Aleja was immediately fascinated with Lance's spaceship. She reminded him so much of Pidge it was almost scary.
She wouldn't stop asking questions. As it was her first brush with Altean technology, she needed to know how everything worked. She was infinitely fascinated by the cloaking, and the different mechanisms for speed and weaponry.
"What does this one do." She pointed to a button near the steering.
Lance swatted her hand away, in return she pouted at him. "It sets atmospheric pressure, and it's not important right now. Just watch and learn. Your little brother's got some skills."
Aleja laughed at him, but stopped the moment they took off.
To Lance flying felt like a second skin to him now. He was so used to constantly piloting that he'd felt strange not flying around, even if it was just for a day.
He celebrated with a "whoop" when they got up to speed. Glancing next to him he saw Aleja looking terrified. He laughed with joy at the speed, but slowed down for her piece of mind. This wasn't her world, and she wasn't used to this.
They landed in the Arizona desert a short while later. Spaceships were infinitely faster than your average plane. Aleja looked pale next to him.
"That was…"
"Exhilarating, exciting, incredibly fun?" Lance finished the sentence for her.
"I was going to say terrifying."
"Now you sound like Hunk." Lance laughed, remembering how nervous Hunk had been on their first few flights. At least Aleja could keep everything in her stomach. Lance really wouldn't have looked forward to cleaning his spaceship. He wasn't sure if there was much in the realm of alien spacecraft dry cleaning nearby.
They left the ship to go find someone to help them track down their mother. From what Aleja knew, it sounded like the Garrison were hosting their mom while they tried to convince her to go home. It was kind of nice of them. Nice to know that after pretending to murder her son, they at least gave her a room to stay in for a while.
Lance knew the layout of the school, but wasn't sure where she might be staying. Aleja wasn't sure either. In hindsight, it probably would have been better to show up during the day. They ended up sneaking onto the Garrison campus in the hopes of running into someone who might be able to help.
"Are you sure you know how to do this?" Aleja asked in a rushed whisper.
"The number of times I snuck off the Garrison campus only to have to sneak back on, of course I know how to do this! Just pretend like you're supposed to be here and no one will look twice."
Lance was very wrong about his assumption. Students were still milling about the campus, despite it being late into the evening. As he passed by a few of them whispered to each other.
He whispered to Aleja. "Did I just get cuter while I was away, or what?"
She gently cuffed him on the head. "We're on a mission, remember. You'll have a chance for vanity later."
"Right." Lance said rubbing the back of his head. He saw a student by himself and pulled him aside. "Hi, we're looking for an older woman, she would look similar to us." He gestured to Aleja and him.
The kid looked at them blankly, but then stared more closely at Lance. His eyes lit up.
"She's here because she-" Lance continued, not noticing the change.
"Wait a second. Aren't you that kid that died?!"
He sounded way too excited about that. Suddenly the stares from the other students made a lot of sense.
"Ah...no...ah...that's some other kid." Lance backpedaled. "But we are looking for the mom of that kid, so if you'd just-"
"Well who do we have here?"
Lance turned around at the sound of the voice, he'd heard it before. "Commander Iverson! Uh…" He was the commander that loved to yell at Lance, Pidge, and Hunk after failing flight simulations. The thought of getting yelled at right then and in front of his sister made Lance's stomach tighten. "H-hey…"
"You're coming with me cadet."
"I don't think I'm technically a cadet anymore...sir." Lance regretted saying it instantly, remembering how quickly Iverson was to anger.
"Are you mouthing off to me?! You have a lot to answer for, you're going to be grilled by the higher council for your crimes. Come with me, or you'll come in cuffs."
"Okay, yes sir." Lance watched Iverson start to walk away, but turned back to his sister briefly. He gave her a quick hug. "Aleja, find mom, I'll be back soon, meet me by the ship." He whispered, before following after the commander.
It really wasn't good.
The information that they got from the chip pointed directly to Shiro being a fake. The Shiro that they'd all trusted had been a lie. It was something completely different to suspect someone you care about was a fake, than it was to know for certain. The idea was unsettling; the truth was crippling.
Keith wondered how long. Was the Shiro he and Lance had rescued on Earth a fake, or was it just the current Shiro, the one they found after he disappeared from the black lion?
No. It had to just be the current Shiro who was a fake. The one they rescued from Earth had been supportive and caring, just like the Shiro Keith had always known.
"Now what do we do." The voice came from Allura. It sounded weak and frightened. Keith had never heard Allura sound like that.
"We've got to capture him." Keith wasn't yet sure just yet how to do it, but he knew that it was the right course of action.
The three of them nodded to each other, but none of them moved to do anything.
Why is it so hard to come up with good plans? It felt like they were facing the impossible. They needed more ideas.
"I guess we should tell the others first?" Keith said. Among six people, surely someone could think of something. "Pidge, you take Matt. Allura-"
"Coran." She nodded to him.
"That leaves me with Hunk." The three of them nodded to each other. "We'll meet in the common room after and figure out what to do."
They left to go track down their respective teammates.
Finding Hunk was the easy part. Explaining that Lance didn't leave, but had instead been attempted to be murdered was the hard part.
Hunk had been a mess since Lance left, and this was definitely not going to help his emotional state.
Keith was so bad at comforting people. He just had no idea how to do it. When he was sad all he wanted was to be left alone. Other people needed hugs and words of encouragement and comfort food and whatever else. Lance was great at this. It was no wonder he and Hunk had been best friends. Both of them were like bottled sunshine on a good day.
So it surprised Keith, when Hunk took the news well.
"So Lance didn't run away?" Hunk asked, more serious that Keith was used to.
"No. He got caught in a trap and then Shiro or Lotor forged the note."
"And Lance is alive?" Hunk sounded hopeful for the first time in days.
"We think so, but we have no way to tell for sure right now." Keith nodded.
"And we're going to look for him?"
"Of course. We just have to capture Shiro first."
"Let's do it." Once again, Hunk was surprisingly serious. After Keith had explained the evidence, Hunk had just trusted him completely.
They were the first two to arrive at the common room. Allura and Coran arrived shortly after. They nodded at each other as they entered the room and then sat in silence, waiting.
It wasn't long after that the door to the common room opened. They expected to see Pidge, but instead it was Shiro, followed closely by Lotor.
Keith felt the world drop. Out of all the paladins, he wouldn't have expected it to be Hunk who acted first.
Hunk yelled some expletive, before launching himself at Shiro and tackling him to the floor.
Well, Keith thought, guess we're doing it this way.
Lance followed the commander, making sure to keep note of exactly where he was in the Garrison. They turned through hallways Lance had never explored even from his pilot training days.
Deep into the Garrison's long hallways. Deep into the belly of the beast.
With each step Lance's anxiety escalated. He hoped they only wanted him to answer a few questions. He couldn't afford to be gone for too long or his sister might worry. His mamá was already worried.
Finally Commander Iverson stepped into a room, motioning for Lance to follow. It was dark, a single light bulb was suspended above a table. The entire back wall was tinted glass, probably functioning as a two way mirror. It looked every bit like something you would expect to see on an old cheesy cop show.
Lance chuckled. Iverson turned to glare at him, and he cut off mid laugh.
"Sit there." Iverson motioned to a chair on one side of the table. "I'll be back."
Lance did as he was told. He twiddled his thumbs for a while, before turning his head to speak to the glass.
"Hey, so I really don't have all that much time. I kind of need to get back to space at some point. Maybe you could help instead of holding me here? My ship's kind of damaged...so?"
Lance waited for a second, but nothing happened. He couldn't even be sure if there was anyone on the other side of the glass.
"So...uh...can someone please come in here and ask me whatever it is you need to ask me?"
Lance waited for another minute tapping his fingers on the table. He really did not like sitting still. After months in space Lance had gotten used to an especially fast paced lifestyle. It felt odd being without anything at all to do.
"Look I'll cooperate okay. I'll answer whatever questions you have, but can someone please come in here?"
There was still no answer, no suggestion of humanity behind the glass. He stood up and tapped it with his finger. Then he pressed his face against it and cupped his hands over his eyes to see if he could see any sign of movement on the other side. There was nothing.
Lance sauntered over to the door, trying to look more casual than he felt and pulled at the door handle. It was definitely locked. He had known it would be, but still felt himself deflate slightly as any glimmer of hope left his chest.
"So...uh…" He said turning back to the glass. "I don't usually play this card, but it's kind of important for the fate of the universe that you let me out. I know I look like this normal kid, but I have information that some friends of mine really need to hear, or the entire universe might get taken over by this evil alien race. So can you please, please let me out?"
Once again, Lance got no indication that anyone had heard him at all. Lance inspected the glass, tapping on it, trying to figure out how thick it was. It was probably bulletproof, so there was probably nothing he could do to break it. That shouldn't stop him from trying though.
Lance went over to the table and inspected it. It was just a cheap foldable one, he crawled underneath, looking at the legs. He pulled at each of the pipes until he found one of the legs that felt loose and started unscrewing it the rest of the way.
The moment it came free the doorknob to the room started turning. "Crap!" Lance hissed.
He stuck the leg back under the table so that the table looked balanced. As long as nobody leaned their body weight onto it, it should be fine. He slid back into his chair, trying to look as casual as possible.
Iverson entered, followed by an older man. "Cadet! This is Mr. Henesy, he works as an interrogator for us from time to time. You will give him your respect."
"Yes sir." Lance turned to the other man. "Sir?"
"That will do." He said. "We have some questions for you, young man."
"Fantastic! Listen, I'll answer whatever you want from me, but I need to leave as soon as possible so that I can get back into space."
The two men glanced at each other briefly. Before Henesy spoke again. "I really need you to tell us what happened from the time you left the Garrison. Do you remember?"
"Of course I remember!" Lance could feel himself getting slightly hysterical.
Iverson cut him off. "Calm down, you and your team has been missing for months, just tell us what happened."
"Fine!" Lance spoke as fast as he was able to, ignoring them completely until he was finished. "Keith flunked out of the Garrison which meant that I got the spot as the fighter pilot. You put me and Hunk and Pidge all on the same team, but Pidge discovered that Shiro was alive and so we went to rescue him and Keith showed up. Then we found a blue lion spaceship and accidentally travelled across the galaxy to a space castle where we woke up a princess who had been sleeping for a thousand years. Turns out there's been a war with these aliens called the Galra, taking over the entire universe and the only way to stop them was with Voltron, which is a giant robot made out of five flying robot ships, the others went and found their ships and since then we've been saving the universe from the Galra and rescuing planets, and then we thought we killed the Emperor Zarkon, and Shiro disappeared, but his son Lotor took over and we found Shiro and then Keith left the team and then we found Pidge's brother Matt and then Zarkon came back and tried to kill Lotor and then Lotor pretended to be good and joined us and then I found out that Shiro is a clone and Lotor is evil and Lotor tried to kill me but I managed to escape and came here, my spaceship's communications got destroyed so I have no way to contact the others. I got down here on Earth and found out everyone I love thought I was dead, and now I need to tell my mom I'm alive, and then figure out how to find Shiro and how to get back to Voltron to warn the others about all of this or the universe might get destroyed."
The two men sat in surprised silence as Lance finished his tirade.
"Any other questions?" Lance asked. "No? Then can I please leave? I clearly have business to attend to."
Iverson touched his ear and whispered. "Send in the guard. We need to give him a psychiatric examination."
Lance had a small flashback to when he and Keith rescued Shiro. "Yeah, I really do not have time for this." He watched the door handle open, and two more men start to walk in the room.
If he was going to act, it would have to be now, before the door closes.
Lance grabbed the leg of the table he knew was loose. He looked into Henesy's eyes. "Sorry about this." And then kicked the top of the table as hard as he could into the two men.
Shiro just dodged out of the way with most of his body, but Hunk managed to grab hold of his leg and caused them to both come crashing to the ground.
Keith grabbed his bayard and ran to back up Hunk. Shiro's arm lit up and came slashing down on Hunk's shoulder and then a second time on Hunk's leg. He howled in pain and recoiled, which allowed Shiro to twist back up outside of Hunk's grasp.
Keith sliced his bayard through the air towards Shiro, who caught it with his glowing hand. He slashed at Shiro again, each time yelling a word.
"Where. Is. The. Real. Shiro?"
Shiro's hand stopped him each time. He stayed silent, focusing on the fight.
Allura rushed to Hunk to help him stand. "Coran! Go after Lotor!" Allura yelled. Coran ran through the door, where the Prince had fled through a moment before.
One of Allura's arms was supporting Hunk, with the other she pulled out her own bayard, which transformed into a staff. She swiped with it through the air at Shiro's legs.
He flipped backward, away from all of the paladins and into the wall. He pushed off of it with all his might and used the force to tackle Keith.
Keith's head hit the ground hard. His bayard was knocked out of his grip by the force of the landing. He kicked at Shiro, but it didn't matter. Shiro was already rolling off of him, letting the momentum carry him toward the door on the other side of the room.
Shiro ran forward.
The table smashed into Henesy and Iverson with enough force to knock Henesy over and wind the Commander. With the table leg in Lance's grasp he took a swing at Iverson's head.
Iverson managed to duck down just in time, wrenching his body out from under the table. He went for his hip.
Lance knew he would be carrying a blaster, and took another swing at Iverson's hand. This time the pipe connected.
Lance all of a sudden understood how Keith must feel. A sword was a powerful weapon, and there was something immensely satisfying about striking down your opponent that you'd never get from a blaster.
Iverson yowled in pain.
Lance launched himself at Iverson. He grabbed towards the blaster with his left hand and kicked out the back of Iverson's knees at the same time.
They both fell to the floor, their limbs tangled into each other. Lance wrenched his hand free, holding tight to the blaster.
From upside down on the ground he took aim at one of the guardsmen by the door. They were both scrambling for their weapons. Lance took several shots at one of their legs. Lance stopped as soon as one of the blasts connected and the guard closest to the door collapsed against it.
Iverson, tried to grab for the blaster in Lance's hand. Lance was too close to use the pipe, so instead he pulled his right arm back and drilled his elbow, hard into Iverson's nose.
Iverson yelled in pain again. This time falling to Lance's side. It gave Lance the clearance to scramble up and start running forward.
The second guard had his blaster ready and took several shots at Lance's chest. He ducked, used his momentum to slide across the floor, and smacked the pipe into the guards wrist as hard as he could. He heard a crack, and the guard dropped his weapon.
The guard by the door was still scrambling with his own weapon, clearly in pain from the blast to his leg. Lance used the pole this time to smack the guards gun, so that he wouldn't hurt him any more than he already had. The gun went flying into the hallway and Lance took off after it.
Now free of the room, he had to find his way back out to the desert. He hoped he'd paid enough attention.
Lance heard loud footsteps coming from the adjacent hallway.
Time to run.
Shiro's was almost to the door, when blasts shot out.
In the chaos Hunk had managed to grab his bayard. Still being supported by Allura, he looked to be in incredible pain. The effort of holding up his blaster was clearly wrenching his already damaged shoulder. Who knew how much damage it would cause.
He shot at Shiro who was forced to dodge out of the way of the door. Keith sprang into action once again, rolling up from the floor. He sprinted at Shiro, without his weapon focusing on nothing but tackling him.
He barreled into Shiro's body. He was already off balance from having to dodge so suddenly and fell over easily.
Shiro's glowing hand tried to come down like it had before with Hunk, but Keith was prepared for it this time. He grabbed Shiro's wrist, and threw all of his remaining weight into it.
It was just enough to prevent Shiro from doing any damage. Shiro's free hand punched at Keith's face. Keith barely managed to duck his head before the fist connected.
It hurt, but Keith focused on holding the free hand away from his body and on keeping Shiro pinned.
"Allura! Help!" Keith gasped, through blows.
Allura helped Hunk lean against the wall, before sprinting over and swinging her staff at Shiro's head. The staff spun through the air, before Allura connected it tightly to her hip at the last moment, so that her entire weight would be in the blow.
Shiro went limp.
Keith's grip relaxed on Shiro's wrist He rolled off to the side, panting. They each took their time, gasping for breath before Allura spoke.
"We've got to get all three of you to the med bay. I don't like the look of your shoulder, Hunk." She gestured at Hunks arm.
She helped Hunk stand, and supported as much of his weight as she could.
"Keith, do you think you can get Shiro by yourself?" Allura asked.
"I'll have to try." Keith lifted one of Shiro's arms over his shoulder and pushed hard through his thighs to stand up. He took a few steps forward, dragging Shiro's body along with him. It would be hard work, but he could do it. Keith nodded at Allura.
Slowly they made their way up to the med bay.
Once there Allura set up a healing pod for Hunk and another one for Shiro. Keith tossed Shiro's body unceremoniously into the respective pod.
Hunk gingerly stepped into his, and relaxed as soon as the door closed.
"Keith, there's something I'm worried about." Allura said.
"I know." Keith knew he needed a healing pod too, but it could wait a bit longer. "We've got to go find the others."
Lance sprinted through the hallways listening for the sounds of voices, feet, anything that would clue him in on more guards.
He ducked through doorways trying to just remember how to get back to the part of the Garrison that was familiar to him. Lance came to a hallway that was completely foreign.
"Crap!" Lance half yelled it, half whispered. He'd taken a wrong turn somewhere.
He ran back the direction he came. Guards were shuffling through the adjacent hallway. Lance ducked through a doorway, as silently as he could.
Feet went shuffling past the door. From the sound it had to be at least four guards. Even if they weren't as experienced of fighters as the Galra, four was more than Lance was sure he could take by himself.
He waited for a moment, while the footsteps receded before ducking back out through the door. The soldiers probably knew where they were going even if Lance didn't.
Lance ran in the direction they were headed, hoping that he was right.
It was a challenge to be far enough back from the soldiers that they wouldn't hear him, but close enough that he could still follow their noise. They moved fast, and it was difficult for Lance to keep up silently.
Suddenly he turned the corridor and saw students milling about. He was back to the main part of the campus!
He could see the guards in the distance, running around, asking students questions.
"Uh oh." Lance ducked into a room before he could be spotted. He needed a change of clothes. Fast.
Some poor unsuspecting student was about to have their uniform stolen. Lance felt bad that he couldn't stay and reminisce about the good times he'd had with Hunk in one of these rooms. He shuffled through the closet praying one of these kids was a similar size.
He found a jacket that fit decently around his arms, but the pants were a couple inches too short. It would have to do. There was no time to go searching through other students' rooms.
He saw a backpack next to one of the desks. Emptying it onto the floor, Lance tossed his suit inside and zipped it back up. He looked at the books on the floor and winced. Pidge would have killed him for treating books that way.
There wasn't time to fix it though. He attached the blaster to his leg and grabbed the metal table leg. He took a breath before racing out of the hall.
They nodded at each other and took off racing down the halls, calling for their friend's names. They retraced the steps from the common room, to where they last saw Coran.
A groan came from a nearby hallway. Coran was lying on the floor, clearly in pain.
"Oh thank goodness you're alright!" Allura gasped, already helping him up.
"No!" Coran yelled. "Go after Lotor! He's gone to the hangar!"
That was all it took to send Keith off running again. "I'll go, you stay and help Coran!"
He raced around the castle, listening for any sound. As he got closer he heard clunking and whirring. It was the sound of a ship undocking.
"No!" Keith yelled, looking out the window. He saw the ship go flying past. Keith's steps hurried even faster toward the hangar. If he could just get there in time maybe he could follow Lotor and get him somehow.
As he approached though, his blood went cold. He heard cries of pain. Keith slid through the door to the sight of Matt, lying on the ground unconscious and Pidge distressed over their brother and a clearly broken leg.
"Pidge!" Keith yelled.
"Keith! Help us!"
Finding Lotor would have to wait.
It was chaos. Alarms were blaring overhead. Students were running around. Lance tried to look as busy as they were. He ducked his head so that people wouldn't be able to look at his face.
He walked as fast as he thought was reasonable toward the exit.
"Over there!" Someone shouted.
Lance turned around expectantly, but the student was pointing in some other direction.
He shuffled his feet faster.
As soon as he made it to a quiet hallway, he took off running as fast as he could. He looked through the window to see guards milling about outside.
They were blocking the entrances. Lance would have to scale the walls without being seen.
What I wouldn't give for Pidge's cloaking technology right now.
He knew where to go though. There was a spot between the landing strips and the main road that was a blind spot for the guard tower. He'd snuck through there hundreds of times.
It was a lot more nerve wracking this time. When he was a student at the Garrison no one had actively been trying to capture him when he snuck out. Now he'd be in much more trouble if he got caught.
He waited behind a parked car for the patrolling guard to go past.
He rushed to the blind spot. The wall was old and had plenty of cracks for handholds. It was no more difficult for Lance than climbing the tree outside his parent's house.
It would only take him a few seconds to scale it and jump down the other side.
One. He pulled himself up bracing himself on the cool stone.
Two. Another foothold that would get him most of the way up.
Three. He listened for any alert that he'd been spotted as he grabbed another handhold.
Four. He clutched the top of the wall.
Five. He pulled himself up on top.
Six. He flung himself off, bracing for the impact of the ground.
Lance rolled on his shoulder, allowing the momentum to carry him so that he wouldn't hurt himself.
Standing up and brushing himself off, Lance looked around. The desert was a big, empty place. He was pretty sure his spaceship was somewhere in the general vicinity.
"Okay, now where the hell did I park my invisible jet?"
A/N: Makes a nod to wonder woman.
Have an extra long chapter since it's later than usual. Hope you enjoyed it.
The next one's probably a long one too, hopefully I'll see you tomorrow, if not you can expect it on Friday!
EDIT: Sorry, the chapter's going to be late, I've been working on it, but haven't been feeling well and don't think I'll finish it tonight. I'll try to get it up Saturday for everyone!
