A/N: This is a Voltron AU taking influence from both Final Fantasy and Avatar: The Last Air Bender. Everyone has their own elemental magic they can use, but they can also summon creatures to fight with them. The many aliens and planets seen in the series are all found an represented on a singular planet here. If anyone wants more explanation after this chapter, I'll be happy to expand on this more. Also, no one knows Pidge's secret yet, so many of the characters will refer to her with male pronouns until they find out.


Lance was not one who thought too hard about life and its consequences, though he had to admit that he was beginning to worry about where he and his team might end up if things kept going the way they were. His time at the Guardian Garrison had been hectic to say the least, and only continued to get crazier as time went. There was him, a water bender amongst many other water benders, and his friends Pidge and Hunk, a nature bender and land bender respectively. The three of them were admittedly very good with their abilities, though Pidge and Hunk had it easier than he did, their abilities being less common and all.

Water bending was the most common ability amongst humans, so Lance had stiff competition when it came to being put in the summoners' program at the Garrison. Though he wasn't the best or the most disciplined bender the program had, he still managed to get in through pure luck and circumstances. One of the water benders chosen for the program ended up having to leave the Garrison due to family matters, and that meant that Lance, the water bender who had just barely missed out on being in the program, managed to get his wish. He was going to be a summoner.

Hunk had been ecstatic when he found out, having thought that he would be in the program without his best friend, and being put on a team with him had only made things that much better. The water bender and land bender had their trio completed by a boy named Pidge, who Lance swore was far too young to be enrolled in the Guardian Garrison, but what did he know? Nature benders were pretty cool in his eyes, and Pidge seemed more than capable with his abilities.

Their team hit it off fairly well, despite Pidge's initial distance from the two best friends. Lance refused to let him isolate himself off from his team, so of course he had heckled the guy long enough to get him to hang out with the two more often. Pidge had been pleasantly surprised after he found out how well his abilities went with Hunk's land bending, and it was difficult to separate them after they began bonding over technology, relics, and all things nerdy. Lance had to admit defeat once they got like that, as there was no way he could contribute to conversations of that nature. Either way, he did manage to get better acquainted with Pidge through excessive use of video game playing.

As for how the summoners' program itself was going, Lance sometimes just wanted to crawl away and hide somewhere. His team had all managed to successfully summon their respective guardian, but that didn't mean they had completed their bond with it or even learned how to fight effectively together with them all.

Lance, as a water bender, focused on the manipulation of both liquid water and ice. His guardian was the ice goddess Shiva, much to his delight. Not only was she beautiful, but she could freeze all in her path and put up powerful ice barriers to protect both himself and his team. Of course, his bond to her had yet to be strengthened beyond simply summoning her, and actually using her ice to protect the team was next to impossible. If he was lucky, he could guide her into not hitting Hunk and Pidge with her ice, but that was about it. It had happened more than enough times that either Pidge or Hunk needed to be healed of frost bite after a battle.

Meanwhile, Hunk was a land bender, able to manipulate both the rocks of the planet and the metal that could be created from them. His guardian was Titan, servant of the land. Titan was much more physically powerful than Shiva, being able to crack the land and cause powerful earthquakes. A single punch could destroy the strongest of barriers. Unfortunately, though earthquakes and crushing barriers was bad for Titan's enemies, it was also detrimental to those on Titan's side, and Hunk had yet to figure out how to prevent his teammates from being affected from his guardian's abilities.

Finally, Pidge was a nature bender, capable of manipulating life and the relationships amongst it. His guardian, much to Lance's confusion, was Carbuncle, creature of the gems. Admittedly, his guardian was adorable and fit Pidge's personality well, but Lance had expected something more attack-based, like his and Hunk's guardians. Carbuncle was a support guardian, able to shield its summoner and teammates with a mystical barrier, capable of deflecting magic attacks and sending them back at the user. It was highly effective when fighting other benders, but the team would keep accidentally hitting each other's reflect barrier and injuring themselves as a result. When Lance tried to tell Pidge off for this, Pidge would simply deflect his rage back at Hunk with his nature bending, annoying Lance even more after the fact.

The three of them were a disaster in battle. That was all their commander Iverson told them one day, angrily shouting and demeaning them for their poor performance. Lance, in a panic, had to hold Pidge back as he attempted to argue back at their commander, and all in all the encounter was awful. He knew what Hunk and Pidge were both thinking; he was thinking it himself, after all. They were going to be kicked out of the summoners' program if they couldn't get their acts together, and Lance didn't know if he'd be able to handle that if it happened.

It was night time, well past curfew, and both Lance and Hunk were sitting in their shared dorm room. They had talked in earnest about their issues controlling their guardians before Lance got fed up. Standing from his bed, he turned dramatically to Hunk, deciding that they would grab Pidge and sneak out for the night. Perhaps some more team bonding was in order if they fought so poorly together.

So, the two of them snuck out of their room, reaching their teammate's room just in time to see him sneak out with an armful of technology. At first Hunk was reluctant to follow, afraid of the repercussions should they be caught, but Lance was adamant about finding out what Pidge was up to. That lead to Pidge sneaking off to an isolated rooftop of the Garrison, Hunk and Lance catching up moments later to catch him setting up his equipment.

Perhaps sneaking up on the guy wasn't Lance's brightest move, but he was feeling playful and wanted to give Pidge a good scare. Considering that that action nearly ended up with him receiving a black eye, it made him wonder if it was worth it in the end, but Pidge at least relented and told his teammates what he was up to.

"I've been getting this strange signal from my equipment lately, so I've been coming up here to try and see if I could get a stronger reading and figure out what it is, but… Well, I haven't been having much luck," Pidge grumbled out, annoyed. He adjusted his equipment somewhat, muttering to himself when nothing changed.

Hunk sat beside him, a curious look in his eye. "Have you tried bending to get any other readings, or has it just been this tracker you've been using?"

Pidge side-eyed him, a thoughtful look on his face. "I doubt I could do much if the signal isn't something living," his eyes lit up in sudden hope, "but, you could use your bending to adjust the polarity of the signal and strengthen its transmission, couldn't you?"

"I don't know, Pidge," Hunk admitted, a hand to the back of his head, "I mean, like you said, we don't know what this signal even is."

"You can at least try!" Pidge said, jumping up from his spot with equipment in hand. "Come on! We'll down to a better spot on the cliffside. That way, you'll have an easier time manipulating the polarity of the reading!"

"Oh, man," Hunk groaned, but followed after his excited teammate without further protest.

Lance, as usual when Hunk and Pidge got like this, was a bit lost, but knew enough to at least try and contribute to the conversation.

"Why are you so interested in this reading anyways?" he asked, following beside Hunk as the two followed Pidge to leave the Garrison headquarters. "I mean, it's mysterious and stuff, but how'd you find it in the first place?"

Pidge barely hesitated in answering Lance's question. "I was testing my equipment just to make sure all of it was still working, and I ended up picking up on this signal. Now shush before we get caught!"

With that, the three remained silent until they had successfully left the Garrison. Once they were seated on a cliffside a ways from the headquarters, out of any possible prying eyes. With Pidge's equipment set back up, Hunk placed his hands to the ground, eyes closed in concentration.

"Can you feel the signal, bud?" Lance asked him, though Pidge punched him the shoulder for it with another shush!

Hunk mumbled to himself, the ground beneath him trembling ever so slightly in his concentration. After a sudden exclaimed ah ha! from him, both Lance and Pidge could feel a subtle shift in the ground, their balance thrown off from the odd sensation. Before they knew it, Pidge's sensor was going off the charts, the signal from it coming in stronger than ever before. Hunk remained kneeled on the ground in concentration, but Pidge ran to his equipment, face lit up in pure joy.

"It's working! I—" he cut himself off, eyes going wide. His head whipped around frantically, as though he was searching for something.

"Pidge, uh, you okay?" Lance approached him cautiously.

"That way!" Pidge pointed in a general direction, far into the desert. "There's something living out there, I can feel it!"

With that, the tremors of the ground and the odd shift in the air died down. Hunk stood back up from his position, glancing in the direction Pidge pointed in. He looked nervous, likely having felt the signal himself as Pidge was at that moment, but barely put up any protest from Pidge gathering up his equipment once more and darting off into the desert.

"Oh man, what are we doing?" he whined, following after Pidge reluctantly.

"Come on, man! I bet this'll be the find of a century!" Lance boasted, heading out with much more gusto. Pidge had taken off ahead already, and Lance ran to catch up to him.

They searched for a good few hours, Hunk's nervousness coming and going in spurts. By that point, he appeared to be more eager to get back to the Garrison before anyone noticed their absences, but both Pidge and Lance insisted on finding the source of the signal first. Every so often Hunk would concentrate his abilities back on the polarity of the signal, and Pidge would continually have to readjust their travel direction, but overall Lance figured they had to be making progress.

Daylight was slowly making its way to the horizon when they finally found it. It was a large rock formation, sticking out of the side of a tall canyon wall. At closer examination, it appeared to be some sort of old ruin. Pidge had trilled in joy when they found it, inspecting every inch of the ancient ruins. Lance held back as even Hunk began to follow up with checking out the intricate designs and feel of the structure, and noticed something odd.

The formation, at a second glance, had an almost ship-like shape to it, and had to have been much larger than he originally assumed. It looked as though it led deep into the canyon mountain it was entrapped in, and it didn't take him long to notice what appeared to be a doorway off to the side of the exposed parts of the ruins. Finally approaching the structure, Lance put his hands up to the door, dusting off dirt and grime from likely years of buildup. There was no noticeable way to open the door, and even if there was, he doubted that he'd be able to open it anyways. The whole structure was covered in thick rust, and he doubted opening it would be easy for a water bender. A land bender, though…

"Yo, Hunk! Over here!" he called for his best friend, catching his attention.

Apparently, Hunk and Pidge had been tinkering with the sensor equipment and looking at the signal readings, but both ran over to look at Lance's finding.

"Think you can open this door, here?" Lance asked once Hunk and Pidge took the door in. "I mean, it's metal or something, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it definitely is, but I couldn't tell what kind of metal it is," Hunk responded, looking uncertain. "I mentioned it to Pidge, but I don't think I've ever come across something like this before."

"Do you think it's from one of the other nations?" Pidge queried, hand to his chin in thought. "You know how often the other nations keep things to themselves."

"Bet it's from the Galra," Lance muttered, distaste showing in his voice.

The world in which Lance, Hunk, and Pidge lived on was a large planet, situated in its own mystical place in the universe. Unsurprisingly, many races and nations existed on the planet of Terra, with theories that most were alien species from a time long ago, left to their own devices after the means of space travel and teleportation were long gone and forgotten. They all existed in relative peace, relative meaning that all races attempted to coexist while the Galra empire made its way across the planet in order to rule it.

Thankfully, the humans remained fairly well protected in their small nation, considering that a majority of humans were water benders, with many land benders amongst them. The Galra were almost exclusively fire benders, which fell easily to water and was ineffective against land. Of course, there were always the more powerful Galra fire benders that could bend lightning and electricity, striking down water benders, but that was why land benders were so important. They were heavily relied on for protection.

Lance had always wondered how much more protected the humans would be if they had more wind benders, since they were so scarce amongst their race. Mind benders and fire benders were unheard of in humans, so Lance didn't know much about either (especially mind benders), but he at least knew enough wind benders to know that they could be a huge benefit to humans if there were more. That was his own ignorance about other races speaking, though. He knew wind, fire, mind, and even nature benders were more common in other races and nations, all of which could keep themselves relatively protected, but he still wondered. Considering what little he did know of non-humans, could this structure they found reasonably be from the Galra? Or perhaps some other race? Perhaps one long-forgotten by time?

A loud, metallic clang brought Lance out of his thoughts, the screeching painful to his ears. He brought his hands to his ears to drown out the sound, but Hunk thankfully had finished opening the door to the ruins in no time. Lance was surprised to find the door having slid open to remain within the wall. Sliding doors were uncommon, everyone usually relying on swinging doors, but this was some technologically advanced structure, wasn't it? His theory of it being some giant battleship remained firmly in the back of his mind.

"Uh, guys, do you really think we should be here messing with this stuff?" Hunk questioned, nervously wringing his hands together, sweat running down his brow.

The interior of the (battleship?) ruins was dark and musty, clearly having been unused for many years (possibly centuries?). Pidge pulled a small flashlight from his bag, waving the light around the place. Lance wondered if either he or Hunk knew what they were looking at, because he sure as hell didn't. It was a small, empty room with random devices littered off to the side and within the walls. Another door sat at the opposite end of the room, which Pidge conned Hunk into opening up with his metal bending.

There was no need for Pidge's flashlight once they entered the next room, as two lights from the middle of the area illuminated the entire space. The white and grey glowing spots held two figures, one in each light, and the three apprentice summoners were stopped in their tracks.

"Guys, I think there's people in there," Hunk whispered in a panic, gripping onto Pidge's shoulders tightly.

"No way," Lance let loose. He slowly approached the lights, confirming that there were in fact people within them, both appearing as though they were in a peaceful slumber. He could hear Hunk gasping in a concerned breath, but turn back to look at him. Slowly, he reached up a daring hand, lightly touching the white light of the figure before him.

At once, a circular panel to his left lit up in a bright blue, followed by two panels to his right lighting up in green and yellow respectively. He didn't even have time to scream in surprise before the lights strengthened to take over the entire room, blinding them all. Before he knew it, there was someone in his arms, and he gripped them firmly, not wanting to drop whoever it was.

Once the lights died down, there was a soft illumination keeping the room visible, but the two lights form the slumbering people in the room were gone, and in their place were two suddenly very awake people. One of these people was being held by Lance, a young woman pale hair, accentuated by her dark skin and elegant dress. Needless to say, she was one of the most beautiful people Lance had ever laid eyes on. A damsel in need of rescuing, and he would be her hero; her knight in shining armor.

The woman looked up at him in confusion, still trying to get her bearings. "Who are you? Where am I?"

"I'm Lance, and you're right here in my arms," he responded, sly grin on his face.

His flirting didn't last very long once he was manhandled to ground and having his life threatened by said damsel in distress.