This is third in my series, All the Colours pf the Wind. Please read the previous stories (Grey, then Brown) if you want to fully enjoy this. Also, this will contain elements of season 5 in later chapters. This will be your only spoiler warning!
Yellow quintessence is a primary quintessence, and it is further classified as a colour quintessence. It represents the quintessence inside the body. The most common use of Yellow quintessence is teleportation and, if you are a species that can change form, changing your physical form. The physical representation of Yellow quintessence is earth and its opposite is the secondary quintessence Purple.
Something that Lance had learned over the years, during his quintessence training, was patience.
It was something he had struggled a lot with when he was younger, as he never truly understood why he needed to wait for things, didn't understand why they couldn't happen at that precise moment in time. He had always been in a rush to finish things, to be the first to complete a task. Even when he was learning quintessence, he would jump forward in hopes to reap the rewards, only for it to backfire on him royally.
It wasn't until he was fourteen when he fully understood the importance of patience, and even then, he struggled with it.
He sighed from his place on the floor in the dusty shack, and wondered how Hunk, who sat across from him fiddling with some broken piece of machinery that he had found during his rummages, was able to do it. He knew it had to do with his quintessence, but still amazed Lance every time he watched his friend sit there and just wait.
Lance was sometimes too much like the sea, seemingly calm, but never still.
Looking up, Shirogane's sleeping face faced him, screwed up despite being asleep, showing all the year that he was with the Galra, and darkened from the slowly rising sun from the window behind him. Kogane was no where to be seen, though his quintessence showed that he was outside sorting out his bike or his bombs, anxious waves flooding through the walls. Pidge, however, was asleep, leaning her head on Hunk's shoulder while he was now rummaging through her bag, leafing his way through a book as if looking for something after realising that she didn't have what he wanted. Lance's own bag, digging into his back as he was leaning on it, contained far less than Pidge's, though it was more suited for the situation, holding different outfits, facial creams and other things that he'd need for everyday life in space.
Leaning his head on his chest, Lance closed his eyes, hoping to get some shut eye before everything kicked off again, only to be shocked wide awake when Shirogane sat up with a shout, chest heaving with fear. Before Lance could even blink, the older human had already left the cabin, leaving the door wide open
"Should we go after him?" Looking towards the other occupants of the room, Lance noted that Pidge was up, looking oddly young without her glasses on, her brown eyes blinking away the sleep from her being. Hunk had put Pidge's stuff back into her bag, making him look innocent to his crime.
"Nah, Kogane's out there." Lance muttered as he stood, brushing off the dust from sitting on the floor that he doubted Kogane had cleaned recently, given the number of empty wrappers and general things that had not been put away after use. Hunk nodded, standing up too, letting a small number of tools that had been in his lap fall onto the floor, forgetting that they were even there. The noise was enough to shock poor Pidge from her daze, as a scream left her mouth and she quickly stood up, scanning the floor for the source of the banging.
The stare of death that she sent him was well worth laughing at the reaction. However, before she could comment on it, Kogane walked in with Shirogane in tow, following behind almost like a lost puppy, obviously continuing their conversation from before. Walking towards the covered wall, Kogane pulled off a worn sheet, showing off a pin board filled to the brim with photos and string on a back drop of a map of Arizona, all leading to one place.
"I can't explain it, really. After leaving the Garrison, I was lost, but I found myself drawn out to this place. It's almost like, like there's some sort of energy, telling me to look for it…" Lance felt his stomach drop at Kogane's words, and a small giggle like thought appeared in the back of his mind appeared.
The Blue Lion must have planned this for a while, if she drew Kogane here to make sure that the Red Paladin would run off, though, if Catharyne's history was correct, it was the Red Paladin who always discovered Voltron first, even if they never knew what it was at the time.
"…I still don't know what it is, but I stumbled across this area. It's these caves covered with these weird, ancient markings. All of them tell different stories- I haven't come 'round to deciphering them all, but they all share clues about five people coming together to form… something." Kogane told them, and Lance stood forward to have a closer look at the photos. He had done a decent job of capturing them, subconsciously making sure to capture each story in a photo, ranging from the opening of the rift to the birth of Voltron, not that the others knew this, of course. It was surprising that Kogane could even get that far into the glyphs. Shirogane only nodded at the younger's words, then turned towards the rest of the occupants of the room.
"I should be thanking you all for getting me out of there. Lance, right?" Shirogane asked, putting his hand forward for Lance to shake-a weird human custom. Lance hesitated slightly, before latching onto the prosthetic, barely hiding a wince as he came into contact with the corrupt quintessence in the arm that felt poisonous to touch.
Lance went to say something, but as he went to open his mouth to introduce the rest of the team, he paused at the questioning glaze he was receiving at the back of his neck despite not having anyone behind him, making him lift his hand up to rub it.
The Blue Lion was beginning to feel impatient, her quintessence almost bubbling with desire to leave the planet and get rid of the Galra that were steadily getting nearer to the planet she had called her home for so many years. It travelled along their bond like a yawn, leaving behind an itch that Lance knew wouldn't go away until it was scratched.
"Yeah, sorry to interrupt, back to the aliens. Are they coming here? Where are they now? Are they coming for us? Like- at this very moment?" Hunk rambled, putting up a finger for every question he asked. Lance went to answer, tell his best friend not to worry (even though it was pretty likely that the Galra would be after them), then hesitated.
None of them knew he was an alien.
None of them knew who he really was, none of them knew anything about the war, except maybe Shirogane, and even then, he never saw any of the front lines, only what happens to those who disagree with the Empire. They didn't even know they were Paladins yet, or what Voltron even was and who it stood for and protected.
During his time in the Galaxy Garrison, Lance really did forget how ignorant these humans were, living on such an underdeveloped and backwater world.
"I can't really put it together. I remember the word "Voltron". It's a kind of a weapon they're looking for, but I don't know why. Whatever it is, I think that we need to find it before they do." The others agreed unanimously with Shirogane's words, subconsciously deciding to follow his lead, even without knowing he would be their leader as the head of Voltron. Ignorant humans.
"Well, last night, I was looking through Pidge's stuff, cause I wanted to see if sh- uh, if he had a candy bar, but then I started to read his diary-"
"You wHAT?!"
"-And I saw a repeating series of numbers that those aliens are searching look a lot like a Fraunhofer line." Hunk explained, then frowned when he saw three blank stares looking back at him, making him groan. "It's basically a bunch of numbers describing the emission waves that an element gives out. However, this element isn't from Earth, so I recon I could build some sort Voltron Geiger counter that could lead us straight there!" Lance smiled before attacking his best friend with a hug.
The sooner they left this planet with the Blue Lion and lead the Galra from this planet, the better.
Beep.
Beep beep.
Beep beep beep.
"We must be getting pretty close now!"
They had been walking for about three hours now, in the desert, with no sort of sun protection on or anything. Just the clothes on their backs and the bags that Pidge and Lance brought with them. Before they left the shack, they filled Lance's bag up with as much bars of granola and gum that he had in the house, as well as filling up all the bottles they had available with water, seeing as they didn't know how long they were going to be in the desert for.
It didn't take too much time for them to get to the caves that Kogane had been talking about, either. They were littered with the carvings, and it almost escaped Lance that these stories of old also acted as one of the many layers of protection around the Blue Lion, though she didn't seem to like the idea of having some random Altean Druids casting spells around her, even if it was for her own protection. The carvings were so beautiful, etched so carefully into the stone, making sure that everyone who understood them knew the atrocities that Zarkon has caused on his path for power.
Placing a hand on the cave wall, Lance pushed away the layers of dust to reveal a glyph of the Blue Lion, taking a deep breath as they all started to glow blue, the protection around the Blue Lion and the foundations of the cave breaking underneath his hand, the floor caving underneath their feet, leaving them to fall to their apparent deaths.
That was totally Abuela's idea, and he could almost imagine her laughter as they all tumbled down a waterfall, screaming as they plummeted towards the bottom the cave system.
And when they finally landed in the small pool at the bottom of the waterfall, Lance felt his eyes widen when he realised that he had been here before, with the same Altean inscriptions covering every surface talking about Daibazaal and the rift and every other terrible event that build up the foundation of the last 10,000 years.
Like last time, the Blue Lion stood in the middle of the cave. Unlike last time, nothing about her was alive, making it seem as if she was more of a statue than the sentient beast that Lance had come to know from the legends that he was told about during his own interactions with the Guardian Spirit of Water. The only thing that gave away the fact that it had any energy was the particle barrier that had protected her for almost forever in his eyes.
"Is this it? Is this the Voltron?"
"It must be."
Lance only shook his head at the thought. The Blue Lion being Voltron alone? As if it would be that easy. Kogane was already making his way towards it, his hands leaning on the barrier as if that alone would bring it down.
"I wonder how we get through this." He muttered, almost expecting it to fall away at his words, and seemed slightly disappointed when nothing like that happened. Lance sighed as he went to join the future Paladin, his eyes never leaving the Blue Lion's yellow ones, wondering when they would turn on like before.
"Maybe, you just have to knock." Lance stated, and as he knocked on the barrier, his vision exploded with what almost seemed like a memory, with all five Lions flying together until they formed Voltron, while the barrier itself trickled away like water in a stream.
It was beautiful.
"Uh, did everyone see that?"
"This is what they're looking for."
"Incredible."
"Voltron is a robot. Voltron is a huge, huge, awesome robot!"
"And this thing is only one part of it! I wonder where the rest of them are." Lance smiled at Pidge's excitement, and the wonder that came from the rest of the gang. He couldn't believe that they thought this would be the only part! As soon as the Blue Lion opened her mouth, inviting the Paladins in, Lance raced inside, his eyes darting around, hoping to take everything in at first sight.
Most of the Altean technology was now gone, mainly due to the destruction of Altea. The bits and pieces that survived had long ago been upgraded and warped into things that the Galra now take for granted and don't even think about what it used to be and who used to make it. They say that the Lions of Voltron were the only things from Altea to still be around and not have been upgraded, but even then, it was still a legend to most people, a tale from 10,000 years ago.
Lance slowed down as he reached the cockpit, immediately sitting down in the chair, placing his rucksack on the floor next to him and admiring the interface programmed into the Lion as the others came in, eyes full of wonder as they committed this moment to memory; the first time that they properly interacted with alien technology.
Hunk goes to comment on it, probably say exactly what was going on or gush about the technology, when Lance starts to press some buttons automatically, as if he had done this a thousand times before.
"Lance, what are you- AHH!" Pidge screamed as Lance pushed a lever forward with gusto, feeling a spike of adrenaline rush through him while his passengers screamed from the tops of their lungs, the Blue Lion purring with delight as she finally flew for the first time in ten thousand years.
Now, this is what it meant to fly.
A.N. Guess who updated with a new story that has an amazing beta and is also the reason why I uploaded earlier than 10 years in the future. Like I said before, there will be elements of season 5 even though this will be taking place in the first part of season 1 because of how well it fits in with what I've already planned. I do not have an update schedule, but you can expect it to be more regular than before. My tumblr is on my profile, if you guys want to message me.