A.N. So if this is your first fic in the series, then I strongly suggest to go and read that one first, Lance Sanchez, as it holds all the necessary information for this one to make sense. This story will be containing all the oneshots and cutscenes that happen and there is a squeal coming out soon, so keep an eye out for that!

Enjoy folks!

(? Years since Adam ran away; ? decapheobs since Lance left Earth – Time was weird and non-linear in space, it seemed.)

After the fight with Lotor, the loss of the Castleship, the return on Shiro, the real Shiro, not the clone (Lance wanted to be surprised to find out that it was a clone, but he really, really couldn't find it inside himself to be that surprised at all, hurt, betrayed, but not surprised), it was time to go home.

Finally, they were going home.

Home to Earth and its large seas and beautiful landscapes and the warm sunsets and the cold rainy days and the small little apartment that he shared with Mama two miles away from the sweet, sweet sea and boy does he miss all the constellations and the nights that he and Adam would stand with their feet in the surf and watch as it was reflected off the water, and…

They were all going home.

"It's almost surreal, in a way, to be going back home now," Hunk muttered as he lent against Shay, his hand intertwined tightly with the other. Pidge hummed from her spot next to her brother, her retro laptop on her crossed legs but for once she wasn't tapping away on the keyboard.

"Yes, I've been curious as to what the planet that you Paladins have grown up on is like," Coran stated from the rock that he shared with Allura, who lent against him heavily, still exhausted from bring Shiro back to life. Lance felt his smile grow on his face, the excitement of going back home radiating from him.

They were going home!

"Honestly, Coran, you're going to love it! Of course, there's no Altean rain, just normal water, no Balmeran mountains nor anything like that," Lance started, reminiscing the times that he and his siblings would go out at night, bringing Veronica's phone and the twin's speaker and Adam's tent and Lance's imagination, and they would all watch the stars and sing offkey at the top of their lungs and see who could kick the football the highest, see who could hit the stars first, before all going into the tent that was too small to fit them all in, giggling and whispering even though there was nothing to hide out there, in the middle of the night in the middle of Cuba, where nothing in the world, nothing in the universe could come and tear them apart.

"But there's the caves near Keith's place that Blue used to live before with all the beautiful carvings that tell stories that you probably know about the old Paladins, now that I think about it, and then there's the beach where I grew up on an island called Cuba that's beautiful, and just as the tide's coming in after the sunset on a clear day, the sea reflects the stars and, if you went out onto the water it looks like your swimming in the stars," Lance rambled as he felt tears gather up in his eyes, and he tried not to blink and let them stream down his face, but then Keith, Keith with a new scar and a new height on him but the same beautiful smile, grabs his left hand with his right and does that heart stopping smile again, making the tears faller quicker than he is able to rub them away, making him let out a soft but wet laugh.

Hunk had continued to describe Earth to the aliens, describe the different nations and their governments, and he smiled when both Pidge, Shiro and even Krolia had something to say about the planet that the Paladins grew up on, all positive, nothing about the wars and the famine and the corruption and the discrimination, because while they've been gone for years now, there was no way that the world had completely solved all the problems with it while they went away.

There's no need to dwell on the negatives, not now anyway.

"I bet you can't wait to see your family," Keith muttered to him, a smile on his face while the pair of them half listen to the others explain some Earth culture to those who don't know it. Lance hummed in agreement, leaning against Keith's shoulder as Matt started to explain some obscure cultural reference, causing Romelle to frown deeply and look too much into it, and her asking Matt and Hunk to verify Santa Clause when they got to Earth was funny enough to make him to want to start crying fully, because it reminds him of his oldest cousin Rachel's first born, who refused to believe in anything until she got proof once she was able to ask for the proof of its exitance.

"They're going to kill me," Lance replied thickly, ending it with a short laugh, and Keith only gripped his hand tighter in reply, a smile playing on his lips.

This was going to be their last night in space. Their last night piloting the Lions across the universe; their last night on the small tent on an asteroid that had a minimal atmosphere; their last night being homeless. Earth held a lot for most of them, held a lot of promise and excitement and worry and while Lance couldn't wait to get there, he was also worried what would happen after.

Would they all go back to space? Would they all want to? Pidge would finally have her family back, all of them. Hunk would be back home where he knew what would happen, where everything was familiar. It was hard to tell what Shiro wanted to do once they got home; he had remembered Adam mentioning the fact that he only had his grandfather who died when Shiro was 18, but even still it gave Shiro the promise of a break, something that everyone could agree that he needed. And Keith…

Keith had changed a lot from when he had left the Paladins for the Blades, for it had been more than two years for him while it was only a few months for the rest of the Paladins. But even then, Lance could never see him staying on Earth for too long, not when he felt so comfortable traveling the stars.

However, these were problems that he would make future Lance worry about, because present Lance had Keith's hand in his own and they both had a smile on their faces as they both spent the last night in space before their lives changed yet again with their friends, laughing the doboshes away before the inevitable came.

They were going home, which in itself a strange concept to think about, for, somewhere during this crazy space war filled with loss and joy and grief and excitement and pain and love, it had somehow become home too.

They make sure they're in formation when they get to the milky way, Black leading the group, Red and Blue on the right and Green and Yellow on the left. Once the recognisable constellations, the ones that they grew up with and admired for their entire lives came into view, the comms went quiet but not off, not in awkwardness but in silence acceptance. They slowed down a considerable amount once their solar system came into view, no Kerberos nor Pluto this time, but they passed Neptune and Uranus.

There was no view of Saturn and its beautiful icy rings, but they got Jupiter instead and it was a wonderous sight to behold. Of course, there was no red spot on it anymore, not since the storm let up a couple of years back, but the colours swirling so beautifully around it's atmosphere still made them gasp and smile and remind them where they were, what they had been doing, what they had missed.

There was a ping on the comms, someone from an outside source, someone with coding unrelated to the Galra or Alteans or the Blade or the Voltron Alliance requested to talk. Lance smiled as Keith accepted the request, and sighed as the familiar language entered the cockpit of Red.

"This is the Galaxy Garrison of Planet Earth. State who you are and your intentions. If you do not do so, we will act accordingly."

Humans never changed much, it seemed.

"This is Keith Kogane, former Galaxy Garrison Fighter Pilot Cadet and Current Black Paladin of Voltron, Defender of the Universe," there was something about the way that Keith said his title, the way that he seemed to hold back a comment or two, that made Lance want to snort loudly, but he knew that tis was not the time nor the place to be making a joke. After all, it would suck to save the universe but then be nuked on their way home.

"With me are the other Paladins of Voltron. The Blue Paladin: Princess Allura of Altea. The Yellow Paladin: Hunk Garrett, former Galaxy Garrison Cadet. The Red Paladin, Lance McClain, former Galaxy Garrison Cadet and the Green Paladin, Katie Holt." Keith finished, and Lance could just feel the growl that Pidge was holding back at hearing her birthname, something that she had decided sounded dumb, not hardcore enough to be a name of a Paladin of Voltron apparently.

There was other background noises now, coming from the Garrison's side of the comms, because trust Voltron, a bunch of barely adults who didn't finish any type of schooling (because Shiro was not a Paladin anymore, so they didn't even have someone who actually knew what they were doing anymore in charge), to be able to hold back more than the Garrison, how were supposed to be have trained, but Lance decided to let them have this one, because it was not every day that a bunch of teenagers who disappeared one day came back in some awesome robotic Lions.

"I am afraid that we need evidence to believe that, so called 'Black Paladin'."

Silence responded the Garrison, as Hunk quickly opened up a private chat for the Paladins.

"Okay, so, err, what are we supposed to do? Show them some ID? Any ID that we would have on us, not that I think anyone had ID on them, would be invalid by now and you know how long we would have to wait for it to be renewed, which means that we're never going to be able to go back on Earth and live in the Lions until we die!" Hunk's monologue caused some confusion for the aliens, and laughter from Matt which didn't help anyone or anything at all. Pidge started to come up with ways to be able to get back on Earth, weird wacky wonderfully reckless and dangerous ways to get onto Earth, all of them probably unnecessary in any case.

Lance sighed as he muted the Paladin chat and made sure that the Garrison chat was open before smirking.

"Hey, is Adam Sanchez there? You know, the one who used to teach second years self-defence, was hella gay and apparently hot to marry according to one of our special passenger in the Black Lion, just in case I've caused any confusion," Lance asked down the comms, a full out grin coming out when he heard Shiro's muffled scream and Keith's "what the fuck does he have anything to do with this?".

"… No."

Lance only smiled.

They hesitated.

"Are you sure?" he asked, pressing a finger to his lips before pulling it away, "Because, if that is the case, then I can tell you guys what happened on March 27th at exactly 16:47-"

"Say another word Lance Alejandro Sanchez, and I guarantee you will never see Mars again, do you understand me?"

Lance could have cried hearing his brother's voice again, could have left his chair and started to scream, could have replied 'that's no way to speak to your once missing and presumed dead brother', but he didn't because that wouldn't be Paladinish of him.

"Yeah, well, I thought I wasn't Lance, but some rather mystical creature that decided to come to this planet for the shits and giggles you know, because that's the best prank idea we've had for our show in a century," Lance replied, smiling widely at the badly concealed giggles that filled the comms.

"Shut your mouth brat. You better land sooner rather than later, you might be able to leave the house before you're fifty instead of sixty."

The line went dead after that, but Lance just continued to smile, even with the threat in the air.

He was home.

A.N. So this was supposed to be the final scene of the previous fic, but it ran away from me, as you can clearly see, and it didn't have the emotional wow factor that so many of you enjoyed in the last one. So, tell me, was my choice to cut this scene out for the other one a good one? A bad one? Tell me below!