Now, I know that I should probably finish Shattered before I start another story, but I have a lot of stories in progress and I wanted to get at least this one out even if I don't post the rest.
All props to my lovely beta for reading my awkward writing, so shout out to Cracked Silver.
She's a great writer so go and check her out :)
Anyway, hope you all enjoy this one.
I don't own Voltron Legendary Defender
There was complete and utter panic as the Lions spun away from the ship, desperately trying to gain some semblance of control, but the forces outside were pulling them too strongly to try.
"Hunk! Guys! Help!" Lance called out, but all he got was screams for help in return. "Guys!" he screamed again, trying in vain to regain control of his Lion, but Blue was not responding. His Lion shuddered violently before the coms suddenly went out and he was thrown into a world of black.
'Help…' was his last thought before passing out into blissful unconsciousness.
((( )))
Lance awoke in the cockpit of his Lion and he blinked open his eyes slowly. Groaning, he tried to sit up, but immediately lay back down again, hissing in pain. Everything hurt, and there was an odd warmth over his chest that didn't feel very good. Where was the warmth coming from? Wincing, he looked around as best he could. The interior walls of the Blue Lion's cockpit had definitely seen better days. They were torn badly with wires hanging out everywhere and metal scraps were scattered everywhere, covering the floor and control board. Light flickered weakly as he felt a presence in the back of his mind.
"Blue?" He called weakly, and he got a weak growl in response. He felt her concern for him and she was trying to provide comfort for something, but he couldn't understand what she was trying to say. Lance groaned and once again tried to sit up, but that only brought more pain. He was now feeling lightheaded and was having trouble breathing. That, and the warmth in his chest had grown now and was still unpleasant. Wincing, he steeled himself for the pain and looked down to examine himself. Gasping, his eyes found that there was a long shard of metal sticking out of him.
'That…that certainly explains some things…' He thought to himself before he suddenly felt a wave of pain wash over him at the realization that yes, there was something sticking out of him and it should probably hurt. Blue whined in distress at her paladin's pain and at the fact that there was nothing that she could do to help him. Her systems were slowly repairing themselves, but even if she wasn't in a bad condition, there was nothing that she could do to help. She had no idea where they were or where their team was. She felt so useless. Why hadn't she tried harder? Why was she so weak? Now, because of her weakness, her paladin was dying inside of her.
"Don't think that, Blue… it wasn't your fault." Lance said comfortingly to her. "There was nothing you could do to help, so don't blame yourself." He murmured softly, trying his best to stay calm, but inside he was panicking. This was bad. This was really, really bad. The wound was pretty much fatal, and he had already lost a lot of blood. The only reason that he hadn't bled out completely by now was the fact that the shrapnel was sealing the wound enough for him to bleed out more slowly. So this was it, wasn't it? He was going to die…
"B-Blue… Blue, let me out…" he called out softly and he felt a wave of concern from her followed quickly by her refusal. No. She would not let her paladin leave the safety of her cockpit. Here, she could at least try her best and keep her hurt paladin safe and comfortable. Lance coughed painfully, feeling his chest burn, and looks out the front, wheezing softly.
"Please, Blue. You know…as well as I do…that I'm not gonna make it." Blue protested as he said that, but Lance cut her off.
"Please. Please don't deny it… I…I just don't want…this to be…where I die… I can't die inside you… so please… please let me out…" he pled with her. For a minute, there was only silence, but then the faint telltale hissing of the doors slowly opening was heard right before the rush of a slight breeze came through the opening. Smiling slightly, Lance whispered his thanks to the Lion. Bracing himself, Lance slowly raised himself up from his chair, gritting his teeth to try and keep himself from screaming in agony. Finally upright, he braced his not bloody hand on the wall while the other held his stomach, trying to keep the shrapnel from jostling inside him too much as he walked toward the entrance. Stopping just before the incline down, Lance stopped and looked down at himself. His armor was scraped and blood covered but was otherwise fine. He could probably take off most of the white pieces. And his helmet and bayard would have to stay too.
'Can't be rude to the next Blue Paladin, after all.' Lance thought to himself, chuckling internally before wincing. 'Yeah. Shock is definitely settling in. Gotta do this fast…' And again, he grit his teeth to bear through all the pain of movement. It only got worse as his movement became sluggish and the black spots danced at the edges of his vision. It was a miracle that he had held out this long due to the blood that was seeping out more steadily due to the movement. With the last of the armor tossed inside, Lance pulled off his helmet last, looking at it sadly before throwing it inside of Blue along with his bayard. Taking a shaky breath, Lance walked out unsteadily, the black spots now threatening to take over his vision. He didn't make it that far from his lion before collapsing, falling sideways to the ground. Breathing weakly, he rolled onto his back, warm blood pooling around him as he looked up at the sky. It was a deep blue and it reminded him of home. Tears leaked out of his eyes as he felt a wave of sadness at the realization that he would never see home again. That he would die under a foreign sky.
"Blue…just promise me something…" his energy was fading from him fast, but so was the pain…
"Promise me…."
((( )))
It had been a few weeks, but there had been no sign of the Blue Lion or Lance. The other paladins and the Alteans were gathered on the bridge, searching for any signal that may indicate Lance's location, but there had been absolutely no sign of him in that time. Pidge had even tapped into messages sent from the Galra for any possible news of the Blue Paladin's capture, but there had been nothing. The castle had been eerily quiet without the loudest of the Paladins around to add a sense of life to the large castle. It brought all residents of the castleship unease to hear such silence after so long with the Cuban boy and his bright energy. Everyone, of course, took the loss harshly, but none as much as Hunk and Coran. Hunk because Lance was his best friend and the one who understood him the best. Coran thought of all the boys as family, but there was something special to him about the Cuban boy. He reminded Coran of his own family that was long gone along with the rest of his planet and his people. He understood the boy and his homesickness better than he may have wanted to, and for that, he felt like he shared a sort of kinship with the boy. And now, he was gone.
"Any sign of him?" Hunk asked worriedly and turned to Pidge. Said girl was hunched over her controls and staring at her screen, occasionally tapping at it and muttering softly to herself. With a sigh, she looked up, the dark circles and bags under her eyes becoming more apparent to the older teen. Growling, she shook her head and turned back to the screen.
"This is the fifth time you've asked in the last hour, Hunk…" she said warningly, but didn't say anything more. She knew that the older teen was taking it harder than the rest of them and as much as it annoyed her, yelling at him now would be like kicking a sad puppy.
"I know, I know. It's just…we're gonna find him, aren't we?" Hunk asked, his voice getting smaller as he ended his sentence. At the question, the air seemed to become stifling, choking at the sudden heaviness surrounding them.
"We'll find him." Shiro assured the teen, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. Hunk nodded slowly, but didn't look very convinced. They all knew that this might happen one day. They had all had it the back of their minds every time they went into battle, but the reality is often far from the truth. After those past few days when they were separated and slowly reassembled at the castle, they had all expected that they had all made it and were intact, that it was just a matter of finding them all again. But after the first week passed, they felt fear grip their hearts. The castle had slowly grown quiet in Lance's absence, but the others had tried to keep it lively, their hopes still high that they would be able to find Lance and bring him back, but as their search grew longer, the hope they had dwindled into a small candle of flame. Now here they were, holding on for any sign of him at all. Hoping, praying, that they would find him.
"I'm getting a faint reading of a signal! Something's headed for us!" Allura suddenly shouted from her spot at the controls. There was a flurry of movement at her words as they sat in their chairs and prepared for the worst while Coran rushed back to the helm, scanning further out to see if they could get a look at what was heading towards them. They had gotten their hopes up too many times in the past few weeks every time they had an alert. They couldn't afford to have their hope broken due to another false alarm.
"It's the Blue Lion!" Pidge shouted, bolting up in her seat and gawking at the sight before her. And there it was. As they moved closer, the bright blue of the Lion's coat was shining brightly in contrast with the black of space. They all felt a weight in their hearts lift slightly at the sight. It was the Blue Lion! Lance must have found his way back to them!
"Lance? Come in! Lance, is that you? Do you read me?" Coran activated the comms, calling out to the Blue Lion, but there was no response. Worried, they glanced nervously at the Lion who was getting steadily closer to them.
"Why isn't he responding?" Keith asked, furrowing his eyebrows as he stared out. The rest were just as confused as him, but there was a steady feeling of dread slowly creeping into their guts.
"Maybe the comms in his Lion are damaged?" Pidge added nervously. The rest nodded but didn't look too convinced.
"We should get to the hangar as that seems to be where the Blue Lion is heading." Coran added and Shiro nodded.
"Get the med bay prepped too. He could be hurt." He said and Coran hurried off to do just that. It had crossed his mind as well, but he was trying to hold on to a relatively positive attitude. But there was no way that it wasn't a possibility. The teen had been thrown through a wormhole to who knows where and had been stranded for weeks. Along with a damaged ship, there was no way that the boy had gotten away without a few injuries. With that thought, Coran quickly gathered items from the med bay and joined the others who were headed to the Blue Lion's hangar. They arrived just as the Lion touched down and waited eagerly for some sort of movement from inside the cabin. When there was nothing for a few minutes, they went up to the Lion and knocked. Maybe he really was injured and couldn't get out. The thought almost sent them into a panic.
"Coran, is everything ready?" Shiro asked and the elder Altean nodded. Nodding, Shiro went up to the door and looked up at Blue
"OK, girl, you need to let us in so we can help him." He spoke softly to the Lion, hoping for some sort of response. When they didn't get anything, Shiro turned to Black to get some help but was startled when the door to Blue swung open. Immediately, they all rushed inside to help their possibly injured teammate. Stopping just short of the pilot's chair, they all got a good look at the interior and hissed at all the damage. It was amazing that the Blue Lion even made it out into space, much less managed to keep flying until she reached the Castle of Lions again.
"Wait, guys, where's Lance?" Hunk asked, looking around but not seeing the Cuban boy anywhere. The dread that was building up in their bodies was now heavy and the fear gripped their hearts tightly. Lance wasn't here. Lance was gone.
7 MONTHS LATER
"I'm picking up a reading from ahead of us." Pidge said, scanning the monitors for any sort of information about the incoming vessel. Everyone was already in their respective chairs, prepared for an attack if it should happen.
"It's a small one-man vessel, cruiser class." Pidge said, looking over the ship for any discrepancies. She couldn't have been the only one in the galaxy that had managed to camouflage their ship, so she wasn't taking any chances.
"It looks like the ship is trying to contact us." Coran informed them, staring down at the controls and a flashing button.
"Put them through." Allura nodded, and Coran complied, letting the transmission go through.
"Hello? Can you hear me?" A voice rang out. It was a male voice, and a young one by the sound of it.
"Yes. We can hear you." Allura affirmed. Huffing softly, the voice sounded again.
"Ok, and who would I be talking to?" The voice asked again. At this, the team raised their eyebrow. At this point, most people knew of the Castle of Lions, considering that it housed the Lions of Voltron. Although wary of a trap, Allura answered.
"I am Princess Allura of Altea and this is the Castle of Lions." She said clearly and with authority. There was a moment of silence from the other end before it was finally broken by a small murmur.
"So, he wasn't lying… Guess I owe him 100 GAC, after all…" He muttered, which just added to Team Voltron's confusion. He? He who?
"Once again, we must ask you who you are." Allura said, feeling an uneasiness in her heart at the mention of a third party.
"Ok, I know this is going to be weird and I know that you don't trust me, but I formally request permission to dock. I-I…I need to…confirm something. When I do, I'll tell you everything I know. Take me prisoner as soon as I land, but please let me on that ship." The voice requested, a slight hint of desperation entering his tone. Team Voltron shared a look before nodding. It was a single fighter, so there wasn't much that could happen in the way of damage and if it was a trap, they were more than prepared to handle it.
"Permission granted. We will open the doors for you to land and prepare for us to meet you there." Allura replied after a minute of deliberation.
"Affirmative." The voice responded before the transmission was cut off and the ship flew off to the side in order to dock. Immediately, they all got up and rushed to the main hangar, feeling tense at the thought of a stranger in the Castle of Lions.
"Who do you think it is?" Keith asked, his bayard already drawn and forming his sword. The rest did the same as they ran forwards.
"The Blade?" Pidge asked, but Shiro shook his head.
"No. They would have communicated with us and told us they were sending someone over to us." He said. They had met the Blade of Marmora months ago and they had had a rocky relationship with each other at first, especially with the subsequent knowledge that Keith himself was half Galra, but that had been sorted out enough to where they had a decent communication system between them.
"One of Lotor's?" Hunk asked nervously. Allura also looked slightly unnerved at the mention of the Galran Prince but shook her head.
"No, I do not think so. They would have had a more convincing story if that were so." Reluctantly, they all agreed. The guy had been suspicious right off the bat, so there was no way that someone like that was sent by Lotor.
"So, who could it be?" Pidge asked, more to herself than the rest of her teammates, but the rest also had no idea at what to expect. They reached the hangar just as the ship landed, where they finally saw exactly how small the ship was. It was by no means ready for a battle, but it did have a few things. They gathered around the ship, their weapons drawn and at their sides, ready for anything. Form inside, the same voice that they heard on the bridge ran out.
"Ok, I know you guys are out there, and I'm coming out now, so don't shoot!" Pidge readied her bayard just in case, but there was something niggling at the back of her mind. That voice. That voice was so familiar for some reason… she snapped back to attention as the door to the ship opened and a cloaked figure stepped out, hands raised in the classic "don't shoot" pose. None the less, they all had their weapons trained at him.
"Now, please identify yourself." Allura commanded, focused on the stranger before them. The figure looked around at the people surrounding him before eventually landing on Pidge. Stuttering, the figure took a jarring step forward, a hand reaching out.
"Stop right there! Do not take another step!" Shiro warned, arm starting to glow in activation as the anxiety was ramped up. Pidge held her bayard out defensively but didn't back away from the figure.
"K-Katie…? I-is that really you?" The figure asked. The question sent chills down everyone's spines as they fully processed what he asked. How did he…?
"Who the hell are you?" Pidge growled, stalking towards him with the intent of electrocuting him until he spilled his darkest secrets.
"Wait, wait, Pidge it's me!" The figure yelled, letting his hood fall off and pool around his neck. Pidge stopped dead in her tracks at the sight and let her bayard slip out of her hand in shock. This had better not be a dream.
"M-Matt?" she said, her voice soft and cracking with disbelief, the tentative hope that she held onto evident in her tone with just that word. It almost hurt to hear it, so strongly was she clinging to that hope. If this wasn't real, she didn't think she would recover.
"Yeah… it's me…" Matt whispered, smiling softly. Without warning, he was suddenly tackled to the ground by a very enthusiastic Green Paladin. The others watched the sibling reunion in shock. They had heard of Pidge's missing family members before, but they had not expected her brother to show up suddenly.
"Where have you been? I've been looking everywhere for you and Dad! I even broke into the Garrison to try and find info about the Kerberos mission! Those morons were hiding it from everybody!" She screamed, hugging her brother tightly, not even bothering to hold back the tears that built up in her eyes. Luckily, Matt was holding her just as tightly.
"Well, when I managed to escape from the Galra, I ended up joining a rebel base for a while before transferring into a different sector where I met this guy who helped me find you all!" He beamed proudly then rolled his eyes at his sister. "And really, Pidge? You broke in?" Chuckling, Pidge only hugged her brother closer. Shiro then cleared his throat, which brought the Holt siblings' attention to the leader again. Shiro smiled widely and offered a hand to his old teammate.
"It's great to have you back." He said softly and Matt smiled fondly back at him, taking the offered hand and standing up, still hugging his sister with one arm. Shiro brought the younger male into a hug, feeling the guilt in his heart well up and diminish at the same time. What he had done in the arena hadn't been in vain. Matt was alive!
"Shiro! I'm so glad you made it out of there!" Matt said happily, hugging his former friend, which seemed to crack the ice for everyone else as they all began greeting him.
"So, uhh, Matt, you said you found us with someone's help? Was it, like, part of the Blade of Marmora?" Hunk asked, curious. Matt shook his head, so now they were all curious. Who else of their allies would both know of them and be able to track their location?
"Einar" Matt replied, a smile on his face.
BLIP
Soo...
Yeah...
I hope you all enjoyed.
Or, y'know, don't hate it enough to kill my self esteem in the comments.
Read, review, and stay true, everyone.
