When Lance was captured by the Galra, it hadn't been some grand battle. It wasn't a great, world-ending fight. Hell, it had barely been anything but a routine attack for Voltron.

Except for one tiny ship.

One itsy-bitsy, massive ship.

It had seemed odd for such a big ship to have so many guardships. After all, a ship that big must be filled with weapons. It should be able to take care of itself. And sure, it had seemed odd that some of the surrounding battleships were docking on the central ship. And that this one ship was almost half the size of Zarkon's Main Command.

But Allura kept pushing. This race had wiped out her home, her family, so "Who cares about their docking patterns, Lance! We're going in!"

And they had gone in anyways. Hunk and Keith stayed in their lions for backup and distractions. And Lance, Pidge and Shiro boarded the base from the Green Lion.

"A ship this size is guaranteed to have prisoner information. I just know it, Pidge." Shiro had seemed confident enough, and Pidge was desperate enough to get past the encryptions in the Command Room.

But Lance... Lance wasn't sure.

Call him superstitious, but when he had a bad feeling, it was one of three things.

One, he did something bad and his mother found out.

Two, the health rating on the food truck down the street really was that old.

Or three,

God was trying to tell him something, and he needed to listen.

Apparently the sound of cheering crowds was the message. It almost sounded like...

"Guys, I found the security tapes," Pidge spoke up.

It sounded like...

"The Arena."

Shiro's voice cut through the air as they stared at the footage playing on Pidge's screen.

"Shiro.."

"I'm fine, Lance,"

"Shiro, what if they're here? This is where you were, what if they're still here?"

"Katie, it's iffy at best. We're not prepared for an operation this size."

"But we have to find-!"

"Guys, have you gotten the download yet? What's the timeline?" Keith's voice through the comms cut Pidge's argument off.

"We've hit a snag with the ship's identity. It's.. This ship is.." Shiro struggled, and Lance could see him physically holding the panic back.

"This ship is the Gladiator Arena where Shiro was held." Various curses whispered through the comms, along with a few 'Is Shiro alright?'s thrown in for good measure.

"We're all fine for now, but we're at a crossroads for now. Allura, what's the plan?"

"I- I don't know." She paused and the line crackled a bit, "There must be dozens of prisoners on that ship, but we can't- we don't have the supplies to do anything right now."

"We should leave. We can come back later."

"Or not at all, maybe just not fight for once? Save our energy, go out for dinner instead?"

"We have to stay! What if my family's here?!"

"Even Voltron can't fight that many, we should leave for now."

"Shiro, we can't just leave others to suffer the same fate you did."

"I know, Keith but we-"

"Looks like the decision's been made for you! We've been found!" Lance yelled as he pulled up his shield and bayard.

"Just one second, I've almost got the files."

"No time, Pidgeon. We gotta go!"

"Just give me thirty seconds. I can do this."

Lance shot down another sentry coming up behind Shiro.

"Hurry Pidge, we don't have thirty seconds!"

"Almost... Almost... aaand I've got it!

Shiro sliced through two of the sentries then spun to grab Pidge and yank her away from the console. The three burst down the hall towards the hangers, Lance clearing the way.

"Keith, Hunk, be ready to get inside the Caste quickly once Green's landed!"

"No argument here, Shiro! But move fast, there's almost too many for just two lions."

"Shiro, we've got a whole group of sentries coming for us!"

"I'll get 'em!" Lance folded around to be behind Shiro and Pidge, shooting down the sentries following them.

"And as much of a tactical advantage as this is, I can run on my own, Shiro."

"Sorry, Pidge." Shiro dropped her from his shoulder in a running stop before they picked up speed again. They passed a fork in the hall, spotting another squadron of sentries coming down the other end.

"Lance, can you take care of them?"

"No problem, you guys get to Green, I'm right behind you."

He was in fact not right behind them.

He wasn't right behind them when they got into the Green lion.

He still wasn't right behind them when the Green Lion was hovering in open space just outside the ship, still in camo.

And he definitely wasn't right behind them when the Arena ship suddenly wormholed a hundred galaxies away.