Pidge, Hunk, Keith and Shiro couldn't quite believe it when they landed there, in a desert so similar to the one they had left behind on their Earth it was hard to believe the two were different. They hid their ship away in the intricate cave systems that screamed so strongly of their home and the very cave where their lives really began.

They were in the right country now, the USA, where all reports of 'Meteor boy' placed their missing friend. They'd accumulated some money working odd jobs such as repairing people's damaged tech before travelling again. They had enough for food, Earth food, and a payphone if they could find one. They needed to find one. There was a number that they needed to call, one that would bring them to their friend.

They had changed into their Earth clothes in their lions, it wasn't standard but it was fitting, and had, after much deliberation, left Allura and Coran in the castle ship. They just weren't quite human and might be seen as suspicious. So, with some parting words, they left their alien companions to fret and bite their nails and bide their time. They hoped it wouldn't take long.

They walked for about an hour underneath the unrelenting glare of the burning sun and Pidge felt the sunburn consume the back of her neck and her glasses heat. She grit her teeth and said nothing.

Then they saw it; the small, rundown convenience store was almost like a beacon in the endless stretch of barren nothingness that was the landscape around them. Hunk hadn't given Shiro, Pidge and Keith a single moment to object as he grabbed them all by the sleeve and dragged them in. The door squeaked and the man behind the somewhat suspiciously stained counter looked at them with dark, untrusting eyes from beneath a similarly stained red truckers cap but there was food and drink a plenty and they were pretty much gasping for the stuff by that point. As Hunk and Pidge rapidly shovelled packaged, ready to eat food into their arms, Shiro and Keith rushed to the back of the shop where the drinks were. They piled themselves high with cold water bottles, iced coffee and a somewhat strange looking soda they could safely say they did not recognise from their own Earth. They then threw their loot down onto the counter and paid, sad to see their small quantity of hard-earned money diminishing as rapidly as it did.

"Say," Hunk began as he morosely peered into the cheap pink coin purse they had been keeping their money in "you wouldn't happen to know where we could find a payphone around here, would you?"

The man behind the till counted the coins he had been handed before slouching back in his chair and adjusting his hat so his wide, pale face was cast into shadow by its brim.

"I've got one in the back," he said as he gestured a large, hair-covered hand in the general direction of the phone "feel free to use it," his voice was definitely that of a long time smoker, though that was unsurprising considering the packet sticking out of his pocket and the distinctive smell that hovered about him.

A smile befitting of a cherub spread on Hunk's face as he spoke enthusiastic thanks and rushed for the door the man had pointed out. Pidge followed suit while Shiro thanked him politely and Keith kept his mouth firmly shut. The man let out a good natured chuckle as he watched Pidge and Hunk wrestle for the door (quite the futile effort on Pidge's part) and Keith felt the tension in his shoulders lessen minutely but did not neglect to look behind himself periodically.

Pidge pulled the ruined scrap of newspaper from her pocket and, through the abundant water damage, read the number. She punched it in to the wall-mounted phone and waited as the phone on the other side presumably rang. They waited and waited until they were about to give up and call at a later time but then the phone sounded and Pidge pressed the receiver to her ear.

"Mark Roberts speaking," a voice spoke from across the line. Mark sounded tired.

"Ummm, hello," she began unsurely "this is Katie Holt, Hunk Garrett, Keith Kogane and Takashi Shirogane calling you to address a matter concerning the so-called meteor boy,"

"Oh!" and, just like that, the voice became excited and undeniably awake. "It's just a check so that we know we won't be putting the kid in danger before we disclose any information about him, but we need to ask you a simple question. Ideally the question would be a little, well, you know… but what is the real name of meteor boy?"

Hunk responded without missing a beat, speaking loud enough to ensure he was heard "Lance McClain!"

"McClain…" Mark mused for a moment "the kid had forgotten his surname but Lance was certainly there. Okay, so, as much as I hate to tell you this, there is a small issue surrounding returning your friend to you."

"Which is?" Shiro asked as he plucked the phone from Pidge's nimble hand with a mumbled apology.

"We sent him to school but he and a group of other students, three or four I think, as well as the school gym coach went missing. Try as we might, neither myself or the agency I work for has had any luck in locating him." while he was clear, concise and to the point, he sounded upset. The fatigue was crawling through his throat once again and he punctuated his explanation with a barely stifled yawn.

"No!" their entire group chorused, a conglomerate of disappointment, sadness and frustration filling the small, dusty room.

"We were so close!" Hunk protested as he took his turn to hold the phone.

"Would it be possible for us to meet in person for further discussion?"

"Yes, I suppose it would,"

"Great! We'll need to organise that now because we don't have any personal phones you could use to contact us…"

He sighed "Got it,"

So, while Lance was still missing and they were still aching to get him back, they had gotten somewhere.

The night came and went and they slept beneath its open skies that stretched on for an infinity that the landscape could not hope to disrupt. A small town was nestled into the landscape almost directly beside them and beyond it lay the city they had to reach by noon. In the darkness the lights of the city glistened like the stars above.

Hunk would attest that those constellations were not the same as the ones he saw from his own back garden or the roof of the garrison but he would also admit they made him feel at home. He had come so strikingly close to forgetting what it was like to stargaze that the experience brought back the warm winds of nighttime at home, the soft floral of his mother's perfume, the sweetness of his cookies.

They woke up early as the sun shone above them and began to sear at their eyes before burning their skin. Shiro rose with a yawn as Keith helped himself to a small breakfast while Pidge and Hunk checked their inventory before they left.

They were at the city by noon as planned. However, they had to catch a train to New York and only had about half an hour to do so. Perhaps that shouldn't have been too great of a challenge but they had little to no idea of where the station was.

Eventually they found someone who knew where it was and was able to give directions that were concise enough to guide them to their destination with few further complications. They paid for their ticket and watched even more of their money disappear. They jumped onto their train the moment before the doors closed and quickly moved to the last of the empty seats.

Pidge ended up next to Hunk with Keith and Shiro on the other side of the carriage. She was silently clenching her teeth as she looked at the child's ticket in her hand. A child's ticket. For a 15 year old. The age cut-off was 11! She wasn't that short (or at least she hoped so…).

Hunk shuffled with mild levels of discomfort as he felt his stomach rumble but was too intimidated by the furious waves radiating off of Pidge to request the bag containing the snacks.

She fizzled out after 10 minutes and he didn't even consider thinking it was a stupid thing to be intimidated by her. Sure, she was tiny and sure, she was young, but she was dangerous and he was sure he could get some of the galra to testify (assuming they didn't try to kill him first). A moment later he was munching happily on a packet of salt and vinegar crisps as Pidge gulped down some of the weird soda. She chucked another packet of crisps at the back of Keith's head and watched the confusion flood his face before he shook his head and tore open the bag. She giggled.

When they reached New York Shiro had to shake Keith awake. He had, at some point, fallen asleep with his head lulling against the dirty window, the back of his hair pushed up in such a way Shiro was sure he'd struggle to get it to lay flat again before they met with Mark.

They walked into the coffee shop near the station a fair ten minutes earlier than planned and ordered their drinks. Pidge and Keith went for black coffee with sugar while Hunk got an iced coffee and Shiro black tea. He passed the money across the counter and took a sip of the tea. It was better on their Earth but it would do.

They found a table in the back of the almost empty shop, out of the range of sight and, hopefully, hearing of the door and the woman behind the counter so they could talk without concern.

As promised, ten minutes later a man of average height with dark hair and bags beneath his eyes dressed in a navy blue business suit walked in. He made a beeline to them and, in a professional tone, asked "Katie Holt, Hunk Garrett, Keith Kogane, Takashi Shirogane?"

"Mark Roberts?" Shiro responded.

"That's me," he smiled.

"Nice to meet you," Shiro returned the reserved smile and introduced their group properly.

"You know," Mark began a moment later, after he had bought his own drink "you are the first people that have seriously contacted me about Lance. I had honestly given up. I'm really sorry about the fact that he went missing, I hope you might be willing to help us find him?"

"Absolutely," Pidge nodded "we've been looking for him for a while and we definitely aren't about to give up!"

"That's nice of you. It's nice seeing his friends. He's a nice boy,"

Hunk really appreciated the lack of the word "was". He knew his best friend would be fine but he also knew he'd probably managed to get himself caught up in some of the crazy going-ons of this world. It seemed like something he would do.

"So," Mark leant his elbows on the table and they were all desperate to listen 'What can you tell me about Lance? There are a few government forms we need to fill out and you guys seem like our best opportunity so far to get the information we need."

"Okay." Shiro responded "What do you need to know?" he tried to hide the dread he was feeling towards one of the questions he knew was going to come up. Sure enough, it was the first one.

"What is his date of birth?"

"Ummm…" Shiro was forced to mumble as Pidge thought as fast as she could.

"I'm not good with years," she premised with a feigned apology "but he's 17 and his birthday is the 28th of July."

Mark nodded "Thank you - surname?"

"McClain," Hunk said.

Another nod "Place of birth?"

"Varadero, Cuba,"

They ran through a series of similar questions until Mark put down his pen and returned the form to his bag.

"Thank you all again. Before we discuss the matter of actually finding Lance there's a matter of personal curiosity I wonder if you'd be willing to answer for me?"

"Okay," Shiro agreed with no lack of apprehension. They had a lot to hide.

"Another thanks. It's just, well… Lance stayed with me for awhile," Keith nodded, hoping the following sentence wouldn't reveal things they would rather weren't known by a planet that knew nothing of the mysteries and dangers of the light years beyond their own solar system.

Mark continued "He had a somewhat disturbing habit - he would talk on his sleep but he seemed scared or worried," and then, all at once, all of the present Paladins felt their hearts fall to their feet.

"He said all of your names except Katie's as well as a few more unusual things. Do any of you know what Voltron, coloured lions, Alteans, Allura, Coran, Galra and Pidge mean?"

"Well, Pidge is Katie but none of the others," Hunk dismissed, knowing full well that Mark could see through his lie.

"Hmmm," Mark looked him dead in the before moving onto Pidge then Keith and ending on Shiro "I'd like to invite you back to mine for further discussion," before any of them could answer he gave them a warning "And I fear I have to remind you that there are no circumstances under which lying to a government official is acceptable."

Hunk gulped.

A/N

Hello. I know this is late but school is finally out so I have summer to hopefully focus a bit more on the things I like to do, such as writing. I want everyone to know that I promise I do read and appreciate every review but I can't respond because I still don't have a computer. Therefore, if you have any things for me to change in a new chapter please tell me as soon after it goes up as possible (because I have a bit of an issue with finding old documents). Also, I'm really excited about season 7, especially after finding out about Adam (we LGBTQ people are suckers for representation) but I don't think I'm going to put any Shallura in this for that reason. I will, however, readily be introducing a little bit of Klance but I will also warn that I, personally, have some complicated, not necessarily positive thoughts about romance and love so I'm not confident in my ability to write it. Also, finally, I have a question for everyone reading this. Would you mind if I raised the rating to T? There's not a big thing behind it, I'm just a British teenager who swears too much surrounded other British teenagers who swear too much so it seems unrealistic to me to have teenagers in some of these situations who aren't swearing at all (though I suppose I could use some of the things that one specific friend of mine that doesn't swear uses as alternatives, including, and I quote, "Pooholes"). Language and, possibly, violence are the only things that will change and they won't unless most people are okay with that change.As always, thank you for all kinds of response to this story and constructive criticism is always welcome.

All the best,

We'reAllABitOdd