This is based upon (and gets its title from) tucker-draws-things's fabulous crossover over on tumblr!
It is still unfolding post by post, but everything about it has been incredible so far- the artwork and concept are fantastic and the Lion designs are just about the coolest things I've ever seen. So you should definitely check it out :D
This story takes place post-Trailblazer and pre-Voltron episode 1.
Safe Upon the Shore
May 29, 2017
The sky is an inky black, scattered with trails of stars every way he turns.
Setsuna has spent most of his life— hundreds and hundreds of years— in space but never has it felt like such an empty and unforgiving void.
He is alone, cast out into the bitter cold of the night sky itself. The Turn A has set him adrift and he wanders aimlessly through the universe until he finds the planet with the dark castle.
His feet move toward it of their own accord— he is drawn inside by something he cannot name. Even after he has passed through the doors and walked the deserted corridors, he does not know what has brought him here.
But he walks until night has fallen on this foreign planet and when he returns to the entrance of the castle, he is no longer alone.
The Lions have accompanied him to the night, although he does not know who or what they are, yet. He knows only that a great presence has awoken from this castle and he turns his face toward the sky until it resolves itself into five distinct beings.
The ground disappears from beneath Setsuna's feet and, when he looks down, he finds that the planet and its dead castle have likewise vanished.
He is suspended between the stars, but it is not cold. And he is not alone.
Something is behind him, something that burns with power and he turns, quickly, to face it.
The Red Lion stands its ground silently as it watches Setsuna. It makes no move to attack, or to talk, but great orange flames rise from its body to lick around its head and its eyes burn so brightly that they kindle something inside Setsuna as well.
Yes, he thinks he understands.
And as soon as he does, the flames disappear. Setsuna turns in vain as he looks for the Lion and its blazing heart.
There is nothing here but silence and stars.
And then movement, and a strange slowly swishing sound above him. He reacts too late— there is pressure on his shoulder and nothing solid beneath his feet. Panic builds as he is turned with webbed fingers and he has not felt this vulnerable in centuries.
But the Blue Lion's garb flows gently around them and its eyes shimmer with ebbing light, begging him to understand.
The power of the gathering storm and the roar of the waves is not meant for him, but another.
Setsuna stares with wide eyes and then he nods.
And then this Lion too, is gone.
The Green Lion calls to him with a muted, warbled cry.
He turns to see its thin limbs outstretched and he reaches out to take hold of its hands. They close around him like thorns, but do not pierce him. They are one with the hoary branches protruding from its back and the new growth of soft pale flowers across its face.
The forest asks that it may end its age-long vigil.
When the Lion disappears, Setsuna is already waiting for the arrival of the next.
It comes with a gust of wind that is familiar to Setsuna as the land in which he was born. It comes with warmth, and with light, which it bestows upon him gently, from its rough, sandy hands.
It is both the sunrise and the stone from the foundations of the earth itself. And Setsuna feels comforted as the Yellow Lion finally draws away.
The quiet moments that follow grow long enough that Setsuna wonders if this is everything— if he is being left alone again with this.
He does not think that he minds, even though he could search the four corners of the unknown universe before finding all that these beings seek. Such rare lives, such strong souls, these paladins that were to be.
But the Lions have not finished with him yet, he realizes as the stars themselves begin to blur until they become something not-quite-solid but more real than anything he has seen in any world.
The Black Lion is everything— it is the cosmos itself, the heart of the universe and everything contained therein. It is old and it is strong and it has been wounded more deeply than words could describe in any language, in any tongue.
Tears spring unbidden to fall down Setsuna's face as he stares upward.
The Lion's hands— each finger longer than his head— curl around his face with infinite tenderness as it bends toward him.
It understands Setsuna and Setsuna understands it as well.
He knows who the Lions seek.
He knows where they will be found.
He knows—
And it is when he knows that the Black Lion smiles and shimmers back into stardust.
He knows where he must go.