Disclaimer: I still don't own the show or the characters(although I did give names to a few oc's that are, like, semi-cannon)

Author's note: So, I just wanted to say really quick that the amount of errors in these is probably going to be more that I would like. I'm writing these, skimming through them maybe once, and then posting and going to bed. I apologize for any typos or grammatical problems, but if I want to get this done, I can't really be picky.

Also, I'm surprised at the amount of people that read the first chapter and it got me really excited!

This chapter is for Lance. For the sake of a few other fanfics I read, I've decided to use the headcannon that Lance is Hispanic. (I have it just on his mother's side, I think) So that plays a little in the names used.

Anyway, sorry for the long note. Barely got this posted before midnight. Thanks for reading, guys! Please enjoy and review!

Lance recognized his home. His first home, anyway.

He considered anywhere where he had family and friends and sufficient life requirements to be a home. The Garrison and the castle; but none of those places meant as much to him as the large ranch house by the lake. The home where he grew up. Where his parents, his sisters, and his grandmother lived.

They'd all lived in that one big house.

The scene that played out before him was a memory.

Lance was ten-years-old. His older sisters Margaretta and Anna were reclining on towels in the summer sun, laughing as he strutted about in front of them, pretending to be the hero in the movie they'd seen the night before.

Maria and Connie were playing and splashing in the water. Lance's youngest sister Lizabeth (no one called the baby 'Elizabeta') was squealing in delight in his father's hands as the tall man carefully tossed the child in the air a few inches and caught her again.

Up the steps that led up to the hill from the beach was the house. Lance's mother and grandmother were folding laundry on the porch.

Lance became distracted from his performance by something glinting in the sand. He crouched down to pick it up, but Margaretta jumped up and shrieked, "Lance! Don't touch it!"

"Why?" Lance asked, his eyes still fixed on the shiny blue object.

"If you touch that," Anna warned, standing as well. "You will never see us again."

Lance laughed. "You two are funny," he smiled at them. "I know you like to prank me." Lance reached out and put his hand on the object.

Somehow, he ended up grown and in the cave where he'd first seen Blue. His hand was resting on Blue's energy barrier. Hunk, Pidge, Shiro, and Keith were all behind him, marveling as the barrier dispersed.

And then Lance was soaring through space in Blue, his friends and their lions beside him. They were fighting a Galra fleet.

Winning. They were winning.

Lance whooped and laughed happily as him and his team had almost destroyed the last Galra cruiser and…

Things went wrong. More and more cruisers appeared. Then the mothership itself expanded into being.

They were outnumbered and fighting fast and hard.

Pidge was down. She'd taken a shot meant for Lance.

Then Keith. He'd tried to take on too many at once.

Then Shiro. He was trying to protect his remaining teammates.

It was only Lance and Hunk left. Allura and Coran were warning them to escape, to fly away.

"We can't leave the others!" Lance replied frantically. He saw the wreckage of the Black, Red, and Green lions, their eyes dead and un-glowing, their pilots unresponsive. Gone...Dead.

"We have to get them out of here!" Lance made a dive for the Red lion.

"No!" Yellow flew in between Blue and Red. "Lance, we have to go or we'll die!" Hunk said solemnly, without emotion, and completely unlike himself.

"No,we can't, Hunk, we c-"

A cannon fired.

Bright blasting light, Lance screamed, "HUNK!"

And then the light was gone.

Lance was somehow aware that he'd escaped after that. That he'd flown back to the castle, only to find Allura and Coran gone. Captured by the Galra. Good as dead.

And after another eternally long split second, Lance was on the beach again.

There was no sun, but the lake was dimly lit by some unknown light source that cast grey shadows across everything.

Blue stood unmoving in front of Lance, just by the staircase up to his house. No one was outside. His older sisters' towels were covered in sand and rumpled on the beach, his younger sisters' pales and mini-shovels were floating in the shallow parts of the water.

"Mama? Dad?" Lance called, looking around the beach. "Gretta? Anna?" He became more desperate with each name. He began to run up the steps to the porch. "Mama? Abuela?" The laundry was scattered across the porch and wrinkled, covered in dust and dirt and blades of grass and a few spare leaves.

The door into the long ranch house was slightly ajar, and no light came from within. The eerie shadowy glow was still present, however, when Lance entered into the large room that served as dining room, entryway, and living room in one. "Hello? Anybody? Connie! Maria! Your favorite hermano is home!"

There wasn't a single answer. Lance dashed through every room in the house. All of the bedrooms, the kitchen, the office, the bathrooms, Anna's art studio, the storage room. He called his family's names until his voice grew hoarse.

It finally sank in that they were all gone. His grandmother, his parents, his sisters. His teammates. Shiro, Keith, Pidge. Hunk, his best friend. Coran, who had started to become like an uncle to him. Allura, whom he flirted with shamelessly, but was perfectly content to be close friends with.

Gone. All gone.

"No," Lance whispered. "Please, no."

He was on the porch again, the twilight-zone atmosphere unchanging. A slight breeze bending the branches of the trees surrounding the lake and blowing the dead leaves and grass across the rumpled clothes. Blue stood like a statue on the beach. Looming over the lake and cast in shadow, eyes dark. Lance had never seen his lion look so...dead.

He fell to his knees on the porch and stared up at the grey sky and felt tears come to his eyes.

They'reallgonethey'reallgonethey'reallgonethey'reallgonethey'reallgonethey'reallgonethey'reallgonethey'reallgo-

Lance opened his eyes and found himself unceremoniously picking himself off the floor in his room. It was a bit difficult considering his legs were tied up in his blanket.

And he was still trying to orient himself after that dream…

After struggling fruitlessly for a few minutes, Lance just yanked the blanket from his legs, wrapped it around his shoulders and sat with his back against his bed.

He closed his eyes and saw an empty house. Sparking wreckage. Blue, still and unmoving.

He opened his eyelids quickly and stared at the wall in front of him. He'd taped the pictures he had carried with him everywhere at the Garrison to the wall.

He'd kept them as a reminder who he studied for. Who he worked hard for. Who he wanted to make proud when he made fighter class pilot…

He smiled slightly as he imagined what his mother would say if she saw what he was doing now. He could imagine his little sisters playing in Blue and pretending to fly.

Maria would be seventeen. Connie would be fourteen. Little Lizabeth would be nine…

Lance almost choked on a lump that formed in his throat. He hadn't seen his family in a year. They'd been in space that long. It could be another few more before he'd get to go home again.

If ever. You could die out here, thought the dark part of his brain. The part he tried to suppress with all his might.

Tonight, it didn't work.

Lance swallowed hard and shut his eyes again.

He could die. Out in space. Maybe alongside his fellow Paladins, maybe saving an ailing planet from the Galra, or maybe all alone. In space. And his family would never know what happened to him.

A sudden need to move inspired Lance into standing up and hurrying out his door and down the hall.

He headed for the main deck, the control room, the place where Allura did her worm-hole thing…

Lance didn't care for the moment what that place was called. He just wanted to get there. And locate Earth on the maps. Just look at it. See it again.

See the place he might not ever return to.

Author's Note: So, yeah, this time, I finish at 11:40. Wow, I'm desperate. Anyway, I think this one ended up being a little longer...Huh. Anyway, thanks for reading guys! Catch up with you again tomorrow for the next chapter. (Hopefully not at twenty to midnight)