It was nine o'clock at night, Lance had just finished his duties at the farm and was getting ready to head to bed. On his way from the farmhouse where he stored his equipment, he took a moment to pause at the tree by his house, the very tree where he and Allura shared their first kiss. He touched his hand to the tree and smiled, holding back tears and just remembering that night.
It had been seven years since Allura gave her life to restore the universe, bringing life to all of the timelines than Honerva had destroyed in her rage. Lance took his hand off the tree and stepped back away from it, looking up at it one last time before heading back home. He got to his room and removed his work clothes, placing them in the basket so he could wash them later. He grabbed a towel and headed towards the bathroom so he could wash himself before heading to bed.
Lance spent most of his time in the shower cleaning himself off, farm work got dirt into the strangest places. But what time he didn't spend cleaning, his mind was left to wander.
He kept wondering if there was something that could've been done to save Allura, but he knew it was pointless to think like that. She was gone, and he needed to move on. He let out a sigh before shutting off the water, wrapping a towel around himself, and heading back to his room.
Lance's room was bigger than what he'd had on the Castle of Lions, but was by no means huge. Looking in from the door, there was a window directly across from it which went from the floor to the ceiling, with large black curtains hanging from them for when he needs to black out the light. His bed was a Queen size, and was off to the right of the window, with his nightstand between the window and his bed which sat flush into the corner of his room. to the left of the window was his desk and his dresser. Lance kept around a way to keep in touch with the other former Paladins, often talking to Keith about how the humanitarian efforts are now that the Blade has been smoothly operating as such an organization for so long. On his desk is the photo of him and Allura on their first date by the tree he stopped at on the way home, sitting in a small frame. In the middle of the desk is his computer, how he keeps in touch with everyone. Pidge gave it to him because she knew Lance needed the ability to talk to his friends. Finally to the left of the computer was something he made in honor of Allura, it was a model of her Bayard, with the words "Compassion above all is how we win".
Lance hung his towel from a hook on the back of his door and slipped into his night clothing. he climbed into his bed and pressed his head against the pillow, closing his eyes and drifting to sleep.
Lance did not get very much sleep.
The time is 2am, and a light brighter than the sun shines through Lance's window, waking him from his sleep quickly. He shields his eyes and heads out of his room, down the stairs, and outside the house. Once there he realizes what the light is, it's a wormhole! But this isn't like the wormhole's Allura created, this one looked different. Not to mention like it was partially inside of the planet!
Lance ran back to his room and opened his computer and immediately attempts to contact Pidge, after a few stressful moments of waiting, she picks up. She's clearly tired and likely annoyed at the call. "Lance what do you need? It's way too late for this" Pidge rubs her eyes and yawns, hoping it's just something that can be dealt with quick so she can go back to bed.
"Pidge! It's an emergency! Wormhole, outside my house! It looks like it's coming OUT of the planet!"
Whelp, there went her plans of sleeping tonight. "Monitor it Lance, I'm on my way." She lets out another yawn. "I just need to get some coffee or something."
The call ends and Lance grabs his coat, the same coat he had when he disappeared into space inside of the Blue Lion all those years ago, and also a device Pidge had given him just in case something like this ever happened. He ran out of the house and set up the device to monitor the wormhole, he knew he wouldn't understand the readings but he also knew that Pidge was coming, and that she COULD understand them. Speaking of Pidge, where is she? -
Pidge had just finished her call with Lance, and was running out of her room holding a protein bar between her teeth as she tried to get her jacket on. The ruckus she made didn't go unnoticed, as Matt was already up and could clearly hear Pidge scrambling around. Matt came out of his room just in time to catch Pidge whiz past him and around the corner. He decided the best course of action was to follow her, because who knows what kind of trouble there must be to have her running off like this. If she was sneaking off to do something, she wouldn't be sprinting through the facility, no she wasn't sneaking, she was worried about something.
On her way to one of the ships that her family had made, Pidge activates Chip so he can assist her.
"Oh Hey Pidge, what do you need?" Chip whirs to life and unplugs himself from his charger, ready to help in any way he can.
"A wormhole has opened up by Lance's house, we need to go there and make sure that it's not going to send anything sinister through it." Chip nods at Pidge's description "Well then we better get going!"
"Not without me you're not!"
Pidge turns around quickly, surprised at the additional voice but relieved when she realizes it's Matt's. "Matt! I thought you were sleeping!"
"Well I should've been... Buuuuuut I may have been spending a little too much time on the console you got me." Matt blushes and rubs his neck. "Well that might be a good thing, we need to get to Lance FAST. I'll explain on the way, let's go!"
Without missing a beat, Pidge, Matt, and Chip all quickly load up into one of the Helicopters which the Holt family had made and they headed quickly from their facility towards Lance's farm.
"So Pidge, what's going on? You were, and still are, pretty worked up." Matt is preparing himself and some rifles just in case they're needed.
"Well, I'm not entirely sure what's going on, but Lance contacted me and told me that a wormhole had opened up right by his farm. He seemed pretty concerned about it so I figured I'd take a look at it. Especially since we have no way of knowing its origin without getting an actual reading from it."
"Okay... I see why you were rushing around. Alright well let's hope that whatever created this wormhole is friendly." Matt nods in response as they continue heading towards Lance.
Lance set up the monitoring device as close to the wormhole as he dared get, it was causing the wind to pick up viciously and he could swear he heard thunder as well. His suspicions were confirmed when a bolt of electricity strikes right next to where he stands. Yelping and stepping slightly away from the now charred piece of earth, he turns to look up at the wormhole when something happens to it, something he had hoped wouldn't happen. It began to change from a brilliant white, to a sinister purple and black.
Readying himself for a fight, Lance took a fighting stance. He wished his Bayard was in his hands so he could do SOMETHING but there's no time to find any kind of weapon right now. The wormhole started to grow in size and an object began to emerge from it. A massive, familiar, sinister object.
"We're almost there! Matt, Chip, get ready, something's wreaking havoc on my sensors I need you two ready to fight"
Matt and Chip simply nodded, Matt loaded a rifle while Chip opted for a Pistol. Pidge had wanted to cut out as much hydraulics as she could to reduce the risk of a hydraulic fluid leak. The mechanical servos she, with some help from other tech specialists including her father, had created were reliable and could handle most tasks, but they couldn't handle recoil of anything hotter than a basic pistol.
"Perhaps in the future I should have arms with higher resistance to recoil that I can use in place of my current ones. Just in case, oh I don't know, the world needs saving?"
"Cut the chatter Chip I didn't bring you along for your Sass, we're coming up on Lance's farm, it'll be in view in..."
"5" The helicopter shakes violently
"4" The scanners beep and whine like a broken alarm clock
"3" Matt and Chip furrow their brows and Matt grabs the latch for the door getting ready to jump out.
"2" The horizon is filled with dark clouds and smoke, Pidge grips the controls tighter.
"1" A large shot of purple lightning heads up into the sky from right where Lance's farm is
"NOW!" The helicopter enters the clearing where Lance's farm is, and then they're all met with a sight that had haunted their nightmares, something they had faced time and time again, and thought to be lost forever.
"No, NO!" Pidge grabbed the radio with tears welling up in her eyes "LANCE! LANCE DO YOU COPY?! LANCE ANSWER ME! WHERE ARE YOU!"
Matt simply sat with his eyes open wide, and a simple word escaped his lips. "No." Filled with fear and uncertainty Matt gripped the latch for the door and his rifle tighter.
Chip, being the only one to not have faced this threat before simply references the information Pidge had uploaded to him.
"Galra command ship designation 07X-937. Primarily referred to as Emperor Zarkon's command center." Chip paused for a moment, then looked at Matt and Pidge. "What is it doing here?"
Neither of them could answer, too stunned to react. Chip sighed and walked over to Pidge, elbowing her lightly but firmly. "Focus! Lance is down there, we need to help."
Pidge let go of the radio in her hand and shook her head rapidly before taking in a deep breath. "You're right. Okay Matt, Chip, I'm going to set us down in that clearing next to Lance's house, get ready." Chip readied himself and Matt, now having his bearings again, got ready to throw the latch.
Quickly Pidge set them down, Matt threw the latch opening the door and Him and Chip ran out, followed closely by Pidge who grabbed a pistol and a grappling hook and clipped them to her belt.
She ran over to the side of Lance's house where Matt and Chip were already crouching with Matt looking around the corner at the wormhole.
"Pidge what's our play? We need a strategy." Matt continues looking at the wormhole and the giant space station emerging from it, ready to fire or to run.
"First we need to find Lance, we lost contact on our approach and I'm not leaving until I know where he is"
As if on cue, an armada of Galra fighters emerge from the battlestation, and seem to converge on... the farmhouse behind them?
Pidge, Matt, and Chip's communicators light up and a familiar voice emerges from them
"Guys, get to the farm house, it's our only way out of this mess. Trust me." Lance seems pretty sure of himself, and relieved to know that he's not dead, they quickly and quietly make their way towards the farmhouse.
"Lance you had better have a plan" Pidge shakes her head and starts running towards the farmhouse, deciding speed is more important than stealth.