A/N: Hey, guess who found a new fandom! That's right. Me. This fic takes place right after Shiro comes back and before he takes the Black Lion over again from Keith. Everything that happened up until then still happens, but this is a bit of a... divergence. I hope you enjoy it and if you do, please leave a comment because I'm still determining whether or not I'm going to make this into a full work.
"Ow…" Pidge mumbled, rubbing her head where some damned piece of alien technology had fallen after she jostled the precarious tower. "Who's idea was it to stack electronics on more electronics? Where's the organization?"
She was in a back room that she had accidentally turned into after taking a wrong turn. The door looked like all the rest; there were no Altean words written on top of the frame of beside it to distinguish it from any other entry. When she had pushed on it, it had remained firmly shut. Obviously, this meant that there was something inside worth hiding.
Or the door was just stuck.
After a few minutes of poking and prodding the door, then bashing and busting, Pidge was finally able to get the door open… and was greeted by a dark, dusty room filled to the brim with forgotten technology.
There were boxes thrown this way and that filled with tarnished metal. When she unlocked the hatch on a smaller object, roughly the size of her fist, sad and frayed wires stared back. She reached for a light switch to help her see more of the room, but she bumped into the stack next to her, sending the leaning tower of tech toppling down.
"There is no organization of course!" A chipper voice said behind her. She turned to glare at Coran who had poked his head into the room unceremoniously. "This is a technology dump of sorts."
"A technology… dump?" Pidge asked as she raised an eyebrow.
"Well, yeah. When some contraption broke down, we just put it back here. Why?" He posed the question to himself, stroking his mustache thoughtfully, "I honestly have no clue why we didn't just throw them out."
"You mean, they didn't try to fix things? They just… tossed alien technology into a back room when it stopped working?" Pidge asked incredulously.
Coran looked at her oddly, "Why would we try to fix it if we could just get a new one at the next stop? Alteans were a well-traveled species; going light years just for another transmographer or some such like that was practically nothing to us. If something wasn't easily fixed and was easily found or bought," he shrugged, "we just got a new one."
Pidge looked at him with a gleam in her eyes, "Some of this stuff could still be functional then? This is like, a treasure trove of alien technology!" She grabbed the nearest item and hugged it to her chest almost lovingly. She pushed her glasses further up her nose, "I'll see you in a few days."
Coran shook his head and followed her, "Only you would look at a technology dump and call it a treasure trove."
-
Sweat dripped from Keith's face. The training room was far hotter than it needed to be, especially when he was trying to demolish these machines. He swung his bayard from side to side, keeping two at bay while sizing up the last one. His breaths came in short and sharp bursts and a pain in his side, just below his ribs reminded him that he had gotten lazy earlier on and allowed one of them to score a hit.
He closed his eyes to collect himself for a split second, then attacked. The bayard sliced through the air, causing a soft whistling sound as it swung towards its mark. As soon as the sword struck, Keith was already jumping back and to the side, out of the reach of all three.
Just as quickly as he had jumped back, he jumped forward, jabbing the bayard into a weak portion of the gladiator's armor and effectively killing it. He allowed himself a split second reprieve to breathe and blink. His dark hair was partially stuck to his cheek with sweat, and his muscles thrummed with energy.
The two remaining opponents attacked together, coming at Keith from the left and the right and swinging their weapons so that it would hit him from the front and back. His instincts took over as he threw himself to the floor and somersaulted forward, landing back on his feet and spinning.
He surrendered himself to the dance that was battle. His bayard swung in wide arcs and thrust forwards with quick jabs. He blocked and parried both weapons at once, and felt the jolt as his sword stopped mid-swing inside of the gladiator in front of him. Keith let go of the handle quickly and spun through his momentum facing his last opponent.
One left and no weapon.
Keith smiled; he had this. The gladiator attacked first, rushing forward like a bull that had seen red and jabbing the pole like a spear. Keith dropped to the floor and rolled on his side, then he reached up and grabbed the weapon as it passed where he had been standing. His hand slid along the smooth metal for a few moments before his gloves caught and pulled him straight up and back on his feet.
The force from dropping, rolling, and standing so quickly threw off his center of balance, and he was on the ground again, with the gladiator on top of him, still grappling with the pole and thrashing left and right to try and get it. The length made it impossible to roll to either side and gain the upper hand, so Keith threw his legs in the air and used the momentum to flip them over.
With the gladiator between his legs, Keith was able to keep it immobile as he wrenched the pole from its grasp and thrust it quickly into the single glass eye and watching as the machinery went dark beneath him.
He panted heavily, the sweat dripping from his brow into his eyes and stinging them. He rolled off of the pile of metal and onto the cold floor, staring up at the ceiling and letting the fresh air wash over his body.
"End training sequence." Keith breathlessly spoke feeling as the gladiator's bodies dropped around him. He groaned and stood up, stretching his burning muscles to that they didn't cramp up later.
"I bet I could take on four." A voice said behind him, and if he weren't already trying to catch his breath and control his breathing, he would have groaned. Instead, he simply leaned further into the stretch and closed his eyes willing Lance just to disappear.
Unfortunately, the impossible wouldn't pass today, "Maybe I could even take five or six." he continued wistfully. "I don't think I could take seven; I mean, even I have limits, but I could most definitely take on four."
"Under any other circumstances, I would love to watch you get your ass handed to you by a couple of robots." Keith sighed and turned to glare at the paladin who was blocking the way back into the hallway, "But right now, I just want to stretch and take a shower."
Lance laughed and moved into the room. His olive coat caught the air and took up far more space than it needed to. Keith bent down, pulling his head to his knee trying to find comfort in the ache that was making itself apparent.
Lance snorted in mock disgust, "You're so sweaty. Why don't you just accept that guns are better than swords and save yourself from feeling disgusting?"
Keith sighed again, "Because I can't control my bayard just like you can't control yours." He moved to his other side, his forehead resting on his knee. The sweat drifting up his face was odd but slightly comforting. He smiled as he blew a small stream of air onto his overheating skin. "And, swords are so much cooler than guns."
"Uh-huh." Lance said doubtfully, "I'm absolutely sure you're wrong."
Keith closed his eyes; there was no getting out of this conversation, "Prove it."
"What?" Confusion played across Lance's face, "What do you mean 'prove it'? It's a fact of life. Guns are better than swords just as I am better than you." He said, pointing at himself and Keith alternatingly.
"If you can't prove it, then it can't be true." Keith said, "Swords are better because when you fight, you flow. With a gun, you just stand there."
"Well, then guns are better because you don't get all sweaty. You don't have to smell your enemy's breath. You can just chill with a nice glass of lemonade as you kill your foes."
Keith stood up and shrugged, pulling his arm across his chest, "You can think what you like. Everyone's entitled to their own stupid opinion." He fought to keep the smirk off his lips, but it was a losing battle, so he turned before Lance could see. His red jacket was in the corner of the room, and he picked up his red bayard on the way.
"Um, excuse you, but I think you're entitled to your stupid opinion. Guns are better." Lance called after him.
"Swords are better, and I need to shower." Keith said, swinging his jacked behind him, "But sometime later, I would love to watch you take on six of those bastards."
-
Lance sighed as he watched Keith walk away from him down the hall. His back was drenched in sweat, and his mullet looked wet and slicked back. One of his hands had moved to his side where he had taken a hit earlier on in the fight, but other than that, there was nothing that bespoke that he had been fighting three robots just a few moments before.
Lance turned into the room and took off his olive jacket, tossing it to the floor and taking out his bayard which immediately took the form of his gun. The weight was familiar in his hands, and he breathed easily; he could do this.
"Start previous sequence." He spoke into the empty room. Everything was quiet for a few moments before three gladiators fell from the ceiling and crashed around him. They were spaced equally: one in front of him, one behind and to his left, the last behind and to his right.
Wasting no time, he shot a beam into the one immediately in front of him and ran towards it to make more room between the other two and himself. Range was key when you were fighting with a gun, and your opponents were all mele.
In front of him, the gladiator emdodged/em his shot. What the hell? They had never done that before. What difficulty had Keith set these damn machines to?
Every other thought flew from his mind as the bot in front of him started swinging the pole really fucking fast right at Lance's face, and Lance was running full speed into the swing. He felt the panic rise and catch in his throat, and all he could focus on was the pole, pole, pole.
By some stroke of luck, the fact that his legs gave out underneath him saved him from the impending broken face. He fell to one side, and his useless legs caught the gladiator's and took the bot down with him. Maybe they were good for one thing. He had managed to hold onto his bayard during his fall, so he aimed it straight at the single lit eye that stared back at him.
There wasn't a lot of dodging a robot could do at point blank.
It's head literally exploded with a flash of white and orange light. A few pieces of shrapnel flew off in different directions, and one of them burned a line into the skin right on his cheekbone. Lance didn't feel any pain, which he thought was odd because it had hit him right below his left eye which is a pretty damn important part of his body. All that he felt was heat followed by chilling cold. He knew that things could get cold enough to burn like if you stuck your hand in ice water, or lied in the snow for a while. Could things get so hot that they got cold? Or was that just that it had gotten really hot and then the air cooled it down to the-
The other two gladiators were still running towards him with their pole weapons held at the ready. Lance shot twice as he gracelessly clambered to his feet and backpedaled away from the two of them. He was already breathing heavily. Damn it, he just ran for a short burst and got up off the floor; he should not be winded at all.
Of course, the two gladiators dodged the two shots that were fired back at them. Of course, they couldn't make Lance's life any easier by just dropping dead. Of course, Keith had them set on some ungodly level of proficiency. Of course.
"¡Quédate y muere!" He shouted in frustration, shooting several more times and finally hitting one of them in the arm, throwing it off balance and slowing it down enough to focus on the other one.
The other one which was right on top of him.
Lance huffed as the cold metal slammed him into the ground. His bayard flew from his hands and skidded across the floor. The smoothness of the floor allowed it to skid several feet away from him.
Lance groaned under the gladiator. It was over; he was without a weapon, the castle would drop him and deactivate the sequence.
The gladiator was still moving.
Weren't they supposed to stop when the weapon was released? No, that wasn't right. Keith had fought that last one without his bayard and without the sequence shutting off. The robot was now right on top of him, straddling Lance's hips and raising the pole-weapon above his head, getting ready to slam it down.
Panic thrummed through Lance's body. He was a ranged fighter, in hand-to-hand combat he was as good as useless if not detrimental. He threw his body weight left to right to dislodge the robot from above him. The gladiator swung down, and Lance dodged the best he could to the left. He felt the emwhoosh/em of air as the weapon slammed right beside his head.
"¡Para!" He screamed, trying to push it off of him. Nothing happened, "Fuck! Uh- end training sequence!" The light from its lens instantly went out, and the robot collapsed on top of him. He struggled to get the dead weight of the cold metal off of him, "Bájese de mí." He groaned.
Without further ado, the lifeless metal rolled off of him and fell through the floor. He had killed one. Out of three. And he had told Keith that he would take on six.
Fuck him.
-
"Lance, you in here?" Hunk called into the empty room. His voice echoed back to him an answer. "Guess not." He sighed; Lance wasn't in the kitchen, the dining hall, the pool, Hunk's room, the bridge, or his room.
Pidge was too wrapped up in her new finds to pay much mind to him and just pointed to where she had last seen him. Coran had been watching Pidge and offering what little insight he could to help her figure out the machine, and he had shrugged unhelpfully. Allura hadn't seen him since lunch; Shiro hadn't seen him since breakfast.
Hunk moved down the halls to look for Keith; maybe Lance had stopped to bother him again. He rounded the corner to the training room only to see… Lance? Lying on the floor.
"Lance? Buddy? Are you dead?" He walked toward the still figure and saw just in time for Lance to comically stick out his tongue and take a deep breath, ready to hold it. The yellow paladin laughed before feigning sorrow, "No, my friend!" He fake-bawled, holding Lance's head to his chest, "How will I ever move on? He will never know that I figured out how to program his favorite dish into the goo. He will never taste paella again!"
"Paella?" Lance's eyes flew open, and his forehead slammed into Hunk's. After the brief amount of pain, they both dissolved into laughter.
"I thought you were dead." Hunk monotoned.
"Paella is enough to bring me back from the dead any day," Lance said, getting to his feet. "Did you really figure it out?"
"Yeah," Hunk shrugged, "The goo machine had a little bit of difficulty with the flavor of muscles because, for some reason, none of these other alien species eat filter feeders. The flavor of shrimp was easy, and so was the rice. It's not going to be the same, obviously, but it's as close as you're gonna get to it."
"Yesssss!" Lance dragged the 's' out and pumped his fist in the air, "I am going to live off of this stuff for the rest of my life. I hope you know that."
The yellow paladin laughed, "Yeah, I figured as much. Anyways… Do I even want to know why you were lying pretending to be dead on the floor just now? I've been looking for you for an hour or so."
Lance groaned, "I'm fucked, Hunk. I'm so fucked. I saw Keith fight these three training robots and I told him that I could fight six no problem. Because, that's just what I do, y'know? BUT, instead of following his usual trend of just ignoring whatever I say, he actually registered that I said that I would fight these six guys.
"I'm already thinking 'Oh, shit. What did I get myself into.' But, now it's too late to back out. So, as soon as he leaves, I start the same sequence that he ran and do you know how many I managed to take out?"
"Guessing from your enthusiasm, I'm going to say zero." Hunk provided.
Lance's face fell in faux hurt "Why do you have so little faith in me? I managed to take down one. I slowed one of them, but the last guy caught up with me, and he knocked my bayard away from me. The training sequence is supposed to end right? Wrong. The moron Keith had the training bots set to a really high difficulty and didn't let the sequence end when you become disarmed. So, I not only told Keith that I could take on six guys, which I clearly can't, but now he expects to see me fight them.
"I can't lose because that shows that I'm not as strong as I bragged to be, and I can't back down from the challenge either." Lance bemoaned, sharing his dilemma. "And I can't win either. I can get 1/6. That's like, so little. It looks like my only option is to fake my death."
"Because we both saw how successful that was." Hunk laughed, "I'm sure it's not that big of a deal."
"Not that big of a deal? Hunk, how could you say that?" He said aghast, "If I lose this bet, then I won't have any proof that guns are better than swords. I'll be wrong two times over. Keith would never let me live it down."
"I think that he'll let you live it down; Keith doesn't hold things over people's heads."
"But I'll know and that's the worst. Because I know I failed, and I know that he knows I failed, but he's too good of a person to actually point out that I failed." Lance let himself drop to the floor and whispered, "I'm fucked."
Hunk smiled and sat on the floor next to him, "Yeah." He sighed breathily, "But I don't want your problems to outshine the fact that I figured out how to make paella." He picked Lance up easily and swung him over his shoulder walking to the dining room. "So, you're going to suck it up and enjoy my genius."
Instead of fighting his way out of Hunk's bear hug, Lance let himself go limp and sway with his gait, "You know, you sound a lot like Pidge."
"Yeah, it's not often that I figure something out that surpasses her, so I'm going to tell you to enjoy my genius as long as you love paella."
"GUYS!"
"Speak of the Devil." Lance groaned as Hunk dropped him to the ground.
Pidge came running around the corner yelling, "Check this out!" She had a smooth object in her hands. It was the shape and color of an egg, but much larger, although it looked light. There was a small blinking green light at the base of it, and an incessant red light that seemed to move with her movements, always pointing in the same direction.
"What did you find?" Hunk asked genuinely intrigued, "What does it do?"
"I don't know, and I don't know." Pidge answered, but the excitement in her eyes was undeterred, "But watch the red dot." She moved the object in several different directions, and there was no lag time between when it moved and when the dot moved. "I got the green one to turn on earlier today, and when I moved on and came back, there was a new dot. The red one just appeared less than an hour ago. The coolest thing? I think it's some kind of homing mechanism."
"But what is it homing onto?" Lance asked scratching his hair.
"That's the coolest thing. I have no idea." Pidge answered, and she was jumping with her enthusiasm. Her body wasn't meant to contain this much energy.
"If you have no clue what it's homing to, then why are you so excited?" Hunk asked confusedly.
Pidge stopped darting around the hall to glare at Hunk as if she couldn't believe what he had just asked, "Because this thing has been hiding away in a closet for 10,000 years, seemingly broken. I get it to work which was an impressive feat in and of itself and all of a sudden; something causes it to go off. It's clearly locked on to something. We need to go find whatever it is."
"I'm down to go searching for something." Lance said, latching onto the plan, "Let's go get everyone. The Galra have been quiet this past couple of weeks. Everything's getting so boring here." He turned to go back the way that they had come from. "I'd say an adventure is due."
They all ran through the hallways; the object -which was dubbed The Egg ("With a capital 'E.' That makes it special, Pidge")- exchanged hands several times, each person trying to stump the little red dot on where was trying to go. The three of them literally ran into Shiro, quickly explained The Egg and the dot. (No, we're not calling it 'The Dot' with a capital 'D,' Lance)
Oddly enough, Shiro smiled and actually seemed intrigued by the idea of an excursion. It must have been really long since something actually happened on the castle ship. He followed them, albeit slower and shook his head at their noise and shenanigans.
They got to the bridge and found Allura and Coran watching the mice intently. "Princess!" Someone yelled, "We propose an excursion." That was Pidge. She continued, "So, I found this… thing…"
"The Egg!" Lance provided.
"Yeah, this egg… thing… machine… Look, I found this thing." She said giving up and holding The Egg up for the Alteans to see, "And when I first got it to work, there was only this green light on the bottom, right here. But, I left it for an hour or so, and I came back. There's this weird red light that looks like its trying to get somewhere. We want to follow it."
Five sets of eyes landed on Allura, waiting for her judgment, "Well…" For several long seconds, no one moved or said anything, "I don't see the harm in seeing what this energy anomaly is."
A chorus of cheers went up around the room, "Wait. What do you mean by 'energy anomaly'?" Pidge asked as she brushed a lock of her short hair behind her ear.
"That's what that does." Allura answered, "It monitors the energy of the universe, and whenever there are sudden differences, it lights up. Different types of energy lit up in different colors." She frowned, "Although, I don't think I've ever seen it light up red. All the more reason to investigate it, I'd say."
"What are we doing?" Keith asked peeking his head onto the Bridge.
"Guys we totally forgot Keith." Hunk said, hiding his face in his hands.
"We didn't forget him. He just wasn't wandering the halls. That sounds like his fault." Lance chimed in.
"Why did neither of you answer my goddamn question?" Keith asked as he walked up to Lance and hit him upside the head.
"Keith, language." Shiro glared at him, "But long story short, we're following some type of beacon or homing signal to some energy flare. Is that right?"
Allura nodded, "Not necessarily a flare, but an energy anomaly. It could be a surge, emergence of a different type of energy, even the lack of energy in any place. But it only reacts if there's a lot of difference in a short period of time."
Keith frowned and crossed his arms, "Is there any way that we could be heading straight into a trap of some type?"
"Highly unlikely." Coran said, "There is a possibility, but no one has had one of these operational for a while. That's not to say that it's not going to be risk-free either. It could be any number of things: a black hole, a new star, the Galra draining a star, a supernova -now that would be something to see."
"Great." Keith monotoned, "We're going out in Voltron then."
"You took to this idea a lot quicker than we thought you would," Lance said, cocking his head.
"Well, it's not like I can stop your impulsive ass." Keith shot back and moving to his seat. "Besides, I think we need a bit of adventure."
Allura smiled, "That's enough for me. Let's go and see what all this is about."
-
They stopped the castleship a ways away from the anomaly so that Coran could come and get them if things went awry and launched each of the lions into the vacuum of space.
Beep
Silence.
"What was that?" Keith asked.
Lance shrugged, "I don't know. It sounded a little like a microwave when your food's done."
"It totally did. I miss microwaves." Hunk reminisced, "I mean, I love cooking and all, but being able just to put food in a box and come back to it two minutes later is a pretty cool concept."
Allura looked at the others on the Blue Lion's screen, "I'm not sure I'm familiar with a microwave. What type of technology is it?"
Everyone heard a deep breath as Pidge began to explain microwaves in depth, "It's this rather new technology on Earth that was introduced in the 1950s or something like that. It uses actual microwaves hence the name-"
Beep
"There it is again!" Lance yelled, interrupting Pidge. "I don't want to be the one to say this, but doesn't it also sound a little like those bombs you see on TV?"
Keith rolled his eyes, "Great going, Lance. Way to stay optimistic."
"Hey, I'm just saying what I think it sounds like!"
"And I'm saying that it could be any number of things, but you were the one who voiced the worst-"
Beep
"It sounds like it's coming over the coms." Hunk said helpfully. "Maybe it's like a low-battery warning? Do the helmets need to charge?"
Allura shook her head, "The helmets pull off of the quintessence around us. The more around us, the longer the range."
Beep
"Is it just me," Lance started, "Or is it speeding up?"
Beep
"Yep, it's definitely speeding up." He continued worriedly, "Keith, can we-" Beep "revisit the whole possible bomb thing?"
Beep
"Guys," Pidge said, her voice high with excitement or worry; it was hard to tell, "It's coming from The Egg!"
Beep
"Why is it beeping?" Hunk asked.
"How am I supposed-" Beep "to know? This thing is ancient." Pidge shot back.
Beep
"You're the computer genius."
Beep
"I know I'm the computer genius, but that doesn't mean-"
"Guys." Keith interrupted.
Beep
"What?"
"Look."
There, in the middle of space were five battered Lions. One green that looked as though she had been through a meat grinder. Her front window had been shattered, and the green paint was chipping off revealing shiny, scratched metal beneath. The lights had gone out.
The Yellow Lion looked like she had been crushed by something. The breastplate was caved in, and one of her ears had been stricken by something that it was dangling from the top, literally held on by a wire." The lights had gone out.
The Red Lion was spread eagle. Her back sported a large, crater-like black burn. The metal around it had bubbled up, melted, and cooled, creating a look of black boils on the otherwise red surface. The lights had gone out.
The Blue Lion was curled up, as she was protecting something precious. She had a massive dent in the side of her head that might have been there from an encounter with a meteor or small planet. The lights had gone out.
The Black Lion might have been the worst of all. Some of her circuitry could be seen even from here, wires were exposed and spilling from her underside like black spaghetti. It looked like she had been completely eviscerated. The lights had gone out.
Voltron.
A/N: Please tell me if you're intrigued so far, and check it out on AO3 as well!
Hey, so... When I uploaded this earlier, it went all wonky. I really hope this fixed it because I didn't know until the next day that no one could actually read this because it was a jumble of nothingness.