It's in My Blood
Chapter 1
Lance's uncle Hector is immortal.
It's not a joke and he isn't really Lance's uncle. Hector is 236 years old and Lance's great-great-grandfather but calling him uncle Hector raises less questions.
Lance thinks uncle Hector must have been pretty lonely those first 100 years. He 41 when his mother died. She was 62 and they had spent his whole life moving around, just the two of them to hide the fact that he had stopped aging. Hector trusted very few people with his secret. One of those people was Edelira Castillo, Lance's great-great-grandmother. She wasn't immortal but a few of her descendants would be. A granddaughter, 7 great-grandchildren, and 23 great-great-grandchildren. That last number is still growing. Luckily there seems to be an easy test to find the immortal children, they can change their physical appearance.
When lance is seven his sister turns blue for three weeks. They have to pull her out of school and she ends up repeating that year.
After that uncle Hector gathers all of the children in Lance's family and teaches them all to meditate. Lance isn't really all that interested in meditating until it's discovered that cousin Emmy has been growing at an alarming rate since the meditation classes started. After that Lance is determined to learn meditation. He grows an inch. His Mother has to explain to her disappointed son that his growth is completely normal.
The thing is in Lance's family Emmy's growth is completely normal. This immortality thing seems to be genetic and since Hector never knew his Dad they can't say for sure how far back it goes. Family reunions are filled with debates over if immortality is a genetic mutation? Was Hector's mom a saint blessed with an immortal child or was she a witch? Perhaps they are some other magical creature and the whole family takes an interest in mythologies from around the world.
The point is Lance is used to his strange semi-immortal family. It takes him longer than maybe it should have to recognize him family in the Alteans
"Quick question for you Coran, if the castle is 600 years old and was built by your grandfather and he showed it to you when you were growing up, how old are you?" Lance asked during down time between training.
"Give or take 10,000 years," Coran chuckles at his own joke, "I'm 368 y ears old."
All the humans sit up straighter to turn and look at Coran.
"Jeez," Pidge finally says.
Coran is a little bit offended by that. "I'm no BevWader but I assure you I still retain the strength of my youth."
Shiro steps in to soothe Coran's hurt pride. "Pidge didn't mean to insult your age Coran, it's just that the average human lives to be about 80."
"In a few extreme cases we can live to over a 100 but not for much longer after that." Hunk continues for Shiro.
When Coran continues to stare at them Lance explains "The oldest recorded human lived to be 122 years old." Unrecorded is a whole different story, Lance mentally adds. As everyone else starts discussing the difference between human and altean lifespans Lance wonders if any of his younger cousins have started exhibiting "The Signs," and tries not to feel homesick.
Blue has had 39 paladins. Lance counted, Blue doesn't count them. She has no concept of numbers but she remembers all her paladins. Every name and face, where they came from and what they did, all their strengths and flaws.
For a magic robotic cat that's probably as old as the universe Lance thought she would have more paladins. Turns out a 10,000 years gap between paladins is not the longest she's waited for a new paladin. Even if Lance was as old as his uncle, or even better Coran, his life still wouldn't even be a blip on the timeline for Blue's life.
It leaves Lance even more in awe of Blue and her loyalty. He's not just a paladin, he's her paladin. Blue will remember him forever and long after he dies and when nobody even knows what a galra is Blue will tell her new paladins about him. She does the same for Lance now. One of those pilots (whose name was the feeling of finding contentment in life) was a larvae version of a Balmera. In his later years long after he became too big to manually pilot Blue they would fly side by side through space together.
Karr-ka-ka (it was pronounced with a growl produced from the secondary vocal cords) was in a revolution before blue flew out of the sky and insisted they had to be her pilot. Blue can't really tell Lance how long it took to convince Karr but Lance gets the feeling Karr had a giant blue lion following her around for several Earth months.
Helma was the last Blue Paladin and an Altean. She personally brought Blue to Earth; obeying her king and fleeing the battle field. It was the hardest thing she ever had to do. On Earth Helma joined a human tribe, had three husbands, and two children. For as long as Helma was alive she and Blue protected their tribe. That's where the cave paintings that Keith was researching came from.
"The Altean's are a chameleon-like people that can blend in with the local populace."
Lance very nearly shouts out: My uncle can do that too. But he's too well conditioned not to do that. It's a secret, a family secret. The team is shaping to be his family away from family but he still figures he'd have to get permission first before spilling that secret.
He thinks about the similarities between Allura and his uncle after she, Shiro, and Keith leave. He thinks about Helma's children. They were half Altean. He wants to talk to Coran about his theory but they are in the middle of mission right now. Later, Lance thinks, when things aren't so tense.
Later, when Allura doesn't come back from the ship she and Shiro were infiltrating and the team is racing off to fight Zarkon head on, Lance pushes his crazy idea to the back of his mind.
During Lance's childhood, when he was learning to meditate, one of his cousins asked uncle Hector what was the strangest thing he had ever shapeshifted into. Instead of changing into some blobby yellow monster uncle Hector's ears grew longer and pointed, his iris of his eyes change into a kalidescope of pastel colors, and little blue crescents appeared under his eyes. Everyone was severely disappointed.
"I know it's not what you were expecting kids but this look is by far my strangest. When I change I reflect what those around me look like, human and animal. But when I use this form I can think of nothing on this earth that looks like this and I only look like this when I want nothing else but to be me."
In a rare show of seriousness Lance and his cousins were unusually quiet as they mulled over what it could mean, until Stella said Hector must be an elf. Meditation for the day quickly turned into a debate about what uncle Hector looked like. Stella was pretty fierce with her defense.
When the dream ended and Lance woke up on the floor of Blue's cockpit he wished he had had that chance to talk to Coran, and the Princess. If something had happened to them or if they never found him he would never get the chance to tell them they weren't the last Altean's, there were a few dozen waiting back on Earth.
The moon Lance had landed, read crashed, on was inhabited. The locals didn't seem to care that a giant blue lion had landed just over a mile from their village. In fact they seemed to be actively avoiding acknowledging Lance and Blue. It was a little insulting and a lot lonely. And like with anything that pissed Lance off he got right in their face. He would hang out in the village with his free time. With how determined Lance was to be treated like a local it was almost inevitable that Lance began to look like them. First Lance shrunk several inches then his skin took on a green hue. Lance never became as short as the villagers and he didn't grow any extra appendages but to Lance it was the final nail in the coffin, he was part Altean. He hopes he lives long enough to tell his uncle.
Lance was in the village when Blue received a signal from the castle. She told Lance and he quickly ran back to the crash site where Blue was hanging out. By the time he got into the cockpit the castle was close enough that they can talk to each other. Lance is the first paladin the Alteans have found. It scares Lance that he still doesn't know where his teammates are but it is kind of poetic that Coran and Allura will be first to find out about Lance and his family.
They have to wait until the castle has entered the atmosphere before Lance can fly up to meet them. Blue is too beat up too safely exit the atmosphere. It's torture waiting for them to get close enough and when Lance finally flies up to meet them he is vibrating with anticipation. Coran and Allura are waiting for him in Blue's hanger. As soon as Lance exits Blue it's clear he is too short and too green.
The reunion hugs are mixed in with confused questions and Allura pulling on his ears. They're still round and human looking so Lance doesn't understand why she's doing it but still lets it happen, he's too happy to care. In the joy of the moment Lance forgets what it feels like to be blending in at the village. Instead of going back to normal he must have changed into an Altean if Allura and Coran's increased excitement is anything to go off of. Allura is pulling at his ears again.
Once they calm down and are siting on the floor of the hanger Lance begins to explain.
"So I got this immortal uncle except he's not really my uncle and I guess he's not really immortal." Lance starts. "He's actually my great-great-grandpa, way older than any human should be, and I think a descendent of the Helma."
"The last Blue Paladin," Coran whispers to himself.
"Yeah, her. Obviously she came to Earth and according to Blue she had two kids. One of them is most likely my ancestor."
"Why didn't you say anything?" Allura asks.
"Probably because I didn't realize it until you turned into a Galra. When you turned all purple I realized you are two are a lot like my uncle. After we got separated I remembered when I was seven and my uncle showed me what he called his 'true' form. It was Altean." Lance answers.
Allura looks pensive for a few seconds. "At the risk of sounding selfish," Allura finally says, "I would really like to visit Earth after we find the other paladins."
Lance's face lights up and his new eyes widen. "You won't hear any complaining form me Princess."
"Even though before it benefited me I was against letting you return?"
"Of course not, this is about family. When Pidge was going to leave to find her Dad and brother nobody blamed her. We were scared and concerned but were understood what finding her family meant to her." Lance stands up and holds out a hand to Allura to pull her up too. "Speaking of those other guys we should get back to finding them or else I might just have to save the universe without them. I mean I could do it but that sounds like a lot of work."