Lance couldn't believe what he had just heard.

Did Keith know that the paladins could hear him, as he nonchalantly announced to Matt his plan? This brilliant plan that consisted of driving his ship, and himself, into the particle barrier.

Lance knew that the guy was hot headed, but this was a new extreme. He huffed angrily: all this time Lance had given him pointers on how to maintain a level head, to think his plans through before just rushing in and making a mess.

And now? Now… now the team were going to lose Keith forever. The past few weeks without his presence had ground on Lance: Shiro was always planning future battles or propaganda with Allura and Coran. Pidge and Hunk had spent every waking moment with Matt, the three of them tinkering day and night, playing with some new gizmo or device.

Lance…Lance had been playing a lot of video games.

Everyone had their little groups outside of training, and Lance watched on enviously. His battle strategies were never good enough, never fully there, something to be scoffed at and slide to the side. He didn't mind, he could admit he wasn't the greatest of strategists.

His tech knowledge was nothing compared to the Holt siblings, and when he wanted to have a laugh Hunk was too wrapped up in what he was working on to have a good time. Lance was happy supplying comic relief, he loved to make people laugh, but these three were enjoying themselves building. They didn't need comic relief.

He didn't mind, he could admit he wasn't the greatest of engineers.

And so the gaming system that he and Pidge had set up, that Pidge had been too distracted to play, was his sanctuary. Here he could work within a virtual team and not feel the ache of a missing presence. The two-player button taunted him, though, every time he selected single-player.

He was just a little jealous, he could admit that too.

It had been happening for some time, that when Shiro and Allura went strategizing, or Pidge and Hunk went tinkering, Lance and Keith went…

He didn't know exactly what he and Keith went doing. It was always different. And not always planned.

They seemed to gravitate to each other: Lance wants to go swimming, there's Keith. Lance wants to try cooking some of his Mum's old recipes with ingredients that looked similar from the planet they had just liberated, and there would be Keith, reading in the kitchen. Lance wants to hone his hand-to-hand combat skills, and Keith would be practising with the gladiator.

Keith wants to improve his aim when shooting, and manages to find the best sharpshooter around to teach him.

They had trained together, eaten together. Lance had been teaching him how to play the video game, taunting him for how bad he was. When they didn't want to be alone, they seemed to end up together. They didn't always talk, it was just a comfort to be in the presence of someone else.

With Keith now piloting the black lion, and Lance in red, Lance had been feeling content. He knew where he fit, and even though that had been shaken when Shiro returned things quickly settled as Shiro provided support with Coran. Everything seemed to fit together. It clicked.

But the mounting tension between Keith and Shiro was palpable. Shiro being the voice of reason, Keith knowing what he felt was right but being too hot headed to put his point across correctly. Lance had come between them a lot in the heat of argument, attempting to mediate and explain to them what the other party was trying to say. Explain to Keith that there were more immediate problems to deal with than Lotor, who had fallen off the grid. Try and make Shiro understand Keith's point of view, because yes Lotor was a huge problem and his disappearance should be seen as a bad thing, that he was clearly plotting something, they should be trying to track him down when they could.

But Keith and Shiro had risen as leaders, as alphas, and both had very different points of view. And neither would happily bend to the other. The two had some sort of bond, and Keith's respect towards Shiro was obvious, which made issues worse as Keith grew exasperated at Shiro not listening to him. The tension was rising, Keith leaving probably avoided some massive fallout that was quickly approaching.

But Lance felt his absence immediately. He had ran to the kitchen late one night, having had an epiphany when attempting to work out his mother's secret ingredient for her empanadas. He felt his heart fall when he burst into the empty kitchen. Keith had been with Lance through his culinary quest to successfully make a batch of empanadas, Lance had sworn to him that it would be the greatest thing he would ever eat in his life (they had also sworn not to say that last bit to Hunk though). But Keith's chair was empty, his book gone, and Lance lost all motivation to cook. He stored his epiphany away in the back of his mind for when he saw Keith again.

Now, it looked like that may not happen.

Lance was too far away, damn it! Keith's soft voice came through his helmet, his intention to crash his ship and take down the particle barrier.

Lance's heart was in his throat: the rest of the paladins were silent. Stunned. They were too far away to help, stuck out in empty space a million miles away from their friend. They couldn't stop him.

Lance felt Red's sadness match with his own: his own paladin, too far for him to help.

"What do we do, boy?" Lance whispered, stunned. They were both going to lose Keith.

A strange energy built, Red's controls vibrating beneath his touch. It was the feeling when Voltron was falling apart, when the paladin's minds were no longer united and got ripped apart. But it made no sense: surely their minds should be in sync now more than ever.

"What's happening?" Shiro's voice came through Lance's helmet, his concerned face showing on the monitor.

Pidge's face appeared, "We're falling apart!"

"Not now," Allura yelled, "We need to try and help them!"

"Lance?" Hunk's voice came through softly.

The paladins drew silent as Lance said nothing, Red shaking around him.

"Lance?" Hunk urged.

"What's going on?"

"We need to stick together-"

"We need to stay strong for-"

"He wouldn't want us-"

"We need to try-"

"We can do this-"

"He wouldn't-"

"He-"

"He-"

"He isn't here!" Lance yelled. The voices stopped and the shaking grew. Everything shone white for a second, then Lance felt Voltron rip apart from his grief, his unwillingness to accept this.

The team wouldn't make it in time. They couldn't.

But he was in the fastest Lion. He was in the Lion that had a strong bond with Keith. Keith, who needed saving. There had to be something they could do. Red was rearing to go, there had to be something.

As Voltron burst apart, the Red Lion was the first to move, firing forward.

"Lance, get back here," Shiro's stern voice sounded. "That's an order. We need to stick together."

"We aren't going to make it," Lance shook his head, "Not together. But me and Red, we could-"

"Could what?" Shiro said, sounding defeated. "What are you going to do Lance? It's too far. If Voltron can't do anything, what can you do?"

Lance felt a tear escape his eye, run down his cheek. "I won't give up," He said quietly, feeling a strange energy fill his gut. His fists clenched Red's controls, shaking.

"I'm not asking you to give up," Shiro pleaded, "But I need you to think about this. How-"

But Lance didn't hear the rest of what Shiro said. Because he heard Keith. So so quiet, he thought he imagined it, but he felt his gut tug towards a battle across space where his friend was fighting for his life.

"What are you doing, Lance?"

Keith believed these were his final moments, yet he took the time to speak to Lance the way Lance spoke to him when he was being hot headed. When Keith was acting rash, Lance would make him think about exactly what he's doing.

Keith was in danger, and yet Lance was what he was worrying about.

The energy in his gut grew, twisted, burst out.

"Anything!" Lance called, pushing the controls forwards and shutting his eyes against further tears, that strange energy guiding him forward. "Anything to stop you doing this."

"Lance-" Shiro's voice cut through with the weight of authority.

"How are you doing that?" Pidge asked.

"You…you shouldn't…" Allura sounded shocked. "You shouldn't be able to-"

Everything flashed a familiar blue hue, Lance becoming lost in a sea of energy and grief. He clutched at Red's controls, pushing him forward blindly.

"You shouldn't…"

Allura's voice faded away, lost to the roaring in his ears, lost to the familiar cacophony of noise which resided within the wormhole.

"Lance?" Keith's voice somehow made it through the noise. A question strangely holding the weight of a goodbye.

Just that one word. Just his name.