took that unexpected turn (on the road to forever)

Notes: Don't Own Voltron:

Another Lance/Allura story by me. Weird plot but I couldn't get it out of my head, so I wrote it, hope you guys don't find it too stupid.

Will still be writing Time Changes Things as well as this one.

Part One Deus Ex Machina

Prologue

Lance.

Lance.

He woke up, his eyes adjusted to the darkness and he heard the voices again in his head. Lance. They needed him, they needed him to come to them. Lara was still with him, she hadn't left yet, he untangled himself from his date for the night and got out of his bed. Lance. The voices called, they were urgent, they were needy, they were in danger. He hurried, he found what he'd worn that night, on his date with Lara. He pulled on the pair jeans and the black t-shirt, he pushed his feet into a pair of combat boots. All with one thought, hurry, get to the control room, get to the voices, do as they need.

He felt scared for them, the voices, if he let them down, he'd never forgive himself, because their fear was obvious and they were calling out to him, with hope and sincerity. Lance. He heard unspoken words in their call, hurry, we need you, only you can save us, we need you, we need you, please we are in danger. We don't know what to do, this is our last chance.

He knew their desperation, he felt the risk they were taking in calling for him and he understood it. He hurried as he made his way toward the control room. His steps going faster and faster, Lance, he heard again and he started to run. He ran, gaining speed, feeling desperate to get to them before it was too late, before time ran out, he had to hurry and then he turned a corner and was almost to the the control room when Allura came out of another hallway and ran into him.

The smacked into each other, both were at full speed, they slammed into the wall, then the floor. They both groaned and looked at the other blankly, then Lance stood up and helped Allura to stand. His head felt clear but with that came confusion, what the hell had he been doing, listening to a voice in his head, following it with unblinking obedience.

Allura looked over her shoulder at the control room door, then back at Lance, she was blushing and her head looked down. "Thank god, you stopped me, I think I was going to something stupid again," she said.

"Me too," Lance said, trying to think through everything that he'd just been thinking, that couldn't have been his own thoughts, how could you read so much from just a group of voices saying your name. It had be Haggar, but why the control room. He had a bad feeling.

Allura looked at him shocked. "What do you mean?"

Lance grabbed her hand, realized he kept looking at the control room, he still wanted to rush right into it, he saw her looking back at it too. He started moving them away, toward the recreation room, it wasn't far away and it was always open. He flicked on a light and led her to the couch and sat down, Allura sat down next to him.

"Okay, Allura tell me, did you have voices in your head. They sounded like one, saying your name? 'Cause that is what was happening to me?"

Allura nodded. "They needed my help, I was the only one who could, they were desperate, it was their last hope, it could only be me. It was like I could feel how they felt inside of me, I was more than just hearing them, I was feeling them. It went away when we smacked into each other."

"Okay," Lance ran his hands through his hair. "Me too. Exactly the same thing."

"What do think? What do we do? I want to go into the control room," Allura said.

"Haggar, don't know, me too."

Allura waited, and watched him.

Lance stood up and then he turned back to her. "Wake up Keith," he started to say but he didn't finish because the voices were back. Only it was different this time.

Lance, Allura, please, now, time is running out, if you don't come now Arus is lost.

Allura panicked she stood up and started to run toward the control room, Lance was right after her, soon next to her, then he was at the door first. A part of him was saying to stop her, to not trust this, this could be dangerous but it was small. He had to listen, the voices were so afraid, not only for them but for all of Arus, they had no choice, they had to open the door to the control room.

"Lance quick, open it," Allura said, fear evident in her voice, for her planet, for her people, Lance thought.

The doors slid open and all they saw was blinding golden light. Shading their eyes, they both walked right into it because they could hear the hope and fear in the voices still calling out to them, to please come, please save us, for Arus.

Lance blinked the bright light had turned to darkness and then was standing in the Castle of Lions of control room, only it was slightly different and there were three people in front of him. Two women and a man, they all immediately kneeled before him and Allura.

The woman in the middle, a few years older than him, Lance guessed looked up and spoke. "We are sorry to disrupt your timeline, but welcome to the future of Planet Arus, King Lance and Queen Allura. You are our only hope to keep Arus from destruction for our children's children to have a future as well."

"Future of Planet Arus," Allura repeated.

"Did you call me a King, and then quote Star Wars? Ah, okay, I drank too much of that fruit wine Lara brought with her tonight, and am having one heck of a dream," Lance cracked. "So, uh, time to wake up then?" he tried.

The three of them stood up and the blonde next to the woman who spoke elbowed her, "I told you to rephrase it, I just knew he'd totally latch onto the Star Wars thing, you've read the autobiographies and biographies. Plus, it's just a good movie."

"Lia, shut it," the guy said. "Laurie, I think they are in shock," he said. He took a few steps closer.

Allura grabbed Lance's arm, it was the pressure that cleared Lance's head. This wasn't a dream, they were wide awake, and it wasn't making a lot of sense at all. Lance stepped forward, putting himself between Allura and the man walking close, more like kid, Lance realizing he was younger than either him or Allura but probably had a few years on Pidge.

"I think maybe, I should take you to the medical bay," he started to say.

"No," Lance cut him off. "First you need makes this make sense, or send us home."

"King Lance."

Lance put his hand up. "I'm not a King. What's with the King?"

The man looked back towards the two woman. The oldest, Laurie, Lance recalled looked down at them, and glanced at Lia who looked to be the youngest. Lia turned and walked to the main computer of the control room, holographic images appeared in front of her like a screen, showing charts, graphs and calculation. She poked, typed and pulled figures and then she frowned. "I had it calculated correctly, I don't understand," she said.

"Lia?" the other two said.

"I calculated it correctly," she said again looking up at Laurie. "Yet... I calculated it to pull them out two years after the marriage, and instead it pulled them from, well it looks like five years before the marriage."

"What?"

Allura stepped forward. "What is going on?"

"Lance take them to the medical bay," Laurie snapped. "While we figure this out."

"Your name is Lance?" Lance asked, after sharing another, what the hell did we get ourselves into look with Allura.

The kid turned from the two woman, looked at them, and shrugged. "Most people just call me L.T., come on a doctor should check you out. Lia, we were going to be in trouble anyway, you really put us in deep -"

"Shut it, L.T. and just get them out here," Lia snapped at him, not looking up from her computer. "I don't understand why this happened," she muttered.

As the control room doors closed behind him and Allura, Lance heard Laurie saying, "You promised me you had a handle on how to use the time travel device."

They glanced at each other, Allura then looked around the halls they were walking through. Lance did as well, and it looked relatively the same. There were different pictures on the walls, different people passed by them in the corridors. The route they were walking was same old route to the medical bay. Lance was about to start asking L.T. a few more probing questions, he needed to be sure Allura and he were safe, that this wasn't a trap of some kind dreamed up by Haggar, Zarkon or worse Lotor's creepy mind's. But Allura's gasp stopped him. Someone had stepped through the door, revealing a painting that caught her attention and made her run into the room with her hand shaking as she pointed at the portrait on the wall.

Lance followed her and his jaw fell open.

It was a simple family portrait, though it was clearly one of Arusian Royalty. The couple in the painting were looking directly at each other, the painter had captured a moment of playful eye contact, with large smiles. Their children were all laughing, their eyes bright and their mouths wide in open smiles. Three girls and one boy.

Behind the family was a stunning Arusian sunset, with two carefully, painstakingly perfectly hand painted Lions flying in tandem across the sky.

The lions were blue and red.

The man and the woman were Allura and Lance.

~~Chapter One~~

Keith was up and out of his room at five in the morning, to take his morning run before the morning the briefing he had with Coran, then the teams practice runs in the lions. He wasn't to surprised to see Lara Wyeth leaving Lance's room, she saw him and smiled, he nodded hello.

"Uh, where might I find Lance?" she asked.

Keith looked at her, surprised by the question as he fell into step with her. "You mean, he isn't in there snoring?"

"No," she said, looking surprised herself. "I thought maybe if he was up, I'd say goodbye for once."

"He might be in the kitchens, I'll walk you there," Keith said.

Lara nodded and then held her head. "Oh, I drank too much wine last night."

Keith rolled his eyes, he hoped Lance hadn't drank too much wine, because he sure wasn't going to listen to complain about a headache if that was the case. He should know better, date or not, that he was always on duty on Arus. They didn't have off duties nights and Lance knew it. "This way," he said as he led Lara down a corridor to the left toward the Castle kitchens.

Nanny was inside, cooking away, breakfast muffins underway, coffee, and she was mixing her pancake batter. "Good morning, Keith. And?"

"Nanny, this is Lara Wyeth one of Lance's...uh..."

"Lance's friends," Lara said. "Have you seen him?"

"No, I haven't. Good thing too, he'd have stuck his fingers in my muffin batter, and I'd have had to kick him out of my kitchen. Do you two want some coffee."

"None for me, Nanny, thank you," Keith said.

"If it's not too much trouble, I would appreciate it," Lara asked.

Nanny nodded. "Of course, you can have some coffee. While you drink we can discuss why a nice young lady would spend the night in a man's room when she should've gone home to her own bed."

Keith had to bite the inside of his cheek so he wouldn't bust out laughing as he ducked out of the kitchen, he glanced back and Lara was glaring at him with the green eyes that first drawn Lance to her. He couldn't stop the smile at her expense and she raised a finger at him that was just not polite. He laughed then and went on his way out. It'd be a great story to tell Lance later, though he did wonder where the guy was? It wasn't like him not be out cold at wee hours of the morning.

He was just about to push open the door to the outside of the castle when his communicator went off, he sighed and pulled it off his belt. "This is Commander Kogane?"

"Keith, it's Coran, Allura's maid just went into her room to change out the flowers in her room, and Allura wasn't in her bed. Please come to the control room, now."

Keith frowned, turned around, he had to walk back through the kitchen. He hoped Nanny was mid-lecture with Lara, so Nanny wouldn't ask why he was back inside so soon. He entered the kitchen, Nanny was talking a mile a minute about how a proper young woman should never let a man touch her before marriage because... Keith didn't really listen, but Lara followed him with her eyes, screaming for help and he just shook his head and thankfully made it out of the kitchen without Nanny questioning him.

He then ran to the control, his mind trying to tell him that just because Allura and Lance were both missing, that didn't mean it had any connection, nor was it anything to worry about. His instincts told him that his head was being an idiot, it of course meant something happened, it of course meant there was something to worry about.

Pidge and Hunk were in the control room, Pidge at the computer, Hunk yawning, and Coran looking worried. Keith walked up until he was standing right behind Pidge.

"I can't seem to locate, Lieutenant McClain," Coran said.

"Neither the Princess or Lance's communicators seem to be in the castle, but their lions are still here," Pidge said.

"Bring up the security footage for last night. I ran into Lara, when I got up, she said Lance was already gone. So look between 1am and now, because I know he didn't back with her until after midnight," Keith ordered.

Pidge nodded and brought up all the security cameras onto the main screen in the room, the ones from Allura's room and Lance's. Then rolled them forward, at exactly 2:15 am, they both exited their rooms.

"Follow the Princess, Pidge," Keith ordered.

Pidge pushed some buttons, then they followed Allura's run through the corridors, until she ran smack into Lance right before the control room. Keith cringed at the collision, they were both running so fast they'd knocked each other to the ground, but neither look worst for wear when they got up. They started to talk, they both kept looking at the control room door. Then they walked away.

"Where are they going now?" Hunk said.

"Did see how often they kept looking at the control room doors?"

Keith frowned. "Yeah, are you following them, Pidge?"

"Yes, Keith."

"I don't understand, what is going on," Coran muttered. "Where is the princess now?"

"We'll find her, Coran," Keith said.

"Here they are," Pidge exclaimed.

Allura and Lance in the recreation room came up on the screen. They were talking, but both them still kept looking back. Suddenly, Allura stood up, and started walking but then she stopped short. Two second later they were both running again, at first Allura was ahead, but then Lance gained on her. They were back at the control room, Lance opened the doors, there was a bright golden light and they walked in.

"What?" everyone said.

Pidge brought up what was inside the control room at the same time. All that appeared was the empty, dark, unmanned control room. "Huh?"

"Haggar?" Hunk said.

"Has to be!" Pidge said.

"But we can't assume that just because... I'm not, I don't. What was that?" Keith didn't like this, what the hell had just happened to Allura and Lance, there was something wrong with this. "If this was Haggar, it'd be for Lotor most likely, to grab Allura. Why would Lance be part of it?"

"What has happened to the Princess?" Coran said, sounding worried. "Investigate this, from every angle you can think of..." he said and then walked away.

Keith stood there staring at the split screen Pidge at up on the computer screen. Allura and Lance, opening the control room doors and walking into bright golden light, and then the empty control room. Timestamps matching perfectly. He was baffled. Completely baffled.

He hated being baffled.

"Pidge, I want you to scan for...anomalies, anything that could make that that light, try out that program you made to scan for Haggar's magic, and anything else you can think of. Hunk, uh...go ask Allura's night shift maids if they saw or heard anything weird. I'm going to go interrogate Lara."

"She's still here?" Hunk and Pidge said.

"Get to work, we have two members missing. GO!" he shouted.

Hunk and Pidge nodded and both went to work.

Keith did the same. He had to find them, he just hopped Doom didn't attack when they were gone, two lions down was two lions too many. He made it back to the kitchen in no time at all and felt a sense of relief that Lara was still held captive by Nanny with glossy bored eyes, sipping what looked like a second cup of hot coffee.

"Now I am not saying Lance is not a good boy. He's a very good boy, they all are. Oh, Commander Kogane, you're back again? Is there something wrong?" Nanny asked this time.

Keith stifled a sigh, he had no choice this time, but he decided to delegate. "Coran has asked to see you, Nanny," he said.

"Oh. Well, it was good talking to you Miss Wyeth and I do hope you give what I have been saying some very serious consideration. A young woman with such a promising future as yourself should not be giving away her fruits before they are bought."

Lara turned on Keith the moment Nanny was out of earshot. "How dare you leave me alone with that woman. My own grandmother is more with the times than her, at least all she does is beg me to settle down, pick a guy and pop out babies!"

"I don't have time to apologize about Nanny, Lara. I need to talk to you about Lance," Keith said.

"Did you find him?"

"No. Uh, look, something weird happened last night and he and Princess Allura are missing, and I need to know if you heard, saw, or felt anything strange when you were with him last night?" Keith asked.

"No," Lara said.

Keith glared at her. "Be more specific. Just give me the run down of your date."

Lara drank down the rest of her coffee, then stood up. "Okay, but walk home with me, I have to get ready to be at work by eleven."

Keith nodded and started to lead her to the door behind the kitchen, it was closer to the path toward Lara's house anyway. "This is really quicker to your place anyway," Keith said, "Lance, probably never told you because of the risk of running into Nanny."

"Well, some men are gentlemen," Lara said pointedly.

Keith laughed. "Lara, the night, okay. I don't know what may or may not be significant."

"Right, okay. He picked me up at work, at 6:30ish in the Red Lion, your practice had just ended, we were at my place in two-seconds, where I changed and showered, then we came to the castle. He changed and showered. Then we went off on his bike down the Altea Bar and Grill, I ordered a bottle of fruit wine for the both us and proceeded to drink most of it and teased him into trying it, even though he said it was a girly drink. We had the special fresh caught fish grilled with fresh vegetables, and then we shared a chocolate cupcake and ice cream desert. Then we went to the dance club, where I ordered more fruit wine and he had a couple shots of whiskey to get rid of the taste - he claimed. We danced, we made out, we did it in the back alley," Lara paused. "This helping yet, or do you need more information about the dancing and the sex?"

"No. I don't need more details on the sex and the dancing. Then you two came back here?"

"Not right away, he felt too drunk to drive still, so we played a game of pool with a couple of my friends who were at the club, we made a bundle because my friend Quiana was sure she could beat him for some reason. He's probably going to ask her out this weekend, but that's not out of the ordinary or strange," Lara stopped for a second to get a rock out of her shoe and throw it back onto the path.

"You two have a very strange relationship."

"Not really," Lara said.

"So after the pool games, you came back here?"

"Yes, then there was more making out, and then he asked me to stay a bit, I did, because I was still really drunk and didn't want to walk home - which I think is really why he asked me to stay, we passed out after doing it again, and then when I woke up he wasn't there. Really that is the only strange thing that happened, Keith. Well, besides meeting Princess Allura's archaic, lives in the dark ages, should get with the times Nanny."

Keith sighed.

"What happened, Keith?" Lara asked, her tone changing. "Where are they? Did I sleep through an alarm?"

"No. There was no alarm. It's just, Lance and Allura both...we just... I don't know what happened but they aren't in the Castle, the GPS on their communicators isn't active. We don't know where they are," Keith shook his head. "I better get back to the Castle, thanks Lara."

"Tell him to call me when you find his ass, Keith."

"I will," Keith said.

~~~.~~~

Allura was staring out at a beautiful whole world.

Her planet had rebuilt.

A city stood where, where a broken town with crumbling buildings stood in her present. In the hills, in her time there was burnt out forest, dead trees, and people hiding in caves. Here in the future, now, there was villages tucked into the hills, the woodlands were back, and Allura could picture families and children running around on the hills, happy and beautiful. She couldn't help the tears, she couldn't help but hope that at least this part of the future was real and true. Seeing this, her planet whole and beautiful, the way it should be, it was starting to scare her, why had they pulled her and Lance here, why did they need them? What was threatening Arus now?

Lance walked up and leaned against the wall by the window, crossed his arms in front of his chest and looked at her. "Are you crying?"

"Arus, it's beautiful," Allura said.

Lance turned and looked out the window. He stood for a moment taking it all in and then he nodded. "Wow, it's, it's amazing. It reminds me of that book on Ancient Arusian History, just all the modern vehicles and ships are out of place, you know?"

Allura nodded. "I'm glad they kept the old world feel for architecture."

"I guess we should find out what is threatening everyone."

"Arus has found peace, that shouldn't be messed with."

"Right," Lance said. "We protect the future."

They both grew quiet after that, an awkward quiet, Lance went back to leaning against the wall, arms crossed against his chest, but his eyes downcast. Allura kept looking out the window, but now she wasn't really seeing her planet. Neither one of them really knew what to do with the elephant in the room, with the huge information they'd learned less than six hours ago on their way to medical wing of the Castle to be checked out for shock. Allura found it insane she wasn't in shock, being pulled to the future was one thing, but finding out...seeing that portrait, of her, with him, with the children...and the lions.

"Should we talk about it?" she asked.

Lance looked up startled. "No, no. You love Keith!" he said, almost loud enough to be a shout. "And me, I'm not, I'm not the commitment type, you know, I'm all wrong for you."

Allura blushed, it was her turn to look down. "How do you know that?" she asked.

"About Keith," Lance said. "I think everyone knows, except Keith."

Allura sighed.

"Sorry," he said.

"No, that's okay, not your fault."

"Allura, I mean, we can protect Arus, without you know...having to go along with the whole you and me thing. Right? I mean how would it happen anyway, it was obviously some weird fluke or something."

Allura looked up and nodded. "Okay. We should find out what is threatening Arus."

"Right," Lance stood up from the wall and crossed the room they were in and opened the door. "Hey, where is that kid L.T.?" he shouted out into the hallway.

A nurse walked to him, he made room for her to walk into the room. She looked between them, her eyes wide and her face was flushed. "Queen Allura, King Lance, um, I am to tell you that King Coran will be with you shortly."

"Coran?" Allura said.

"Yes, your daughter Liona was the first to use the name to honor your advisor, it's been used throughout the generations ever since. King Coran should be here soon, with Princess Allura, Princess Lia and Prince Lance."

Lance and Allura looked at each other again feeling uncomfortable, the names seemed to make the ancestry seem all that much more real. They only held eye contact for a few seconds and then looked away.

"It's been an honor to meet you both," the nurse said, bowing before she left the room.

Allura went back to the window, seeing her planet whole again it was the only thing in this whole situation she was finding that was keeping her from screaming, from falling apart completely. From pinching herself constantly and wondering why she wasn't waking up from the craziest dream she'd ever had.

Behind her she heard Lance starting to pace, he wasn't good at staying still at just accepting situations and not doing something about them. This was not normal situation, waiting and seeing wasn't an option he would like accepting. He wanted to get them home, he wanted this to be a dream too, he'd said so more than once. He agreed with her on keeping this future Arus whole. But it bizarre that people kept calling him a King - if they got married he wouldn't even be a King. King would not be the title a man with no royal blood would be handed. She sighed, why was she even considering the details. It was all crazy, she'd never marry Lance. Let alone have children, or a daughter named Liona...though that was a pretty name.

She loved Keith. Strong, brave, noble, amazing Keith, who would do anything for her and for her people. Keith would be an amazing Prince-Consort to her people. Keith who made her heart hurt sometimes to look at and sometimes she didn't know what to do or how to act around him. She loved Lance too, but not like that, Keith was the one who had her attention, he was the one she wanted to be with.

The door opened, making Allura turn from the window and she gasped. The man who walked through looked so much like Lance it was uncanny. He was older, by at least ten years but it was obvious, he was a descendant of Lance's. But as she stepped closer Allura realized that he didn't have Lance's eyes, he had her mother's eyes, he had her eyes. Lance walked so he stood somewhat between the man and her, but closer to her and Allura didn't blame her. She wanted to stay closer to him too.

"I am King Coran. First of all I would like to apologize for my children. They were ordered to not under any circumstances to use the time travel device because our scientists have not yet worked out ALL THE KINKS!" as he shouted the last three words he looked particularly at Princess Lia.

Lia shrugged.

King Coran sighed and ran his hands through his hair much like the way Lance always did when he was upset, or nervous and Allura heard Lance stifled swear. She reached out and touched his shoulder. He turned toward her, eyes wide and freaked out and nodded her agreement. She felt the same way.

"I am told that you were pulled out earlier in your timeline than the kids meant. So, you are not aware of your own marriage?"

"There is just no way we'd be married," Allura said.

"I'm not the committed type," Lance said.

"He sounds like you L.T.," Princess Allura said, the one they knew as Laurie to her brother.

King Coran sighed. "I really hope this doesn't mess to much with the future. Did you three think of any of this?"

"We were thinking of saving the planet," all three of them said.

Allura stepped forward then. "How is Arus in danger. Lance and I will do whatever we can to save Arus."

"Yes, what is threatening Arus, it looks like there is peace here. Outside that window I see a planet that is not at war."

"The Galaxy has been at peace for the last 100 years, King Coran said. There have been a few little skirmishes but nothing major. Arus hasn't had the need to use Voltron in over 175 years. The decision was made to only use him as a last resort, to use other methods to fight and use the defender only when needed. But now we find a need for Voltron, only the lions will not react to anyone who tries to fly them."

Allura and Lance glanced at each other.

"Why do you need Voltron?"

"It's a meteor," Lia said. "It's twice the size of Arus, and it's on a collision course, it's due to hit in two weeks time now. We need to all five lions pilots and the knowledge to form Voltron, to move the meteor off the path of Arus and and how to destroy into small enough fragments it can't harm or disrupt anything else in its path."

"What do you mean the lions won't react?" Lance said.

"We sent people down to fly them, the put the keys in and the lions won't let them fly them. Sometimes they start, but they won't move out of the dens." Laurie said. "Lance and Lia, started talking about the prophecy, about how when you and your team showed up on Arus, how you were the five that were meant to reawaken the lions. Lia's been working with the scientist on the time travel device. I wasn't sure at first, but times running out, so I went along with it."

King Coran cleared his throat. "Which is something I am surprised about, Laurie."

"Father, we can't let Arus be destroyed. Our people still honor the descendants of Queen Allura's time, they honor them daily and they honor their losses, we can not let them down and let them die by a meteor after all this planet went through with the Doom Wars and after."

"After?" Allura and Lance said unison.

King Coran held up a hand. "Sorry, but I'm afraid you already know too much of your own future."

L.T. cleared his throat this time. "So, can you two help with the lions or what?"

"Give me the key to the red lion," Lance said.

"It's in the control room," Lia said.

"Well, let's go," Lance said, walking out of the door.

Allura couldn't help but smile, at least this was something to do. She couldn't even fathom why the Lions weren't reacting to anyone, but she was sure the Red Lion would react to Lance. Maybe that would be enough, for him to pass the torch maybe? Maybe she could as well?

She followed Lance out of the door, and then behind her she heard the other four follow her and tried not think of the fact that were all her and Lance's flesh and blood. Tried not think about the fact she saw so much of her self in Laurie, but that she had Lance's height and eyes. That King Coran was almost an exact copy of Lance except for the eyes. That L.T.'s personality seemed to be Lance's though he must take after his mother. Lia at least didn't scream at her to be one or the other of them.

She'd focus on Lia.