Inside out and Back Again
Two Alteans escape from a Galra prison ship. Claiming to be important to the history of Voltron, they also appear to be crucial to another member of the Team's past. BlackPaladin!Lance, written as a start to Season 3.
"Hunk, look out!" Keith yelled over the com.
Hunk didn't question Keith's instructions, quickly maneuvering the yellow lion away from the Galra cruiser as it fired again. "Don't these guys give up?" he griped, firing his lion's laser back.
"Not much longer, Paladins." Allura's voice came through as Lance's lion soared into view, taking the side of the ship in it's jaws.
His lion.
He really needed to stop calling the blue lion that. Allura drove the blue lion now, at least after the black lion had chosen him. Coran's cheery voice amidst all the chaos reminded him of that too. Coran piloted the castle now. Allura piloted the blue lion. And he piloted the black.
Lance could remember when it had happened. Everyone was so sure Keith was supposed to be the leader now. After all, Keith had quietly recalled the story of when he and Shiro were on that planet, after they'd been separated in the wormhole jump.
"Pidge, you're still shielded, yeah?" he asked, even though he knew the answer. If she and the green lion were visible the massive Galra cruiser would surely have opened fire on them.
And then where would they be? When Shiro disappeared, they hadn't been able to form Voltron for weeks. But they were going to find him, he reminded herself. They would. And then the Black Lion would choose Shiro again, and he'd get back to flying with blue.
Something caught his eye and he pushed aside the memories.
"Que es esto?" Lance muttered. His eyes traced a small grey box as it ejected from the side of the cruiser.
"Lance, you're speaking Spanish again." Hunk interrupted his concentration. "You've been doing that a lot lately."
It was true, Lance had. And it was mostly from communicating with the Black lion. Lance spoke to her almost solely in... well, memories. It was hard to explain, and it really threw him the first time he got in and was reminded of visiting Hunk's family for the first time, feeling welcome but not understood.
Blue spoke in ideas, but Black spoke with empathy. It just so happened most of his memories were with his family, and in Spanish. Which led to a lot of miscommunication, and the resident Alteans being absolutely perplexed that earthlings had so many languages.
"Sorry Hunk. I said what's that?" Lance searched for the box again. "I think there was an escape pod or something."
Then an explosion rocked the Galra cruiser. A torrent of voices filed in.
"Nice shot, Pidge!"
"That wasn't me!"
"Allura?"
"No, I was focusing on the smaller fighters."
"Who just did that?" Lance demanded.
No one replied, and the Galra ship began to swerve, damaged by the blow but not wounded.
Coran scrambled to move the castle, while Pidge tried to use her invisibility to get a better view.
"There is something coming down from the ship!" she cried. "It's heading to the surface of the planet below."
"Follow the pod, Pidge." Lance ordered. "Team, let's try to take out the other smaller ships, it looks like the cruiser is about to jump."
Pidge's lion shot towards the planet below, and the other paladins focused their fire on smaller ships, tearing them apart. The yellow lion bit into three ships, throwing them into another one.
"The cruiser is jumping!" Coran warned.
Lance gunned the black lion, and tore into the three remaining small ships. "We're almost..."
The ship jumped with a mighty scream, trailing debris behind it. There was silence for a moment, punctuated only by quiet, ragged breaths from the paladins.
Then Pidge's voice broadcast over the communicator. "I found the pod. It's damaged, I can't open it, and-" she shrieked a little as whatever was inside of it banged on the outside. "whatever's inside wants out."
"We're coming, Pidge." Lance returned. "Let's go."
"Actually, Princess, we need you back at the castle." Coran stated apologetically. "We need to finish the ranged teleduv-"
"-remote control teleduv." Hunk corrected.
"...and I'm afraid Slav and I can't do it alone." Coran finished.
"I'll be back in a moment, Coran. Paladins, stay safe." Allura urged, before turning the blue lion around and flying back to the castle.
The other paladins pointed the noses of the Lions down, breaking through the atmosphere.
-v-
"Are you guys hurrying?" Pidge demanded, fear edging into her voice. "This thing wants out!"
"We're coming Pidge." Keith assured her. "Just hold on."
"It's just... green is giving me weird feelings. I think she's worried." Pidge muttered.
Hunk's voice was somewhere between teasing and correction. "I think you're worried."
"We're both worried." Pidge admitted.
Hunk took note of this. "Green's still invisible, but uh... maybe we should park the other lions further away."
"There's some trees-" Pidge wondered if she could call them trees. She silently remarked that they looked more like coral and a playground structure had a baby, but nevertheless it was the only real form of shelter out here. "You see them?"
The paladins all affirmed, setting their lions down. As soon as they exited, jogging to join Pidge, they could hear the clanging.
"What's in there?" Hunk gripped his Bayard a little tighter, but didn't activate it.
"Probably another robeast." Keith muttered. He, unlike Hunk, did activate his Bayard.
The banging on the pod picked up. It was a furious pounding.
and then it stopped.
"...wh-" Pidge was shushed silently by Lance, who crept towards the pod. He pressed his ear against the side.
At first, all he could hear was the nervous shuffling of the Paladins behind him. He filtered out them as best he could, and heard something.
"That's a person!" He cried. "Someone's screaming in there!"
The banging picked up again.
"Whoa, whoa- " Hunk shook his head. "Are you sure?"
"Person, in the pod, if you can hear me, hit twice."
BANG BANG
"Okay, um..." the other paladins broke into hushed discussion as Lance thought over his next question.
"Are you Galra?" Keith demanded, interrupting Lance.
"Keith, that's not a yes or no question." Lance huffed. "One knock for yes. Two for no."
BANG BANG.
"Are you hurt?"
BANG BANG.
"Are you a girl?"
The entire team booed at him. "C'mon, Lance."
"This is pertinent information!" Lance reassured them.
There was a weird break, then a light tap on the pod.
BANG... BANG.
"Oh. You're a guy."
That same lighter tap. Twice.
"This might be the Yupper again." Pidge muttered.
"Um, can you knock once?"
BANG.
"You aren't a monster, right?"
BANG.
"Okay, that's good." Lance concluded. "We're gonna get you out, OK? Hunk?"
Hunk nodded, and began to look around the pod. The sliding doors were bent to not be able to open, and it was severely scorched. "I'd just need something to pry it with." he concluded.
There was a moment before Keith realized Hunk was looking at him.
Or more accurately, his sword.
"No way." he argued. "You could break it."
"I can't hold your Bayard without it deactivating." Hunk reminded him. "Lance can do blue and black, but I can't do two colors, dude. You'd be the one prying it."
Lance could. When he held Shiro's Bayard- his Bayard - for the first time, it had fired up. And so had the blue one he was still holding. The blue one - he was handing it to Allura - turned into the rifle he was so used to holding, and the black? Some sort of cross bow. It looked awesome, but not useful for prying doors.
Keith shook his head.
"Keith, that thing has survived worse than a pod." Pidge reminded him.
Sighing, Keith moved to do just that. "If this pod turns out to have a sentient robeast in it-" he shoved the sword into the crack. "I am killing it and then all of you." the doors slid open.
Immediately they were met with muffled exclamations. Packed inside the pod were two people, a girl and a boy. They appeared to be around the height of Lance, but since they were crouching he couldn't tell.
Clad in the typical purple and black uniform of Galra prisoners, their hands were cuffed behind them. They also had thick black rags wound around most of their faces, and presumably gagged with them as well, leaving only their eyes.
And what eyes. The girl's were deep blue, and were steeled against them. The boy's were a dark grey.
"Hey!" Lance stepped forward, pushing Keith back as he went. "We're here to- OOF!" The girl ran and shoved her shoulder into him, knocking him over. She turned expectantly to the boy.
He shook his head, and sat down.
She paused, as if shocked by the sudden turn of events. Keith took the opportunity to grab her around the neck. It was quite a feat, since she stood a few inches above him. He pressed his sword to her throat, and she made a muffled scream.
"I'm gonna take these rags off. And you better tell us what you're doing." he hissed.
Lance got up, holding his stomach. "We just rescued you!"
Keith, still holding the Bayard to her throat, reached up to unwind the rags around the girl's head. He saw a head of light orange hair, cut in a ragged bob. But what the other Paladins, looking to Keith, saw, was something else.
The dark pink markings, beneath her eyes. And the pointed ears.
"You're Altean!" Pidge gasped.
She struggled against Keith, muttering something. Keith untied her gag hesitantly.
She spoke harshly, in an accent like Allura or Coran. "What are you doing in the armor of the Voltron paladins?" she demanded. "Who are you?"
"We're the paladins." Lance responded. "And we just saved your butt. And his-" he pointed to the boy still waiting silently in the pod, cross legged on the floor. "Whoever he is."
"You're not the Paladins. Where's the blue paladin, then?" She demanded.
"I'm right- she's back at the castle." Lance flubbed. Black paladin. He reminded himself.
"Her? King Alfor, you mean? Look, fake red paladin, let me do. My hands are already restrained." she insisted.
Hunk shrugged his shoulders. "She did take out Lance, dude, even without her arms."
Keith didn't budge. "Shouldn't someone keep an eye on him?" he gestured to the boy, who was quietly watching it all.
"I think it's beyond that." she muttered.
"What's that supposed to m-" The paladins turned in shock as the Green lion's shield lowered. The boy, with some difficulty, stood, exited the pod and turned to face Green.
He bowed.
And to the surprise of everyone else, the Green Lion roared.
Keith lowered his Bayard, as the boy now turned to him. He walked forward, standing before him.
"He wants you to take off his rags too." The girl suggested. "My hands are kind of busy."
Pidge held out her bayard. "Here, I can probably get those." She cut the girls cuffs, and she rubbed her wrists.
Keith unwound the boy's rags as well. His hair was short, bright orange, and the light blue marks under his eyes testified he was Altean as well.
He spoke. "My name is Garrett. You've met Gale." He then focused specifically on Pidge. "And I'm the Green Paladin. My question is, who are you?"
Pidge sputtered over her words. "I... I'm the green paladin! I mean, you clearly just did something to Green there, so I don't think you're lying but- you might have been the original pilot? And I'm the new one?" she fidgeted her fingers.
"New paladins?" Garrett looked to Gale, then back to Pidge. "King Alfor must have thought we died." he said sadly. "Zarkon took us captive when he tried to seize Voltron."
"Zarkon took the green lion into his ship." Continued Gale. "Garrett was unconscious, but I managed to fight for a while. At least until one of his Galra friends shot me. Garrett and I woke up in a cell just a few spicolians ago. We've been trying to escape since."
Keith shook his head. "That was 10,000 years ago."
"Yeah, and we took down Zarkon." Hunk added.
Gale stood a little closer to Garrett. "10,000 years?" she asked. "We must've been put into cryo-sleep." She shook her head. "That means everyone's gone. Mother, father... the little ones."
"I'm sure they never forgot us." Garrett said simply. Gale stared at her feet. Pidge took the opportunity to use her Bayard to slice Garrett's cuffs.
"I still don't understand how the Green Lion bonded with you." Garrett's grey eyes locked with Pidge's light brown. "When I was still alive."
"Maybe Allura could explain." Hunk suggested.
"Princess Allura?" Gale blinked. "She hasn't..."
"Allura's the blue Paladin now." Lance offered. "Did you know her?"
"Well of course." Gale replied. "I was a part of team Voltron too, even if I didn't fly a lion. Every little girl on Altea wanted to be her." she smiled. "Then it's settled. You're taking us to see Princess Allura."
Lance nodded. "Yeah. You could ride in my lion if you want." he offered, extending a hand to her in what he hoped was a flirty move.
Gale didn't take his hand, but did pat it sort of apologetically. "I'm sorry for rushing into you with my shoulder." She smiled, and her face turned a little pink.
"I'll ride with Green. It's been too long." Garrett began to walk towards the green lion. Pidge just stared, her mouth open slightly. She was a little dazed by Garrett's directness.
"Okay." She shrugged. "I guess that's happening."
-v-
Keith stood by Hunk as the other two paladins took Garrett and Gale to their lions. "I don't like this." Keith muttered.
"I dunno, dude. I mean, Garrett and the green lion? He could be the actual Green Paladin. The old one, I mean. Allura never told us about the other paladins. Gale just dropped that King Alfor was the blue, how weird is that?" Hunk and Keith started to their lions as well, a few steps behind Lance and Gale.
-v-
"I was so sure you were scavengers, and then when I saw the armor, I... panicked." Gale was apologizing still, although at this point it seemed more like excuses. Not that Lance minded. He usually was the one scrambling to fill silences. They made him nervous.
Plus, he was watching Gale as she spoke. It wasn't that she was pretty, she was worse for wear actually. Her hair looked like it had been cut herself without a mirror. And especially not in shapeless Galra prisoner clothes.
She just reminded him of someone.
-v-
The ride to the castle for Pidge was painful. Garrett stayed towards the back of green, muttering things and letting machinery. Pidge felt like he was talking about her. To her lion.
Old paladin or not, Green chose her.
-v-
Lance hailed Allura through the radio. "Hey Allura? We found who was in that pod. Get this: Alteans."
"What?"
-v-
The paladins intercepted the princess in the hangar. As Garrett and Gale defended from the black and green lions, Allura felt her eyes shoot open. She turned to the nearest paladin, which happened to be Hunk. "Go get Coran." she whispered.
"Gale! Garrett!" she ran to them, a smile stretching across her face. She flung her arms around Gale's neck, and the taller girl hugged her back. "You need to explain everything, I need to explain everything... just wait, someone..."
"No." Coran's voice came from behind the paladins, soft and shaky. "No, it can't be."
Gale's hands flew to her mouth. Garrett wrapped an arm around her waist. Tears pricked at both of their eyes.
"Dad?" Gale whispered, as tears rolled down her face. "It's really us."
Coran sprinted. He ran faster than he had in all his life, faster than when the Galra were attacking. Faster than when he thought he'd lost his kids. And he grabbed them both. He hugged them close, sobbing into their shoulders. And they held him.
"Not a Quintant has gone by where I didn't think of you two," he insisted. "I thought you were gone, I thought I'd lost you."
The Paladins watched silently. It settled guiltily on each of them. None of them had thought to ask Coran about his life before the end of Altea.
"Dad, it is us, we're okay." Gale smiled through tears, wiping away at some of them.
Garrett added, in a solemn voice: "But we've got bad news."
(A/N: whoop! first chapter done. I hope you liked it, and be sure to leave a review! Coran was such a great space uncle that I needed to give him kids. And consequently write some angst about it. That part, my friends, comes soon. :0 )