Crushing Deep

Author's note: This is based off of a scene from the second book in one of my favourite series, Ingo: The Tide Knot. Reading it isn't required for this story, but I do encourage you to read the series.

As Lance woke up, the first thing he noticed was that it was very hard to move, not that he was bound in any way, just that something slowed his every movement to a crawl. The next thing he noticed was the overwhelming darkness around him, and this wasn't the darkness of space, at least Lance hoped it wasn't, because there wasn't a single speck of light in the distance, not one star in this endless void Lance found himself in, as if he'd not even opened his eyes. With great effort, as if he were moving through tar, Lance moved his hand to be in front of his face, at least he hoped that's what he was doing, it was so hard to tell, but he couldn't see any indication of it in front of him, not even when his fingers should have been centimetres from his face.

"W-where am I?" Lance questioned, relieved that his voice wasn't slowed like his body. "What happened? Guys? Come in, guys!"

But there was no response, Lance was alone in this swallowing void.

"Okay, Lance, you're alright, there's no need for panic." Lance said to himself as he tried to calm his rising panic. "Think, think, what happened? Why are you here?"

It was hard for Lance not to panic when all he could see and feel was the oppressing darkness, but he forced his breathing to be even, despite the heavy weight squeezing his lungs, and concentrated, trying to remember what had happened before he woke up in this void.

The memories came at a frustratingly slow trickle, as if his mind was moving through the same tar that surrounded his body. He remembered being on the castle, rudely awakened from his blissful sleep by the castle alarms announcing the pick-up of a distress signal, Allura then sending them in the Lions to help out a mostly oceanic planet, the inhabitants of which lived high above the shoreline on what land there was on the planet because of how dangerous they claimed their ocean to be, the distress signal wasn't because of the Galra, miraculously, but rather a sect of aliens from the neighbouring planet deciding that since the number of inhabitants on the oceanic planet was so small, that it wouldn't matter if they invaded and took all of the planet's resources for themselves. So, Voltron had fought on behalf of the oceanic planet while Allura went to the neighbouring planet to make sure that they all weren't for the invasion. Lance's memory began to blur after that, he remembered fighting against some ships on his own, and then he was suddenly careening towards the ocean surface with the ships he didn't remember seeing preparing to fire again, another blur and Lance was in the water outside of the Blue Lion, he couldn't remember why, swimming around his Lion that was stuck in an underwater mountain, and then the water around him changing and growing fierce, being grabbed by the invisible force of a current away from his Lion, and being tossed and turned as everything grew darker.

Lance gasped as he realised where he was, why is felt like he was being pressed from all sides, he was in the dark depths of the ocean planet. Logic told Lance that at this depth he should have been crushed like a can, and yet here he was, but this didn't make him feel any less scared, or alone.

'So alone.' A voice sounding suspiciously like his own echoed in his head.

'No, I'm not alone.' Lance thought adamantly. 'Blue?'

Lance reached out for the connection to his Lion. It was there, but extremely faint, only just enough for Lance to tell that it was there at all, not enough to tell Lance where the Blue Lion was and not enough to contact her to tell her where he was. He really was alone down here.

'So alone.'

'I'll just have to find my own way out.' Lance decided.

Slowly, Lance kicked his legs to propel himself through the water, slow enough to not exhaust himself trying to swim through the pressure of the deep. It felt like weights were tied to his limps, each movement taking effort, but he would put up with it to get out.

Then it occurred to Lance, he didn't even know up from down, he'd been tossed and turned so much by the current and then lost consciousness, and there was no light to indicate the direction of the surface. For all Lance knew, he could just be swimming deeper, away from the surface, away from Blue and away from his team.

'So alone.'

'So dark.'

Lance slowly curled in on himself, his eyes were stinging, he wanted nothing more than to just stay there, maybe if he stayed put his team could find and rescue him, and he'd be out of this gaping void.

Gaping? Like the maw of a huge deep-sea creature, swimming through the pressure of the ocean that it was made for to swallow him whole. There had to be creatures down here after all, he'd seen fishes at the surface, quite big ones at that, so it stood to reason that there'd be creatures down here too, and just like on Earth they'd probably be horrifying to look at. Maybe that's why they lived down here, to hide how horrifying they were, and also to hide themselves from prey until it was too late. And considering how big the fish on the surface were, how big must the creatures down here be? Big enough to swallow Lance before he could realise it, surely.

The sensible part of Lance knew he was only working himself up with his line of thought and that if he calmed down he'd see reason, but the crushing darkness and solitude only served to give his mind room to create creatures from nothing, waiting for the opportunity to strike, which made him more scared, which added fuel to his imagination. It was a vicious cycle of fear.

'So alone.'

'So dark.'

'So afraid.'

Lance started to swim again, not caring about the feeling of weights on his limbs as he swam, if there were creatures out there in the darkness, he was going to give them a moving target. And there was always a chance he was swimming in the right direction to the surface, right?

'So alone.'

'So dark.'

'So afraid.'

Lance swam and swam until he hit a rough surface head-first, thankfully, because of how slow he was forced to swim, the impact didn't hurt, though Lance did feel a small scrape on his forehead, which struck Lance as weird but he couldn't figure out why. Lance ran his hand along the rough surface. Had he hit another underwater mountain? Maybe he could follow it to the surface.

'Or deeper, or just in a circle. You still don't know the direction.' Lance was reminded.

But then Lance felt the rough surface shift and the water around him swirl. And then he realised, this wasn't a mountain, this was a creature.

Lance flinched away from the creature, fear filling him. This was it, he was going to be eaten!

There were a few moments of nothing, and then Lance realised that there was some sort of deep sound rippling through the water that vibrated right through his bones, it was coming from the creature.

'Is it…laughing?' Lance questioned when he realised what the sound reminded him of.

"H-hello?" Lance asked out loud, feeling silly. "Is that you?"

The laughing came to a stop, and then another rippling that was unclear at first but then formed into sounds and syllables.

"Hello, little one." The voice was deep, knowledgeable, patient. "What are you doing down here? You are quite far from the surface."

"I…I was pulled down here by a current. I want to leave but I don't know where to go." Lance answered, he'd opened his mouth but it didn't feel as if he was speaking the right words, as if he was dissociated from his body.

"You need to go to the surface, of course." The creature said, followed by another ripple of laughter.

"I know that, but I don't know which way is up, and everything is slow." Lance replied.

"Come closer, little one, let me see you." The creature said.

Lance wondered how they could see anything down here, but he supposed that their eyesight was probably better than his.

"Up and forward, that's it." The creature instructed Lance towards its eyes.

"I can tell you are not of this world, little barelegs, why have you come here." Their tone was curious, not accusatory.

Lance wondered about the name he was given, he was sure he was still wearing his armour, so his legs weren't bare.

"I'm part of a team that forms a strong weapon called Voltron that fights against the Galra to stop them from taking over the universe." Lance explained. "Though, I suppose you won't know about this."

"What you speak of is unfamiliar to me, but I can understand the situation, something similar was happening on the surface when I last took my breath." The creature said.

"I'm helping out with that, trying to get them to leave this planet alone. That's why I need to get back to the surface, I need to get to my Lion." Lance explained.

The was another ripple of laughter. "A lion in the ocean, how strange you are."

Lance laughed as well. "I suppose it is." He agreed.

"I am rising to the surface myself, I am in need of another breath. I can guide you alongside me." The creature offered.

"Thank you. But how am I going to keep up? I can't swim very fast down here." Lance worried.

"Perhaps I can keep you in my mouth and spit you out when we reach the surface, I promise not to chew." The creature offered.

Lance shivered. "I'd rather not." He declined.

The creature laughed again. "Worry not, little barelegs, I was only joking with you. If you swim alongside me, like a fish you will rise beside me, the moving water keeping you with me."

"Oh, like a dolphin swimming behind a boat?" Lance asked.

"I do not know what a dolphin is, but I believe yes." The creature said.

Lance clung to the side of the creature as it began to rise, water began to rush past them, threatening to tear Lance away while at the same time sticking him to the side of the creature, a pain in his head began to rise as he was shook about. Until, finally, the dark around them was not so oppressing and they broke the grasp of the deep.

Lance feels relief when they finally reach clear waters, he never thought he'd be so glad to be able see his own hand. In the light, Lance is finally able to see the creature that had helped him. They looked similar to a whale, except they were armoured with a longer tail.

"Thank you." Lance said to them. "For everything."

"You are welcome, little barelegs. Do you know where you are going now?" The whale-creature asked.

Lance closed his eyes and felt around, he could feel the Blue Lion stronger now, and most importantly, he could feel where she was.

"Yes." He answered.

"That is good. I must rise now, I need to breath and our accent was slow." The whale-creature said.

Lance felt guilty, no doubt his new friend rose slower than they could to allow him to rise with them.

"Goodbye, little barelegs." The whale-creature said as it continued to rise without Lance.

"Goodbye!" Lance called after them.

Lance found that they reminded him a lot of Blue. And speaking of Blue, he needed to find her.

Lance began to swim again, this time in a definite direction, toward the Blue Lion. But his arms and legs were just so heavy, as if he was still in the deep, and he was so exhausted. He wanted nothing more than to just sleep right there, but he had to get back to his team.

Lance briefly stopped to rest, but then became aware that he was still moving, as well as the bubbles swirling around him. Another underwater current.

Lance knew that he should stop and try to swim out of it, the last current was what launched him into the deep in the first place, but he was just so tired and the current rocked him so gently. He had hardly gotten any sleep before the distress signal had been picked up, and combined with the exhaustion from the deep, Lance wanted nothing more than to sleep.

'The current's carrying you towards Blue anyway.'

That was right, he did feel himself getting closer to Blue. Maybe this current was friendly, the last current was probably angry from the fighting, Lance could trust it, though he didn't know how currents could feel emotions or be trusted. But if the current was taking him to Blue, Lance could afford to nap, he'd wake up when he needed to get off. The current wrapped around Lance like a warm blanket as it carried him through the ocean and his eyes felt so heavy.

'I'll just close them for a bit.' Lance thought.

As he closed his eyes, Lance realised distantly that he wasn't wearing his helmet, probably hadn't since he woke up in the deep, but Lance was already falling into sleep and so paid this little factor no mind.

As Lance dreamt he could hear singing, it's so warm and gentle, and as if it was just for him. The singer and words of the song sound so familiar.

'Idir ann is idir as
Idir thuaidh is idir theas
Idir thiar is idir thoir
Idir am is idir áit'

The melody of the song is soothing, shaping into pleasant dreams. Lance dreamed that he was being cradled by someone dressed in white, long hair floating around her as if she were in water and it framed her face as she sung the beautiful lullaby. But she is in water, they both are, because there aren't legs bellow her waist, but a strong and beautiful tail made for swimming, Lance can tell without needing to look away from her, just as he can tell that his own legs have been replaced by a tail in this dream.

'Casann sí dhom
Amhrán na farraige
Suaimhneach nó ciúin
Ag cuardú go damanta
Mo ghrá'

The woman cradling him was familiar. Oh, yes, that was right, this was his mama, that's why she was holding him and singing to him.

He had missed this, being held and comforted by his mother, it was so nice to have her singing to him again. A hand moved to caress his back and he smiled, what he even needed comforted from he didn't remember, but it was such a nice feeling that he didn't want it to stop.

'Idir gaoth is idir tonn
Idir tuilleadh is idir gann'

The dream began to fade away, taking his mama with it, but he didn't care, he could still hear her singing to him, and he could dream of her again if he wanted. But right now, he was just content to drift, to not think of anything but the song that filled him. Nothing bothered him here, all was peaceful. He couldn't remember what came before the gentleness of the current but couldn't find it in himself to care about that anymore.

'Casann sí dhom
Amhrán na Farraige'

He felt himself rise to the surface of sleep but then fell back down again into dreams contently. This time his dream was more abstract, or dancing colours of which he was one but at the same time an observer. He swam in and out of the other colours, playing happily to the tune of the lullaby, until they were dancing together tightly, combining together into something else. And then the dream faded away, leaving him in dreamless sleep again.

'Suaimhneach nó ciúin
Ag cuardú go damanta'

This went on for hours, minutes, days? Drifting in and out of dreams, each fantastical and wondrous, it made him wonder why he'd never encountered this before. Why hadn't he come before? Was there a before? He didn't remember. He didn't even care anymore. All that mattered was what was now.

'Idir cósta, idir cléibh
Idir mé is idir mé féin'

'Lance! Lance!'

He twitched unhappily as he was pulled from his dream, having already forgotten what it was about, but then he forgot what had disturbed him and drifted back down.

'Lance! Lance!'

The voice disturbed him again, this time sounding urgent.

What was it saying though, Lance? Oh, right, it was his name, he'd forgotten that too. But what did he care about his name, it wasn't important here, he'd rather stop being Lance than leave his dreams.

'My Paladin! No! You must wake up!'

The presence that accompanied the voice was so familiar that it was almost overwhelming. But his dreams called again and he was content to ignore and forget once again.

'Tá mé i dtiúin'

Suddenly, everything broke and scattered like a million droplets of water as he felt himself scooped up by the overwhelming presence, and then the dreams, and the song, were gone.

"Is he alright?" A muffled voice asked.

"He looks really sick." Another voice said.

"Are you a healing pod won't help?" A different voice.

"There's nothing wrong with the boy physically." Yet another different voice.

All of the voices were familiar to him, but he couldn't place them.

Slowly, he opened his eyes to see a group of people looking down at him, he felt like he should know them.

"Lance, you're awake!" One of them exclaimed happily.

"Lance? Oh, that's me, right." He said faintly.

The emotions on everyone's faces switched.

"Uh, Lance, do you remember who we are?" Asked another person, he had a white tuft of hair at the front on his head and wore mostly black, he also had a metal arm.

"Yes, I know. You're name's Shiro." Lance said.

The one with black hair that was long at the back, a mullet, and wore a red jacket, frowned.

"Why are you talking like that? It's us!" He exclaimed.

"I know it's you. Your name is Keith." Lance said simply.

Shiro put a reassuring hand on Keith's shoulder.

"What's wrong with him?" The small one dressed in green turned to the one with long white hair.

Pidge and Allura if Lance remembered correctly.

"If what the Blue Lion showed us is correct, Lance was sent to the depths of Zennor's ocean, at those depths he should have been crushed, but it seems something else got crushed instead." Allura answered. "I can feel it. His heart has been crushed so small that he's practically empty right now."

"How do we get him back?" Asked the large yellow one, Hunk if remembered. "We can get him back, right? I don't want my best bud to remain a zombie forever."

"Right now, we can only hope so." Allura said.

"We might be able to do more than that." The orange one with a moustache offered. It was Corran wasn't it? "Number three's situation reminds me a lot of something I encountered with my grandad a few times, people closing up so tight after a traumatic event that they can't be found though they were still physically there. If I remember the correctly, they got help from these berries from this planet that helped to open them up, which allowed those close to the person to fish them back out, so to speak."

"That's excellent, where's the planet?" Allura asked.

"Ah, you see, the thing is that I can't remember. But I'm sure the information's somewhere in the castle databanks." Coran was quick to reassure. "I'll go look."

Coran then disappeared.

Lance looked around the people he recognised as his teammates, he remembered wanting to get back to them before, but now all he wanted was to get back to that dream. Maybe if he closed his eyes…

"Lance."

Lance opened his eyes again to the speaker…Shiro.

"Try to stay awake, okay." Shiro said, moving Lance to sit up.

"Okay." Lance replied.

Maybe he could remember the lullaby instead.

Lance began to hum a tune and looked on without focus.

"Where you really that deep down?" Pidge asked him.

"Yeah, but I was alright." Lance said between humming. "I met a new friend and they helped me leave."

"Who?" Shiro asked.

"I didn't get a name, but they looked like an armoured whale." Lance continued to hum.

"One of the creatures of the planet then." Allura said.

"I'm just glad you're okay, uh, physically speaking." Hunk said. "When we found your helmet just floating in the water, we thought you'd drowned."

"It's alright, I didn't need my helmet underwater, I was perfectly fine without it." Lance said.

"You mean you could breathe underwater?" Allura asked.

Lance gave a small sound of confirmation before returning to humming, smiling when he finally got the tune right.

"How could Lance have breathed underwater?" Someone asked, Lance didn't bother paying attention to who.

"I suppose Lance's connection to the Blue Lion may have helped him in some way." Was the reply.

"How is the Blue Lion?" Lance asked.

"Stop that!" Keith finally exploded.

"Stop what?" Lance asked.

"Speaking like you don't care about anything, care about us!" Keith exclaimed.

"But I do care." Lance said in confusion. "That's why I asked."

Shiro put a hand on Keith's shoulder again.

"I'm sure he does." Shiro told Keith. "But right now, whatever's been done to him is messing with his mind." Shiro then turned to Lance. "The Blue Lion's fine now that we've got you back, she started behaving like the Red Lion when you got taken away, kept diving into the ocean to try and get you back,, but I'm guessing she couldn't get down deep enough to reach you, she eventually found you and brought you back."

"So, she's the one that broke the dream?" Lance frowned.

"And it's a good thing she did." Allura said. "Otherwise you would have been lost to us."

"Oh." Lance said, not really caring about that, he'd been happy in his dreams after all.

Keith and the others frowned at Lance's lack of care that he might have been lost to them.

"Can you at least pretend to care?" Keith said angrily.

"We don't want to lose you, buddy." Hunk told him.

"So? Just find a new Blue Paladin." Lance didn't see what all the fuss was about.

"Just find a new Paladin?" Keith exclaimed in disbelief.

Shiro sent him to the other side of the room to cool off before the Red Paladin did something he would regret. Both Hunk and Pidge looked very upset as well.

Shiro looked upset too, but kept his voice calm as he talked to Lance.

"He didn't mean it like that, Lance." He said. "It's not about losing a Paladin, it's you personally that we can't lose, you're our friend."

"But you're not going to lose me, I'm right here." Lance said.

Shiro sighed. "Hopefully, you will be." He said.

There was the sound of footsteps and Coran reappeared, he had a slight slump in his walk.

"Any luck?" Allura asked.

Coran shook his head sadly. "The planet was wiped out long ago, and I couldn't find any reference of those berries existing off of the planet."

All except Lance looked crushed.

It was Pidge who broke first, lunching herself at Lance and wrapping her arms around his waist.

"It's not fair, I don't want to lose him too." She cried.

Hunk was quick to follow after, big softie that he was, enveloping Lance in a hug while he cried as well.

"Please come back." He cried.

Lance only looked more confused.

"But I am here." He repeated.

They only cried harder.

"That's not what he meant, Lance." Shiro said tiredly, joining the hug and comforting the two crying Paladins.

Lance looked up as Keith approached again, he still looked angry, but there was also something wrong.

"What's wrong with your eyes?" Lance asked, looking at the water that fell from Keith's eyes.

"He's crying, Lance." Shiro told him, water also beginning to fall from his eyes too.

"Oh." Lance said. "Would you like a hug too?" He asked.

He didn't understand why everyone felt the need to hug him, but if they wanted to, Lance didn't see a reason to stop them.

At first, Lance expected Keith to refuse, he didn't remember him to be the hugging type, but then Keith stepped closer and drew Lance into a hug opposite of Hunk. Then, Keith's body began to jolt, Lance looked up at him to find the Red Paladin openly sobbing.

"Don't go." He begged. "Please don't go."

Keith's tears dripped down onto Lance's head, they were like boiling hot liquid on his skin, yet he couldn't move to flinch away. Then more water splashed down onto him, on his shoulder, back and hip, the tears of the others. It was a potent blend, strong enough to break a spell.

Lance blinked rapidly, as if he was just waking up despite already being awake.

He quickly became aware that he's teammates were clinging to him desperately, crying their eyes out.

"Guys, what's wrong?" He asked in concern.

They all gasped and looked at him, looking into his unclouded eyes.

"Lance, it that really you?" Hunk asked.

"Would it be anyone else?" Lance joked in confusion.

Everyone's eyes brightened and Lance found himself the centre of a hug of crying people again, but this time the tears were of happiness.

"You're back!" They cried.

"I'm happy you're back, Lance." Allura said, catching his attention.

Both Alteans were also crying tears of happiness.

"I wasn't aware that I went anywhere." Lance said.

The Paladins eventually broke the hug, but they remained close by, each remaining in contact with Lance.

"It was freaky." Hunk told him. "It's like the lights were on but nobody was home."

"You were so detached, like you didn't care about anything." Pidge explained further.

"We thought you were going to stay like that, that we were going to lose you." Keith said, looking away as he wiped a hand over his eyes.

"But we're glad you're back now." Shiro finished.

"Do you remember anything?" Coran asked.

"It's all a blur." Lance answered, rubbing his head. "I remember it being so dark and lonely, and then drifting away, being here but wanting to hear music, it's all like a dream." Lance shivered as he remembered the deep. "A nightmare in some places."

Shiro rubbed his back comfortingly. "You can tell us." He encouraged.

"It was so dark, I was alone, I could barely feel Blue, and…" Lance said. "I was scared" He admitted.

"Well, you're here with us now and that's what matters." Allura said.

Lance nodded, enjoying the physical contact with the others after everything that happened.

"If you don't mind, I'm still feeling exhausted." Lance said with a yawn.

"Sure, do you think you can make it to your room?" Shiro asked.

"Actually, I'd rather not be alone right now." Lance admitted. "And I'm just exhausted, not tired."

The others smiled at him understandingly.

"Alright, slumber party!" Hunk announced. "I'll go make snacks."

"I'll go set up the games." Pidge said.

The two of them raced off.

"I'll go fetch some bedding." Coran said happily as he marched off.

Shiro smiled after them.

"Let's get to the common room and wait for them." He said.

Lance stood but then wobbled, Shiro and Keith were quickly there to catch him.

"Woah, dizzy." Lance said.

"I'm not surprised." Allura commented. "You'll need to take it easy for the next few days."

"Hopefully the Galra won't attack during then." Keith commented as he and Shiro began to guide Lance out of the room.

"Don't jinx it." Lance mumbled.

Eventually, all of the Paladins as well as Allura and Coran were gathered in the common room. Pidge had found a way to plug the games console she and Lance had got at the swap mall into the ship after modifying it a bit and so they were able to play games, and they were all hidden under the bedding Coran had found while munching on the snacks Hunk had prepared. Lance was comfortably nestled in between Hunk and Shiro, Keith was on the other side of Shiro, Pidge was sat in between his legs and the two Alteans say close by on the other side of Hunk. Keith and Pidge were playing against each other while Lance was just content to watch for now.

Here, with his friends, the deep was far from his mind, and the dreams offered by the ocean couldn't compare.

Author's note: Well, this ended up longer than I intended, but I don't mind. Since Ingo is one of my fav book series, about a girl discovering the world of Mer under the ocean and facing what having Mer blood means for her, and since Lance is the Paladin of water, not to mention the Depths episode, it was natural to combine it and Voltron.

There is no intended shipping, so take whatever subtext you want from it.