Friendship

Lance hung his uniform jacket carefully in the small room's closet. It had been nearly two years since he'd last wore it, and it had felt bizarre putting it on for the speech. The uniform belonged to the man he had been. He was proud of his past, but he had painfully learned the importance of moving forward. Though technically still recallable to active duty, Lance's only recent business at Galaxy Garrison had been to visit friends and family and, on rare occasions, to speak to small groups of cadets.

Lance's decision to leave active duty had been a surprise to everyone. Passions that had once burned brightly within him now seemed trivial. He privately attributed it to Allura's influence. On several occasions he'd felt like he was recalling experiences he couldn't really remember, but that influenced his thinking. He wasn't sure if such feelings were shadows of her somehow passed on through their bond or merely creations of his subconscious, but it didn't really matter. In his heart he felt compelled to listen.

In a few minutes he would join his fellow Paladins and Coran at their annual dinner. He looked forward to it; while he was fortunate to see many of his friends throughout the year it was rare that all the remaining Paladins had a chance to be together. It was a chance to be a family again, to remember the good and the bad. To laugh often, cry occasionally, and talk about things no one else could ever understand.

"So I told him that a bimodal wave pattern wasn't going to help him fly his ship, but it might help him heat the soup!"

Hunk and Coran laughed heartily at the punchline of Pidge's story. Shiro favored her with a smile. Lance and Keith exchanged confused glances.

"That's why you don't use flormine filters in your multispectral scanners," Hunk added through his chuckling.

"Speaking of scanners," Shiro said, looking directly at Pidge, "how's that new project of yours coming?"

"Very well, actually. We've finally stabilized the capacitive diractance in the Hesiod Array," Pidge said excitedly.

Lance cocked an eyebrow. He didn't get that one either. "And that means?"

"It only means the most powerful sensor system ever developed is ready to go online," Hunk said excitedly.

"The Array will have twenty times the resolution of the Atlas's sensors, and several thousand times the range," Pidge added. "It will help us understand more about our universe than ever before."

"All from the comfort of Earth." Hunk smiled. "My kind of research."

"I assume it has defense applications as well," Keith said.

"Plenty," Pidge said. "We can detect a wormhole opening anywhere in the Milky Way and even in some of the surrounding galaxies."

"I'm glad at least one of us has something new and exciting to discuss tomorrow morning," Shiro replied.

Keith tensed slightly. "What's tomorrow morning?"

Hunk frowned. "You forgot about the show?"

Keith's eyes widened. "I thought you were joking. We've always turned down the group interview requests."

"It's the fifth anniversary," Pidge said. "We all agreed to it."

"When Shiro brought it up you said 'Sure, whatever'," Lance reminded his friend.

"That does sound like Keith," Hunk confirmed.

"But… I didn't think any of you would want to do it," Keith huffed.

"I don't want to do it," Lance said.

"Neither do I," Pdige concurred.

"Then why the quiznack are we doing it?" Keith demanded.

"I don't know… it could be fun," Hunk mused.

"It isn't about what we want," Lance explained. He was pretty sure this was the same conversation they'd had a phebe earlier when they had originally made a decision about the show. "There are things that people should know, and this is a way to share them."

"Like what the blue spots are?" Keith said with a smirk.

Lance shrugged. "OK, yeah, that one gets kind of old. Though apparently they mean I might have a claim to the Altean throne."

Pidge's eyes went wide and she dropped her spoon. "What?"

"King Lance of Altea," Shiro mused. "They could do worse."

"But it would be a challenge," Keith added smugly.

Pidge shook her head. "You're going to need to explain this one to me."

"Apparently since I was the consort of the last royal in the previous lineage, I have the right to be heard as a potential successor."

Hunk frowned slightly. "Wait… you might become King because you were dating her?"

"When Egaran the Fickle passed he had no direct heir," Coran said. "His consort of the time was considered as a successor, but ultimately it was decided Egaran's Uncle held a greater claim. Of course, we all know how that turned out."

A mischievous smirk crossed Shiro's lips. "What do you think Coran? Are you ready to pledge your allegiance to Lance?"

"Given the newest Altean charter I don't see it as likely… but…" His gaze shifted to Lance. "I know you would make a fine king. But I also know your true passions lie elsewhere, and I respect that."

"That means a lot coming from you."

"So you're not going to pursue it," Keith said firmly. It was more a statement than a question.

Lance let out a soft chuckle. "Of course not. I can barely run a farm, I'm not going to try for a planet."

"You didn't do too bad helping to save the universe though," Pidge pointed out.

"You guys did most of the heavy lifting."

"We were a team," Shiro reminded his friend.

"Yeah," Lance said, almost wistfully. "I miss that a lot."

"Me too," Pidge agreed.

"Me three," Hunk added playfully.

"I know what you mean," Keith said. "There was something special about going out and making a difference every day. And doing it together."

"I am grateful for the experience every day," Coran said. "Waking up to a changed universe was not easy, but you all helped me endure it."

"We would have been lost without you Coran," Shiro said.

"Well," the suddenly emotional-looking Altean said, "It was my privilege."

Shiro raised a glass. "To the team!"

"To the team," the rest echoed.

Keith turned to Lance and raised an eyebrow. "When I say Vol, you say Tron."

The Cuban Paladin smirked. "Come on Keith. Grow up."

He stood on the upper observation deck with hands clasped behind his back looking out at the great statue of Allura. There were three of them now; the original continued to stand proudly on Altea while nearly identical replica had been erected on Earth as part of the Unity Memorial. A towering third statue had recently been completed on Daibazaal, and the shadow of Allura now graced the gardens of the new Great Senate Building of the Galra Republic. But to Lance, none of them captured her beauty quite as well as the one found on her former home.

"You're up late."

Lance spun around, though he didn't need to. Keith's voice was instantly recognizable. "So are you."

"I don't need as much beauty sleep as you do."

Lance let out a snorted laugh. "You're thinking about the interview tomorrow." He glanced down at his chronometer. "Today, actually."

"I'm the one that never liked this stuff," Keith pointed out. "Six years ago you'd of been clamoring for the camera."

The taller Paladin shrugged. "People change."

"Yeah," Keith said softly. "I don't think either of us thought we'd be who we are today."

"Tell me about it." He turned back to the statue. "Because of her."

"Because of all of us. Even you."

Lance looked back over his shoulder with a smug grin. "Don't go blaming me for your problems."

"I'm serious man."

"So am I."

An opening door prompted both men to turn around. Lance squinted as a short figure emerged from the shadows. "Pidge?"

"I thought I might find you up here," the youngest Paladin announced. "I stopped by your room but no one answered."

"I could've been asleep," Lance suggested.

"That's why I did a thermal scan to see if you were inside."

"You did what?" Lance asked with obvious concern.

Pidge looked slightly hurt. "Low resolution only. I wouldn't have seen anything."

"Certainly not at low resolution," Keith interjected smugly.

Pidge frowned. "Can you stow your innuendos until I'm done here?"

"I didn't know you were doing something here?"

"Actually," Pidge said, pulling a small memory crystal from my pocket, "I wanted to give this to Lance." She turned to Lance. "I would have given it to you at dinner, but it took longer to compile to the crystal than I expected."

Lance furrowed his brow. "What is it?"

"Galaxy Garrison's copy of sensor and recorder data from the Blue Lion," she explained.

"I thought Sam said he couldn't decrypt the internal logs?"

Pidge smiled. "He couldn't. But I figured it out. At least some of it." She handed the crystal to Lance. "There's still a ton of stuff we don't understand about Voltron, but at least some of the records should be viewable. I haven't actually checked: What's on there is between you, Blue, and Allura."

"Wow… I, don't know what to say."

"Nothing from Red or Black?" Keith asked.

"Each Lion's encryption is unique and incredibly complex. I'll keep working on the others, of course, but Blue's was a little bit different. Almost like it wanted me to be able to figure it out."

Her eyes shifted back to Lance. "Maybe there's something on here Blue wanted you to see."

Lance closed his fist around the small crystal and pressed it up against his chest, feeling a sense of warmth. "Thank you," he said. "This… is something special."


A/N: Sorry this was a bit delayed. I wanted to rewatch S8 to make sure the storyline made sense, plus I've been revising my plans for the story a bit to make the plot a smidge more complex. I know the first couple chapters have been quite a bit of reminiscing, but they are needed to set the stage for the new adventure.

I hope you enjoyed, and any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Thank you!