"I guess I have a lot of explaining to do, don't I?"
His own words ring in his mind as he sat at the table mixing his unappetizing goo while the others watched him, their eyes boring into his soul as he took another bite of the food and struggled to swallow it down. Coran had been insistent that Lance eat before he explained anything, saying something along the lines of 'you'll get the cryo shivers if you don't eat now and you'll never get rid of them if you don't eat now, so hop along!' before leaving Lance alone with the rest of the crew; Allura sitting at the other end of the table in hopeful contemplation, Pidge sitting next to him on a chair and Keith on the table, leaving Hunk and Shiro to stand and watch him take another bit of the food.
Lance wondered if he could choke and die on the food, and he wondered more if the rest of the team would let him die.
He just stabbed his goo instead, frowning at the way that the spork stayed where it was in the food. It was more likely that there was another alien on the team than he dying because of the goo, unfortunately.
"Right, I will start off with a disclaimer: no Allura, I do not know where any Alteans are, if anything, I would advise younotto look for them."
"And why not!" Allura was up on her feet, hand slamming onto the table, making the humans jump back in surprise of her volume.
"You mean, other than the fact that they will probably kill you on sight, they won't believe that you're actually the lost Princess of Allura, and even if they did, I doubt that they would accept you as their Princess in the way that you would want them to," Lance explained simply, knowing that there really was no 'simply' with the situation at all, as his words had left Allura gawping in the most unprincess manor that, if not for the situation that Lance had found himself in, he would have said something about it. The others were silent as Allura frowned heavily at Lance.
"But why would I lie about who I am?" The question was innocent and yet it demanded an answer out of Lance, an answer that made sense but yet did not crush the Princess's new found hope that her people were out there, and they had been waiting for 10,000 decapheobs for her to come back to lead the rebellion against the Galran Empire for once and for all.
Lance hated the fact that he was about to disappoint her.
"It's a war Allura, and in a war, people cheat and lie and backstab and do whatever they can to make sure that they're the ones coming out victorious in the fight. I know it's against our nature to lie, and it can become painful to do so," the other paladins stare at him in confusion at this line, and Lance could hear the thoughts that were racing through their minds;'But you lied to us', and all Lance could think about was the day that his family believe the sweet lies of untruths coming out of his mouth for the first time, and remember the stab the soul it took to let the words leave his mouth as smoothly as they did, and how the pain of lying never changed for each lie, no matter how big or small the lie ever was. Allura nodded in agreement to Lance's statement, and Lance was sure that Coran would feel the same had the elder Altean been in the room with him.
"But, as much as lying is against our nature, so is our nature to surrender. And anyway," Lance added on, mixing his food before taking another bite when his stomach gave a large rumble, "It's not like I actually lied to any human about my species; it's not like they asked what my species was in the entrance interview at the Garrison." Allura looked confused, no doubt wondering what a 'Garrison' even was, but Hunk then spoke up, looking from person to person before starting to speak.
"So, how did you end up Earth anyway?" Lance looked up in surprise, before looking at each of the people in front of him. It was clear that this was one of the biggest burning questions that were in everyone's mind. Lance took in a deep breath, and wondered how to explain, how to start.
"Well, my grandparents found the Blue Lion of course!" Lance said with a smile, and Allura's eyes widen at the mention of one of the Voltron Lions, while the rest of the group seemed to somehow lean forward towards Lance without moving too much.
"You knew about the Lions? What else did you know about?!" Pidge almost shouted, her eyes wide with wonder and curiosity.
"Uh, I don't know, it depends really. I was more interested in learning to manipulate quintessence rather than learning about the past as must as one of my sister's, Catharyne, but I know some things. I know Galran and Altean, and I know the basics of how the empire is run and-"
"And where did you learn that?" Shiro asked, his voice stern and holding no room for arguments.
There was no point in lying about it.
"My grandfather, from when he worked in the empire, before he turned traitor and deserted his post with his wife and another couple he was close with," Lance answered easily, but the silence after his answer did not last long, the room quickly erupting into questions and demands.
"What do you mean 'worked in the empire'?" Allura's demanding question was the loudest, what with her hands slamming onto the table and making a thundering noise that echoed around the room, the others going quiet at the sudden anger that Allura displayed, behaviour that princess, no matter their race, should not be displaying.
"I mean what I said, he worked for the empire. He was known as a druid, it's similar to what an alchemist I guess," he added on at Allura's confusion, not able to look Shiro despite the glaring that the Black Paladin sent back at him, this gesture seemingly being noticed by everyone in the room.
"And there are more of these so called 'druids'? Are they all Alteans?" She asked, her face clearly showing her racing thoughts and Lance's face darken; he didn't need to read her mind to know what she was thinking.
"It won't work." He said gravely. She scowled at him.
"You know not of what you say."
"And you know not of what you plan. To attempt to win their favour is to beg upon deaf ears and to die doing so."
"I am Princess Allura of Altea, Mediator of People-" Her words were shouted loudly, her words were practiced, years of saying them to mirrors and family as jokes, politicians as introductions, have lead her to say them to Paladins as threats.
Lance was used to dealing with Paulyne. This was nothing.
"Altea is dead. Your titles are dead. You are dead to them, as you seem to be nothing without the words you use to show your once power over people. They will only follow Haggar, and she will forever strike more fear into them than you ever would to the empire," Lance ended the argument with simple words, words that made tears being up in her eyes and words that made her stand and throw back her chair and walk towards the door.
Words that may have hurt her, but words that she simply needed to hear if she wanted the revenged that she so craved.
And so Allura was gone, with Shiro only a couple of steps behind her, with only a glance thrown back at his team before his eyes landed on Lance and they harden with memory and the promise of a clear explanation of whatever happened to the pair of them when they were with Sendak, before the door closed behind them. Lance took in a deep breath, before stretching his arms high above his head and screwing his face tightly.
"I would answer more questions, really I would, but healing pods are tiring on the best of days, so I'm going to lay down for a bit, someone wake me up when we land or whatever," Lance said, and watched as the rest only mutely nodded and then left of the room, leaning against the wall as soon as the door slid closed, taking a deep breath in and slowly letting the breath out.
Deep breath in.
Feel the emotion.
Slowly let it out.
Acknowledge the emotion
Deep breath in.
"Grab that emotion, andlet itout in a single breath. Another deep breath Lance, there we go. When you're doing this, you can't let your own Green Quintessence take over you."
"But Abuelo, I was better at it when I was filled with Green Qu-"
"Green Quintessence is a weakness! You've seen what the weakness of emotion has done to your sister-"
"You said that we have to forget the teaching of the Galra!"
"We cannot afford to do that Lance, you can't afford to do that, not with who you are. Now, deep breath in-"
"Are you okay there Number Three?" Lance gave out a high pitched scream as Coran's voice interrupted his improved meditation, before sliding to the floor in the sudden depletion of adrenaline in his system.
"Yeah, I was just on my way back to my room, but I just had to take a breather I guess" Lance explained, hoping that Coran didn't judge him too much for jumping and sliding to the floor in surprise, but instead smiled down at Lance, making him very much aware of his markings, a similar blue to Coran but such a different shape, where his markings cut across his cheeks in a way that could never exist without the corruption of quintessence.
"That's pretty understandable, I heard you had a stressful time with Sendak, and I've seen Honerva break under less stress," Coran replied, before sitting down on the floor in front of Lance and crossing his legs, smoothing his clothing over his leg to maintain the perfect image of being the king's, or princess's in his case, hand.
"You knew Honvera?" Lance asked, his voice filled with shock. Catharyne lived for the woman, and had wanted to get her hands on information about her ever since she read her name in one of the older books that their aunt owned. Lance didn't remember a lot about her, more obsessed at the time about actually learning how to control quintessence than learning about the woman who discovered the fact that Alteans could even control quintessence outside of their appearance and the 'magic' that always seemed to happen at places like the Balmera and the mysterious Oriande that also regularly came up in the textbooks, the ancient place where the alchemists of old would learn the ancient ways of transferring quintessence form one thing to another. It was really basic stuff nowadays, but it's what quintessence manipulation was built on, and it was very powerful in its own way if done correctly.
"Yes, well, maybe not as well as maybe Allura or Alfor, but she was part of similar social circles due to her marriage to Zarkon after all, she even had a lab here," Lance eyes widened in excitement at the news.
"Really!? Would I be able to look through some of the stuff? They said that so much of her work was lost with the loss of Altea and Daibazaal after her death since everyone was more involved in the war rather than preserving what she found out."
"Yes, well, I suppose it doesn't help that the Lions went into hiding not too long after her death. She was one of the scientists that helped to make them after all, lead by King Alfor himself," Coran almost boasted, his fingers twisting his mustache, but his eyes only spoke of pain and loss, and it seemed that talking about an event that only took place a month ago in the man's eyes were clearly taking a toll on him. There was silence before Coran spoke up again.
"Would you be able to tell me what happened in the last 10'000 decapheobs that I've missed?" There was a seriousness in Coran's voice that made Lance's breath hitch. It was not often that Coran had spoken with the serious tone, not to the Paladins, and not often to Allura.
"I can try."