The first time Hunk did it, he saved all their lives.
"We gotta figure out how they keep making these things!" Hunk cried, voice rising slowly in pitch as he yelled, jerking the flightwheels and digging Yellow's claws into the ground, trying to get him steady. The other four Lions were in the air, weaving around the boulders sailing at them.
Yellow roared a challenge, and the robeast stopped its assault on their friends to focus its effort on Team Yellow. "Uh… Oh shit ohshit okay here we go~!" Hunk tightened his grip, reaching for Yellow Faithful in his mind, feeling the Lion reach back, until their bond opened wide enough to eclipse Hunk's senses. He could see the robeast barrelling towards them, everything tinged faintly yellow; god why did it have to have horns like that?
Sinking into the link, Hunk threw the flightwheels forward, pulling on Yellow's mind as if it were a cord, as if he were climbing. They swirled together, and Hunk felt their power bleed out and harden around them, a wide, heavy feeling, like wearing armour instead of skin.
Quintessence flashed into matter, and Yellow dug in his Big Claws™ as his body thickened, armour plating surrounding them. The robeast collided, a reckless charge, and Hunk felt Yellow roar back, digging his claws in, fighting back. Was Hunk yelling? Probably. It didn't seem to matter right at the moment.
The robeast had hammered through everything they'd been able to offer - Lions, asteroids, everything on this planet once they'd landed. If ever Hunk believed in an unstoppable force, he'd just met it. But Yellow dug in, and they were resisting; there was ignition, Yellow's rear thrusters igniting. His hindquarters lifted off the surface of the planet, hind paws tucking up against his body, tail curled. The oddly red coloured earth cracked under Yellow's front paws, the big claws sinking into it - blue fire shot out sideways as the armour thrusters ignited.
Hunk was bathed in green light, the blue fire filtering through the yellow interior of his cockpit, but he just pressed forward a little more - threw himself into his bond with Yellow, felt the strain of gears and fire and metal. The ground broke open under them, Yellow's head dropping further down below the robeast's centre of gravity, and-
Perfect.
Feeling the strain, jaws aching, Hunk had Yellow open wide and poured energy into the throat canon. The blue light intensified, overtook the yellow and the robeast's purple, and then Yellow Faithful fired.
They jerked back, the ground turning to powder under their paws, and the robeast lost traction, lifted, and flipped. Yellow released, the armour flashing back into energy, and they leapt backwards and out of the way, even as the robeast crashed into the ground.
"Everyone fire!" Shiro's voice came through and four ionised beams of blue connected against the robeast's stomach. It was a charging monster, heavily armoured on all sides - except the under one. The stomach was its weak point. Leaping into the air, Hunk pulled back on Yellow's flightwheels, felt the energy build, and added his canon to the barrage.
The powder and caked flats gave, and for a moment the robeast was lost to them as dust and red clouds exploded into the air. They stopped their attack.
"Did that do it?" Keith asked; hopeful, but doubtful. It would be too easy to win just like that. But still, they hoped.
"I dunno… No- wait, I hear someth- Fuck, guys, up UP!" Lance broke off whatever gag he'd been about to pull, (however he'd been about to ease their nerves a little), and the Blue Lion shot up past them. Hunk looked down, even as wordless shouts filtered through the comms and Pidge shot upwards too.
The ground rumbled, and dust blew into the air in huge puffs, as if the land itself was smoking. A huge crack broke open across the plateau, followed by another - and another. Following his teammates, Hunk shop upwards into the sky, a blazing streak of colours.
Below them, a bone-shaking growl rippled out and the ground caved in along the cracks, dust erupting again. High in the atmosphere, the five of them waited, unable to see through it. Yellow rumbled in Hunk's mind; discontent, uncertainty. The Lion didn't know how to defeat this opponent. They couldn't exert more force without Voltron or without risk, but they couldn't simply weather the storm until something presented itself either. Forming Voltron might have given them the power boost they needed - but Hunk was pretty sure that presenting the weird minotaur-looking motherfucker with a massive, single target was exactly what it wanted.
"We should form Voltron," came the inevitable, from Keith this time. "We haven't even been able to scratch the thing. It's still coming at us." True enough - and as the dust started to dissipate, Hunk saw the wild, glowing eyes and the four massive horns that made up most of the robeast's bulk, attached to a head that was the same size again as its body. A third pair of horns, attached to the thing's hindquarters, gleamed menacingly.
Ugh. God, it was creepy.
But… "I'm not sure, guys," he volunteered, waiting a moment to be shot down. It didn't happen. "... I mean, look at it. If we give it a single target…" Hunk didn't finish that sentence - his team weren't stupid. They'd understand that.
"... I agree, but we might not have a choice," Pidge said. Softly, like she was reluctant, but Green drifted closer to the Black Lion anyway, getting into position. "We just don't have the power to take that thing out without it."
"Hey! If Hunk says we shouldn't, then I'm on board with that!" Lance, shot across the comms sharply, while Blue growled quietly and moved a little closer to Yellow. "Yellow's the only Lion who can take a hit from that thing to begin with! If he says we shouldn't give it a bigger thing to headbutt, then he's right." It was… warm, knowing Lance trusted him so much. Despite himself, Hunk smiled.
Yellow growled a warning in his mind, and Hunk swerved sideways without thinking, yanking a little harder on the flightwheels than he otherwise would. A boulder sailed through the air where he'd been. "Oh- come on! Already?!"
And they had to refocus.
It was about the time that Hunk bodyblocked a boulder from ripping through Green that Shiro made the call. Pidge was distracted, hot blue pouring from Green's mouth, while she tried to break the ground around the robeast enough to maybe bury it, and even if Hunk had shouted, she wasn't Red, she wasn't fast enough. The rock shattered against Yellow's body, and pain sparked in Hunk's side, bleeding through their bond. He cried out.
"Hunk? Oh fuck- We're getting wrecked out here!" Pidge shouted, breaking off her attack and swerving around, even as Hunk dropped like a- oh come on- like- fuck it- like a fucking rock. Another boulder sailed by where the two Lions had been a moment later.
"Hunk, I hear your concern, but form Voltron! We need the power!"
Always the diplomat. Hunk didn't feel good, as he swung into line and opened his mind to Yellow again, let himself drop into it; he felt uneasy. It made their link tremble, but it was still warm and solid inside him, a huge barren vastness that was just Hunk and Yellow Faithful and nothing else. But he didn't hesitate, and he didn't resent the order. Shiro had heard his protest, but Shiro was the leader for a reason - and even if he sometimes made mistakes, Hunk trusted him.
And he couldn't argue with it. They needed the power; they hadn't hurt the thing at all.
There was a protracted moment, as they fell into line, and for a moment Hunk had the strange sensation of being squeezed from the inside. Yellow reached for his pridemates, expanding their minds, making a link - and then it all rushed in, and Hunk felt his heart start to flutter and race, even as his breathing slowed, even as he felt the rush of air sync up with the other Paladins.
For a second, there was nothing but that feeling. Yellow encompassing his mind like a shield, while Hunk spread and melted into him, just another one of the Lion's senses. The other four Lions touched, licked at the edges - the rushing wind, that was Black, surrounding them, holding them together, catching anyone who even came close to slipping away. Inside them, filling them, the cold touch of ice - that was Blue, swirling throughout their bond, sharpening them, cleansing their doubt. Green was a gentle caress across their skin, if they could have skin in their minds - soft and sweet and encouraging, urging them forward, reminding them of their own strength. And roaring above them, scorching and screaming and defiant - that was Red, like the sun had descended into their thoughts, fierce and loud, a constant reminder of everything that rode on them, everyone who depended on them. Yellow filled Hunk's thoughts, an endless expanse - warm, infinite, a solid, steady foundation.
And the other Paladins, like static in Hunk's senses. The racing heart, thrumming against his chest like a hummingbird - that was Keith. Hunk's heart rate had risen to match it, reverberating across their strange bond. He could feel it, bouncing between the five of them, reflected back until they were in sync. Shiro lent them steadiness, the slow breathing that measured the fight in ten second intervals - five seconds in, five seconds out. Controlled, focused, unshakeable. From Lance came… it was hard to say sight, because Hunk couldn't see through his eyes - nor Blue's - the way he could see through Yellow's, but perhaps clarity would be sufficient. Clarity of battle; Hunk looked out upon their foe and saw it in a whole new way, saw where it bent or swayed, could almost see where it would be. Pidge gave them speed, thoughts streaming past like light - from what he saw from Lance, Hunk found himself cataloguing and compartmentalising, sorting away the useful from the interesting.
He couldn't hear their thoughts, not like he could with Yellow, but he could feel them, humming and buzzing under his skin, like a loving touch where the body was numb. Distant and intimate at the same time.
And sometimes - just sometimes - he could feel their intentions.
"Keith- No-!" But he was too late. Keith slammed his bayard into the Red Lion's jack, and the sword formed in Red's mouth, held out by Voltron's right hand.
Goddamn it. Just because they were linked didn't mean they reached the same conclusions.
Briefly, Hunk thought that it would work despite his reservations. The minotaur robeast locked its horns into the earth and dug up a massive chunk of rock, before aiming and hurling at them once again. Even as it did, it was tilting the other way, almost sitting down, digging up another chunk with the horns on his butt. Whoever designs these things is hacking my nightmares.
Hunk shivered, felt it flow across the link, felt them all reflect it. Great, now they were all creeped out. Oh well, nothing for it.
Keith swung the sword forward, while the rest of them rotated around the movement, and slashed that boulder in half. It shattered, spraying Voltron with dozens of harmless pebbles. Hunk used the term 'pebbles' loosely - any one of them was probably big enough to kill a human, still.
Watching the robeast, they all saw the second boulder flying for them, felt the sword barely stopping its descent, and swung around into action, rotating around the Green Lion this time. Voltron's left hand twisted up, and Black's wings unlocked and flew together, bound to the baseplate - the second boulder smashed against the shield and shattered too. The impact did them no harm, but Voltron flew back and dipped lower to the ground.
"We're at a disadvantage in melee, we need to get our guns going and blast the fucker!" Pidge yelled, braced, thoughts racing, racing, searching what she could see, searching what Lance was showing her.
They breathed in steadily, following Shiro's rhythm, focused on defeating their foe.
"That won't work," Keith argued, even as they twisted and circled the robeast, ducking a boulder and catching another against their shield. The robeast could only deliver that attack in bursts of two. It was something Hunk had noticed before, but he hadn't really noticed it. "We've tried using our energy weapons, we hit the thing in its weak spot with all five at once, and it didn't do a damn thing. We can't hurt it with energy blasts."
Another good point. Hunk held his tongue, focusing on tracking the robeast and keeping Voltron out of harm's way, letting Shiro's breaths steady him, letting Keith's heartbeat urge him on, keep him on the edge of his reflexes. He was watching, waiting for anything that might give them the answer - but right now, he didn't have it. So he let them try to figure it out.
"We can't risk getting close, either. I don't want to find out what those horns could do to us." Shiro, his voice lower and calmer than the others. But he didn't offer them a solution - and they kept flying circles, dodging and weaving, occasionally slashing boulders out of the air.
Lance was focusing as well, watching the robeast. "We can't just keep avoiding it forever, what if we just piss it off more? We haven't seen it do anything except throw rocks and bash through everything we throw at it!"
In Hunk's mind, Yellow growled. It rumbled through him, like an earthquake, shuddering and violent - and in a flash, Hunk knew. "Hold up- Guys, my Lion just-"
"We felt it!" Pidge cut across him, a strange mix of impatience and awe in her voice. "Do it!"
Well, technically Shiro was supposed to give that order - but no protest came, and Hunk knew that she was right anyway. "Keith, put the sword away. Pidge, put the shield back on Voltron's back. We gotta land." The words spilled out, faster than Hunk ever spoke, racing, overflowing. He was barely aware of what they meant, just knew what he needed - Yellow vibrated in his mind, in his whole body, a thundering, tumultuous snarl.
There was a flicker of hesitation, when Voltron spun and nearly tipped, because Hunk stopped dead and the others kept going. But whatever it was they felt from him, whatever it was he gave the team, they focused and breathed and knew that they had to follow suit. The sword dissipated into energy, and the wings locked back into place on Voltron's back. With a thud that might have shook the whole planet, Voltron landed.
And dug its feet in. Hunk let out a sound that was almost pained, as he reached and grabbed and dragged on Yellow's mind, on his quintessence. Yellow gave it freely, let it flow out through their link into the others, through all the Lions, into Voltron itself.
Four voices sounded in Hunk's ears, four dissonant gasps and whimpers as they felt Yellow's soul brush past theirs.
The quintessence shimmered, expanding and spiralling out like a sandstorm. The five of them felt, rather than saw, the energy condense and fuse into matter. Lance gasped again, in tandem with Hunk, as they felt their Lions shift and open slightly - where normally they had teeth, locked behind sealed jaws while they operated as feet, the Lions' heads turned and their jaws parted, wide arcs of metal punching into the ground. Voltron itself lifted slightly and then settled, locked into place, its balance ever so slightly weighted forward. The plate on Green's back shimmered and expanded, thickening and widening until it was so heavy Voltron rested the bottom on the ground. Its body was turned, leaning forward on the shield, making Green a weightbearing Lion alongside Yellow and Blue, while Red was held out behind.
Red's jaws expanded, almost doubled in size, and four long blades shot out, turned and inverted, locked onto her teeth. A layer of armour folded up around the Black Lion, covering her chest in a thin coat and thickening out over her back, flaring out into a new set of twin thrusters.
And Hunk was lost to it, thoughtless, nothing but the pulse of quintessence and the touch of nine other souls. Slowly, so slowly, his senses started working again, his neurons firing, but still - it was a swirl.
"Holy shit, Hunk." Lance, breathless, awe in his voice. "How the fuck did you- I felt Yellow- We're a fucking fortress!" And he whooped, delighted, and it rippled through the bond, resonated deep inside the Yellow Lion, and rebounded to Hunk.
He grinned. He couldn't help it. Yellow was everywhere, a solid steady mountain, and Voltron was heavy and grounded and protected. The shield was wide enough to cover them almost entirely, and Voltron's feet held fast in the ground, dug in like Yellow's Big Claws™ but deeper - stronger.
Shiro just breathed, an eight second rhythm now, four in, four out.
Keith let out a laugh, in tandem with Pidge, and as one they all braced. A boulder shattered against the shield, followed by a second - and they barely trembled. Finally, even Shiro let out a wicked chuckle. "I admit it. This is cool."
"Heck fucking yeah, this is c-"
"It's charging!"
The robeast had lined them up, apparently decided hurling boulders would do nothing. It tossed its horns, bucked once, and then it was careening at them with as much speed and force as its awkward bulk could manage. The thing wasn't fast, not by any means. It practically lumbered towards them, movements odd and constricted, barely holding its head steady when it might even be heavier than its body.
But Hunk had felt it hit once already. The robeast collided with Voltron's shield, and the impact shuddered through them all - a spark of pain shot across their link. Tiny enough not to worry about, but there and sharp all the same. "Ow- fuck! I bit my tongue!" Pidge shrieked, and then she snarled down at the minotaur as it bounced back.
Hunk and Lance took Voltron's weight, the thrusters in Voltron's left arm fired off, and the shield lifted. The robeast flew backwards, thrown back by the force of its own charge and Pidge's quick thinking. It sailed through the air not unlike one of its boulders, little legs flailing wildly, belly exposed. "Keith, now!"
Hunk wasn't even sure who yelled it. It might have been all of them. But they pivoted, Blue letting go of the earth, the unnaturally wide teeth slipping through as they lost all traction, and Keith slashed at the robeast with all the force Voltron could muster, jets of blue shooting off from its right arm and body and wings.
A filthy purple light shone from the cracks as the blades made contact. Tiny, just a glimpse - but they'd scratched it.
"Fuck yes!" Keith crowed, even as the robeast slammed into the ground and sent up a cloud of dust again, even as the cracks echoed around them from the planet's crust breaking open. "Take that you piece of shit!"
Hunk's heart was beating so fast he might have been worried, if he weren't so elated. They were breathing faster, three in, three out, focused, desperate - hungry for blood. That one was all Shiro - it was always Shiro. It would bother him, later, but right now Hunk was lost in the beat of it. The robeast was trying to kill them, was a threat to the neighbouring colonies. It had to die.
The dust started to settle, and Hunk could pick out the robeast's outline again. It's eyes glowed through the haze. They hadn't been that colour before. It was Lance, he was sure, that noticed that, but they all saw it. Whereas before the robeast's eyes had been a dull purple-blue, now they shone a blazing deep violet, tinged with red.
The earth shook, quite suddenly.
"Brace!" Shiro shouted, and Lance secured himself in the earth again, Pidge set the shield down - hard, hard enough to let the point dig into the ground. Keith held back, behind the shield, just behind Voltron's body, waiting for the right time to strike again. They'd scratched it, they just needed…
...to…
Oh, quiznak.
The robeast's eyes glowed, blazing and violent, and the light speared out, saturating its horns in stripes and patterns that reminded Hunk of- Shiro's arm. Probably best not to share that thought. It let out a clamouring roar, stomping the ground, bucking, slamming its… uh, hooves? Feet? Paws? Hunk couldn't really tell. But the robeast slammed them down anyway, the purple light flickering out until the horns glowed solid, all six of them.
The air itself almost seemed to vibrate around those horns. Hunk could almost imagine that he could hear it - the faintest buzzing, like a distant neon light on the fritz. The robeast lowered its head.
"Ready? When it hits, fire all our thrusters. Don't let this thing move us!" Shiro's voice was iron, whipping through their comms as the wind inside their minds picked up the pace, howling. Almost a solid presence, sweeping through doubt and protest until they had none left. They'd been given an order. They would follow through.
The robeast charged them.
Fire ignited inside them as it made contact, wing and body thrusters erupting into flame, upper legs and both arms following suit. On Voltron's back, where Hunk and Yellow's armour had spread, the massive pair of twin thrusters ignited and sent out sheets of propulsion fire so dense it was almost white.
A shockwave exploded from the collision, and Hunk felt the shield crack. Pain bubbled through their bond like blood in their throat, and they were breathing fast now, their hearts fit to burst from their chests - Voltron groaned under the strain, the ground under their feet starting to crumble.
Another crack rocked them, shuddered in the air, and was immediately followed by a third. For a single, shining moment, Hunk felt victory rise up in his chest like an air bubble - the robeast's horns fractured, darkness showing through the glow, and then broke off and fell, turning shiny black as they did, losing power. They made tiny puffs as they hit the ground, and otherwise lay dead.
And then the second set of horns, still abright, crashed into their shield and their victory shattered. The shield broke apart, flew in all directions, and the robeast made contact with Voltron's left arm - with Green.
Over the radio, and somewhere deep inside them, Pidge screamed, and then was silent.
A split second later, the pain rocketed across the bond and they lost their senses - something shook, and then it was all bright purple and everything hurt, and-
In a shower of sparks and light, as matter exploded back into quintessence and then shot away like fireworks, Voltron broke apart. The Green Lion hit the ground first, and didn't go far, a dead weight already. The Red Lion hurtled backwards, arced over the horizon, was gone. The Black Lion shrilled her protest, but she slammed down into the earth and skidded, leaving gouges and scratches and shattered rocks in her wake. Dust clouds billowed up around her.
The Blue Lion was torn out of the ground, twisted, and landed square on her shoulder - frantically turning even when her Paladin was barely conscious, even when all she could feel was the recoil, trying desperately not to land on her head and risk killing Lance.
And the Yellow Lion was flattened to the earth, wrenched back and ripped from its grip until it almost seemed knotted, limbs in all directions, head turned up. The robeast stood upon it, triumphant, its remaining four horns glowing.
But Hunk didn't see that. He didn't see or feel Yellow thud into the ground with all the force the minotaur could muster, he didn't even see the other Lions strewn about. Hunk didn't see anything.
Voltron had broken apart, their bond snapped, the glorious outflow of quintessence as Yellow moulded Voltron and held them steady suddenly cut off. Hunk was open wide to his Lion, the damage too sudden to hold back. It wasn't intentional - but it happened in a second. The other Lions were gone, the other Paladins disconnected, and their power was already flowing between them, their minds almost one. Yellow had no control - and Hunk had no defence.
With suddenly nowhere else to go, Yellow quintessence spilled over and backflowed. It poured into Hunk, jagged and painful, endless, blinding. It was like dry-drowning - it was like swallowing a thousand shards of glass, like drinking mud until it bled out of his eyes.
Hunk might have screamed. He might have been silent. He couldn't tell. He didn't care. Quintessence built inside him, scorching, scouring, an abrasion that pressed against his soul until- until maybe there was nothing left but dust. He felt raw, caught naked in a sandstorm, skin and body and thoughts ground clean off until he was chafing bone and dead earth. The desert itself was inside him, spreading, consuming everything. It was hot - it was sweltering.
Blindly, his eyes lit up and turned gold until the colour eclipsed everything. Sweat turned to salt turned to glass, glinting, cutting, bleeding him. The whole world turned to glass. Hunk felt he too was made of glass; sand compressed and boiled and shown no mercy.
But Yellow couldn't stop it, had shared too much of his power with Voltron, was bleeding quintessence into their bond. And Hunk couldn't stop it, couldn't redirect it, couldn't dig his way out. He was drowning in land, breathing quicksand.
Hunk jerked, and they quaked, and then the planet beneath them tore asunder.
The first thing Lance was aware of was the scream.
It was followed by an overwhelming grief, so strong he sobbed, heedless of who might hear him. He just felt so empty. Blue was there, a distant shimmer in his mind, but she was tiny in the aftermath of what they'd lost. She huddled in his thoughts, quivering, clinging - she felt the loss as keenly as he did, the sudden empty nothing that engulfed them.
Yellow, his soul like warm packed sand on all sides, was gone. The other Lions - flickers of sensation and emotion - were gone. He couldn't feel Shiro's breathing, his own was jagged and weak and… wet. Wrong, somehow. His heart thudded spasmodically in his chest, uneven, heavy, but slower than it had been before. His brain felt fuzzy, slow. He felt unsteady, like he was on a boat, solid ground lost to him, like he might fall over at any moment.
When he came to enough to see again, he realised that he was upside down. Most of his weight was braced on his shoulder, his back arched forward over his own head, twisted painfully to the side. His knees were barely an inch away from his nose, his feet brushing against the seam where Blue's viewscreen met the ceiling of her cockpit.
Spiderweb cracks shone across his visor, splitting the upside down image apart. Trying to process it made his head spin.
And the scream. It had stopped, but it still rang in Lance's ears, a low echoing sound frayed apart by the radio. Hunk. He knew what his best friend sounded like when he screamed. Slowly, Lance tried to turn his body around, falling bonelessly to the side. One of Blue's flightwheels dug into his side, and his weight shoved it back (forward?), but Blue only whirred in response.
Pain flared up in his mind, and Blue gave him what might have been a whimper, if whimpers could be mind-touches. It felt warm - compared to her normal touch. Some part of Lance recoiled.
"Blue?" he croaked, wriggling painfully to get off the flightwheel, tipping himself backwards and finally succeeding in sprawling out on the ceiling, limbs askew. The pain in his side didn't abate, sharp and punishing. Vaguely, Lance wondered how hurt he was. "Blue, are you-" and something wet caught in his throat and he exploded into coughing. Each tremor sent agony through his side, shuddering into his spine and up across his shoulders.
In the dim light, though, Lance didn't see any blood. So maybe his lungs weren't filled with blood. He didn't feel the telltale weight and gurgle of liquid, so… hopefully.
"Lance?" came the crackle over the radio, a little unsteady, the signal flickering slightly. Was it distance? The damage to Blue? Maybe it was just the damage to his helmet. Please let Blue be okay.
But he drew in a shaky breath and responded. "Shiro? What- What happened?"
"I… I'm not sure, I'll be right there, okay? Just hold tight, L-"
The whole world shook. The tremor was so sudden and violent that Lance cracked his helmet against the ceiling again, the spiderweb cracks reaching across to the other side. Shiro's voice was lost to the thundering rumble, like the sound of an approaching earthquake magnified - like bass that drowned out even one's own thoughts.
Something in that thunder broke, and moved, and Blue rolled. The quivering touch gripped Lance's mind again - Blue's fear - and suddenly he felt like he was drowning in it. She was still rolling, hadn't quite come to a stop yet, but Lance could see dizzily out of her eyes, saw the robeast and Yellow and-
They stopped, as suddenly as it had started, and vertigo bloomed in Lance's stomach as the world fell away. It was nothing like taking off with Blue, like his Lion rocketing up through the atmosphere or dancing around weaponfire. She clung in his mind, a lukewarm tidal pool, but still they rose into the air - feeling unbalanced, precarious. Lance felt like he was swaying.
A shallow bowl of earth supported Blue's body, cradling her even as it rose. By the time they stopped, everything was swirling and Lance dragged at his helmet, clawing, barely managing to release the catches under his jaw and toss it aside before he puked. Guilt struck him, somewhere, but he couldn't even see straight and Blue just curled around his thoughts, gentling, turning soft. She felt a little cooler than before - it soothed him.
"Sorry, Blue," Lance choked out, even as he moved away and towards the hatch that led to Blue's mouth. She purred softly in his mind - weaker than usual, the interior lighting still dim, most of her systems still offline - but it settled Lance's stomach, and he tried to blink away the phantom lights. Mostly, it worked. "I'm getting out, okay?" And he was halfway to crawling out through Blue's mouth before he stopped. "Uh… Blue? Can I breathe out there?"
There was a low rumble, and then Blue touched something sweet and cold to Lance's thoughts. He smiled, without thinking, even though the world was still shaking and the thundering hadn't stopped. She's okay. "Thanks, Blue." He climbed out of her mouth, holding on to keep his footing, and paused when he got out. The air was thick and heavy and hot, and Lance felt the unpleasant cling of his bodysuit as he sweated through it, but as long as he breathed shallow breaths he didn't feel too dizzy.
The rocking earth probably didn't help that.
Pressing a kiss to Blue's nose, Lance let the coolness in his mind surround him. "Love you too, beautiful," he murmured to her, and then he dropped from her lip to the sandy bowl cradling her body. On all fours, trying to ride the rollercoaster, Lance crawled along towards the edge. It was so loud out here, the crashing, the constant crack and rumble of… of… whatever was happening. Lance didn't know.
He wished he'd brought his helmet with him now. It might have helped dim the booming noise. Nevertheless, Lance made it to the edge, fingers digging into the packed earth as hard as he could manage, and he looked out.
The first thing he saw were the other pillars. Three of them, rising above the surface of the planet, huge edifices that spiralled out of the earth like a reverse whirlpool made solid. The top of each pillar had blossomed into a wide, shallow bowl - just like the one upon which Blue sat. And gracing each of those bowls was another Lion.
In the distance, just barely visible even to Lance's sniper gaze, Red glinted. She was flaring blue light, thrusters screaming for release - and held down. Thick ropes of earth had wrapped around her legs, all four of them, holding her down. Something in Lance's chest felt numb at the sight. The Lion's weren't supposed to be caged - what could even hold one down like, mere dirt, locking Red down. Even as Lance watched, a stream of blistering lava and plasma burst from her throat. If he focused hard enough, he could imagine he could hear her roar over the sound of crashing land.
Closer, the Black Lion stood atop her pillar, eyes lit but otherwise still. Shiro. Guilt dropped away in Lance's gut again as he realised that without his helmet, he couldn't communicate. Oh god, Shiro probably thought something had happened to him. Silently, Lance made a note to apologise later.
Even closer than that, too close, almost enough that Lance was tempted to leap across using his jetpack, was Green. She was absolutely still, eyes dead, sprawled unnaturally. The baseplate of Voltron's shield, usually stuck fast to her back, was dented and skewed.
Fear was a lump in Lance's throat, worsening the faint nausea. Pidge was in there. Pidge was in there, and god she'd screamed and how could she be okay after-
After.
And there, far below, glinting and glowing with a deep golden light, was the Yellow Lion. He was… not off the ground, precisely; spiking up around him, scraping close enough to raise him, jagged spikes of red stone so dark Lance wondered - for a split second - if it was bleeding. And inside him, Hunk was-
He'd screamed.
Around him, the earth was churning, rocking and quaking and moving, huge broken slabs rising and tipping and rolling before disappearing back under the sand. It was that odd, dark red hue, so much that Lance was reminded of a heart, thundering and convulsing, and amidst it all the Yellow Lion shone and glowed and… The light almost seemed to spiral out, into the planet's surface.
Something purple glinted, and Lance caught a glimpse of the robeast, horns aglow. He had to resist the urge to vomit again. It was writhing, thrashing in the hungry earth - but to no avail. Deep, sick violet glowed out from the cracks in its stomach, and-
Were they bigger than when Keith had struck them? Even in motion and blurry for it… yeah. Lance was pretty sure than they were.
Blue whispered in his mind, wordless, the tide slowly starting to come back. It tugged him back, away from the edge - away from Yellow. Lance resisted. It burned in his chest, denying her, and doubly so because all he wanted was to go back and curl up and let her protect him. A robeast was always a scary affair, but it was better with the other four, with his space family around him, supporting him. As Voltron, he wasn't alone - there wasn't any room left for loneliness. It was him and them and the Lions and something unquantifiable, something that exceeded them all.
But he resisted, because Hunk was down there and whatever was happening, he was suffering.
And then, just as suddenly, the planet went still. Down below, the earth stopped churning, Yellow shining in the blood red rock teeth, and the sand fell flat in a second. Shards of stone protruded everywhere, like glass, like iron sand too close to a magnet. Half buried, glowing, the robeast struggled. Lance could only see horns, blazing purple through the destruction. He didn't know if it was because the other two were hidden, or if they'd been broken off.
In the stark silence, the robeast's distance rumbles were barely audible. It seemed to be struggling, to no avail at all. Yellow was still glowing.
Wait. The rumbles were getting louder. Sand began to shake over the edge of Lance's safety bowl, trembling - it wasn't his body shaking, it was the ground. Is it still the ground if it's this high in the air? Slowly, the rumbling began to turn to a distant roar, and then not so distant.
The shaking worsened, turning back into a full scale earthquake, shuddering and bucking and there was a brief moment when Lance looked over again, watching the red spikes holding Yellow up grow and lift him higher and dig into his side, and then his stomach flipped. It took a second for him to realise that it was literal, and then he was in the air, and his fingers scrabbled and slipped and he felt his fingernails break against the abrasion - he was flailing, drawing in the heavy, thick air to scream, watching everything tilt upside down. Almost gracefully.
And there was a low snarl and a whiplash of ice in his mind and a flicker of blue and-
Oh god-
Blue's jaws snapped shut around him. Her front claws were dug into the edge of the earthen bowl, clinging, as hard as she could - but Lance sank into her, opening himself to her as far as he could, feeling her senses surge through him.
Her hind legs were caught in rock, like Red's were, keeping her held fast to the pillar. In some way, Lance was grateful - she couldn't have held on without it, and they would have tumbled over. Maybe she could have caught them, but she was still weak, energy bleeding out of her with every movement, and maybe she couldn't have. She kept her jaws clamped shut, unwilling to risk Lance slipping out through her teeth, her head hanging clean off the edge - and below them, Lance could see, the world tinged with blue - they could see.
The roaring of the earth was deafening, an all-encompassing concussion that tossed them about as if they were playthings. Inside Blue's mouth, Lance's body was hurled against the metal walls, even as Blue's head was jerked from side to side, even as they tried to focus on the sight below them.
And the whole world cracked. In a line that opened under Yellow and the robeast, a line that shot outwards over the horizon faster then Lance could follow, further, spreading across the planet's surface until Blue couldn't see it anymore, until they thought it might have split the whole thing in half. The halves pulled apart, deeper, thundering, into an abyss that stretched and widened and fell infinitely - until a dull glow burst forth from inside it. Something pale and yellow and molten, something… that should never have seen the light of day.
The spires holding Yellow shot down into the canyon - canyon? Lance was pretty sure the whole planet had been torn in half - and stuck, and the Lion didn't sway. He simply lay still and glowed so fiercely even Blue couldn't bear to look directly at him. Lance tugged on her mind, begging her to stop trying - it hurt him too, awash in her senses, staring horrified through her eyes.
But the rocks surrounding the robeast - the rocks that had pierced it - melted into dust in seconds. Thrashing its stumpy, hideously twisted legs, only two horns still attached (and the one on his flank just barely), the minotaur fell.
It seemed to go on forever. Lance didn't want to think about how long it would take for the robeast to touch the molten core - if it was indeed the core - but Blue knew, and the knowledge filtered into him anyway. And it stayed open, the robeast's form dwindling, the seconds dragging into a minute, two minutes, th-
The minotaur hit the core. A flash of light, sick purple and butter yellow, shone out of the canyon in a blinding sheet, almost as if it were a physical thing. Blue flinched back from it.
And they shook, and the agonising crashing thundered around them, and all at once the whole world clashed back together. Blue lost her grip on the earth bowl and slammed down, her chest hitting the edge, body pulled taut as the rock holding her hindlegs fast didn't give an inch. Pain flashed through them, and Lance moaned, feeling tears in his human eyes.
A yellow light, deeper than the light of before, dimmer, sweeter - like starlight made tangible - shot across the canyon, spread from the Yellow Lion in both directions until it vanished over the horizon, and the massive crack in the planet sealed.
The dust settled, the spires holding Yellow up crumbled and the Lion touched the ground, the pillars remained. The rock holding Blue in place fell away, dissolving into nothing, and her butt slumped to the ground, tail caught beneath one leg as they splayed sideways - she didn't fall forward, counterbalanced. In the distance, Lance saw Red shoot into the air and hurtle towards them.
The world quieted.
The light dimmed.
And the robeast was just… gone.
Lance surrendered back to his own body, pulling away from Blue's senses, and found himself shivering, crying, eyes wide, heart racing. Sealed inside Blue, the air felt slippery after the atmosphere outside, almost wet - too hard to grasp, too light inside his lungs. Dizzily, Lance crawled back towards Blue's throat, where the base of her mouth canon was tilted up to allow him free access to her cockpit.
The smell of bile greeted him, and he gagged softly; right. He'd forgotten. "Sorry, Blue," he murmured, slipping back into the cockpit anyway. She purred low in his mind - reassuring, forgiving. It wasn't his fault. Except it kinda was. But he didn't argue with her; he wouldn't win.
The vomit had splattered when Blue turned right way up - to catch me - and it still dripped from the ceiling a little, but luckily it was most of the way to the right. Lance avoided it with as wide a berth as possible, looking for his helmet.
Faint sound, buzzing voices, led him to it where it had fallen, lost in one of the many crevices. It was mostly clean, so Lance rubbed a thumb over the cracked visor, eyes misty. The voices coalesced into words.
"... e fucking same, I'm telling you, it was-"
"Doesn't matter! Get Pidge, I'll get Hunk, we can come back for Lance. He responded before, and we can't take them both, just do it!"
Shiro never shouted like that. He must be terrified. Lance turned his mic on and intoned, "Shiro, I'm okay."
"Lance! Thank god-"
"What the fuck, Lance?!" Keith was shouting still, his voice strained and… almost hysterical. "Don't go fucking AWOL, are you fucking kidding me, what the fuck is wr-"
Shiro's voice was sharp when it cut across, suddenly iron. "Keith. Save it for later. Lance, can Blue fly?"
Silently, Lance relayed the question, even though Blue would have heard it. A flicker across their link, just to confirm what her lit up interior told him. "Yeah. She's not in great shape, but we can make it back to the Castle."
There was a sharp whoosh - a sigh. It was relieved. "Okay, good. I'll get the Yellow Lion, and Keith, you get the Green. We'll get everyone home first, okay?" There was something in his voice that made Lance think Keith had been arguing.
Yeah, that made sense.
"Shiro…" Lance's voice was shaky, but he couldn't control it. Even the gentle tendril of ice weaving through his thoughts couldn't help it. His chest felt tight, and even if Blue was helping him not to think, it couldn't stop the fear knotting in his throat. Hunk was down there. Inside Yellow. And Lance had never seen anything like what he'd just witnessed.
The whole planet had broken apart. If not, the exaggeration felt deserved. Lance was overwhelmed, drained; his limbs felt numb, even as he stood - stooped - in Blue's cockpit and held his helmet close to this face, staring at the spiderweb cracks as if the faint shimmering afterimage they left could give him answers. "Shiro, what… what happened? We… I mean, we were fighting, and then that thing hit us, and Voltron broke and… and…!" His voice hurt in his throat, wavering - his eyes stung, the visor blurring. Hunk was down there and Pidge was… silent.
But it was Keith who answered him.
"Lance… We have to get back to the Castle, okay? Right now. Hunk needs to get into a healing pod. Right now. Ask questions later."
No, that had been a lie. Keith didn't answer him - that wasn't an answer. Keith was blowing him off, even now - right now! After everything that just fucking happened! And he could hear Shiro's hiss, and turned to look out and saw Black carefully trying to get Yellow into the air, thrusters straining, wings open wide. Red was above them, glinting, drifting towards Pidge.
Lance felt the tears spill over, and with it the numbness in his limbs broke into an ache so deep Blue let out a snarl. "Fuck you, Keith!" Lance shouted, squeezing his eyes shut. "Why are you- just tell me what happened? What happened?!"
Maybe it wasn't fair. Maybe they didn't know. But Lance didn't care - everything had happened so fast, and Hunk was hurt and Pidge was hurt, and they were carrying dead Lions home again again and the whole fucking planet had swallowed the robeast whole and-
"Lance, that… It was… Hunk went coalescent."
Keith's voice seemed calmer now, almost… gentle. Like he was trying to soothe Lance. Like Lance was a fucking child.
But then it registered. Coalescence. The light, the noise, the sheer power of it, and Hunk- The whole planet- Yellow had been glowing…
Coalescence.
Lance didn't move, couldn't bring his body obey him, could only slowly shift his gaze up as Red got her claws around Green and lifted the Lion into the air and rose, but Blue fired her thrusters and followed anyway. Their bond hovered open, separate in their own bodies but present, reassuring. She was right there. She'd always be right there.
It didn't occur to him that he was flying Blue without laying a hand on her flightwheels.
"He…" Lance managed, feeling the words catch in his throat, choking him. His hands tightened on his helmet, the tears dripping off his jaw. His armour felt so heavy, the bodysuit sticking to his skin, tacky and fetid. "B-but…"
Shiro was silent, but once more Keith responded. His voice was still… gentle. Soothing. Somehow, it helped. Maybe Lance needed it anyway - maybe he was a child.
"... It'll be okay, Lance. You're okay, and you…"
Went coalescent. Lance didn't really remember it, but the others had filled him in. He remembered… Blue, and pain, and ice, and blueness everywhere. But Hunk always had that shiver in his voice when he talked about it, Shiro went silent. Like he's silent now. Pidge and Keith always exchanged this… look when it was brought up, a look Lance still couldn't quite decipher.
And there was a note in Keith's voice that Lance didn't quite recognise, that he didn't…
Oh.
"... I… Keith?" He sounded tiny, as they broke through the atmosphere and the strain on their Lions faded, and they started the long glide back home.
"Yeah, Lance?"
"... Is… I mean… When I… Is that what… it was like?"
He couldn't see, everything was so blurry, and it stung, like it was just salt in his eyes and not tears, and his voice was so tiny, so weak. Shame burned in his chest, that he'd done something like this, and suddenly the covert glances made sense, the shivers of fear, the silent, uncertain, unhappy awe in Shiro's narrowed gaze whenever they spoke of it. Lance gripped the helmet even tighter, the cracks shimmering, some detached part wondering - almost hoping - that it would shatter in his hands. The shame clawed at his lungs, made his heart feel like stone - he couldn't breathe, couldn't see, there was a ringing in his ears that-
"... Yeah. Lance. That's what coalescence looks like."