I’m sure. Otherwise,” Shiro explains. He lays a hand on Lance’s shoulder, his Galra hand. In thrums when in contact with Lance but Shiro puts it to the back of his mind, it’s probably just his arm being weird and Galra-y. He walks away to follow after Pidge, putting his hands on Keith’s and Hunk’s shoulders to steer them with him. “Wait we can’t just-” Keith starts to say but Shiro just squeezes his shoulder tightly. It was a trick Shiro used to use to keep that smart mouth of his under control when in front of superior officers at the Garrison. Keith silences with a scowl but he says no more. Shiro glances back to see Allura and Coran following behind. Lance stands watching after them even as the doors shut. “Are we really just gonna let him leave?” Hunk asks meekly. Shiro pats his shoulder in some form of comfort. “If that is what he chooses, then yes. We can’t force him to stay just as we didn’t force Pidge to stay when she wanted to leave out on her own.” Shiro explains. They make the rest of their way to the training room where Pidge is already hard at work taking down a few training bots with her Bayard. “Yeah but,” Hunk starts. “Pidge chose to stay. What if Lance doesn’t?” “I don’t know Hunk. We’ll just have to wait and see and go from there.” Shiro says. Pidge makes that her moment to finally put the mangled up training bot out of its misery with a final blow. She pushes back the bangs of her hair and marches over to them with a frown on her face. And she doesn’t stop moving until she crashes into Hunk’s embrace. “So, we should probably pair up and start training.” Shiro suggests. “Pidge, Hunk you two will-” The opening of the training room door makes them all turn to see Lance. He’s frowning, right hand wrapped tightly around his left elbow as he avoids their gazes. Shiro almost can’t stop his sigh of relief. Losing Lance as a Paladin and a friend would have been a blow the team couldn’t bare.“So?” Shiro says, clearing his throat. “Your decision?” He asks, just to make sure he doesn’t presume anything. Lance purses his lips, scuffing his toe against the floor where the door closes. “Do-” Lance stops himself. He takes a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Do I have to wear that armor? It’s kind of hard to be stealthy when your armor paints you as your own target.” Shiro fights a smile.“When we need stealth you can wear whatever you want if that makes you feel better, but otherwise yes.” Shiro says, making sure to keep a neutral line of his lips. “Will I have to share a room?” Lance asks, easing forward a step. Shiro answers with a shake of his head, face cracking slowly but surely.“Can I still do what I need to do a rebel?” Lance adds on, shoulders straightening, taking another step forward and letting the door close. Shiro can practically feel Hunk buzzing next to him in excitement. “If it isn’t pertinent to defeating Zarkon or liberating planets, keep it on your time and you have someone accompany you just in case.” Shiro replies, smile getting bigger with every second. Lance sighs and crosses his arms. “Alright fine, I’ll stay. But I have to have some sort of control on your training sometimes because you guys need some formal training or you’ll get yourselves-” Hunk doesn’t wait any longer and scoops Lance up off the floor in a bear hug before he can even finish his sentence. He finishes his sentence in a choked voice. “-killed. Hunk I can’t breathe.” Hunk drops him gently to the floor with a smile and tears running down his face. “Alright then, Lance, why don’t you show us what you can do with your pistols so we know how you fight.” Shiro suggests. Lance smiles.“Gladly.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
"If you're sure about it." Shiro says, eyebrows creased. "Allura just needs to get you started on your paladin training and she needs to see your skill level first."Lance smiles at Shiro's worry. Even after just getting into an argument Shiro still worries about him like a worrisome father. It's sweet, how much he cares."I'll be fine Shiro." Lance assures. "Alright. Get ready. I'll make sure to set it up for guns." Shiro says. Lance shrugs. It doesn't matter to him, he's fought off swords and knives with just his pistols just as easily as he fights off guns. The training room clears and Lance shucks off his coat. He doesn't want to ruin it so soon, plus it's such a pretty blue. He tugs at his shirt wondering if he should take it off too and just wear the bodysuit. He's in the middle of debating when a booming voice shocks him. He quickly draws his main pistol and points it around the empty room. "It's just a speaker Lance." Allura says, her accent unmistakable. Lance relaxes and makes sure to face away from the observation deck to hide his embarrassment. Allura explains how the demonstration will go about. Basically Allura will start the training exercise at level one, and the levels will automatically advance as one is finished. Lance is to last as long as possible and if things get too difficult he can end it by either being zapped in a vital point on his body or by calling out the trigger words 'end training sequence'. Allura and the others will observe and take notes from upstairs in the control room. And when he's ready, he needs to call out the trigger words 'begin training sequence'. Simple enough.Lance starts doing a few quick and simple stretches to warm up his muscles. Mainly with his arms, his legs are kind of naturally flexible. He pulls his pistols out one at a time to check the plasma levels. Lance's preferred weapons aren't infinite in ammo, they do require new plasma clips every now and again. But each clip can hold up to about 30 shots so they're more efficient than man made pistols. The clips are about halfway full each gun so he walks back over to his coat to fish out four more. He stuffs them in the sleeve of his bodysuit. When he's ready, he holsters his weapons and yells out the trigger words. He isn't sure what to expect, hence why his guns are holstered. That way he can focus on dodging and seeing what he's up against first and foremost. He expects maybe a robot or something but he doesn't expect orbs to float out of the floor. Lance's curiosity, much like the kind that killed the cat, gets the better of him. He reaches out for an orb with a coo of awe, trying to touch the little flying drones. The drone drifts away and Lance pouts. So he tries again. He's embarrassed at how much these things fascinate him, the others probably don't have the same reaction to these things that he is having. But it doesn't matter, he wants to see them up close and dammit he will get what he wants!He tries to grab another but it floats away, so he growls in frustration. "Come." Lance swipes at another. "Here!" He bunches his legs underneath him and launches through the air like a cat.He shouts in triumph as he catches one in his hands, holding tight so it won't get away even if it struggles in all its might. He raises it above his head with a victory cry, facing the observation deck. He waves his hand around to catch their attention for sure. "Guys look!" Lance shouts. "Look I got one. I caught- OW!" Lance quickly drops the drone with a hiss, clutching his injured hand. The orb thing shot him. In the hand. How dare. Lance, with every ounce of pettiness he can muster, draws his main pistol and shoots down every single orb. It was about ten of them. Meanwhile he clutches his hand to his chest like an injured animal. It hurts like hell, even if it's more of a carpet burn than anything, but carpet burns hurt too okay? The round is soon over but as the next one begins Lance knows better than to chase the drones. It's exactly like the time Lance had been playing with some stingrays. His mother told him not to touch the tail and what did he do? He touched the sting rays tail. He regretted doing that just as much as grabbing the floaty drone.As the next level begins Lance gets ready in a crouch. His hands hold on tight to his pistol as the drones raise from the floor again. Lance quickly ends the round without hardly moving, as well as round three. At level four, just before it begins, Lance swipes his shirt off, leaving him in his pants and his bodysuit. As he finishes off round four sweat begins dripping off his chin, and he draws his second pistol out. He gets grazed in the arm during level five, and Lance begins dancing on his toes to be ready to move. As the drones raise on level six he shoves his right hand through his hair, still holding his pistol and getting a little sweat on the metal. With every level the number of drones increases, just as their speed and movement does. Now he not only has to watch his own front and back, but his above and below as well. There's a lot of moments where the only way he can dodge is to do some sort of jump or flip. They take a lot out of him but Lance still smiles happily. He hasn't had a casual training exercise be so rigorous before and he's absolutely loving it. Lance twists his body to the side as the level starts and decides he wants to impress the paladins. He keeps dodging by the skin of his teeth as he prepares himself to go full on drama queen. An ache settles in his arms and thighs from the strain of an unexpected workout. It feels exhilarating. As level seven begins, so does the real show. When he had gotten his pistols, no matter what he was doing, no matter where he was, he was always practicing bad ass tricks with his pistols. The tricks aren't necessarily for battle, since in battle it's life or death and he needs to focus. They just made the time pass by faster. When the ship would go long bouts without battles or missions so the crew can recharge and the damage can be repaired, Lance would get restless. So the tricks helped him stay distracted and busy. But even so, the tricks impress the hell out of the ladies, gents and others he wants to impress. And they also helped him keep the nightmares at bay sometimes. When his dreams haunt him. Filled with wide inhuman eyes, pain at his wrists, thick blue liquid spreading and spreading and spreading…Lance jerks back as the first of the laser fire hits him in the shoulder and shocks him out of his own head. Lance lets himself fall back into old patterns with a smirk, and begins his show. It's time for showing off, not for remembering bad things. With his first twirl of his pistols he takes down two drones. He does another twirl. And another. And when he finally gets into the groove of his little tricks the level ends too soon.His chest heaves as his lungs try with all their might to catch their breath. He's getting tired but Lance isn't done. Not yet. Not until he shows off and makes it as far as he can. The paladins are probably already at level thirty. The least he can do is last until level ten.He readies into a crouch as the next level starts with a whirring sound as the drones rise from the floor again. Lance is ready for them, but he waits until they start shooting at him before jumping right into his fancy tricks. There are so many of them Lance doesn’t even have a moment to count them. Maybe twenty? Thirty? They don't allow him a single moment of reprieve. If the ones he’s looking at aren’t firing, then the ones he isn’t, are, and vice versa.Lance lets his body flow like water, moving in sync with the drones as he twirls his guns around like he’s in some anime. Shooting and shooting and shooting. Flips. Throws. Whirls and twirls. He throws himself around just as much as he does his well loved pistols. More and more he keeps it up, slowly but surely dwindling the number of enemy drones as he goes. Faster and faster and faster.Lance lets out a wild laugh to match his wild movements. Laser fire is only just barely missing him as he twists his body this way and that. Heat brushing against his cheek, the smell of singed hair, the crackle of lasers fizzling out on the ground where he had stood moments before. The feelings rolling around in his chest- elation, and adrenaline and pride- set his blood on fire. It’s the best feeling he's ever felt in his life in space. Lance absolutely lives for this feeling.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Pidge has hardly any qualms to admit, at least to herself, that Lance’s performance- which is exactly what the exercise turned out to be- kind of frightened her. She won’t admit it out loud though, because then she’ll get Looks from the other paladins. Either with pity, or humor, or simply like she’s a child. Which she is most certainly not. She’s fifteen, or actually she might be sixteen now, she’ll have to recalculate the numbers of how long they’ve been in space. Should be simple, she keeps a detailed log of her discoveries, her analytics of battles and training, her notes on planet customs and so on every day. But that’s beside the point. Her point is, she is a teenager, just like the rest of the team except for Shiro and Coran. She isn’t a kid anymore, hasn’t been for over a year now. She probably won’t ever get the chance to be a kid again, even if she finds her dad and Matt.
When.
When she finds her dad and Matt. There is no room for doubt about that. Just because it’s been over a year doesn’t mean she won’t find them. They’re out there, somewhere, alive and fighting for survival, she can feel it in her bones. She will find them, and take them home to Mom, and they can be a family again. Maybe a broken, scarred family, but a family nonetheless. And now she might be able to add a few more people to the people she considers family. Maybe. We’ll see. And anyways. Technically, its Shiro who is the only child here. Being six years old and all (he was born on a leap year). Where was she going with this? Oh right. Lance.So Lance’s performance kind of frightened her. When the simulation first began, he acted like a kitten discovering a laser pointer for the first time. Chasing the drones, trying to catch them, cooing in childlike wonderment. And honestly, chasing the drones probably wasn’t one of Lance’s greatest of ideas. However even when he was lost in his weird curiosity, he still managed to dodge every laser fired at him. Up until the moment he caught one and waved it around like he was trying to show off his new toy, only for said toy to shoot him in the hand. The lasers are just meant to sting, not injure, but Lance had cradled his arm like it was shot off.“Okay nope,” Shiro had mumbled when Lance started chasing the drones, sounding very much the worried father figure he’s been dubbed as among the paladins. Space Dad, Shiro’s secret nickname. It’s a secret because Shiro likes to play hardened leader, and who are they to take that persona and rip it away from him? Plus it’s more entertaining that way. “Nope turn it off. He’s gonna hurt himself!” Allura ignored him.Then after Lance got shot in the hand, it seemed like all bets were off, and he shot down the drones with a scary amount of precision. The shift between childish curiosity to a deadly seriousness was scary in and of itself. He did that when they first met, when he had talked about the technological masterpiece that was the ECD. Such a wide variety of uses all compact into one tiny little device. And the ghost signals? Piggy backing off of Galra radio waves? Why didn’t she think of that! Even that creepy poison filled stylus was genius, in a morbid sort of way. Then she spent the past two weeks taking it apart and designing some mock ups to improve the ECD’s quality and efficiency. Where was she going with this? Oh right, Lance.
Gotta stop getting sidetracked in her own head.
Lance at least took the levels from there on a little more serious. Until level six, when he started to really become scary. Like he spent the first five levels warming up, slowly he starts doing twirls with his guns. He spins the guns around his finger in the little area where the trigger goes (is there a term for that? Mental note: look up parts of a handgun). What’s better is the twirls and spins get more and more extravagant. Mid spin he would pull the trigger and shoot down another drone. He never missed his mark. His accuracy is scary. And impressive.At round seven he gets even more dramatic in his tricks. Throwing the guns into the air, catching them on his finger in a spin, shooting as the gun whips around his finger like a hula hoop. Under his legs when a drone flies low, or over his shoulder, or behind his back. Pidge’s favorite part by far was definitely when the guns started clicking like they were out of ammo, and Lance never missed a beat. One after the other he throws the guns into the air, dancing away from laser fire. The first gun came spiraling down from it’s arc and, in a flash, Lance whips out one of the extra canisters of plasma he had tucked into his bodysuit’s sleeves and slams it home in the now empty slide. The same thing happens with the second, but it was one handed since the gun didn’t spiral down. Then Lance got right back into his dance without a second thought. He lasts until about halfway through round ten, when he gets zapped one too many times for him to handle and calls out the trigger words to end the round. Later on, as most everyone on the ship is fast asleep, Pidge views the recorded video of the training exercise over and over again. Zooming in and focusing on every detail. At first, it would be so she could determine the exact moment that Lance ejected the empty cartridges, but then it would dissolve into her obsessing over every movement Lance made. Pidge will gladly take to her grave just how many times she watches the video, planning on copying him and coming up with some cool tricks with her Bayard. What Lance did was scary, because he just seemed so natural with guns in his hands, but it was also extremely cool. Getting to level ten is impressive enough, especially when it’s on his first try. Sure, it isn’t the Gladiators, but it’s still impressive. While on Earth, a level ten would be for newbies who aren’t trained yet, but the Alteans take the idea of levels and multiply it by a thousand. Each level on Earth, if they had this training technology, would be one wave, finish, next level. Each level with the Alteans is a minimum of two waves. It’s hardly noticeable at first, but if you look real hard at training videos like Pidge does then you can recognize a break between the surge of drones. If you time it right, those pauses become cheat codes. At level ten, the levels get three waves, and at twenty they have four. And so on and so forth. The rest of the paladins can’t make it past level ten alone, and as a group they’ve managed to scratch the surface of level fifteen. Lance being on the same level as them with no experience in the training room is a feat to behold. And on his first try. Lance, after some long hard training with Allura, will be their ace in the hole against the Galra for sure. He knows his way around Galra ships. He’s a pretty good leader, if not a reckless one. He has some undeniable skill with guns. He has connections that would be detrimental to the downfall of the Empire and the building of the Alliance. Not afraid to get his hands dirty. And best of all? He can piss off the Galra so easily they readily bought the story of Lance being the Rebellion Leader and Black Paladin of Voltron. Wait. Could he be the leader of the Rebellion?Pidge looks up from her computer as they file from the observation deck into the training room to talk to Lance. He’s sweaty, gross, smiling like an idiot, but he looks like he can barely hold his guns in his hands now, let alone holster them correctly. Pidge idly wonders in the back of her mind if his Bayard would be a pistol or two. As she looks him over, she can’t help but shake her head. No way this idiot could be a leader of the Rebellion. Also, didn’t Lance say he joined the Rebellion after Marva healed him up? So he couldn’t be the leader, not that quickly. Not without a lot of strong arming, political wars, and a whole lot of luck. Anyways, what was she talking about again?Oh right, Lance. Damn she needs to stop getting off track in her own head. If her head isn’t organized nothing will be. Pidge likes Lance- which yes, is another subject change but at least it’s on the topic of the mysterious new paladin (though calling him mysterious is a stretch, other than his past, the dude is an open book). Anyways, she likes Lance, he’s funny. Funny like Matt actually. And Pidge has always had trouble making friends with anyone other than her brother. It’s why she has to analyze everything about the rest of team voltron. Picking apart their personalities and quirks and dirty little secrets to help herself better understand them. Like Hunk. He’s a sunny person, though that’s not surprising, but his dirty little secret is that he’s not a goody two shoes. Apparently he’s been arrested, he has tattoos, and he used to steal. Like a lot. Though to be fair, his stealing used to be so he could keep groceries in the house when the months were bad. So still a sunny person. The tattoos were a shocker though. Apparently there isn’t enough Nunville on the ship to get him to show her them. Then there’s Shiro, the most straight laced, irritatingly perfect guy she’s ever met. Never drank a drop of alcohol, so Nunville induced secret spilling was out of the question. Never smoked a cigarette, or gotten high, or snuck out of the dorms at the Garrison past curfew. He’s never had a casual fling, and he’s only ever been in one relationship though he shut down on her when she tried to pry more into it. The only remotely bad thing about Shiro is whatever he was forced to do in the arena, but a) that doesn’t count because it was do it or die and b) he doesn’t remember most of it anyways. Coran she can’t even fit on one file. She has three separate files for Coran Coran the Gorgeous man. One for his little habits and quirks and his weird but fun personality. Another for stories that seem like they can’t possibly be true. Another for the stories that are possible but unlikely. Honestly if anyone on this ship is mysterious, it’s a hard tie between him and Allura.Allura has about three sentences worth of information. She likes sparkly things. She never talks with her hands and seems annoyed when someone else does, especially Coran. Then of course the basic facts about her. Like her height, her status, the few details of her home planet Pidge has been able to glean from the two of them combined. Lance, however little she knows of him, is the one person she thinks will be the easiest to interact with. He’s just so much like Matt. The reminder of her missing brother posed in the way Lance acts is both a knife to the heart and a warm summer sun. These files help her in the day to day of life on the Castleship, but she’s not a robot. No matter how many times Matt accused her of such.
Mom, Dad, I’m sorry to break the news to you, but I think Pidge… is a robot.
Stop telling people that! And I told you, don’t call me Pidge!
Pidge smiles sadly down at her closed computer as she comes to a stop alongside the rest of the paladins. She used to hate that name, Pidge. Along with it’s many accumulated variances. Pidgeon, Pidgey, Pidge Podge, Midgy Pidgey, and so on and so forth. She thought she would hate the name, but when Matt left for Kerberos, she desperately missed it. Now it’s all she wants to be called. Anything to feel that much closer to her lost blood. Guess she didn’t get the chance to miss it after all. “So,” Lance says, drawing out the word as he works his arms behind him to holster his guns. He rubs the back of his neck when his hands are free and smiles so widely it crinkles his eyes shut. “What did you think? I know I’m probably leagues behind you guys but I think I was pretty damn awesome!”Lance somehow manages to sound humble, and yet so very arrogant at the same time.Matt could do that pretty well too.Lance couldn’t even finish talking before Hunk was snatching up his noodle-like body into a body crushing hug, once again lifting him off the floor. At least it isn’t Pidge this time, she may like Hunk’s hugs, but being off of solid floor without warning disorients her. Hunk gushes about Lance’s performance and awesomeness as he swings Lance’s limp body from side to side. Pidge imagines watching the balloon of Lance’s ego grow so big it’s about to pop. Honestly Pidge can’t even understand why Hunk is still hugging him so tightly.The man is sweaty. Why subject yourself to such grossness for a hug? Just being in the same room right now makes her want a shower. The moment Hunk runs out of breath, he plops Lance down and Shiro quickly takes over before his window of opportunity is lost. Learning that there is a window in the first place was a trip to watch everyone go through. Pidge and Hunk became friends in the Garrison when they were roomed together, and Pidge failed at keeping her sex a secret. Hunk didn’t even question why she pretended to be a boy and just went with it like it made sense. They became friends, though their pilot- some dude named John? Jackson? Something of that nature.- was kind of a bossy jerk, hence why he didn’t end up in space when Hunk and Pidge snuck out that fateful day.“Those were some impressive moves you have. Where did you learn to do all that?” Shiro asks, genuinely curious and meaning nothing beyond the innocent question. After a flat second of silence, Lance looks away with a cough. Shiro quickly realizes his mistake and attempts to track back for redemption. “Wait- I didn’t mean- I’m so sorry- my bad Lance. I didn’t even think.” Shiro says, face red with guilt. Lance waves his hand at Shiro as if to dismiss the apology. His shifting feet is the only thing to give his discomfort away.“It’s alright Shiro, really. I just wasn’t expecting that.” Lance says. Shiro weakly apologizes again in a small voice. Lance looks down at his arm, left hand tugging the sleeve of his bodysuit down though it doesn’t budge much. “I learned how to use a gun in the arena, and after I healed and completed my official Rebellion training, I spent practically every free moment teaching myself tricks. When I wasn’t busy fighting Galra, or going on missions, or arguing with my higher ups.” Lance explains casually, shrugging, but not looking anyone in the eyes. He still tugs gently at the sleeve of his suit. Pidge’s chest tightens at the reminder of the Rebellion. There’s so many things she wants to ask, to know about Lance. But mostly she wants to know if he met her father or Matt through the Rebellion. If perhaps they joined after the arena like he did. Or at least Matt, since she found evidence that he was rescued. She’d ask him now but if she did that she might start crying, and she doesn’t want to look weak. Like a child. Lance is new, crying in front of him is like crying in front of strangers. Still not her ideal situation, but it’s better than worrying her team.She vows to pull him aside and ask before dinner, as everyone leaves.That turned out to take longer than expected. After everyone stopped gushing and questioning and complimenting Lance, which took a hot minute, they went through some more training. Pitted Lance in a hand to hand against Keith. That fight wasn’t nearly as exciting as watching Lance with his twin pistols. Lance isn’t as versed without his weapons, though still good enough to hold his own against Keith.Keith had thrown Lance to the ground all of three times, pinning him to the floor, before Lance was so exhausted he could hardly stand. Pidge practically starts growling in impatience by the time Allura called it a day and said it’s dinner time. Pidge had hardly said a word through her clenched jaw the entire time they’ve been in the training room. When her chance to snatch Lance away rolls around she nearly misses it, too busy fiddling angrily with the rough model of her new and improved ECD.She practically launches across the room to snatch the back of Lance’s pretty blue coat before he left with everyone else. She immediately pulls her hand away with a cry of disgust as her skin touches gross boy sweat.She definitely needs a nice long shower now. She may act and look and fight like a boy most of the time but she refuses to smell like one too. No way in hell or high water will she allow that. Pidge would rather die. Okay that’s a little dramatic but the sentiment is there. Lance turns with a kind smile, the sound of the doors closing behind him. All of a sudden they’re alone, and Pidge pushes up her glasses with her clean hand. She scuffs her foot against the floor with a new shyness she doesn’t feel very often. Shiro already asked an awkward question earlier, and that went well enough. Perhaps this will go even smoother. “I just had a few questions. If it’s alright with you.” Pidge starts, delaying the truth she isn’t sure she’s ready to hear. She looks up over the rim of her glasses, not seeing blind, since she doesn’t really need glasses. But Matt gave them to her, so she will gladly keep them until she can return them in person. Lance looks down at her in puzzlement, before smiling brightly once more and settling his hand on top of her hand. A little like Matt used to do, except Matt always did it with a ruffle to her hair. Lance just leaves his hand in place, and the gesture makes her smile.“Fire away kiddo.” Lance says. Pidge can’t even get angry at him for calling her a kid because he’s acting too much like Matt. He smiles again, a big smile that doesn’t crinkle his eyes (eye? Because the mask? She’s just gonna stick with eyes). They hadn’t spent much time together, but somehow Pidge can still tell the smiles where his eyes crinkle aren’t his most honest ones.Lance smiles a lot.“Before we found the Blue Lion, who brought us all here, Shiro and two scientists went on a mission to Kerberos.” Pidge says. Lance blinks but nods dutifully, moving to slump down on the floor and lean against the wall. Pidge reluctantly follows, setting her laptop aside to face Lance as he faces her.“Yeah I know. I was Shiro’s biggest fan at the time, so I heard about the launch. I just never got to see them off.” Lance explains, a little strain in his voice. “Because you were somehow in space?” Pidge asks tentatively. Lance nods but nothing more. So she pushes again, though gently. “Will you tell me about it?”Lance breathes out shakily, though before anything else the doors slide open and Hunk peeks his head through to look at them. His eyes have to spend a second to roam the room before landing on them. Hunk explains quickly that dinner is ready, a strange look on his face. Lance looks at her and suddenly that mask seems to hide so much more than his eye, while his uncovered eye peers into her soul.“How about we do this at dinner. I’m sure everyone has their own curiosities.” Lance says with a smile as his eyebrow raises, the one framing his uncovered eye. Pidge, though left very unsatisfied that she lost the chance to ask in private because her curiosity got in her way, agrees anyways and they stand to follow Hunk back to the dining hall.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
"So," Hunk starts as Lance eases into his seat. His muscles ache as he leans back, those sparring sessions and that training exercise really wiped him out. He still stings all over from where Keith landed hits hard enough to bruise and where those little drones shot him and left red marks on his skin. Even his hand still throbs. Pidge asking to talk in private was a small relief because he got to sit and catch his breath before dinner. And if he has to eat weird alien food, he would rather do it with settled nerves in case Hunk picked something up that's dangerous for humans on accident. Though her line of questioning was kind of odd. She looked like the questions she was saying out loud weren't the ones she really wanted to know. He might have to ask her after dinner. She's pretty quiet too as she loads her plate up, even as Hunk is still setting out the dishes.
Wonder what's on her mind.
"What took you guys so long?" Hunk finishes as he lays the last plate down, snatching his hands away from the plate as Pidge grumpily snatches up her portion. Hunk doesn't blink an eye so maybe that's normal. "Pidge was asking questions about my time in space is all." Lance says casually. He notices out of the corner of his eye that Shiro and Allura kind of lock up as they slowly fill their own plates. Lance shrugs it off. It isn't like he's hiding his predicament is he?Lance eyes the spread carefully as the silence draws on. He finds a plate of meat he had gotten for a little experiment and grabs the whole thing before anyone else does. Usually he would wait until everyone else has their fill but since no one has moved yet he doesn't care about his manners. He slides a piece of meat onto his plate, sort of cut like a steak, but the insides have a sort of bluish hue to it rather than red. He puts that plate down on his and Keith's, who sits across from him, side of the table to keep it out of the others hands. This is for Keith.He's had a little suspicion about Keith.He's not sure if he's just imagining it or not so he'll keep quiet until he can be sure. Other than putting the plate down he does nothing else. He finishes filling his plate and then settles back in his seat with arms crossed."So?" Lance says. "Did you want to know or not?" "Only if you want to tell us," Shiro says slowly, cautiously. "You don't have to tell us anything you don't want to."Lance shrugs casually as he picks at his food. He looks across the table to see Keith carefully prodding at a piece of the meat on his plate. Keith doesn't eat yet, no one does, because apparently talking takes precedence. "I have nothing to hide." Lance says. "So what first? What do want to know?" "Well," Hunk says eyeing the other Paladins. "Maybe start at the beginning? How you got to space?" "I was kidnapped." Lance explains. He glances sideways as Keith takes his first bite of the meat before practically melting in pleasure. Lance looks away as his experiment draws on slowly. "When I was just about to attend the Garrison actually.""Kidnapped? From Earth?" Allura asks incredulously. Lance nods his affirmative. "Correct.""How?" Shiro asks gently. Lance shrugs to offset the lump in his throat. "I was naive. Trusting. Stupid. I was walking down the streets to familiarize myself for when I attended school at the Garrison. Found a small shop off the beaten path with shiny, alien, products in the window. I followed my curiosity and well." Lance trails off for a moment. "Curiosity killed the cat and all that."There is another brief silence as Lance waits for a scolding or sympathy. He gets nothing so he just continues where he left off. He takes a sip of his Mukaro juice, a juice made from a fruit from the Sivkel Galaxy. Tastes kind of like orange juice, but a lot sweeter with a slightly bitter aftertaste. "So," Keith starts as Lance is drinking his juice. Lance pauses mid way with a raised eyebrow. He's eaten his entire slice of meat and is reaching for another. He slides three pieces onto his plate without looking away from Lance's gaze. Interesting. "That's when they took you to the arena?" Keith asks, lifting his fork to take a bite out of the meat. A trail of juice runs down his chin, though Keith doesn't seem to notice. Lance shakes his head at the question. "No," Lance starts. He twists his fork idly around the meat on his plate. "Though that might have been better then becoming a slave." Even Keith pauses midway through his bite at the word 'slave'. Lance takes a bite of his food to stave off the hunger but nothing more. He avoids the meat at all costs. "Slave?" Hunk whispers, loudly and in horror. Lance hums his affirmation so Hunk asks again. "What do you mean slave? Li-like to the Galra?" Lance shakes his head no. "No Hunk. Not to the Empire. In fact I didn't learn what the Galra were until too late. I would have done something," Lance pauses to find the right word, still twisting his fork around his plate. "Drastic to avoid them if I had.""So then," Pidge speaks up, lifting her head. Her eyes are sharp as they land on him. "Then who were you a slave to?" "Anyone." Their faces are blank with incomprehension so he backtracks to explain. "There were a handful of other humans, and we were all being sold to the highest bidder. I was the last but only because I refused to obey. Fought to every single thing they tried to make me do." Lance looks at the table now, lost in his own memories, fist getting tighter and tighter around his fork. "They tried to make me look pretty to attract buyers. I would retaliate by bruising my own body to look ugly. They tried to make me submissive. I retaliated by screaming bloody murder at whoever dared to approach. I tried to escape." Lance pauses with clenched teeth. "They retaliated by selling me to the worst of them all.""Lance-" Shiro starts but Lance is on a roll now. He's too deep into his memories to listen and calm down. The fork creaks in the quiet. "They finally managed to get rid of me and boy did they get their payback. At least I didn't have to bruise myself, my master managed that plenty on his own." The fork creaks again as Lance curls into himself, anger building in his chest at his own memories. "At least I didn't have to dress like an alien doll," Lance pauses as his voice breaks with emotion. "My master preferred me naked and bloody. Bound and bruised." Lance inhaler loudly, and he slowly releases both his breath and the hold on the fork. It clatters to the table in two pieces. He relaxes back into his chair to face his team, his allies, his…friends. "But I never stopped fighting. Or trying to escape." Lance casually takes another drink of his Mukaro juice. "Or to do something other than submit. Eventually he threw me out, handed me over to the arena to die like a lamb to slaughter."The faces of his friends range from horror (Shiro and Hunk), to fury (Keith and Pidge), to pity (Allura), and sorrow (Coran). Lance watches them blankly, waiting for a question. "Then," Pidge starts to ask reluctantly, eyeing the other paladins. "How did you escape the arena?""Well first," Lance drawls. "I kept winning, like a lot. I only killed those who fought back. The innocent I spared. The Empire didn't like that. So they punished me for it, and I killed like they wanted, and that's how I got the title I have now."Lance prepares to move on but Keith cuts him off. "What do you mean by title?"Lance blinks at the innocent question, not particularly pertaining to Lance exactly. He smiles at Keith. "A title is something a Gladiator can earn through winning and becoming a fan favorite in the Arena. There are others out there, like the Champion, the strongest of them all." Lance explains. Keith's face darkens and Lance looks to the others in confusion. It's Shiro who catches his attention. He's pale, almost green in color. "You know who the champion is?" Shiro asks. Lance watches him curiously for a moment but his face is unreadable. He shrugs it off and shakes his head. "No way. Not in the flesh. Just rumors. Stories. And we never fought either, because the Empire would never pitch two titled gladiators like the Champion and I against each other." Keith's face eases from its dark look to look at him curiously. Lance notices the fact that the meat on the platter is almost gone now. Lance casually slips the meat on his plate back onto the serving dish. The experiment should end soon. He'll know his answer by the end of the day. "Why not? If you two were such great fighters why not pit you against each other?" Keith says, as if it makes sense. And it probably does, but not for the Empire. Lance shakes his head again, even as Keith is speaking. "They wouldn't risk it. That would guarantee a lost title, and the Champion and I, as well as the few others with titles, are too valuable GAC-wise." Lance says. "But I wish I could meet him."Shiro makes an odd sound that draws Lance's attention. "Why do you want to meet him?" Shiro asks. Lance crosses his arms in thought. "To thank him," Lance pauses. Shiro slumps a little in the short moment. "Or punch him. Either one works for me."Pidge snorts in amusement but schools her face before Lance can look at her. He narrows his eyes at her. "Why punch him?" Pidge asks, an amused tilt to her tone. Lance isn't sure why she is amused, but it's diffusing the tension so he won't question it. "Because the bastard escaped first. It helped and hindered in my own escape. So if I met him in person, I would thank him, then apologize for punching him, then sock him in the face. Square in the nose." Lance pauses his rant to tilt his head to the side. "If he has a nose anymore. Rumors said he got a nasty wound on it, some say it was taken clean off but, I doubt it. Prisoners embellish to make stories more exciting." Lance finishes off. He takes another few bites of food to stave off the hunger before leaning back into his chair. Shiro looks like he wants to bury himself.
Wonder why.
"How did he hinder and help your escape?" Hunk asks incredulously. Lance hums in thought as he takes another bite of his food. "Well. On one hand he made things more difficult. The guard presence tripled, all gladiators were kept in chains when not on the Arena floor, our food rations were lowered to keep us weak." Lance starts listing off, counting on his hand while the other one propped his head up. "That's-" Allura starts to say but never finishes, so Lance does so for her. "Awful yeah. However, on the other hand he was a huge help as well. The prisoners got bolder and more brave, myself included." Lance explains. "Riots, guard assassinations, attempts at escape. It was chaos, allowing the Rebellion to slip in a few people to pose as prisoners and organize a mass rescue, using me as bait since I was the most likely to survive long enough for it.""What did you do?" Shiro asks, face still kind of green. Lance smiles a deadly smile at the question. That was a story Lance enjoyed telling. He remembers just how much he made the Empire suffer in one day, how much of Zarkon's entertainment he destroyed. How much fun and satisfaction he felt to finally strike back hard enough to bruise the Empire. "I ripped them apart." Lance states simply. "They wanted me to fight again, to kill for the Emperor's amusements, and boy did I fight. I took down half a ship's worth of Galra commanders, and captains, and bloodthirsty monsters. They outfitted me with Empire tech like no other, and they weren't prepared for me turn it back against them.""Wow." Pidge says. And it seems like the only thing any of the paladins could say in that moment. "So how did you escape my boy?" Coran finally speaks up, sitting to Allura's right as she sits at the head of the table. "The Rebellion came for me at the last minute." Lance takes a few quick bites while the Paladins wait patiently for him to finish chewing. "When I was finally being overpowered by the sheer amount of Galra, they swooped in, snatched me up and got me out of there. I was badly injured so they took me to Big Mama's to heal. I joined when I was able to throw a decent punch again and well." Lance says, spreading his hands as if to say 'the rest is history'. "I moved up the ranks faster than anyone else, though not like it really matters." Lance tacks on with a scowl. "Why's that?" Pidge questions. Her plate is untouched even though she was the first to reach for the food. Maybe she's like Rachel in that way, when she gets curious about something all things take a backseat to following her curiosity. Even food and bathroom breaks. One time, she got curious about what makes a hover bike float and spent three days straight taking Marco's bike apart and examining every little detail. When Marco came home, which he was away on a trip to Havana for a friend's birthday, he almost exploded. Poor Rachel didn't even know how to put it back together again. That bike is still sitting half fixed in the shop. Or, it was, when Lance was last home anyways. Lance blinks away the sad memories and smiles at Pidge's question. It takes him a split second to remember what the question was though. Then another to remember why she asked it. "Because I'm not very well liked among the higher ups. And I'll leave it at that for now." Lance explains. His tone is one that says any more questions on the subject won't be answered. "Anything else you want to know?"The table grows silent as everyone gives each other unreadable looks. Then Allura clears her throat, pushing a strand of hair behind her elfin ear. "What happened to your eye?" She asks, folding her hands delicately on the table. Lance, for all that he has learned about acting over the past years in space, can't stop his easy going smile from dropping. He lifts a hand absently, fingers ghosting over the edge of his mask. He won't tell the team what exactly happened, he can't. He still has nightmares about it, the memories fresh and painful in his mind. The glint of steel, deafening screams, his wrists aching, a thick blue liquid spreading slowly across his vision. "Bad things. Just. Bad things." Lance clears his throat, fighting back the tightening in his chest. "Anyways. I think that's enough horror stories for one night. How about I ask the questions this time.”Allura blinks in shock at the sudden change of pace in the conversation, though she doesn’t necessarily looked displeased either. She clears her throat gently before smiling in good nature. “Of course, what would you like to know?” Allura says. Her voice is deceptively sweet, but Lance suspects if he were to ask one wrong question it would be his head as the price. She’s so hard to read and get a good idea of how she thinks. Lance is kind of lucky they’re allies, she would be his ultimate enemy for that fact alone. “Well, how about how the rest of you got to space? Or at least how you got here, with the Lions and the war and all that.” Lance says. Shiro runs his hand through his hair, making his hair floofy thing stick up wildly for a second before it falls back into place. Wow, that is so unfair. Lance has to style his hair every morning to look this handsome and Shiro just? Does it? Just like that? So unfair. “Well, you know that I was taken prisoner by the Galra, during the Kerberos mission actually.” Shiro says. Lance didn’t know that was when Shiro was taken but it makes more sense than saying, oh I don’t know. Maybe that aliens were disguising themselves as humans to lure humans so they could steal humans so they could sell humans as human slaves to alien masters? Lance smiles in encouragement to make Shiro continue. “Well I was,” Shiro hesitates here. “Gone. For a year almost exactly, and then I somehow got back to Earth and then. Well, Keith?” Shiro says, looking to Keith with pleading eyes as Shiro flounders in his explanation. Lance looks across the table just in time to watch the pleased flush the meat gave Keith’s cheeks drain into a scowl.Keith sighs out of his nose, eyes closed before he opens them and probably speaks the most in one sitting Lance has heard so far. Completely monotone.“Shiro and his team for the Kerberos mission failed to check in with the Garrison one day once they had reached Kerberos, and were then presumed dead due to pilot error as a cover up. I didn’t like that, got kicked out, and started following this weird energy that kept calling out to me in the middle of the desert.” Keith says without hardly pausing to breathe, scowling all the while. He keeps his monotone for the most part, except when he said Shiro was presumed dead. That was filled with anger. “Found a cave that told me, well it was pretty much a prophecy or some bullshit, saying something extraordinary would come to Earth on a certain day.” Keith says, though Shiro does mutter an indignant ‘language’ that Keith rolls his eyes at. “Next thing we all know Shiro comes crashing to the surface in an alien pod. His hair was stained white, his nose was scarred, his arm replaced with alien technology. The scientists and the Garrison tried to keep his return secret but I busted him free, with the, very unneeded, help of those two.” Keith says, nodding his head at Pidge and Hunk respectively. He goes silent, seeming to pass on the mantle of speaking to one of them. Pidge clears her throat after a moment of awkward silence. “Just so you don’t get the wrong idea, he did need our help.” Pidge says with a huff and a pointed glare at Keith, who rolls his eyes. “Hunk was the one who fried all the radios so no one could call for backup while Keith beat up a bunch of innocent scientists. And I was the one who put the security cameras on a loop to buy us time, in case anyone was watching the camera feeds who weren’t going after the explosions Keith used as a so called ‘distraction’”Lance’s eyebrows shoot upwards. Explosions? Yeah. That sounds like a Keith kind of thing to do.“Anyways.” Pidge drawls lazily as she starts making a devil face out of her food. Shiro grumbles at her that food is for eating, but Pidge just mocks him silently. Poor Shiro, he sits pouting as he eats his food. They don’t seem to really take Shiro seriously when they aren’t on the battlefield. Though, Pidge does put down her fork half way through the devil face.“We got Shiro to safety in Keith’s run down shack-” Keith growls at her. “And then Keith showed us his wall of the mysterious ‘energy’ findings. Hunk discovered the energy readings looked a lot like Fraunhofer lines, then Keith lined up the Fraunhofer lines to the cliff ridge. So we checked it out, and found a cave full of carvings of lions and stuff. We went in a little too deep and walked on some weak ground, fell through, then we landed in front of your Lion, Blue.”Lance nods along diligently, though he did get a little lost when Pidge said something about a Frown hopper? Frog hopper? What does frogs have to do with this? Lance probably would have asked (and probably would have regretted it afterwards) but Pidge doesn’t even stop talking to breath. “Naturally we hopped into Blue to check out her insides, and Blue took off with no warning. She attacked and destroyed a Galra ship bound for Earth, then went through a wormhole which took us to the Castle of Lions on a planet called Arus.” Pidge explains, slowing down a little from her fast paced info dump. “When we got there, we found Allura, she started talking about the war and eventually sent the four of us to get the other lions before a Galra fleet bound for Arus attacked. Hunk and Keith snuck into a Galra occupied planet and retrieved his lion, while Shiro and I went for the Green lion.” As Pidge pauses, Hunk takes up the rest of the story with calm eyes. “Using Yellow, Green and Blue, we retrieved Red from Galra clutches, then freed Black from the castle. One thing lead to another and here we are, our missing paladin sitting in front of us.”It’s quiet for a moment, as Lance takes it all in. As he’s processing the information, a yawn forces its way into existence from Lance’s mouth, inciting a few yawns from the others as well. Lance chuckles when the string of yawns stops, the rest of them jumping in alongside him. “I guess that means it’s bed time.” Lance says in amusement. Everyone finishes what’s left on their plates so they could get some sleep. Lance in particular feels like he’s not slept in a year.“Wait,” Pidge says as Lance stands to take his plate to the wash. Lance freezes mid reach for his plate. Pidge chews her lips as all eyes turn to her. “Just one more question. Please.”Lance lowers his eyebrows and sits back down, looking across the table at Pidge where she sits between Keith and Shiro. Her head is low, and that lip looks raw from the teeth that attack it and roll over it. Her plate is still half untouched. “Okay, what’s on your mind Pidge?” Lance asks when she says no more. She twirls her fork between her food before her shoulders slump and she looks Lance in the eye. Determination shines behind her amber eyes. “Matthew and Samuel Holt. Do you-” She pauses and swallows. Understanding creases Shiro’s face when Lance glances at him, and Shiro places his human hand gently on Pidge’s shoulder. “Do you know if the Rebellion were the ones who rescued them?”Lance tilts his head, eyebrows twitching between lowering and raising high. “What do you mean?” Lance asks slowly when he tries to understand what she’s asking. Pidge swallows and reaches out to her glass and downs her Mukaro juice.“Matt and Sam,” Shiro says, taking over as Pidge gathers her nerve. “They were my crew mates on the Kerberos mission, taken by the Galra alongside me. We were separated, and we want to know if you’ve heard or seen anything.”“Ah,” Lance says. He vaguely recalls the other two names apart of the Kerberos mission, but Shiro was his hero, not them. “No I’m sorry, nothing has come up. I would have known if there were humans other than me in the Rebellion I’m sure.”“Can you look? Try to find out for sure?” Pidge says. “I mean, I could but why-” Lance starts, but cuts himself off, narrowing his eyes at Pidge. He tries to remember the faces of the other two Kerberos crew. It takes him a minute to recall the faces he saw with Shiro when the Kerberos mission was announced. “Oh,” Lance says as he realizes that Shiro wasn’t the only one who looked familiar. “Of course Pidge, they’re your family right? Where I'm from, family is everything. I’ll help you find them.”Pidge exhales shakily, then sucks in a hissing breath, smiling at him with watery eyes. “Thanks Lance.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Sleep, for Lance, came and went with a blink of the eyes. He had holed up in the vacant room beside Keith's and across from Hunk's, falling asleep almost before he could even undress. Waking up, like usual, was a fight to the death between his body and his mind. His mind said 'wakey wakey' but his body chanted 'sleepy sleepy'. He took care of his usual morning routine sans all of his facial products since all of his stuff, what little he does have, is still on board the Mermaid. Of course, that's if Nama hasn't taken over and thrown his things out of the airlock. Upon leaving the room, he had buttoned up his pretty blue coat to fight off the chill of the empty halls, and made his way to the kitchen. He had expected everyone to be awake and eating, but the kitchen was empty. Just as the training room, and the Lion Hall turned out to be as well. He finally made his way, after many wrong turns and lost grumblings, to the main deck. Except the only one there was Coran. Coran, in all his immaculate and sleek glory, stood at the control panels. When Lance walks in, Shiro's name was on Coran's lips, but it dwindles as Coran blinks in surprise. Lance supposes he doesn't have the right to be offended, seeing as it is his first overnight on the castleship. Coran recovers with grace and a smile, waving heartily over his shoulder and a good morning as a greeting. Lance moves to stand behind the control panel so that the distance isn't so wide. "Wasn't expecting you up this early my boy!" Coran says. Lance doesn't even flinch as he realizes the endearment would be a constant now. A tight little ball of pain and warmth squeezes its way into his heart, but he smiles nonetheless. "I had woken up extra early to beat all of the Paladins, so that I might test their, and in turn yours as well, response to an alarm in the dead of sleep!" "Is that so?" Lance mumbles in response. He's still a little tired, and Coran's overly loud and chipper voice picks at whatever little energy he has in him so early. Which, apparently, is very early. Lance leans on the control panel to prop his head up with his loosely curled fist. Coran hums."Yes, but it appears you beat me to the punch. Shall we enjoy their scrambling for battle together?" Coran asks. His tone is much more subdued, and Lance thinks the man is just a tiny bit unsure how to interact with him. Lance feels the same honestly. With the Paladins it's easier, as they're all humans like Lance. With Allura, it's simple as well, she is always too diplomatic to let anything awkward or tense stop her. Lance purses his lips and nods in agreement with a small smile. Coran, like a new lightbulb, brightens as if Earth's sun itself was settled beneath his skin. "Righteo then!" Coran chirps then without any further warning sets off the alarms. Lance's body, also without warning, tenses as the alarms blare painfully in his overly sensitive hearing. He's long since learned to control his eye, sort of like an on and off switch in his head. Not so much with his hearing. Coran twists away to face the doors expectantly, arms crossed militarily behind his back. He misses as Lance's legs give out and he slides to the floor in a heap, hands clasped desperately over his ears. His eyes are squeezed shut as pain wrecks his body, spasms of lightning running up and down his spine and across every nerve he has. He curls up into a ball with a whimper. It goes unnoticed by the only other occupant in the room. Not long after the alarms blare do the doors hiss open and five people rush into the room. All of the paladins, even Shiro, are bleary eyed but dressed in paladin armour. Each of them carry their bayards and a fierce expression, Pidge accompanied by Rover. Allura, on the other hand, whisks into the room as the leader of the newly woken ensemble. She wears the same dress as always, not a wrinkle in sight, white hair falling down her back in lazy spirals. Lance watches all of this happen with a single eye, distorted by the blurring of his tears. "Coran!" Allura calls out over the shrill of the alarms. Her voice is just as painfully high pitched as the screeching from the speakers. "If there is no emergency then shut off those blasted alarms!" Oooh, such a bad word for a Princess. Lance would laugh if he wasn't in so much pain. Coran laughs heartily, not even turning around as he shuts off the alarms. Even as the alarms go off there's still a painful echo of the sound making Lance's body twitch where he lays curled up into himself. "Thank the heavens." Hunk whines. "Where's Lance?" "Why right here of- Lance?" Coran's voice says, muddled like he's underwater. Lance isn't even able to hold his eye open to watch anymore. A pathetic whimper escapes him as his body rolls through another wave of echoing pain. "Lance!"Suddenly there's hands on him, multiple pairs. He almost thinks it's his ship mechanic groping at him with his multitude of arms in his delirium. Lance twitches again as he's rolled onto his back, though he keeps his hands locked firmly over his ears to block the searing alarms still blaring through his head. Which doesn't last long as his hands are pried away. "Lance! Lance what's wrong?" Someone asks. For some reason he guesses it's Shiro, because suddenly his eye starts throbbing. Why that would connect to the person being Shiro is beyond Lance's comprehension. "Lance talk to us!" Another voice, annoyingly high pitched. Probably Allura. Or Pidge. He does however recognize Coran mumbling frantically in the background of all the noise. "I don't know! One minute he was fine albeit tired, the next he's like this! I don't know what happened! Oh dear, oh my, my poor boy, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do- whatever it is I did wrong!"Lance untenses slowly as the pain fades at last, blinking up into six worried faces blurred from unshed tears. His face feels sticky from the ones that managed to fall. "Lance!" This time he knows that shrill voice is Pidge, watching her mouth move with the words. For some reason, the sound is just a tick off key with the movement of her lips. "What happened?""So," Lance manages to croak out. Then he whimpers pathetically as he finishes his sentence. "Loud."Six faces crease in confusion. "What is?" Keith asks. His words are off center on his lips too. "Alarm." Lance says. "Hurts."Vaguely in the back of his mind where his sanity lies, he bemoans the fact that he can only manage a word at a time. How weak. He's an absolute messy puddle of pathetic weakness while his new team stares him down from above. They keep trying to ask him questions while Lance lets the last of the echoing pain roll across his body and leave. For some reason his friends, the traitors, take him not looking like he's in pain as their cue to haul him into a sitting position. The moment they let go of his wrists and shoulders he flops back onto the floor. His head snaps against the floor with a very painful thud. The pain, at least, is fresh enough to overtake any pain left over from the alarms. Though he still aches like he ran three marathons. They haul him up again, but Hunk shifts to sit behind Lance, allowing him to lean heavily on Hunk's softness. They let him rest as he gets his bearings, and he can speak a sentence without slurring. He feels utterly worn out by the time he can speak like a normal human being. "Lance what happened?" Shiro asks again, tone soft and worried. Lance sighs as he eases to his feet. He feels fine, as if the alarms didn't just paralyze him on the floor. Like it never happened. He brushes off the pairs of hands that reach out as if to catch him when he falls. He steps away from the group a little, ignoring some of the hurt expressions. Lance is pretty sure skin on skin contact would be more than a little uncomfortable right now. "It's my Galra prosthetic. While the main part of the replacement is located in my eye, that doesn't mean it's solely focused there. The wires extend all the way up into the very top of my spinal cord, into the part of the brain dealing with vision and hearing-" Lance says, as if reciting something off a page. Which, he sort of is. Before leaving him high and dry the Rebellion did look thoroughly at the tech in his head. He remembered it by heart, though the alien terms for those parts of the brain aren't really memorable when the words aren't even in Common. Pidge had cut him off to insert the human terms helpfully and wide eyed. The words fall off her lips like she didn't mean to say them out loud. "Brain stem, cerebrum for hearing, occipital for vision." Pidge says. Lance hesitates for a moment before nodding like he knew what she was saying. "Right. Anyways. So long story short my eye and ear covered by the mask are both messed with by the Galra. And while I can consciously turn my eye from computer to blindness, my hearing is forever amplified until I learn how to control it or I get rid of it completely." Lance says matter of factly. He then adds on after with a momentary hesitation. "Though option two would be difficult to pull off without, you know. Killing me. Or best case scenario, paralyzing me.""Okay," Hunk draws out, thick eyebrows low over his eyes and wrinkling his forehead. "Then why did you do- whatever just happened if your mask blocks the technology?" "Because it doesn't. It just intercepts the tracking device embedded somewhere in my head." Lance says. His expression darkens and he knows it because the others share a concerned look. "The Witch didn't want to lose track of me like she did her champion."Every face pales at the mention of the Champion. For some reason Lance gets the vague feeling like they aren't telling him something. The glances towards Shiro are proof enough. "So you have a tracking device because of Sh- Haggar's Champion?" Allura says. Lance doesn't miss her stumble on her words. Allura is a diplomat. She doesn't stumble. Lance eyes her harshly for a minute before dropping it with a sigh. He's too tired to deal with whatever it is the team is hiding from him. "Sort of." Lance shrugs. "I heard her cursing in anger the day he escaped, since she had me in the operating room beside the Champion's. We were both to be outfitted with a new generation of Galra tech. In her anger she, well she put a tracking device in my head. At the time I didn't realize the fact that she thought she would never lose me like she did her prized possession was what made her so gleeful when I woke up."Lance looks at the floor and scuffs his shoe against the metal. "Lance." Shiro's voice croaks. Lance looks up when he hears the pain in Shiro's voice. "I'm so sorry." Lance shrugs off the apology. "Not your fault I can't go home yet." Lance grumbles. He feels bad when Shiro's face crumbles in on itself, though why Shiro would feel so bad about something he's not at fault for is beyond Lance. Guess it's just who Shiro is. Lance feels a little lighter knowing he cares so much. "It's why I've spent every second coming the universe for someone with Haggar's level of skill and precision, or any skill at all, to fix the wrongs done to me.""No, Lance you don't understand. I'm-" Lance cuts him off with a wave of the hand. "It's fine Shiro really. Anyways. That alarm was so high pitched it felt like my ears were gonna start bleeding again." Lance chuckles. It's dry and half hearted. "Again!?" Pidge squeaks. Lance winces as he realizes his slip up. "Yeah. The alarms the day Blue chose me…" Lance trails off. Horror crosses each of the faces of the team, even stoic Allura. "Coran, we need to amend this, immediately." Allura commands, snapping into action like the snap of a rubber band. Coran is already at the control panel. "Righteo then! Tell me when the pain stops my boy!" Coran calls out over his shoulder. And again, with no warning at all, alarms are blaring. Lance clamps his hands over his ears immediately as pain builds in his body again. Unlike last time though, the pain slowly fades as the decibel is lowered. Slowly but surely the screech dies into a vaguely uncomfortable thrum. Lance slowly lets go of his ears, realizing he's encased in a pair of thick tanned arms, and once again on his knees on the ground. Hunk rubs slow circles on his back, and while Lance appreciates the comfort, he really doesn't want it in that moment. Hunk's hands tug at his skin like sandpaper, even through the coat. They leave trails of sharp electric tingling that's more unpleasant than it is painful. Lance still leans away from the hold, barely keeping from crashing into the floor. Hunk's face looks hurt again. Eventually even the annoying thrum fades and Lance makes a croaky sound. That's apparently cue enough for Coran as the alarms shut off. Lance slumps back into Hunk's hold despite how much his skin yells at him for it. "I'm sorry my boy, but now there will be no more alarms high enough to hurt you." Coran says, laying a hand on Lance's shoulder. Coran looks so remorseful, and it's not like it's Coran's fault. So Lance gives him a smile that's so weak his lips barely lift upwards. He shuts his eyes as he starts feeling drowsy. "I think I'll take him to bed. After the ordeal he just went through, he needs rest." Hunk says softly, his voice gently on Lance's still buzzing ears. Lance feels himself being lifted off the floor and moved. The touch is better now, since it's firmer and not so light that it feels like pins moving across his skin. Plus, the touches are stilled, locked onto one place. It allows Lance a moment to get used to the touch. Lance is soon deposited on his bed. Luckily for Lance, it seemed like all the pain shut his thoughts up real quick, and he falls asleep before the door closes behind Hunk. One last shiver of phantom pain rolls down his spine before he drifts into blessed unconsciousness.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Shiro sits paralyzed on the common room couch, staring at the floor blankly. Keith sits beside him on his right, tightly wound like a spring before launching. Allura sits on his left, a worried expression and hands fisted in her dress. Coran sits opposite him, just as miserable, with Pidge beside him rubbing circles on his back. Shiro blinks slowly like his eyes are coated in molasses.
His fault.
Shiro's the reason Lance never went home, because he couldn't. Shiro's the reason he wears that mask, Shiro's the reason for it all. They had been so close. Only a wall separating them, only another door to kick open. Shiro could have saved him from so much pain. Shiro could have helped. But he didn't. He couldn't. He was so high on the drugs the witch gave him, and so weak. He had only been focused on his own survival. He had been selfish. His fault. No one else's. And Lance doesn't even know. "Shiro?" Hunk's voice rings, echoing in Shiro's ears as he falls deeper into his guilt. "Lance is asleep. You okay?" Shiro shakes his head slowly. His eyes are too wide, his expression too open. The team can see right through him. He can't let them see him like this. He can't let them know. Slowly, like a snail, Shiro shuts his expression down, locks it up. Eases the strain in his cheeks, softens the clench of his jaw. He relaxes his eyebrows and lets the lids of his eyes fall closed slightly. Not so wide, not so open. The team are speaking, but in Shiro's head they're silent. The person to his left gets up, and he relaxes as he realizes it worked. He made them think he's fine and they won't worry. Then a weight heavier than the last settles beside him and Shiro tenses again. "Shiro. Look at me." Hunk says, and Shiro obeys, if only because his mind is moving too slowly to object the movement. "It's not your fault." Shiro's fault, it's Shiro's fault. The hardened warrior he's seen Lance as melts away, leaving behind the scared child he must have been. Shiro caused the change. Shiro made Lance so hardened, so untrusting. So cold. Shiro's fault. His fault, no one else's. "Shiro!" Hunk yells, and Shiro snaps his eyes to Hunk's. The deep cocoa stares into him fiercely. "It was not your fault."Shiro doesn't believe that but he nods anyways. Hunk's eyes soften and his large hand curls over Shiro's knee. "I think you need to tell Lance the truth." Hunk whispers. It doesn't matter. It's enough for Shiro to leap to his feet in fear and panic. "No! No. Lance can never know I'm the champion. He can't. I won't tell him." Shiro says. He shakes his head, then keeps shaking it the longer Hunk stares at him like that. So mournful. "Why not?" Keith asks, but it isn't heated with anger, just chilled with worry. "Because," Shiro founders for a second. His fault. "Because didn't you see the look on his face? He hates the champion! And if he finds out that he and I are one and the same he'll hate me." Shiro's voice breaks on the last word. "Oh Shiro." Allura sighs. "Lance won't hate you, he'll underst-" "No! No he won't. He'll hate me and then he'll leave and then we'll lose the war and lose him." Shiro feels tears burning at the back of his eyes but he refuses to cry. Not now. Not when Lance's suffering is his fault. Shiro doesn't deserve to cry, not after what pain he caused Lance. "That's not going to happen." Allura tries again. But Shiro is shaking his head again. "No. I won't risk it. I refuse to tell him. I can't. I just can't." Shiro shakes off Keith's reaching hand. "Shiro please, Lance isn't like that." Hunk implores but Shiro is shaking his head again. "No. I won't tell him and neither will any of you." Shiro demands, eyes wide with fear he can't mask fast enough. Looks are shared between the team."Shiro-" Pidge starts but Shiro cuts her off."Promise me. Promise me you won't tell him." Shiro begs. He's ready to drop to his knees if that's what it takes. Lance would hate him if he knew. He doesn't want to lose Lance so soon. They've known him only for a short time but Shiro already considers him part of Shiro's makeshift family. How could he not? Even Black likes him and the Black Lion barely likes Shiro. Okay. That's an exaggeration, but still. "Fine, but you have to tell him Shiro. Soon." Pidge states, lips in a grim line and her hands clutching her laptop. When did she grab her laptop? He doesn't remember her having it when they rushed onto the bridge. "Or we will." Hunk finishes for her. The rest of them nod in agreement, standing in front of him as a unified front. Which is what he wants out of the team, just not when he's on the other side. They stand there in silence as Shiro eyes them each. None of them back down. Not seeing a way out he lets out a shaky breath. "Okay. Okay I'll tell him, when I decide the time is right. Deal?" Shiro asks. They all share another look and nod at him in agreement. Hopefully Shiro isn't obvious about the fact that he will never tell Lance. Anything to keep Lance from hating him like he hates the Champion. Which, is also Shiro, but semantics. "Well, I don't know about everyone else," Pidge says loudly. "But I'm tired. I'm going back to bed.""Agreed!" Hunk smiles. The two of them walk out side by side, whispering about something or other. Maybe a new project? Or an old one? It's hard to tell with those two. It could be Voltron related, or they could be debating the best positions to sleep in. Who knows. "I'm gonna hit the training simulation since I'm already awake." Keith says, then walks out behind the two brainiacs. Keith veers left for the training room while Hunk and Pidge veer right towards the rooms. "I think I'll go over all the sound system settings to make sure nothing on this ship hurts Lance's ears." Coran says. Allura sighs. "I suppose I could help. Go get some more rest Shiro. You may need it." Allura calls over her shoulder as she and Coran settle themselves at the control panel. Shiro walks out of the bridge, but doesn't stop at his room. Instead he keeps walking, aimlessly pacing the halls. Time passes like a blur, and next thing Shiro knows the lights brighten on the ship as the day cycle rolls around. He starts heading to the dining room to wait for breakfast instead of pacing the halls any longer. The doors open with a whoosh and Shiro steps inside, expecting it to be empty. But lo and behold, there Lance sits, casually, as if nothing happened earlier this morning. He lounges in a chair at the table, dressed to the nines in his fancy blue coat. His hair is combed instead of sticking up wildly, his eyes bloodshot and his feet kicked up on the table. He's wearing those same black cargo pants he always wears, tucked into black boots and his guns laying on the table. One of them is dismantled, the pieces spread around his crossed feet like a fan.Shiro frowns in confusion. "What are you doing in here?" Shiro asks. Lance doesn't jump in surprise, though Shiro half expects him to. He glances at Shiro without lifting his head, offering a lopsided smile. Tired, but not tightened in pain. "I'm giving my pistols a cleaning since I haven't done it in a while." Lance explains. He lifts up a piece of metal Shiro didn't realize he was holding and blows on it before setting it down to the right of his feet. He picks up another piece from his left and starts rubbing at it with a cloth. "I thought those were made with alien technology." Shiro states as he takes his usual seat at the end of the table, sitting to the right of Allura's chair closest to the door. Lance sits at the end of the table, chair farthest and facing the door. It puts a small distance between them Shiro is ashamed to admit makes him feel better. Lance already hates the Champion. Shiro doesn't want him to hate the real him too. "They are, but I had them specially crafted to work almost exactly like Earth pistols to remind me of my roots." Lance explains. "They don't really need to be cleaned since they aren't spring and coil based like Earth guns, but the action is soothing."Shiro nods in understanding. When he became an officer of the Garrison he was given a sidearm too, and cleaning it was a cathartic and relaxing pastime. "How do you know so much about guns?" Shiro asks. He remember Lance saying he learned how to use a gun in the arena. "It was part of the entrance exam for the Garrison." Lance says, as if it's obvious. He sets down that piece to the right and picks up another from the left. Shiro tilts his head in confusion. "No it isn't." Shiro says. Lance shrugs. "Yeah well it was for me. My proctor was a racist asshole-” Shiro can’t help muttering ‘language’ at him, but Lance keeps going as if Shiro never spoke. Why must no one listen to him off the battlefield? “-who didn't want any of us Latinos to pass into the Garrison." Lance rolls his eyes on the word Latinos. "If we passed one test of his he would make up another and if we passed that he would make up another."Shiro frowns hard at the information. "That's against the rules." Shiro says angrily. Lance's lips curl into a sly smile."I know. That's why I got him fired." Lance says, preening in pride. Shiro cocks an eyebrow at that."How so?"The door whooshes open and in walks Hunk and Pidge."How so what?" Pidge asks. The two of them have ditched their armor for their casual clothes."Lance got his proctor for his Garrison entrance exam fired because he was racist and breaking the rules." Shiro explains, catching them up to speed."Oh this I gotta hear." Keith says, slumping out from behind Hunk and plopping in his chair, beside Lance to the right. He's sweaty and still wearing his armor, though there are a few scuff marks on the white metal that is sure to get some glares from Allura. Pidge sits down too, beside Shiro, while Hunk goes and gets food ready. He can still hear from the kitchen since it's right there to the side of the room.Lance perks up at the attention, taking his feet off the table as he prepares to launch into, what will probably turn out to be, a Coran worthy story. With lightning fast speed he quickly reassembles his gun, like he’s done it a thousand times. Which he probably has. Then he cracks his knuckles and smiles evilly.“Okay so in Cuba, the proctor for the exams was a douche bag.” Lance starts, and Shiro will let that one slide since it technically isn’t a cuss word, and because it’s Lance’s story. About this time, Allura and Coran file in at last. Allura sweeps into the room, like she’s walking on air, and settles into her seat at the head of the table, Coran to her left and across from Shiro. “What are you talking about?” Allura asks. Pidge fills them in briefly and Allura settles back with a raised eyebrow.“Anyways, so the proctor was a dick wad, and he was extremely racist against anyone who wasn’t white through and through, really old school kind of douche bag.” Lance starts in again. “My twin sister and I had both dreamed of going to the Garrison, but we were poor, so we had to pass the exams with flying colors and get a scholarship. She ended up flunking out, because not only was this guy racist he was sexist too, and failed her right off the bat. From that point on I had it in for this guy, and I was determined to make his life a living hell.”“Language.” Shiro says again, but again he gets ignored. He can’t help the pout that creases his lips. “So I studied harder than I ever did before, passed every test he threw at me, and some of them were extremely ridiculous. There was one test that he made all of us take that was pretty much to test our knowledge of the English language, also known as Common Tongue in space. Most everyone failed that test, because if you spoke with an accent, he said we weren’t speaking English correctly.” Lance says, rolling his eyes. He smiles widely as he continues, smile and hand gestures getting bigger and wilder as he progresses through the story.“Wow,” Hunk says as he brings out breakfast. “This guy sounds horrible.” Lance nods in agreement. “Oh he was, but when I passed he got even worse. Now keep in mind, the entire time I’m forced to endure these stupid tests I’m pulling pranks on him, and making his life difficult. He couldn’t get me expelled from the program though because he could never prove it was me who did it. And my older brother’s wife was a lawyer before she became a stay at home mom, so she was right there every time to keep me in the program because, ‘if there isn’t proof then he didn’t do it’.” Lance says, his voice going high in a mockery of a girl’s voice. Pidge giggles when he sits up straight in his chair and puts his hands on his hips. “At this point my entire family is backing me up, supplying me with more and more ways to get this guy to quit, which was the original goal. Well, everyone except my mother, who would have a fit if she thought I was causing trouble, so Dad was the one who kept her from catching on by distracting her. Anyways, so this guy and I are having a war pretty much, and even the students catch on, so they start helping me out, and trying to take blame where they can to keep me in the program.” Lance continues. “Wow, you must have been some sort of hero in their eyes.” Pidge says, and her eyes are wide in wonder, much like they get when Coran starts telling one of his overly impossible stories.“I wouldn’t say that, everyone hated this guy, and everyone pulled their own pranks on him after I pulled the first few. I’d say I was more of an inspiration for them to stand up for themselves.” Lance says, but he smiles in a very self satisfied manner as he does. He’s clearly enjoying this, and Shiro can’t bring himself to care. Lance just looks so excited, like a puppy.“Oh, but there was this one moment that seemed to tip the scale in my favor at last. I had pulled the ultimate prank. With help of course.” Lance says, then starts counting things off on his fingers. “Bubble wrapped every piece of furniture in his office, hid thumbtacks on the inside of his chair so he wouldn’t see anything when he sat down. I had a friend who was really good with computers hack into this guy’s office computer and fill it with porn and all sorts of unprofessional stuff.”Keith laughs at that one, then leans over the table to give Lance a high five. Lance responds with enthusiasm.“Well?” Coran urges, leaning forward in his seat. “Go on my boy, don’t leave us in suspense."“Of course,” Lance responds. He continues counting off on his fingers. “We covered the floor in honey, and had a sheet of honey coated feathers rigged to the ceiling so when someone sat on the chair across from him, they would fall and stick to every surface they touched. That was hard to pull off, what with the problem of the feather sticking to the sheet, but the guy who was really good at cooking did something to the plastic to make it not stick. The best part was something that wasn’t even planned.” Lance says, getting giddy. Shiro grins with Lance, the excitement in the room is too contagious not to. “Dude’s supervisor came to check in on things. And computer guy had rigged the computer to go straight to a porn video when turned on, sound all the way up, and made it to where you couldn’t turn it off unless you knew the code, and computer guy was the only one who knew the code.” Lance says, and Pidge and Keith dissolve into a pile of snickering laughter.“What is ‘porn’?” Allura asks. Lance’s face goes beat red, followed by everyone in the room except Coran. Even Shiro gets flustered. He so does not want to explain that to the Alteans. “I’ll explain later Allura.” Lance says, coughing into his fist. Allura and Coran settle back into their seats with that and it takes a moment for Lance to work back up to his excitement. “Anyways. So dude’s boss walks into this completely wrecked office, he sits on the chair we rigged to the feathers, commences to screaming at the guy. Dude sits down in his office chair and goes to turn on the computer, probably to look at security cameras, disabled thanks to the troubled kid of the class, and porn just starts blasting at top volume.” Lance says. “Of course, the proctor didn’t get fired at that moment.”Pidge makes a wounded sound. “Why not?”“Because it was obvious all of those were pranks, not his own doing.” Lance explains.“Then how did he get fired?” Hunk asks. Lance takes a moment to laugh, smothering his laughter behind his hand until he calms down.“Oh it was priceless.” Lance cuts off into giggles again. “He marches into class, covered head to toe with honey and feathers, red in the face, his boss trailing him just as feathered and angry. And of course, his first assumption of the prank mastermind was me, which was completely correct. But I grew up with four siblings who always try to pin stuff on each other and me by default, plus a devious nephew, and a niece who could get away with murder.” Lance says, looking nostalgic and sad. He shakes it off quickly though. “So my acting was perfect at this point, I looked like an angel.”“Oh I’m sure.” Keith says wryly.“I did! Anyways. The supervisor gets mad at the proctor when I start bringing out the fake tears, and when the supervisor's back was turned, I winked at the proctor just to really piss him off and solidify that, yes, that prank was me. The proctor got so pissed he punched me.” Lance says with a smile so wide even Shiro’s cheeks hurt from it.“No way!” Pidge exclaims.“Yes way. And his wedding ring got me in the forehead, and I bare the scar as my trophy of victory. Check it out.” Lance says, then reaches up to push his hair back, showing off a faint scar at his hairline, almost unnoticeable if you don’t know what you’re looking for.“Needless to say everyone hated the guy, like come on.” Lance says with a scoff. “It was 2312, get with the times old man.”Keith chuckles at that. “That reminds me of the time I punched Iverson.”Shiro’s head snaps up, and Hunk and Pidge do the same. They all exclaim in varying tones the same thing. Pidge is ecstatic, Hunk is shocked, and Shiro himself is deadly calm. “You did what?”Keith’s eyes widen in horror. “Uh.” Is all he says. He launches forward, grabbing random food items and stuffing them in his mouth. He calls out through his mouthful, distorted, but Shiro can understand him after spending years with Keith’s horrible table manners. “Gotta go!”Keith darts out of the dining room at top speed. Shiro stands so abruptly he knocks his chair to the floor. “Keith Kogane get back here and explain to me exactly what you did!” Shiro takes off after Keith, grabbing him by the neck of his suit just as he’s about to turn the corner toward the Lion Hangars. “You have some explaining to do mister.” Shiro says, dragging him by the collar to somewhere more private of Pidge and Hunk’s listening ears. Keith groans through the food in his mouth but follows dejectedly.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Lance? Is there any other things you need to take care of?” Allura asks him, she’s wearing the necklace he bought her, tucked underneath the neck of her dress. They had just finished eating, and Shiro and Keith finally returned from whatever it was Keith got in trouble for. Keith slumps in his chair across from Lance with a grumpy pout on his lips. Lance purses his lips in thought to what else he needs to take care of. He needs to get into contact with the Rebellion, and maybe solidify an alliance for Allura through it, but he really dreads having to deal with the jackasses who lead the Rebellion. He also has to make contact with a client of his, which should be interesting, since Lance is positive he’ll be forced to have company with him. Well, actually, having some of the paladins with him could be advantageous. Only the most beautiful (to his client’s standards anyways) of the team would be allowed to accompany him. Lance looks around the table at everyone with scrutinizing eyes. His client would only take the most appealing in their preference list. Hunk is one that will have to go, since she likes men that tower over her. Allura can go, but it might not be the best of ideas to expose her to that environment. Keith has that kind of dangerous allure she’s into, but Pidge is out. She asks too many questions, and doing deals with Lance’s client is too delicate for lots of questions. So maybe not Hunk either. And Coran is too flamboyant, he’ll draw far too much attention to a backhanded deal being made. So Shiro, Keith and maybe Allura. Yeah, that can be a decent group to accompany him. “Yes actually, a few things for that matter. But for the first one, the only people who can come with is Keith, Shiro and Allura.” Lance states. Pidge makes an offended noise. “How come I don’t get to go on an adventure with Lance?” She demands of Shiro.“Sorry Pidge, but you ask too many questions, and so does Hunk. Plus, I need to make a deal with a shady woman, and having good eye candy that suit her tastes is an advantage for me.” Lance says, ruffling her hair. “Don’t worry Pidgey Pie. You’ll get your chance to have some fun with Lancey Lance.”Pidge scowls at him and jerks away from his hand, smoothing her hand over her hair with a pout. “What do mean by her ‘tastes'? What do the three of us have in common for her ‘tastes’?” Keith asks. His eyebrows high in incredulity. “Nothing, you each suit her in a different way. Shiro is the big bad scarred warrior type, you are the non assuming dangerous type, and Allura is the delicately pretty type.” Lance explains. Shiro’s face creases.“If you’re thinking of pimping us out then you have another thing coming.” Shiro says, glaring. Lance almost bursts out laughing then and there.“No, you guys will be off limits and that’s the idea. She doesn’t like having pretty things dangled in front of her and not be allowed to touch. You guys are pretty much there to keep her distracted while we make our deal.” Lance says, spreading his hands wide, and smiling like an idiot.“What are you even trying to make a deal for anyways?” Pidge asks. “See? That’s why you can’t be seen in my entourage. Though you can certainly come and stay in the background. I’ll need sharp eyes like yours to watch for anyone trying to come after me, you’ll be the eyes in the back of my head so to speak.” Lance suggests, and Pidge lights up. “Though to answer your question, I’ll be making a deal over information, which will be an unusual ask for her since I usually hunt for people through her.”Wrong choice of words. “Hunt?” Hunk says in horror. Lance stops them in their tracks before they get any wrong ideas.“Hunt, recruit. Same difference. Those who are enemies of the Empire with something to offer for the Rebellion. I track them down, and recruit them. Among other things I do in the name of the Rebellion.” Lance says. Hunk relaxes at that. Lance chooses to keep it under wraps that before the Rebellion managed to recruit him, he ‘hunted’ people as a bounty hunter. But that time was very short lived. He had healed up due to Marva, became a bounty hunter for about two weeks and then joined the Rebellion. Still made a name for himself as a bounty hunter pretty easily though. He seems to be pretty good at that.“Well, then where are we going?” Allura asks. Lance purses his lips.“Do you know where the Dravlex sector is?” Lance asks. Allura blinks at him with a blank look. “I’ll take that as a no. I’ll input the coordinates, but you should know that where we are going is even more dangerous than the black market, and I already know you’ll same I’m full of it when we arrive but trust me.”Lance stands from the table, followed by everyone else. He pauses at the door, stopping the line of people behind him in their tracks. “Also, do you have any outfits that I can choose for you guys? This place isn’t a dress casual, nor is it a cover up in a cloak, nor is it a wear your armor and show off for Voltron type of place. This place has very set standards, and I need to make sure you meet them. Or we won’t be able to make it through the front door.” Lance explains. “Of course, we have selections of all kinds, and if nothing meets the standards, then we can make them for you.” Coran says. He stands tall, as if very proud that there are a lot of clothes on the castle. “We do?” Hunk asks. “Why yes, styles and designs from every planet and culture King Alfor and the original team Voltron visited. He always made it a point to fit in among the people they helped.” Coran explains, talking animatedly as they make their way to the bridge. “Yes, well. He was the only one who ever made that effort.” Allura says, a fond and sad smile on her face as she overtakes Lance and leads them through the doors to the bridge. “Right, input the coordinates and then Coran will take you to get outfits and whatever else.”Lance gives her a two fingered salute and walks over to the control panel. He inputs the coordinates he knows by heart, and then he’s being whisked away by Coran. Coran talks wildly as they go down a few floors in the elevator, telling a wild tale that somehow has nothing to do with the conversation they just left, while also having everything to do with it. Something about him and King Alfor (Allura's father presumably) getting trapped in a dungeon or cave or whatever with a herd of Sulcatrappers, and that is a loose re-utterance since Lance has no idea what a Sulcatrapper is. He has learned a lot about space in his two year tenure here, but he has never heard of whatever it was Coran said. Lance kind of tunes most of the details out, no matter how intriguing they are. He's fairly sure that the others think these types of stories are impossible but Lance has learned that anything is possible in space. Magic, of all kinds and variances. Creatures that starkly resemble a lot of human folklore. Lance has met a centaur, though kind of different than the legends. He's met a werewolf alien, though again, not quite as the stories say. Lance has a working theory that Aliens have come to Earth in the past, before Lance was kidnapped. Before Lance was born. All the legends and folklore probably are born of a human witnessing an alien but not knowing it. Maybe there's even mermaids. Lance is snapped out of his musings as Coran leads him into a room bigger than the Havana Cathedral. Which is pretty big. And along every wall, filling every space, as far as his human eye can see are clothes. "Here we are! The cultural dress storage room." Coran says, sweeping his hand wide with a broad smile. "It's not the biggest of collections, but I'm sure we can find something to your desires in here."Not the biggest? There's more!?Lance shakes his head in astonishment. He'll never finish going through these clothes. Coran must take his head shake as something Lance didn't mean to convey because he goes on a sales pitch."King Alford was very thorough, he made sure to collect pieces of every social class, and every culture, and every period manageable from every planet. He was very particular about his collection of fashions from across the universe and through its time." Coran starts, and Lance notices that the clothes are sectioned off. Some sections are wide and reaching the ceiling, others barely managing to fill a rack. "Each planet's apparel is placed in their own section so to allow for order in the midst of chaos." Coran's smile fades a little, just barely noticeable. "It's a shame that the rest of the magnificent collection was lost with Altea, but the survivors are cherished and-"Lance stops him before he can go into another wild story. "Coran it would take me years to sort through all of these." Lance says. Coran blinks at him before smiling brightly and handing him a datapad out of nowhere. "Well of course. That's why King Alfor made an organization system to find something specific. Go on." Coran urges him. Lance turns the datapad on and raises an eyebrow. Everything is listed in categories, the styles, materials, planet, anything that could make sense as a way to categorize, among the obvious ones, like color or time period. Lance slowly starts entering the general idea of what he wants, then he gets hyper focused until he finds something suitable. Starting with Allura. Something slim, form fitting, with about thirty percent of exposed skin. Sparkly, something to match her new necklace in color, and it has to be eye drawing but not gaudy. Lance smiles as he finds something perfect for the occasion. Then it's Shiro. Something sleek, professional, but not boring. Maybe something to cover his arms so no one expects Galra tech should somebody get over zealous and attack. Has to withstand high temperatures because of said arm. Maybe a color of deep purple? Or black? No, black doesn't fit Shiro's demeanor. He's too, what's the word he's looking for? Honourable? Yeah maybe, that'll work for now. Lance gets giddy as his eyes lock on something perfect for Shiro, occassion or not. Now Keith. What to dress Keith in? He's broody, and he has this aura about him that screams 'predator'. He's short even for a human, but he carries himself far taller than any alien Lance has met so far. What words to describe Keith in the short time Lance has known him? Proud, fierce, protective. He needs something that exudes every quality he has, even the negative qualities like being a hothead who lashes out like a cornered animal when feeling anything out of his comfort zone. Keith's outfit needs to be rough but sexy. Maybe a wide neckline, clothing that's loose but not in the way. He's got some nice muscles, maybe show them off? Oh yes, his client would love that. He needs to be able to melt into shadows, so only dark colors. That way when he approaches from a shadowed area he can absolutely catch them off guard. Lance needs that up his sleeve. Speaking of himself, with Keith's outfit chosen it's Lance's turn. Lance doesn't even stop to think about what he wants out of his outfit. He needs to be flashy, dramatic, in his color of course. Can never be without blue on him somewhere. Lance grins as he finds the perfect outfit then hands the datapad to Coran. "These are some interesting choices my boy!" Coran says cheerfully, then his smile falters and he frowns. "Are you sure you should bring the princess though?" Lance smiles gently at Coran. He understands the man's worry. Lance had someone to protect too, once upon a time. He won't make Coran fail like Lance did. "It’s okay Coran, I won’t let Allura or the guys come to any harm, not if I can help it at least. I’ll keep them safe and unharmed.” Lance says, he doesn’t promise, but he doesn’t have to, because Coran’s frown eases back into a smile so gentle it could send rabid beasts to tears.“I know you will boy. I’ll get these for you real quick.” Coran says, and he comes back with a stack of clothes. It only took him a minute to do so and Lance wonders just how well he knows the organization of the room. He and Coran gush about Lance’s choices all the back up to the bridge where everyone stands, waiting for them to return. “Alright guys, come get your outfits and get changed, Allura have we arrived yet?” Lance asks, as the three of them grab their designated outfits. Shiro picks his outfit up to look at critically, but Keith never even looks down. Allura is too busy speaking to look at the dress. “We’ve jumped to your coordinates, and hidden the castle on the far side of the moon just north of the one we will be going to.” Allura explains, They split off to their rooms and get dressed. Lance’s shirt is made of gossamer blue fabric that turns sheer and sparkling when the light hits it right, and he debates on whether he should leave on his bodysuit or not. It wouldn’t be weird if he did, but this outfit would be less glamorous, he’s supposed to be showing skin in this type of clothing. Lance tugs at his sleeve, wondering if he should just bite the bullet. Most of his scars are on his back and legs anyways, so the paladins won’t see it, since he’ll be wearing his coat as usual. Screw it. Lance lets the gossamer fabric slide against his skin with a sigh and puts on his coat before changing his pants. The pants are a typical genie pants, made of the same gossamer blue, but a few pretty scraps of blue fabric that look like scarves cross his waist and upper thighs to hide his more private areas. Not that his client would mind if he let it all hang out, but Lance is classier than that.He straps on his usual boots, as well as the knives that go in them. He also straps on his weapons belt, but since the pants have no way to keep the belt from shifting upwards on his waist, he adds on the thigh straps beneath the gossamer fabric. He stops to fix his hair in the mirror, not looking down his body because he knows the scars will just lead to him getting depressed, and he needs to be on top of his game. He makes his way to the bridge, his hands stuffed in his coat pockets. He’s the first one back, so only Pidge, Hunk and Coran are there to greet them, Hunk now wearing his armor. Pidge will be changing into a special outfit to join them soon after Lance and them leave, but for now she's wearing her casual sweatshirt and shorts. Coran of course looks sleek as always. They turn and look at him and both the paladins eyes widen. Coran nods in approval.“Lance you-” Hunk starts to say but cuts himself off. Lance looks to where his eyes are, and he looks to his biggest scar across his chest, a claw mark from the right shoulder to beneath his chest on the left side, with another scar maring the end, a burn. Lance uses his uses his hands in the pockets of his coat to edge it closed.“You look hot.” Pidge blurts. Lance blinks at her in shock. Hunk and Coran look at her too, and she huffs, crossing her arms with one hand loosely gripping her laptop. “What? I may not be into things like that but I know an attractive person when I see one. I’m not blind you know, these glasses are just for show.”“I’m vaguely uncomfortable now,” Hunk states and Lance laughs. In that moment the doors open and the rest of the team file in. Lance looks over them all with satisfaction. Keith looks like he doesn’t care what he’s wearing, which is a sleek thin material, a neckline so low it reaches his navel, the ends of the shirt falling to the sides much like Lance’s does. His shirt has tight sleeves, showing off those toned muscles, and his pants are just the same. Shiro and Allura both look uncomfortable in what they wear.Shiro wears a form fitting shirt, colored white at the shoulders but fading into a rich purple towards the hem, buttoned almost to his neck, with a black trim around the long cuffs and hem. Paired with this is a pair of pants just like Keith’s but purple. He also wears a coat much like Lance’s old one with coat tails, a shimmery dark purple with stars embroidered into the trim and hem. Oh but Allura steals the show. Her dress is pink, sparkling like diamonds and reaching the floor. It’s one shouldered, with the strapped shoulder descending into a sweeping train that settles around her like she’s constantly moving, even when she’s still. The pale pink descends just before the floor, reaching her matching sparkly pink boots that reach the thigh. On the opposite side of the strapped shoulder there is a slit in the leg, and peeking out from underneath her dress, where the train wraps to her waist is a whip. And her bronze skin isn’t just bronze, pink marks to match her cheeks sweep across her arms and what’s visible of her legs in a tantalizing pattern. All the way up to where her neck begins. She wears her hair up in a half ponytail, curls sweeping behind her and peaking over her shoulder, framing the necklace Lance bought her. She still wears her crown too, making her look regal and untouchable. Gorgeous, all of them.“Wow, Lance knows his fashion if he made even Keith look good.” Pidge snarks. Keith scowls at her."Thank you Pidgey!" Lance says, wrapping her up in a headlock like he used to do his nephew. He doesn't give her noogie though. He doesn't want to die so young."Ack! Cut it out you jackass!" Pidge yells, fighting to get free. Shiro scolds her for her language again. "Alright alright." Lance laughs, stepping away. "We ready?" He gets an affirmative. Lance smiles and turns to Allura, one arm poised behind his back, the other raised to take her arm."Shall we M'Lady?" Lance asks. The look he gets is blank and unimpressed. "What are you doing?" Allura asks, suspicion lacing her words. Lance frowns and shakes his arm to get her attention. "Taking the arm of a beautiful lady?" He doesn't mean for it to come out as a question but it does. "Why?" Allura drawls in her almost British accent. Lance really doesn't want to answer that. "Because?" He says, not offering anything else. Allura cocks her eyebrows and Lance huffs, standing up straight."Because if you aren't going to be my arm candy, Keith or Shiro will." Lance snipes. Keith chokes out a broken protest. "Look you three are there for backup and something pretty for my client to look at while we talk." The two of them look kind of offended, Keith excluding. "Listen. Someone needs to take my arm because I can't walk in there without someone as my date or I'll get looks and so will you. This is a party, not a battle."Lance holds his arm out and waits for someone to take his arm. The one who does kind of surprises him. Keith is first to step up and offer to be his date. Lance smiles at Keith who grumbles and looks away with a frown. "Right shall we, M'Lord?" Lance says. Keith rolls his eyes. "Don't call me that." Keith grumbles. Lance smiles wickedly."No can do my good sir." Lance replies, and before Keith can get away Lance drags him to the elevator. Keith sets his feet to the floor so Lance has to deal with Keith's extra resistance. He manages it like a champ. "Shiro help me!" Keith yells. Lance can hear Shiro giggling behind them as Lance drags Keith away."You volunteered, not me. Nothing i can do, sorry." Shiro says between giggles. Keith growls like an animal, and Lance is reminded that he never got to see the end product of the experiment. Damn, he'll have to try again soon. "To the party!"
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Entering the party is exactly as cliche as Lance was expecting. Keith walks with him, arm in arm, a deadly scowl across his lips. Allura and Shiro walk in behind them, arm in arm as well, though Allura certainly does not look happy about it. She doesn’t scowl like Keith but boy is the look on her face scary. The room is set up like a ballroom from way back in the day in Earth History. The guests, much like the elaborate decorations, are elegant and dressed to impress. Every single one of them is dangerous, despite not looking the part. This kind of party happens all the time, thrown by his client who loves lavish things. The only people welcome to cross into her domain are those unfriendly to the Empire. Thieves, murderers, rebels, bounty hunters. A few assassins to be sure as well. Usually one of these parties can’t be called a success unless someone is assassinated. Go figure it’s Lance’s kind of party.All eyes turn to the door when he walks into the room, and Lance plants the cockiest, smuggest smile he can manage across his lips. Over half of these people hate him personally. Lance has a bad habit of making enemies with the wrong people it seems. “Alright you guys, now that we’re here let’s get a drink.” Lance says through his teeth, not hardly moving his lips. “I’ll order though, we don’t want you three getting drunk around so many dangerous people.”“Yeah about that.” Keith says. “How are any of these people dangerous? How is this at all more dangerous than the black market?” Lance resists saying I told you so.“I fear I must agree.” Allura tacks on. “These people look like they can barely walk in their heels let alone be dangerous.” “Sorry man,” Shiro says too. “I have to agree with them.” Lance rolls his eyes. While, yes, most of these aliens look harmless, they very much aren’t. As a requirement of attendance, all weapons must be left at the bar, all claws, fangs, etc. must be hid away, and any threatening movement will get you shot. Lance, of course, is the exception for all of this. Perks of being his client’s favorite visitor. “Watch this.” Lance says to his team. He subtly removes his arm from Keith’s, and acts as if he’s adjusting the collar of his coat. He slips out a hidden needle, which he uses sort of like he would use the ECD pen, and as he removes his hands from behind his neck he throws the pin at the nearest patron. It sticks them in the shoulder, a tall, ogre looking type of alien. The alien roars, making the entire party go on the defensive. He yanks the needle from his shoulder, takes a breath, and with his next roar he shows his true self. His claws rip through the gloves he wears, and he grows two feet taller and two feet wider. He makes a circle as he roars, and Lance gets to witness the change from flat teeth to razor sharp fangs. In the next second there are three people, all the same species as each other, subduing the alien, dragging him past his entourage, and throwing him out of the party. And just like that the party resumes as if nothing happened.“See? If you want to join this party you can’t have any sort of weapon or threatening feature about yourself on display. Either get rid of it, hide it, or cover it up.” Lance explains. “And everyone here is the creme of the crop of criminals of the Empire. And while you would think I would make them allies, these people aren’t someone you want watching your back when they’re more likely to stab you in it.”“Uh,” Shiro says. “Then why do you have your guns on you?” “Because,” Lance smiles. “I’m an exception.”“That you are McClain.” A voice comes from beside him, without a body. Lance of course, takes it in stride. “That was kind of rude you know. These people are paying guests.” “Does anyone else hear a voice but don’t see a body?” Keith asks. Allura and Shiro nod simultaneously. “Oh good, so I’m not hearing voices again.” What does Keith mean by again? Actually, no, never mind, Lance doesn’t want to know.“Who’s your pretty friends McClain?” She asks in a sultry voice, then lets herself be un-camouflaged. She’s hanging off of Lance’s free arm, and with her body being corporal again, Lance can actually feel her. She disappears again, and reforms behind Allura, a hand twirling through her long curls. Allura gasps and steps away, bumping into Shiro in the process. Shiro rolls with it and places Allura behind her for protection.She disappears again and reforms at Lance’s side a few seconds later, hanging off of his arm again.“Interesting company you keep. Replacing me with someone else already?” She pouts. Lance smiles charmingly and tilts her chin up. “Of course not, there is no one in the universe who could outdo you.” Lance says. She purrs at him for the compliment. “M’Lady, M’lords, this is my client, Kyuna.” Lance introduces, saying her name in Common Tongue, like queue-nah. “Kyuna, my friends.” “Do these friends have names?” Kyuna asks. Lance scrambles for the first names he can think of. Unfortunately for him, they’re names of Blade members, thanks to having his experiment with Keith on his mind. Fortunately for him, Kyuna doesn’t know any of the blade members by face.He gestures to Allura, then Shiro, then Keith as he introduces them.“Lokna, Ulaz, and Antok.” Lance says, begging his friends to just go along with it. Kyuna looks at him and clicks her tongue.“You’re a liar McClain.” She says, and Lance panics for a moment before she continues. “You told me Lokna was not as beautiful as I, and yet here she stands before me looking as radiant as the Oplik crystals she wears on her neck. And here I thought I was your favorite as you are mine.” Lance sags with relief before digging into his coat pocket. He brings out a jewelry box, the one the Balmera Crystal necklace is stored in. “Perhaps this may be enough to ensure you there is no one more valuable to me than a woman like you.” Lance drawls, opening the box to present the necklace. Kyuna disappears and so does the necklace. She reforms a few feet away and poses so that she might show off for Lance. Kyuna is dressed in an exquisite outfit, made of gossamer material just like Lance’s. Her body is fairly human in shape, with soft green skin, and white speckled marks like very large freckles littering her shoulder and across her nose. Her hair is short, reaching only her ears, which are slightly pointed on the end. Her dress of gossamer is revealing on her body, wrapping up her breasts and across her hips in a series of crossing layers. As if she took a very thin, very long scarf and dressed in only that. “You’re wearing my color.” Lance remarks, a hint of arousal in his tone. The necklace at her throat glints like diamonds with a faint glow. The glow illuminates her face as she gives him a sultry look. Lance forces himself to not lose focus.“As much as I would love to unwrap you like a present,” Lance starts, and Kyuna giggles. “We have some business to take care of first and foremost.”“Oh McClain,” Kyuna sighs, disappearing and reappearing behind Keith. He still holds Lance’s arm in his, but his hand clenched in a fist when Kyuna sets her sights on him. Kyuna drapes herself across Keith’s back, arms reaching down his chest to play with the open shirt. Lance has to hold his arm still to keep him from knocking her away. “We could have so much fun though. Me, you, your pretty Lockna. Your enticing Ulaz and your tempting Antok.” Kyuna sighs, before disappearing again. She reforms in front of Lance with her back to him. Her back is exposed, the silky skin dotted with those same speckled marks.“Sorry love, I’ve got work to do.” Lance apologizes. Kyuna pouts, just as another of the guests get too rowdy. Kyuna looks behind her at the commotion. She looks back at Lance with an apologetic look.“Looks like that business will have to wait, but the first round of drinks for your pretty friends is on me.” Kyuna says. “We’ll resume business when I finish mine.”“Of course love, take your time. It’s a party, I’m sure I could find something to entertain myself and my friends.” Lance says, and Kyuna struts into the crowd gathering around what looks to be a fight.Lance takes the moment to see if Pidge is in position. “Hey Pidge, you set up?” Lance asks over comms. He doesn’t move his lips hardly at all so as to avoid and lip reading eavesdroppers. There’s silence a moment before Lance gets a response over comms. “I’m in position, though why I’m wearing this beats me.” Pidge responds. Lance smiles. “Wearing what?” Shiro asks.“Let’s go get a drink shall we?” Lance says, ignoring Shiro. “Wearing what?” Shiro asks again, but Lance is already walking towards the bar, eyes scanning the seated patrons. His eyes almost misses her, but in that simple outfit, she’s more eye catching than the dolled up guests. Not that anyone is looking at her, because they know better. Lance sidles up behind her, disengaging Keith’s arm to do so. “Can I buy you a drink?” Lance whispers. She tenses beneath his hovering stance. “If you want to be electrocuted, be my guest and stay where you are.” Pidge snaps. Lance laughs and leans back so she can turn to face him. “Oh it’s just you.” “Pidgey!” Lance exclaims, making a dramatic show of being wounded. “How rude.”“What,” Shiro starts. “Are you wearing?”Pidge’s outfit is black from head to toe. It’s a closed double breasted coat, and a pair of tight, shiny black pants like leather on her tiny legs. Tied around her neck is a black cloak that falls almost the floor when her feet don’t, and the hood is raised. Pidge’s hair is slicked and combed back, and she’s wearing leather gloves like Keith’s. Well, they are Keith’s actually. Lance made him take them off not only because he’s dressed nicely, but so Pidge could wear them to fit with her outfit. She even went a step further, wearing a thin black line of eyeliner on her eyes, courtesy of Shiro whether he knows it or not, and tied around her neck, beneath the cloak is a black piece of cloth acting as a face mask. “Ask him.” Pidge says, pointing at Lance. He slides into a seat two seats down, making Keith sit to his right to leave space between him and Pidge. Shiro and Allura take the two open seats to Pidge’s left. “No more looking at us Pidge, we aren’t supposed to be seen talking.” Lance says without using his lips. Pidge does as asked and faces forward, but her eyebrow is raised. “And why is that?” Pidge asks.“How else are you gonna assassinate me if you’re seen talking to me? You wanna ruin your credibility?” Lance says casually, bracing himself for a freak out. However, the team are professionals, because all he gets are shocked gasps, and a whisper yelled ‘what?’ from Shiro. “Do what now?” Pidge demands, though she still doesn’t look at him. “Look when I get the information I need, you have to assassinate me, but not for real. I need these people to spread the rumor that McClain is dead. The Hunter is dead.” Lance explains. “First of all, you chose not to tell us before we left that this was your plan? And second of all, why do you need to fake your own death?” Shiro asks, and Lance sighs, waving down a bartender. “Hey Max! Can I get some drinks?” Lance yells down the bar. Max looks up mid pour of another customer’s drink, finishes it up and comes over to Lance in seconds. Max is a tall and burly alien, with muscles like bowling balls, and the upper body of a human male, but with slightly grey skin, almost translucent even. The lower half of his body is the body of a horse, or a mockery of one anyways. There’s four legs, and a long tail, but the tail is one big piece of flesh, not hair. And the legs aren’t narrow at the feet, they actually widen into the shape of a Rhino’s foot, but smaller. This guy is the centaur Lance mentioned earlier.“McClain, what’s this I’m hearing about you being number one on Zarkon’s hit list? You bumped out the Champion?” Max says. Lance watches from the corner of his eye as Shiro folds into himself. “You know him?” Lance asks. Max shakes his head.“Nah, never even seen him fight, but I’m a bartender, we hear things.” Max says.“Yeah well if you see him, tell him I’m looking for him.” Lance jokes. Max laughs deep and raspy. “What is it this time? Kick his ass or thank him?” Max asks, leaning up and grabbing a towel to wipe the bar. Lance purses his lips in thought.“I’m gonna go with thank him for today. Who knows what the future might hold huh?” Lance jokes. Max shakes his head at Lance. “Alright McClain, what can I get for you?” Max says. Lance smiles at him.“A round of my usual for the six of us please, and add a little something sweet to mine and the ladies if you would.” Lance says. Max blinks at the party of people Lance points at, seeming to just realize there are six of them, and in a flash serves them all drinks. Max looks at Keith and leans in close to whisper, but not low enough in Lance’s opinion.“You realize your date is-” Lance cuts him off.“Shhhh,” Lance hushes. “No need for gossip like that to get circulating.” Lance raises his drink to hide his lips from any eavesdroppers reading his lips. Unfortunately, Lance has discovered that lip reading is highly popular in the criminal community. Allows for easier reconnaissance. Lance has a lot of enemies.Max leans back with a nod. “Right, another round on the house McClain.” Max runs another line of drinks for them in a flash, and then walks away with a two fingered salute as he tends to other customers.“What was that about?” Shiro asks, having to lean forward to eye Lance in the corner of his eye. Keith’s grip becomes tight on his arm. “What the hell did he mean?” Keith demands quietly. “That I’m what?”Lance lies on the spot, because Max was picking up on Lance’s theory, which is a lot less of a theory now, and he wants to be sure first and foremost. “That you’re human. I told Max I was the only human in space, so seeing more humans is obviously confusing. Plus he’s a gossip whore, give him an inch and he’ll dig up a mile.” That appeases everyone. For a moment at least.“So do you wanna explain what the whole assassinating thing is about?” Pidge asks, turning in her chair to eye the crowd. “Not really no.” Lance says and downs his drink. He stands up quickly, and right on cue Kyuna strides through the crowd. She sways her body in a hypnotizing movement, and Lance has learned the hard way not to stare too long. She robbed him for everything he was when he first came here, hypnotizing him with her body movements. Lance holds his hand out as she strides up to him.“May I have this dance?” Lance asks, and it’s only a formality. Kyuna is the kind of person who likes to be wooed before business, so it is tradition to commence in a dance. One he learned just to get an edge up on her during their first deal, when he was but a mere bounty hunter. It’s a very traditional dance, one from Kyuna’s culture specifically. “Of course.” Kyuna says. Her hand slips into his and they stride hand in hand, their hands raised level with their heads as they stroll. The party goers see the movement, and the dance floor clears, while the music changes. It turns into a very eerie but fast paced instrumental song made with instruments Lance still can’t name off the top of his head. The face each other at the center of the floor, then bow and curtsy, still holding hands. When they rise they face away from each other, and the alien musical equivalent of a bass drop begins the dance. It’s almost like a tango, and a ritual dance mixed together, with a little bit of fighting sprinkled on top. They come together every few steps, where they do a complicated movement, and then separate and mirror each other. As they come back together every time, they both take turns taking a swing of some kind. Kyuna likes to mix it up, so it’s never the same. She throws a hard punch, and Lance’s arms sting with the deflection of the blow.Lance drops low to the ground to swipe at her legs with Lance’s in a spin, and she jumps over it. Lance raises with the turn and goes right into the complicated movement of the tango-like part. This happens three times in the course of minutes, and after the last of the complicated movements, they spin away. Then Kyuna walks towards him and places her hand gently in his, raising their hands at eye level.They take a bow, and that’s the dance. There is a loud round of applause, and Lance guides Kyuna off the dance floor as regally as he led her on, his breaths coming out in short pants. The rest of the party continues like nothing happened, flooding back onto the floor. They walk back over to their friends, who stare wide eyed at what they had just witnessed. The only straight faced ones are Allura and Keith. Lance releases Kyuna’s hand and grabs the two drinks Max slides towards them. This is another ritual, and Kyuna wraps arms with Lance, and they feed each other the glass they grabbed. It’s to symbolize trust, even though there is no trust between them. Such is the way of criminals.“So, shall we adjourn?” Kyuna says. Lance grabs her empty glass, and set both of them down on the bar. “If I may, I would like to request that I can bring my companions. If it is alright with you M’Dear.” Lance asks with a small bow.“And here I thought you said this was business, but I am clearly given the pleasure.” Kyuna purrs, eyeing Allura in particular. Huh, Lance was positive she would go for Keith, since Keith is on his arm. Perhaps she is feeling like some womanly love is in her future. Good luck, Allura barely smiles at Lance.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
"So shall we?" Kyuna asks him after eyeing his friends for a moment, suddenly nothing but professional. "You guys go ahead." Lance says, sliding his arm free of Keith's. "I've got to take care of something real quick. I won't be long." Lance sees the look Shiro gives him out of the corner of his eye, but makes no notion of acknowledging it. Kyuna purses her lips and then smiles. "Of course." Kyuna says. "May I Antok?" Kyuna asks Keith, offering her arm. Keith doesn't respond at first so Lance nudges him in the side. "Right, me, Antok. Of course." Keith fumbles. He takes Kyuna by the arm, throwing Lance a glare over his shoulder at Lance as the four of them start walking away. Lance waits until they disappear behind the wall of fabric that will take them down a hallway to the backroom. When the coast is clear he walks back up to the bar slowly so he can listen. Now that Lance is alone there are a lot more whispers going around the room. His name is whispered a lot more than he would have preferred but he expected this. He does have a huge bounty on his head right now. He sidles up beside Pidge, again keeping a chair in between them for appearances. "What's going on?" Pidge says lowly, again barely moving her lips. She's a pro that's for sure. Even Lance can't pull off the talking without moving your lips thing. And he's actually practiced in a mirror. "Take out your ear piece." Lance says as he covers his mouth. She acts like she's scratching her head as she does as asked and pockets the device. "Now tell me what's up." Pidge whispers. Lance is really jealous that she can do that without moving her lips. She makes it look so easy. "I kind of lied about your assignment. I don't need a fake assassination since I'm fairly sure I'll have someone really attempt to, whether it's to kill me or capture me for the bounty." Lance explains. He waves down the bartender, this time getting the service of a tiny female alien who looks like she's playing dress up as a fairy. She slides Lance's usual to him and walks away without a word. "So then what? Why am I here and dressed like this?" Pidge asks. "Because that outfit makes you look like an assassin so no will bother you. And you're here to listen to the whispers and report back to me everything you can on private comms. But if something does go down I don't want you guys interfering." Lance explains. "So why not tell the others?" "I want them to try to interfere but Kyuna will stop them. This way it seems as if I'm unprepared, so when I kick ass it will make my reputation that much more dangerous so no one will come after me as much." Lance pauses. "Or at least no one strong enough to have a chance of succeeding.""I see." Pidge says. Lance looks over at her when she sounds like she's mad. Her face doesn't really show it but the tightness of her lips speaks of the emotion hidden from her face. "Okay what?" Lance sighs. "I just don't understand why you wouldn't trust us with your actual plan. Instead you lied to us to get your way." Pidge says. She grabs Lance's untouched drink and downs it before continuing. "We're supposed to be a team. You're supposed to trust us. Is there anything else you need to tell us?" "This is how I do my job Pidge." Lance says seriously. "Trust isn't exactly easy to come by these days and the most you guys have done to earn mine is save me from capture or death or the arena. I don't know you guys. I like you. I can talk to you. But trusting you with every thought in my head, every plan I make, that's not exactly just a 'snap your fingers and done' kind of thing.""Fine. Let's talk about this later. You have a job to do." Pidge says. She still sounds angry but it's more subdued. Lance gets up and walks away without another word. Sure. Lance feels like he can trust these people. But that doesn't mean he does. Not completely, not yet. They've barely known each other for two weeks now. He's already accepted being a Paladin, he's already accepted that he's not the leader of the others. How much do they expect of him so soon after meeting? Hell. Even Allura still doesn't trust him. So how is Lance supposed to be able to just trust them with no trust back? Trust is earned, or at least, for Lance, now it is. Used to, Lance trusted anyone who spoke to him. But now? He's been taught a harsh lesson on how the universe works and damn if it wasn't the harshest lesson he's ever faced. He was tortured. Enslaved. Thrown into the arena and forced to kill. All because he was naive enough to think everyone can be trustworthy. Now he's stuck in space. He's embroiled in a war that's been a lost cause for ten thousand years. He's had to put the most advanced of locks on his bedroom door on his ship just to keep from being slaughtered in his sleep, when he's most vulnerable. He sleeps with a gun under his pillow. And they expect him to just trust them like he's known them for years? Not gonna happen. He's been burned before, and now he knows not to play in the fire. Lance shakes the thoughts from his head, instead choosing to focus on his mission. He pushes aside the heavy cloth and walks to the backroom slow enough that he can get his act together. When he opens the door to the backroom, he isn't sure what he was expecting, but it wasn't this. Kyuna, Shiro, and Keith are in the thick of a game of cards. Kyuna looks like she's having a blast while the boys look confused at the cards before them. Kyuna looks up at his entrance and he looks at her with a raised eyebrow. "Finally. A real challenge has arrived. Care to play a game while we make our deal McClain?" Kyuna says, slipping all the cards back into her hand and shuffling them with a wicked grin. "I promise to go easy on you."Lance scoffs at that and stalks forward, taking the seat Shiro vacates. "As if. I'm about to school you at your own game Kyuna." "Is that a challenge?" Kyuna asks, wicked grin widening. Lance grins right back as she starts throwing the cards in their place. They each get a handful of ten cards, each card with a different design. The goal of the game is to get rid of all of your cards from lowest to highest value without your opponent or opponents noticing. The game is designed for sleight of hand tricks. You need to be able to keep your own moves secret while sussing out the other player. If you suspect they ever have less than ten cards then you have the option of calling them out. Problem is, if you call them out and fail, you have to add five cards to your hand. If you call them out and win, they add five cards on top of whatever is missing of the ten into their deck. And if you call them out and can pinpoint where the missing cards are, it's an automatic win. While this is all going on you're drawing cards from the ones on the table. If you get a certain card, which is worth an entire deck, you automatically lose because there is no way you can get rid of that one. Sleight of hand or otherwise. If you pick up another card, which is worth half a hand, it means you take out half of the cards in your hand from lowest to highest value. And while they play the game, Kyuna likes to make deals. Most people end up losing the game to get the best deal, or try to win the game and get stuck with a crappy deal. Normally the game wouldn't matter, but Kyuna is a gambler and she loves to up the stakes. "So McClain. What brings you to my deal room?" Kyuna says, picking up a card when it's her turn. Lance picks up a card, but slips one into the sleeve of his jacket. In all of their games, Kyuna has never been able to figure out where he keeps his cards. What he does is he slips a card or two into his jacket sleeve, and when he goes to pick up a new card he slips the other cards back in the layout. The layout is pretty simple. It's a diamond shape, with each point having an equal amount of cards. “I’m looking for someone.” Lance says. Kyuna giggles.“Aren’t we all.” Lance slips another two cards into the layout when it’s his turn to draw. “I’m assuming you’ve heard the news?”“About my favorite visitor becoming Zarkon’s number one on his hit list? And that apparently you’re leading some new faction against the Empire that is strong enough to actually pose a threat to his long standing reign of terror?” Kyuna says. “I may have heard something about that.”“Please Kyuna, you know me.” Lance replies as he slips three cards into the layout, taking the total in his hand down to seven so far. “I wouldn’t leave the Rebellion just to start another faction. Now to join another faction, sure, why not? But not to lead one. If I wanted to lead a whole faction of rebels against the Empire, I would have usurped the Rebellion leaders ages ago.”“As you say McClain.” Kyuna hums dismissively. “So why come to me? I do have a lot of connections, but I’m no bounty hunter. You know that. The business is too fickle and bloody for me.” Kyuna wrinkles her nose as if she smelled something distasteful. “Lance, I’ve counted at least five people here who are collaborating on an attack.” Pidge says over comms. Lance hums, the only way he can respond to Pidge without drawing attention. “I’ve come to you because of those connections. All I need is a name and I can be on my way.” Lance says. “So be it. Who is it you’re after?” Kyuna sighs in resignation. Lance sets down his cards, now down to three, and reaches into his coat, into the pocket sewn inside over the left side of his chest. He pulls out a datapad and pulls up the two pictures of him from the announcement video Zarkon made over his new biggest enemy. “The first picture was taken before I escaped the Arena, but the second one is taken in the middle of a battle. I need to know who leaked this picture to the Empire.” Lance replies. He picks up his hand again, thumbing the edges of the cards. Kyuna sets her hand down as well to grab the data pad.“Hm, what a nice picture of you. Whoever took this has talent with a camera.” Kyuna says, licking her bottom lip. Lance rolls his eyes. “Can you find out for me?” Lance asks.“And what is it I’ll get in return?” Kyuna responds, leaning forward with a wicked smile.“What is it you want?” Kyuna’s eyes slide over Lance’s head to his friends, who stand silently behind him. Lance can feel the tension grow when his friends figure out what it is she wants. Lance smiles coolly.“Sorry sweetheart, but these three are off the market. Pick something else.” Kyuna huffs at him. “Fine, if I can’t have them then you already know what it is I want.”“No deal.” Lance says, his smile dropping into a frown.“Then I guess we’re done here.” Kyuna stands up as if to leave so Lance stands to block her path.“Pick something else, anything else.” “You’ve managed to dance around this for so long, and I’m not having it anymore.” Kyuna snaps in anger. She takes a deep breath and calms herself back into her near hypnotic gentleness. “You know what I want. Agree, and we have a deal. Refuse, and you and your friends here will be kindly escorted out. Your choice.”“What is it she wants so badly?” Keith asks. Lance snaps his head to him, momentarily caught off guard when he speaks. “I want his most prized possessions.” Kyuna replies. When Lance looks back at her, she locks her gaze with his. “I want the one thing he literally can not survive in this harsh reality without. The one thing he truly enjoys, the one thing that makes him happy when times are bad. The one thing he chased me across the universe wearing nothing but his underwear, in a stolen ship, just to retrieve.”There’s a slight pause for silence.“Or rather two things.” “What could possibly be so important to him that you would want so badly and why?” Keith asks again. Good god, he specifically left Hunk and Pidge behind so they wouldn’t ask questions. How the hell did Keith turn out to be so inquisitive? Keith. Emo, hothead Keith.“Simple.” Kyuna says with a wicked smile. “I want his weapons.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Shiro can feel the tension in Lance’s shoulders like they share the same body. He and Kyuna face off in silence, Kyuna smug and hungry, and Lance. Well Shiro actually can’t tell what it is Lance is feeling, but it surely can’t be anything good. Allura still stands beside him, though one of her hands has slipped from his arm to brush against the hidden whip at her side. Lance was pretty smart about how he armed them, because he refused to leave them weaponless. Allura’s whip is thin enough that it wraps around her upper thigh, where the dress hides any indication of it unless you know where to look. Of course, Shiro himself has his Galra arm, but Keith has been outfitted with a good handful of daggers. Even Shiro doesn’t know where he hid them on Keith, that’s how well he hid them. Same goes for Pidge actually. Shiro shifts Allura’s hold on his arm to make sure he can break free quickly for any attack.They never seem to reach that point, because Lance suddenly sighs and reaches behind him. Shiro blinks in shock as he silently holds out his weapons, hand grip facing Kyuna. Her alien face lights up in glee, that hunger in her eyes mirroring the excited hands that swipe one of the guns without issue. The other however, Lance pulls away at the last second, holding the gun by his head. His face remains stoic and emotionless, but calm. “I think only one pistol is the correct price for our agreement Kyuna.” Lance calmly says as he straps the second pistol back onto into a holster at the small of his back. Kyuna’s face turns furious. “McClain you know they’re worth nothing to me seperate. I need the full set for them to be valuable.”“Guess you’ll have to wait until next time then.” Lance shrugs off. Kyuna scoffs.“Oh please, I doubt you’ll ever return after this.” “Who knows?” Lance shrugs but the smile testing at his lips tells Shiro that she’s right. “What can I give you for the second pistol McClain?” Kyuna says in exasperation, one hand lifting to her face to rub at her temple while the other holds up the raised arm, cocking her hip. Suddenly the negotiations have shifted so that Lance holds all the power where he didn’t have it only moments before. Shiro feels Allura’s hand settle back onto his arm, no longer poised at her whip. “How about my old ship?” Lance suggests. Shiro isn’t sure what ship he’s talking about. Bessy is currently in pieces on the castle ship waiting for some down time to happen so that Lance, Hunk and Pidge can start on repairs. And the bigger one of his, the Mermaid, is still in the hands of his old crew, probably already shifted into the possession of someone else since he’s been gone so long. Shiro focuses back on Kyuna’s face, which falls into a displeased frown. “Seriously? What makes you think I haven’t sold it for scrap?” Kyuna asks. “The fact that you loved that ship. So much so you drugged me, stripped me and stole everything I owned including that ship. And when I went back for my weapons you were all too prepared to fight for the ship above all else.” Lance fires back, stepping back to lean against the door with a smirk. “Fine if that means I get the rest of the set.” Kyuna concedes. “Olgus, bring my- I mean McClain’s ship around front.”Shiro isn’t sure who Kyuna is talking to since the only ones in the room are Lance, Kyuna, Keith, Allura and himself. A figure suddenly appears, Olgus presumably, a man that seems to be of the same species as Kyuna. He simply bows and then goes to walk out of the room. He looks just like Kyuna, except his skin is a pale blue instead of green, and he doesn’t wear revealing clothes like she does. His eyes, which are blue and look almost human if not for the iris being a star shape like a frog’s instead of circular, glare harshly at Lance as he steps out of the way of the exit.Lance wiggles his fingers at Olgus.“McClain, my part of the deal if you would?” Kyuna says, and Lance sighs as he hands over his pistol. Before he hands it to her he runs a gentle hand across the metal in reverence before holding it out for her. Kyuna smiles gleeful, holding her new prizes like she’s holding a child. “Thank you for your lovely patronage, and please. You and your friends should enjoy the rest of the party at your leisure. I’ll be sure to have your part of the deal ready by the time you get ready to leave.”Lance bows and thanks Kyuna before walking out of the room, Shiro following close behind and then Keith and Allura behind him. He hurries his steps a little to walk side by side with Lance.“Lance why would you so willingly give up your guns? I thought you loved those things?” Shiro asks after only hesitating a little. Lance looks at him with a small sad smile. “I figured it was worth it. This will help me figure out who sold me out, and unearth a traitor. Besides, I’m a paladin now aren’t I? Those weapons have gotten me out of a lot of harsh situations but letting them go means I’m moving forward instead of looking back.” Lance explains. He pauses briefly before snorting out a brief laugh. “Plus I really missed my first ship.”Shiro isn’t sure what response he’s supposed to have for that. Even though Lance has agreed to be a paladin, Shiro knows he never really felt like part of the team. Lance has only known them for a few weeks, while everyone else on the ship have had months to get to know each other. He can’t imagine how that must make Lance feel. Left out maybe? Resentful? It’s so hard to guess since Lance is so good at disguising his own emotions. He’s almost like Keith in that way. Except Keith is more along the lines of not knowing how to express rather than choosing not to express his emotions, like Lance.And on top of that, Shiro gets the feeling Lance doesn’t actually trust them.Lance is pretty easy to get information out of. He’s straightforward and blunt, and he doesn’t lie. He hides things, but he doesn’t lie, at least as far as Shiro can tell. Even talking about his own trauma Lance easily sets it all out on the table as if telling a story someone else experienced. And in Shiro’s opinion it doesn’t seem healthy that he can do that. They push the curtains aside to walk back into the party, and Lance pauses just inside the room.“Pidge, what’s the status?” Lance asks, and Shiro isn’t sure what status he means. He expects to hear Pidge in his ear but he doesn’t, and judging by the frown on Lance’s face neither does he. “Pidge?”“I don’t like this.” Allura says from behind. “Why isn’t Pidge responding?”“I don’t know, but let’s not jump to conclusions.” Shiro says, hoping to placate the others. It doesn’t help his own anxiety keep from skyrocketing, and he clenches his galra hand a few times to try to work out his tension without drawing too much attention. “Let’s go to the bar. I doubt she wouldn’t have strayed far from it.” Lance says.“Good idea.” Shiro says. Lance guides them through the crowd, but something feels wrong, putting Shiro on edge. He feels as if there’s more eyes on him than when they first arrived. Or rather on Lance, since he’s the one people know here. They reach the bar in no time, and thankfully Shiro spots Pidge’s black clad figure at the bar, sipping one of the drinks Lance bought her, looking around the room in agitation. She spots them closing in on her and a mixture of relief and worry cross her face. “Pidge.” Lance says as they approach, no longer caring if they’re seen together. “What’s happening? Why haven’t you responded?”“Me? I’ve been keeping you updated the entire time. You’re the one who didn’t respond.” Pidge hisses, more in worry than anger. Her eyes keep darting around the room. Shiro turns to look at what she sees and he notices that creepy crawly feeling of being watched wasn’t paranoia after all. The party guests are shooting quick glances over at them and whispering. Something tells Shiro that they’re about to be attacked. And he can’t tell if that’s his paranoia or not. “How many now? Last I heard was five.” Lance asks. “Five? I wish! I count at least twenty now. I’ve already told you this.” Pidge says in a loud whisper, slipping off of her stool. “Someone must be jamming our communications.” Allura says. “Lance do you know what’s going on?” “Unfortunately I think I’m about to be assassinated for real.” Lance says with all the nonchalance in the world. He doesn’t seem disturbed when he says it, but when Shiro looks back and into his uncovered eye there’s worry there. Shiro doesn’t like what that means. “We should get out of here.” Keith pitches in, his voice low and like a growl. “They seem to be preparing to attack.”“We can’t leave without that information or this trip would have been for nothing.” Says Lance in response, lips thinned in a serious expression. “Are you insane?” Pidge demands. “There’s at least twenty dangerous people about to try and kill you, the information doesn’t matter.” “You’re wrong. I have to know that information if we want to secure an alliance with the rebellion with no fear of being stabbed in the back.” Lance says. “You guys need to make alliances with powerful forces, and the Rebellion is one of them. They may be power hungry assholes, but they fight for freedom above all else. They have the numbers you don’t, and the information you don’t. And in order to secure an alliance safely means to weed out the threats and traitors.”“Lance-” Allura begins, but is interrupted as Kyuna appears in the mix of their little group circle. “Well, I don’t know what you did McClain, but you’re about to be swarmed. Anything I can do to help?” Kyuna says, batting her eyes at Lance. “Yeah. Keep them out of it.” Lance replies. It sends an alarm ringing in Shiro’s head but he’s too slow to act on it. “Will do.” Kyuna says, and then suddenly Shiro feels teeth sinking into his neck, just hard enough to draw blood. He crumbles to the ground, unable to move, but able to see the panic of Allura, Keith, and Pidge’s faces before they too hit the ground unable to move, thin rivulets of blood slowly moving across their skin. “Now don’t worry, the effect will wear off soon. No permanent damage. It’s just a paralyzing agent.” Kyuna says as she reforms in front of them. Hands go underneath Shiro’s arms and drags him against the bar, the others being moved the same way, though no figure is visible. Perhaps Olgus is moving them. Lance stands alone, unaffected and un-paralyzed, an irritated look on his face. “Did you have to paralyze them?” Lance says to Kyuna. She smiles and disappears, and suddenly her legs are dangling in his peripheral view. “I don’t want them interfering in what is sure to be an amazing show.” Kyuna says from behind him. “Let us witness the Beast Hunter in action.”As Kyuna says those words, a large crowd appears behind Lance. All of them look far more dangerous than they did before. Claws, fangs, spikes, weapons. Shiro’s heart stops beating as Lance turns to them.“Come with us quietly McClain, all we want is the reward money.” One of them says. “And go back to that hell hole?” Lance responds. “You’ll have to kill me if you want that reward.”“The chance to kill the infamous McClain and be paid for it?” One of them laughs, not the same as the first. “What a wonderful present this will be.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Lance grits his teeth as he dodges a long range attack from one of the patrons’ scorpion like tails, slipping his knives out of his boots. This would be a perfect opportunity to show off his tricks with his handguns on live targets, but Kyuna is a particularly cruel sort. She wants to see the Beast Hunter in action, so of course she’s not gonna have her bodyguards step in to help him. No, she’s sitting at the bar with his friends paralyzed at her feet, making running commentary.“Oh, nice dodge from McClain, bringing out his daggers at the same time. Such fluid motion, like he was born to be a killer. Too bad he hasn’t gone full Hunter, otherwise this would be so much more interesting to watch.” Kyuna says, though Lance isn’t sure who she’s talking to. Wouldn’t put it past her to be talking to herself, or maybe her asshole of a servant, Olgus. Lance is fairly positive that Olgus has the monopoly on most attempts at murdering him, and surviving to try again. Lance backs away as three of his opponents charge him, barely managing to maneuver his body to avoid the multiple different attacks. A sharp pain explodes across his left cheek where one of them manages to land a scratch on him. “Get the daggers! He’ll be defenseless without a weapon!” One of the people still biding their time in the crowd surrounding him yells. Lance vaguely recognizes the voice, but he can’t put a name to it since he’s just a little bit preoccupied. Lance throws himself into a back bend to avoid that same sharp scorpion tail, just in time to avoid getting pierced through the skull. Wow, these guys really hate me, Lance thinks to himself, following through on the back bend to flip backwards onto his feet again. It makes him wonder just how many people despise him across the universe. Must be the handguns specifically designed for him, that must be why people hate him so much. Yeah keep dreaming Lance. Lance grabs that tail that keeps coming after him in one hand, throwing the dagger he was holding high into the air and using the other one to slice through the tough muscle. He gets a spattering of blackish blood across his chin but he doesn’t dwell on it long. Lance reaches his hand out to catch his dagger but it’s intercepted by someone else, the blade being snatched out of the air just above his hand. He got unlucky enough that the blade was so close, because it slices open his palm as whoever it is that owns the sticky tentacle pulls it away. Lance hisses in pain and uses his dagger to deflect the blade of a sword, the sword catching on his coat and slipping off of the material with no effect. Thanks for the coat Marva, Lance says in his head. If it wasn’t for the material of the coat he would have had a huge gash on his arm. Lance slips on a trail of that blackish blood, and throws out his un-injured hand to catch his fall. Unfortunately that means he lost his last line of offense. Lance drops hard to the ground as a sword swipes above him, then rolls quickly to the side as two more strike downwards. This. Is a lot worse of a situation than he had imagined. When he had been planning for this to happen, he had his handguns in mind. Now he doesn’t even have a blade, or backup for at least thirty more minutes until the paralyzing agent in Kyuna’s bite wears off. And even then, those four will be extremely off balanced for at least a few minutes. Damn it all to hell, what is he supposed to do now?He could keep dodging, let his opponents wear themselves out and then steal a blade and strike them down in seconds. Only issue is these guys are smart. They’ve teamed up against him, with close range and long range attacks of both the flesh and the blade attacking at the same time. It’s gonna be difficult to dodge when all of them attack at once.Maybe surrender? But that means going back to that hellhole of an arena, or being put back in the witch’s grasp for more experimentation. What would she take next? His legs, so he can’t run away and can only move if she wills it? His arms to be replaced with a weapon like Shiro’s? Or his other eye maybe?
No, she won’t have me. I’ll die first.
Of course death is not the preferable outcome in this moment. If only to spite those who fight against him and deny them any sort of reward money. Damn, why didn’t he tell the others his plan from the beginning? Oh yeah, because he doesn’t trust them. Lance’s ears catch the sound of a gun being loaded and his eyes widen. He leaps to the side and just barely manages to avoid being shot. Fuck. Guns too? Isn’t this fight a little too one sided to these guys? Who is Lance kidding, these people are criminals for a reason. And criminals don’t fight fair. So how does Lance turn this situation around? How does he win?“Oh for Empire’s sake, stop playing around McClain! Show them why you’re called the Beast Hunter already!” Kyuna yells, catching Lance’s attention for a brief second. His distraction is rewarded with a thin cut on his right calf. He hates that stupid title.All anyone in this universe, this reality, seems to care about is his title in the arena. No one cares that he’s been fighting against the Empire for months. No one seems to care that he doesn’t kill for fun. All anyone cares about is the blood on his hands and where it came from. Except Team Voltron. They don’t care about his stupid title. In fact, Pidge was angry at him for not trusting them and relying on them. And she was worried about him too, Lance saw it in her eyes when they left Kyuna’s deal room. Would it really be too bad if he trusted Voltron like they seem to trust him? One of those scorpion like tails strikes past Lance, and in his moment of confusion his eye follows the tail’s path. Which is aiming for a defenseless Allura. Lance’s vision sharpens and he lets his instincts dictate his actions for the first time in a long while. Lance pounces on the tail, and opens his mouth in a snarl before clamping down on the tail. A growl like a beast rumbles from Lance’s chest as he tears the tail in pieces with only his teeth. Blackish blood floods his mouth, coating his tongue in an almost tar like substance, tasting much like tap water in his crazed state. Like Earth minerals and dirt and fresh coolness.For a brief moment Lance goes back in time. Back to his first taste of blood. Back to the day he earned his title. He remembers the hunger, and the thirst, and the craving and the pain. It hits him like a freight train, and he loses control of himself.For a moment the room is still as Lance stands up from the mangled and detached part of the tail, someone vaguely screaming in pain in his blood filled ears. Blackish blood drips from his chin, and ever so slowly Lance swipes his tongue across it for a final taste. He tilts his head back and to the side, looking at the shocked crowd who were mere minutes away from killing him only moments ago. Lance doesn’t see any specific alien. All he sees are the threats. The swords, the gun, the multiple writhing limbs that boast spikes, or slime, or stingers. All he sees is prey, who dared to mess with his pack. “You’ll regret forgetting who I am. But at least your regret will end swiftly.” Lance says. He grins something feral, more of a bearing of his teeth than a smile. “As will your lives.”***Lance doesn’t waste a moment before launching headlong into the crowd of people who dared to oppose him. He’s greeted with swords and daggers trying to keep him back, but Lance has set free the Hunter. He moves quickly, weaving in the barely there open places between each blade and gun.Lance grabs the wrist of someone who swings a dagger at him, twists, forcing the dagger to fall to the ground with a clang that is lost in the noise of the fight. He uses the grip he has on the person’s wrist and yanks them towards him. Barely catching a glimpse of the terrified look in the person’s eyes, Lance latches his teeth into their neck, like Kyuna did to his friends. Unlike Kyuna, he clenches his jaw tight and rips the throat out. The unlucky guy who gets caught first by the Hunter tries to reel back, still kicking somehow despite the massive chunk of his flesh missing from his neck. Lance dives in again, clenches his teeth back into the throat, and yanks again. This time they fall to the ground, dead probably. Or dying. Lance doesn’t stop to enjoy the kill. He dodges a spiked limb that attacks like a giant hammer, but with spikes and it gets stuck in the flooring from the force of the impact. Another bullet is loaded into the one gun brought to a knife fight and Lance dodges that too. His eyes lock onto the coward who tries to kill him from far away, and he sees the moment the alien realizes he’s been targeted. Lance keeps his eyes on the alien, barely registering the hardened black skin, almost reminiscent to Marva’s, and uses the bodies he plows through as his own shields. He catches one person by the collar of their outfit, tosses him into three enemies to his left, and then steps up onto the person’s flailing body on top of the alien dog pile to launch himself over another attacker with a sword. He quickly clears a bloodless path towards the guy struggling to reload the gun with shaky clawed hands. The rational part of Lance’s brain knows he can’t bite into this kind of skin, or he’d break his teeth. Nor can he use his fingernails because they’ll just slide right off without any effect. But what he can use? Well the guy was kind enough to supply his own murder weapon. Lance hears the click of the loaded gun, drops to the floor, and then launches towards the alien and tackles him. He stands up quickly and swipes the gun out of the alien’s hand and promptly fires off the only bullet the gun has. The reason Lance’s handguns are so valuable is because of both the special ammo, which is a condensed version of blasters, and the multiple fire rate before reloading. For some reason it’s easy for aliens to conceive of plasma blasters but not of metal bullets. Or rather, a gun designed to shoot multiple metal bullets without reloading every time. This guy has a cheap knockoff of Lance’s beautiful pistols.The bullet ends the alien’s life quickly and then Lance throws it to the floor since he doesn’t have the patience to reload his gun every time he needs to use it. Lance turns back to his other enemies as they charge and he quickly targets the one closest to him. Like the first kill of the fight, Lance rips out the alien’s vulnerable throat, this time doing it in one clean bite instead of two.***The fight isn’t much of a fight after the third one dies. It’s more like a slaughter.A few actually tried to make a run for it, but in his crazed state, Lance refuses to let them live should he face the consequences. Others tried to take him head on, their teamwork breaking in the face of life or death. They die the most gruesome deaths, because Lance rips them apart, mangling their appearance to be unrecognizable.And in the background, beyond the rush of blood in his ears, he hears Kyuna cheering him on. The way she cheers for the slaughter makes the twisting of his memories and of reality blur together, as if she’s a part of the crowd beyond the arena floor. Screaming their praises for Lance’s ruthlessness. It sickens him to the stomach, but the stench of blood is covered by the craving to kill pounding incessantly at Lance’s sanity. This is why he cherished his handguns so much.In the arena, they never gave him a weapon after he earned his title. They forced him to become a beast so he could kill the beasts they sent after him in the most horrific of ways. His handguns ground him to reality, ground him to the present. Where he no longer serves as a blood covered entertainment tool. Where he no longer fears the retaliation for his mercy. Where he’s no longer insane with the threat of his own survival. Where he’s no longer a monster. No longer a beast. No longer a beast that hunts other beasts like prey. Lance stills as the last to oppose him falls into a lifeless heap on the floor of the ballroom. The pristine wood is stained with red and black and so many different colors of blood. But no blue. Thank god there’s no blue. Lance’s breaths heave from his chest, allowing him a moment to gather clarity of his surroundings. He can feel the thick liquid of so many different kinds of alien blood dripping off his fingertips and chin, making perfect little discolored circles on the floor beneath him. His tongue is slick with the revolting taste of it all, the blood no longer tasting like tap water. Lance feels like he could cut the blood from his skin and never slice deep enough to add his own.Clapping sounds from the bar, which is behind him. “Beautiful McClain. Though I wish you hadn’t made such a mess, I’ll never get the stains out.” Kyuna says. In a moment she materializes beside him, fingertips pressing gently into a bloody part of his exposed chest. Not his own blood of course. “That was such a thrilling display just now.” Kyuna purrs into his ear. “I have never wanted to take my favorite guest for a ride as much as I do now.”Lance closes his mouth and swallows the blood coating his tongue, the thick liquid slipping down his throat like molasses. He still stares directly into the floor, just shy of where a dismembered hand rests. “Let’s say you and I slip into the backroom for a little bit of post slaughter fun hm?” Kyuna suggests. Lance used to find her attractive, has even bedded her multiple times. But knowing that Lance becoming the monster he despises in himself, killing so many people in a ruthless slaughter, turns her on makes him feel disgusted with himself. Lance grinds his teeth for a moment before finally looking up into Kyuna’s once mesmerizing green eyes to match her skin, star shaped pupil like thin black streaks. Lance levels her with glare, one so harsh she backs off of him with a tense smile. “Right, you probably have some things to take care of. Olgus should have your information ready any minute now. And the paralyzation will wear off here shortly as well.” Kyuna says, folding her hands at her waist. Lance narrows his eyes at her. “I’ll go check on Olgus right now actually.”Kyuna disappears and Lance finally relaxes his fist. He stands in the center of the room, surrounded by dead bodies and carnage, for a few minutes as he waits, unable to relax enough to move. The rest of the patrons that never raised a hand against him, so they still breath, begin slowly edging around the room to the door. Lance watches them in silence as they run away. “Lance?” Shiro says, and Lance turns his eyes to look at his friends. One by one each of them begin standing up, wobbling from the unbalance the bite causes when it wears off, and staring at him in horror. Lance looks away.“Good you're back on your feet.” Lance responds, never look any of them in the eye. Shame swells up in his chest as he realizes they saw him lose control. They understand exactly what kind of monster he is now. So much for being a paladin. “Lance.” Allura says with a sorrowful tone, and Lance waits for her to say something else but she doesn’t. The room falls into silence as the last patron escapes and he can hear the muffled sounds of multiple ships taking off. As the last one leaves even Lance’s earshot, Kyuna reforms, standing just shy of the carnage and not moving any closer. Olgus appears too, moving with light feet through the bloody mess Lance made to hand him a little data drive. “There wasn’t much to find, the person who leaked that picture knows how to cover their tracks. This was all I could locate on them.” Olgus says, staring at Lance with a hatred in his eyes. Lance looks away from him too, not in the right state of mind to deal with how others view him. “Thank you, we’ll be taking our leave.” Lance says. Allura walks up to him, having finally stabilized her own balance, the others quick to follow. Lance ignores them as she tries to say something and walks to the door. Walking outside clears his mind as a fresh breeze takes away the smell of blood, and there she sits. His very first ship, in as pristine condition as he left her. “What’s this one’s name?” Keith asks from behind him and Lance jerks out of his appraisal of his ship to look at him. Those eyes are blank, so Lance can’t read any particular emotion. He decides to only look at Keith, since he can’t read his emotions, and he doesn’t want to see the disgust the others must surely be showing. “Name?” Lance asks, slow to catch on. “What makes you think I named her?”“Well the fact that you just called the ship a ‘her’ combined with the other two ships you’ve named, I’d guess she has a name too.” Keith responds. Lance snorts and walks up to the hull of his first ship. She’s a sleek design, meant for fighting, but also big enough to hold a small crew comfortably. She used to be solid white, but Lance gave her a paint job when he gave her a name. It looks to anyone who isn’t human that there’s just a bunch of green and blue splotches with some white patches. Lance painted her to look like an aerial view of Earth, getting as close to what his planet looked like as possible. Lance runs a hand gently over the metal, a few flakes of paint falling off when he does. “Gaia. Her name is Gaia, the ancient Earth Goddess of Greek culture. I swore that one day I would fly this ship all the way home to Cuba.” Lance says reverently. He blinks away the tears trying to fall and opens the hatch. “You guys take the pod, I’ll meet you on the ship.” Lance says, not giving them enough time to answer before he was closing the hatch and walking to the front where the pilot seat is. They’re already slipping inside the Altean pod by the time he takes his seat. Lance takes a moment to close his eyes, allowing only one tear to fall before settling his dried blood caked hands on the steering controls.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Lance steels himself the entire way back to the ship, building walls of brick and mortar with a ten inch iron coating, trying to ready himself. This is why he didn’t want to be a paladin. The moment he steps off of Gaia’s landing platform, he knows exactly what it is he will be facing. Hatred. Disgust. Fear. He’ll step off the ship and Allura will make him turn right back around to leave. Shiro won’t try to defend him, and Hunk will fear him too much to hug him goodbye. And Hunk gives such nice hugs. Pidge and Keith won’t care, they obviously don’t trust or like him all that much. Lance just needs to face the music. His reputation as the Hunter will never leave him, like his shadow. Maybe sometimes it will be hard to see, but it’s always there. He can never undo the wrongs that he did. The horrific acts he committed. Lance will never get the stains of blood from his soul, and he must face the fact that no living creature with a sense of self preservation will ever want to be around him. Him. The Hunter, not Lance. He will never be Just Lance again after today. The docking bay comes up far too soon, the altean pod disappearing within its confines. Lance shifts gears to slow his speed, taking advantage of the last time he will see this great ship in person. The others managed without a true Blue Paladin for months, and besides, he’s practically useless. He doesn’t fly Blue as well as the others, the technology is still so new, their ‘bonds’ are still fresh and un-tempered. They haven’t really been in an actual battle together since Lance’s claiming by the Blue Lion. Lance has hardly even been to see Blue and cement his ‘bonds’ with the great mechanical beast. Let’s face it, Lance not being a paladin won’t change much of anything.Lance lands his ship gently, locking his emotions away like he had learned to do in the arena. He’s prepared to walk away with dignity and break down in private in Gaia’s cozy sleeping quarters. He’s faced so much adversity since being kidnapped from Earth, he can handle this. It’s not like he doesn’t know what it’s like to be rejected because he’s viewed as a monster. He sucks in a deep breath before unbuckling, standing up and straightening up his bloodied clothes. He stops to try and clean the sticky blood off of his face. He doesn’t make much headway. Whatever, it isn’t like it’ll matter when he’s all alone in the vast universe all over again. Lance walks off of his ship with dignity, even though there’s a tightness in his chest that foretells a panic attack. He’s greeted by everyone. They all stand in a semi circle, with Hunk and Coran facing Lance, and the rest of them facing away. He can do this. He can handle this without breaking down. At his exit, everyone looks at him, and Hunk gasps out loud, a hand going to his chest. “Lance, I think we should talk.” Allura says, breaking the tension in the room. Lance swallows but doesn’t let his emotions show. He decides to just skip to the worst of it, so he can escape to his ship sooner and cry himself to sleep. “Just come out and say it Allura.” Lance says, his voice rough from holding back the tears beginning to force their way to the surface. Allura plays as if she has no idea what he’s talking about.“I’m sorry? Say what?” Allura says, hands folded delicately in front of her. Lance notices just how close her hands are to her whip. He does nothing to provoke her into using it. “It’s okay Allura, if you want me to leave I completely understand. I just hope you could allow me to gather the things I have on the ship before I do.” Lance implores, desperately wanting his flight undersuit back. He feels too exposed in his raunchy outfit. Allura stares at him for a moment before her face breaks into a gentle smile.“Lance, don't be silly. You don’t have to gather your things.” Allura says. Lance nods. He figured she would want him gone as soon as possible. “Of course, I understand. I’ll just leave then.” Lance says, making an about face and taking a few steps back to his ship. His feet feel like lead.“Lance, wait, where are you going?” Shiro asks. Lance stops in his tracks but doesn’t turn back around. He lifts his head and swallows down the burning in his throat. “You want me gone right? I’m a monster, and monsters can’t be heroes like you guys.” Lance says, speaking out loud what everyone is clearly thinking. “Lance don’t be stupid. We don’t want you to leave.” Shiro says. Lance closes his eyes, a tear spilling out of his uncovered eye. “So you wish to kill me instead? It’s okay, it would probably save me from even more pain at least.” Lance says, trying to sound optimistic. He doesn’t want to die, but he doesn’t want to fight his friends either. He doubts his abilities to get away before they can kill him without fighting back. “Lance, stop.” Pidge snaps. “You’re an idiot, you know that? Do you need us to spell it out for you? We don’t want you to leave, because you’re our friend, and the Blue Paladin.”That makes hope beat against the walls he had built, but he locks it away before it hurts him. Lance swallows thickly, letting his chin drop to his chest.“But I’m a monster, you watched me slaughter those people mercilessly.” Lance whispers, which is about as loud as his burning throat would let him go.“Yeah that was pretty,” Keith says, pausing as if to find the right words. “Did you enjoy it?” The question makes Lance jump in place from shock, and he spins around, backing up a few steps since Keith had come a lot closer than expected. Lance didn’t even hear the footsteps. “Do what?”“Did you enjoy the killing? Did you relish the blood in your mouth, the lives you were ending?” Keith asks, stepping forward again so he and Lance are face to face. “No of course not.” Lance snaps back, offended that he would think something like that. He’ll be mourning his actions for the rest of his life. “Then you didn’t want to kill them like that? Rip their throats out with your teeth? Bathe in their blood? You didn’t want to cause the carnage? You didn’t feel like you should do that a thousand more times until there was no one left in the universe to kill but yourself?” Keith demands, stepping forward with every question, forcing Lance to back away. He stops when his heels hit Gaia’s landing platform, and so does Keith. “No of course not!” Lance repeats. “Then why do you have to leave?”“What?” Lance demands right back.“You heard me. If you felt anything like I described, or rather, if you felt it but don't regret it? Then you turn around right now and get the hell away from my family. But otherwise?” Keith says. “Shut the hell up and follow us to the debriefing room where we can talk like adults about what happened.”“But I’m a-”“If you call yourself a monster one more fucking time, I’ll rip your throat out with my teeth. You are a product of war, but that doesn’t make you a monster.” Keith seethes in Lance’s face. Lance leans away, shocked, eyeing the others who are still standing where Keith and Lance had left him. Shiro smiles, shrugs, and gives Lance a look like ‘he’s right you know’. Lance swallows thickly, and asks, tentatively, “So I can stay?” “Yes.” Keith answers, leaning back and going back to his subdued personality. “I can be a paladin?” Lance asks, just to be clear. His throat starts closing up, making him want to cry. “Of course, we can’t form Voltron with only four lions.” Keith replies.“I don’t have to go back to being alone?” Lance whispers. “Not while we live, no.” Keith sighs, agitated. “Now no more questions. Get cleaned up, then meet us in the lounge so we can debrief and relax. As a team.”Lance nods his understanding and Keith smiles a tiny little smile at him. Suddenly there’s a knee slamming up into his stomach and he hunches over in a coughing fit. Panic hits him.“And that was for being a fucking idiot and not letting us know your plan or help you fight.” Keith says, walking away, dusting his hands off. “Get up and get cleaned Lance, we won’t wait for you. And if you don’t make the debriefing, you don’t get dinner. Hunk’s cooking tonight.”“I am?” Hunk asks. Lance watches Keith shoot him a glare and then Hunk nods like he knows what Keith’s talking about. “Right, I am.”Lance stands up when he catches his breath, being more winded than hurt. Shiro walks over and throws his arm over Lance’s shoulders to guide him to the communal showers and bath to get cleaned up. They have private showers in their room, but the communal ones ‘build teamwork and bonds’ or whatever. Lance does cry, but he manages to wait until he makes it into a shower, tears washed away with the colorful stream of blood from his body.