So this first chapter sort-of follows the canon pretty closely, including a lot of similar dialogue, and scenes, with minor alterations or deletions. It will diverge though after this pretty heavily, so please bear with this slower start, I promise it gets better! This chapter we're following Lance, and next chapter we will follow Keith, and learn about all six of the Galra genders at once! Also special thanks to EreAsha for help with brainstorming and ideas, I owe you big time!

Warnings: Mentions of sexual slavery, mentions of rape against non-canon characters, Galra!Keith, Altean!Lance, the Galra have six genders in this, mpreg (kind of because Keith isn't a man and doesn't understand having only two genders), canon-typical violence, slow burn

Lance had always dreamed of being a Voltron paladin. When he was little, he would picture himself as the Black Paladin, a true leader, like it's real paladin. When he was a little older, in his fifties and nearly finished his education he thought maybe being the Red Paladin would be more suited to him. Temperamental and the choosiest of the lions, but even when a spot opened up and even on his one hundredth birthday, it was not to be. Red chose a Khalan that day, accepting it's new paladin, much to Lance's dismay.

No, being a Paladin of Voltron was not in the stars for Lance, it seemed, though he wished it more than anything. Instead he came to work for his people's King, King Alfor. He was one of the greatest kings Altea had ever known, and Lance consoled himself with knowing that Alfor wasn't a Paladin of Voltron either. When Lance had turned one-hundred and twenty, the Black Lion chose a new paladin again, a Galra warrior named Zarkon. Lance was jealous again of that, but he got o work in the Castle of Lions anyways. He didn't get to speak to the Paladins much, they were busy keeping the universe safe from harm. But Lance did get to see the lions a lot.

Lance would visit them all, from time to time, an engineer who worked on them. The Blue Lion always needed the most repair, as Blue Paladin's tended to be a bit reckless. The Red Lion needed the second most amount, their natural skill keeping them safe most of the time, but their hot tempers and impulsiveness causing more problems for them ultimately. Lance longed to be a pilot... but then the war came. The Black Paladin turned on them all, Zarkon leading the Galran army against the Castle of Lions. King Alfor sent the lions away, all save the Black lion, and set a course for a planet far away, safe from Zarkon's reach.

Arus had no sentient life on it, but before they reached it there was an attack by Zarkon. They had to jump, rest, jump, rest, and the fleet caught up with them. Alfor's daughter was already sealed away, the beautiful princess in stasis, safe as could be, and Alfor tried to send the rest of the crew off too. The escape pods were shot at, most being captured or destroyed before they could get away, and Lance grabbed the arm of one of the other men. Coran, he was an advisor to the King, and Lance pulled him to the pods instead.

"We're dead if we go out there, but we might be okay in here right? And the King can let us out if we're okay, and then there's still someone on board who can help, right?" Lance explained.

"That's good thinking there. Let's hope the ship survives it's journey, and if we're still alive on the other side, remind me to get your name!" Coran said as they both entered a pod on their own. The ship did survive the journey, setting down on it's own, empty of life, except for the contents of three pods on the pod-deck.

And so there they slept, for ten thousand years. Alone, quiet, and forgotten by time and the Galra, as the world they had landed on marched on, forming new life, and across the galaxy three people found a yellow lion in a cave on a planet called Earth.

Heavy. Lance felt heavy as he came back to awareness again, and he could hear voices...

"Are these guys... dead?" It was a deeper voice, scared sounding, right before the woosh of his pod opening and Lance blinked his eyes open. Three bipedal creatures stood there in the room. One was crouching behind the control panel, a very short one was standing at the control panel, and a tall one, dressed all in black to the left of the tiny one. The next pod to open contained the princess and as she woke she tried to step forward.

"Father..." She gasped as she reached out and Lance did try to catch her, but he still felt heavy, and like his limbs weren't working quite right. Both of them hit the floor, the princess landing on top of him, which caused Lance to turn bright red.

"P-Princess! Are you alright?" Lance managed to squeak out as she blinked and sat back, confused. She frowned at the sight of the three strange bipeds who were all staring at them too.

"I'm fine... who are you three? Where is King Alfor? And what are you doing in my castle?" She asked, standing back up again. The three bipeds jumped and looked between each other before the dark-skinned, frightened looking one spoke. Lance recognized his voice as the one that had spoken right as his pod had opened.

"A giant yellow lion brought us here! That's all we know!" He whimpered, looking afraid of her. He should be, Princess Allura was much stronger than Lance was, all female Altean's were stronger than the men.

"How do you have the Yellow Lion? What happened to it's Paladin? What are you all doing here? Unless... how long has it been?" Allura asked, her expression concerned. Lance swallowed lightly at the thought... could it really have been long enough for the Yellow Lion to need a new Paladin? What about the other Lions then?

"We... don't know what you're talking about. Why don't you tell us who you are, maybe we can help?" The tall one spoke. He had an obvious scar across his nose, but no gender markers on his cheek bones. They're ears were hideous too, Lance noticed now. He seemed genuine though, paternal in some ways.

"I am Princess Allura, of planet Altea. I've got to find out where we are, and how long we've been asleep," Allura said, walking towards the control panel. It lit up when she touched it and Lance turned his attention to the last pod, one ear twitching lightly when he heard the little one say something. He didn't pay much attention to it as he tapped a few buttons to wake Coran up too. The pod wooshed open and Coran took one look around before gasping.

"ENEMY COMBATANTS!" He shouted as he leaped out of his sleep pod, surprisingly spry considering how heavy Lance had felt. How heavy Lance still felt. Despite that, Lance stepped easily to one side and Coran landed, stumbling into the sleep pod. "Quiznak... you're lucky I have a case of the old sleep-chamber knee's or I'd grab you like this, wrap you up like so and... one, two, three, sleepy time!"

"Coran... it's me. I got into the sleep pod next to you. I'm Altean..." Lance said, looking thoroughly underwhelmed. "And anyways, if I was an enemy combatant, I would whoh! Hyah! Hwuah! Like that!" Lance jumped and punched the air to show him. Not to be out done though, Coran glared and got into a crouch.

"Oh really? Well how could you do that when I've already come at you with this?! Hya, hya, hya, hyey!" He jabbed at the air, while the scared looking alien watched them especially closely.

"Wow... these guys are good!" He mumbled, though he jumped nearly a foot when Allura spoke, suddenly, despite her soft tone which was both dismayed and upset.

"It can't be... we've been asleep for ten thousand years... planet Altea, and all of the planets in our solar system... have been destroyed. Father is gone... our entire civilization..." Her face fell slowly as she spoke and Lance felt like he'd been punched in the gut when she said it. Coran looked how Lance felt too, as though all the air had been sucked right out of him, and despair filled the void it left inside.

"Zarkon..." Allura said next, her eye's narrowing, her tone filled with anger and hate. Lance felt the same, scowling at the name and feeling an intense burning inside. Everything was gone... everything was just... gone. His parents, his siblings, his niece and nephew, not even in their twenties yet and still so tiny! All gone... no. Not gone. Murdered.

"Zarkon... yes. I remember now, I was his prisoner..." The taller alien spoke now, a fearful expression on his face. Lance, Allura, and Coran all looked at him in concern. Lance wanted answers from these aliens, but he knew they had to be gentle. If one of them was a prisoner of the Galra Empire, of Zarkon... then they were likely as innocent as the Altean's had been too.

"He's still alive? But that's impossible!" Allura said, scowling softly. Lance thought so too... Altean's had extraordinarily long life spans, and Galra did have pretty decent ones too... but Lance knew the oldest most Galra lived to be was in their three hundreds, at least for Zarkon's gender. Some lived much longer, but they were mostly druids if he remembered right. He'd known much less about the Galra than he'd realized... four genders... or was it six? And only one gender could give birth... was that right?

"I can't explain it, but it's true. He's searching for a super-weapon called Voltron. I heard them talking about it during my time there," The tall one said, "my name is Takashi Shirogane, by the way. The short one is Pidge Gunderson, and the scared one is Hunk Garret."

"He's searching for it, because he knows it is the only thing that can defeat him. Which is exactly why we must find it before he does. I don't know you very well... even you, I'm afraid, although you are one of the last Altean's too..." She looked to Lance now, her eyes sad. Did... she pity him? Lance didn't like that, it felt uncomfortable.

"Lance... I was one of the mechanic's for the Lion's..." He said, though now... now they had to find out where they had gone.

"Of course. Lance. It is good to have you here too. Come on, all of you. We're going to find the rest of the lions now, and get them back..." She wasn't sure they had enough to form Voltron though. Four... these four seemed to fit what they needed, but no one seemed to fit what they needed for the Red Lion. It was a bit of a walk to the control room, a place Lance had only been a few times before despite living and working here for so long.

"King Alfor connected the lions to Allura's life force. She alone can find the other four lions," Coran said.

"Five lions... so how many of us are going to be pilots?" Shiro asked, looking between them. Allura frowned as she lit up the control panels, the whole galexy seeming to appear inside the control room with them. The three aliens gasped in amazement as they looked around.

"The Black Lion appears to be in the same location as the Yellow Lion..." The small one named Pidge said, looking at the map. So they had kept the Black Lion on board after all? Lance supposed it made sense. The attack had happened before the Black Lion could be hidden, and with no pilot to take it to the corners of the universe...

"Yes. The Black Lion is here. It is the decisive head of Voltron, and it will take a pilot who is a born leader, and in control at all times. Someone who's men will follow without hesitation. That is why Shiro, you will pilot the Black Lion." Allura declared. The alien named Shiro looked pretty serious at that, and Lance had no doubt that Allura was wrong about him. He looked like a leader, and so far the aliens all seemed to deffer to him when he said anything. She spoke of the green lion next, and Lance started tuning her out. She and Coran would likely be the pilots of the other lions too...

"Lance? Lance! Did you hear me? Are you alright?" Allura and the aliens were staring at him suddenly, though mostly with concerned expressions on their faces. His mind had wandered to his family again. He couldn't stop thinking about how gone they were... how he would never even know what happened to them, how they died.

"I... uh... sorry..." He blinked and looked at the small blue lion image in front of him. Wait... him?

"As... I said. Lance, you will pilot the Blue Lion. As for the Red Lion, I fear... we may not be able to find a pilot for it. None of us are suited for it, but it's possible we simply haven't met the Red Paladin yet. It is just as well, as I can't seem to locate the Red Lion either. There might be something wrong with the castle though. After ten thousand years, it wouldn't surprise me..." Allura said with a small smile.

"Alright. Pidge and I will go after the Green Lion then. Lance, Hunk, you two find the Blue Lion. If you manage to locate the Red Lion while we're gone then we'll have to try and get it here, at least, unless we happen to find a paladin for it along the way..." They divided up then, Lance tuning out the new Yellow Paladin as they headed to the doors of the castle again. Everything felt like a dream right now. He was going to pilot one of the lion's of Voltron... and yet... he wanted more than anything to wake up and have this all be a horrific nightmare.