Lance
Voltron came with many challenges, one of them being the mind meld. It's hard to let strangers into your head. Personally I have no trouble with it, I've been an open book all my life. However, I know it's hard for others and I like to respect their privacy. Apparently the Alteans don't think the same way. The first time we did the activity didn't go so well.
It was right after we formed Voltron for the first time but couldn't do it again. Coran said that it would help and we all trusted him. I guess he did tell us it would help with becoming one and used a bunch of Altean words that made no sense. Hardly an explanation at all.
The helmet bans hummed as they started to work their magic. At first I couldn't tell what was happening, but then the voices came. It was almost as if someone was in my head with me. I could hear the others talking in my head. There was Pidge, Hunk, and Shiro all thinking things along the lines of: what's going on how can I hear the others? Keith, however, was thinking, "There is no way we just got four new Alters."
In reply there was an unfamiliar female voice, "Keith, that's not coming from us. Yet another shouted, "That's the other paladins!"
Then another male voice shouted, "Take the helmet off! It's not safe!"
Immediately Keith threw off the headset shouting, "What the fuck did that thing do?!"
Shiro jumped up and ran to him before anyone one could get a word in. "Keith?! Are you okay?"
Keith waved him off, "Just a really bad headache."
"We're done with this." Shiro demanded as he helped Keith to his room. The rest of us were left wondering what just happened.
In morning Keith came to the breakfast table with wearing his red paladin robe, slippers, and a pip in his step. He cheerfully sat down next to me, smiling. Keith, smiling. Needless to say we were all looking at him as if he had grown a second head.
He looked up from his food, finally noticing all our staring. "What?" He asked with a smile pulling on his lips. We stared at him for awhile longer, in which Keith's smile just kept growing. Finally Shiro decided to break the silence.
"Can I talk to you alone for a second?" He asked Keith.
Keith rolled his eyes, "Relax Shiro, we talked it over and agreed we better tell everyone. We decided that it's kinda important information to know and that with the whole mind meld thing Voltron does, there's no point in hiding it." Keith then looked off, as if preoccupied. "We want everyone to find out on our terms." Shiro nodded, relaxing back into his seat.
I looked around to see everyone as confused as me. Someone had to ask and I guess that someone was me. "What the quiznack you guys talking about? What's going on?"
Keith gigged, fist pumping the air. "Yes! I knew you'd be the first to crack. Keith thought it would be Hunk or Pidge, but I knew it."
"What do you mean Keith thought? Your Keith." Hunk asked hesitantly.
Not-Keith gave a sympathetic smile, "My name's Kate. It's nice to finally officially meet all of you."
"I'm still confused." I said.
Kate? Bit her lip. "Keith has Dissociative Identity Disorder or formerly known as Multiple Identity Disorder. The short version is that there are multiple people called alters, living in this one body. We have different names, genders, ages, races, sexualities, likes, and dislikes. The long version is too sciencey and boring for me to explain so you can wait for Keith or Adam to hear it."
"So your not Keith?" Allura asked.
Kate giggled again, "Do you think Keith would ever wear this out of the room if he had the choice?"
I shrugged, "He might."
"Yeah right, over his dead body." Kate laughed.
"So should we introduce ourselves?" Hunk asked.
"That's sweet of you to ask but it's not necessary for me. I was watching and even came out for a little when we meet you all, so I know all of your names."
"Excuse me," Coran asked. "but I'm unsure how this works. Is it like Voltron? Do you all control part of the body?"
"I wouldn't know but…." Kate looked off for a moment, "Keith says kinda. Like the mind connection thing is similar, but not exactly the same. Also only one person controls the body at a time. You could look at it like piloting the lions. The person your talking to (me) is the one piloting. The people in the cockpit are aware of what's going on and I can talk to. The people in the back of the lion are the alters that aren't aware of anything going on and are in the inner world. Does that make sense?"
Everyone nodded and Pidge asked, "So you guys switch who's in control? How do you decide when it's another's turn?"
"We don't get to choose who's in control. That's why I'm telling you and not Keith. I just happened to be the one to wake up in the body."
"Is Keith near the front at least?" Shiro asked.
Kate seemed to think about it, "Um, he was but… Adam says he went to help with the Littles. They missed him."
"Littles?" I asked.
Kate smiled a nodded, "They're child Alters. Which is one of the reasons you guys need to know about our DID. If a Little comes out they are going to act like a child. You'll need to treat them like you would any other child." She looked us all in the eye. "Look, I know we haven't been in space long but Keith seems to trust you all with his life, so we're trusting you guys. Promise us, you'll take care of the Littles when they're out." Instantly everyone answered in assurance.
"We promise."
"Of course."
"You have my word."
"You can count on us, number 4.1,"
"Dude, did you really even have to ask."
"We'll watch them, Kate."
She smiled, "Thanks guys, you have no idea how much that means to us."
We were all quiet until Hunk thought of an important question. "Wait can all the alters pilot Red?"
Kate bit her lip, "Yeah, so that's another reason why this is such important information to know. We don't know. Not everyone has tried. So far Keith's the only one who's been out when we need Voltron."
"So we could be in need of Voltron and not have a red paladin?" Allura clarified.
Kate guilty nodded.
"How helpful." Allura said sarcastically.
"Wait, have you guys been out before today? Like at all yesterday?" I asked.
"We actually switched a few times. You just didn't notice because alters are really good at pretending to be Keith."
"Really? How many times?"
"Um," Kate looked up in thought. "It's kinda hard to keep track but I think at least four different alters came out, including me. "
"What?! And we didn't notice! We're horrible friends!" I shouted feeling awful.
Kate giggles, "Relax Lance, your not suppose to know. Plus we've only been friends for three weeks; you wouldn't know what hints to look for."
"Keith is also more of an observer so really all alters would have to do would be quiet and watch." Pidge explained.
Kate nodded, "Exactly, no need to be upset."
Shiro stepped up to Kate and put his hand on her shoulder, "I'm proud of you guys. It was very brave of you all to come out like this to everyone."
Kate blushed, "Thanks Shiro. We knew you wouldn't let anything bad happen so it wasn't that hard."
"Still, it took a lot of courage." He gave her shoulder a squeeze. "I think this will be good for you guys. You'll finally have more people to be yourself with, which will be healthy for you."