Chapter 2: A Long Way From Home

Nico blinked slowly as he began to regain consciousness. His muscles ached as though Mrs O'Leary had sat on him. His throat was dry. He felt his stomach silently rumble to itself. As he cleared his blurry vision, Nico went to rub his lightly throbbing forehead with his hand; he could feel a headache threatening to take hold.

As he tried to do so, however, he found that his hand was tied down to something. He looked down at his hand for a moment in confusion, staring at the strange cord that had been tied around his wrist which was attaching him to what seemed to be the armrest of a high-backed chair. Nico's head cleared, and his look of confusion changed to one of resignation; he'd passed out in enemy territory again, but this time he had been captured. He grimaced as he lightly tugged on his bonds, finding his feet were also tightly bound together, and he was suddenly spun around, someone's face appearing inches in front of his own.

Nico reared his head back as far as he could, but unfortunately, the chair's headrest was in the way and he only managed to get far back enough from his assailant to stop his eyes from crossing; his eyes widened and he gritted his teeth at this sudden intrusion. The boy in front of him spoke:

"So, Keith-but-not-Keith, who are you?" Lance interrogated, his hands on his hips as he bent at the waist to get into the other boy's face.

Once Nico got over the fact that this boy was invading his personal space to the extreme, he thought about what he should do to answer him. From the corner of his eye, he saw the rest of the inhabitants of this place gathered behind the boy, arms crossed.

The only way I'm going to get any answers from them is if I cooperate… Once I have what I need I'll escape again. They won't get the better of me this time, not if I buy enough time to recover from our previous fight.

His eyes set in grim determination, Nico stared the boy in the eyes as he answered him: "Nico."

Lance blinked in surprise, and raised a brow as he decided to try and questioned him further, "And why are you here, Nico?"

I wish I knew that myself, He thought. "I don't know." He replied monotonously.

Lances eyes narrowed and he frowned, "Is it for the Lions?"

Silence.

"For Voltron?"

Nothing.

Lance gritted his teeth as he gestured with his hands and said, "Do. You. Work. For. The. Galra?"

"… The who?" Nico asked as he just blinked at Lance repeatedly.

Lance threw his head back and groaned, his arms going limp at his sides as he turned and returned to the others, giving up on his interrogation which was clearly going nowhere fast.

"Stop playing innocent and naïve." Keith said, his arms crossed and his tone hostile. "It won't work."

Nico looked at him and his eyes narrowed. Teeth gritted he said, "But I'm telling you, I really don't know what you're going on about or why I'm here!"

"Then tell us how you got here." Shiro countered.

"I don't know." Nico said vehemently. It wasn't exactly the truth; he knew he'd gotten here via shadow travel, but he wasn't just going to go right ahead and explain that one to them without knowing more about them first. And it wasn't exactly a lie either; he hadn't come to wherever this was on purpose, and he knew the Fates had somehow had a hand in getting him here, and he still didn't know why they had brought him here. The fact he had crash-landed in their base had been completely out of his hands.

"You 'don't know'?" Pidge said incredulously.

"No."

They all groaned in annoyance, frowns littering their faces at this confusing and irritating conversation. How could he not know who the Galra are if he was in this galaxy? Or never heard of Voltron? Had he been living under a rock for centuries?

"Just tell me where I am." Nico continued. He refused to believe they were actually in space; it had just been a crazy tactic to shock him and gain the upper hand in battle, that was all. "Then I'll be gone for good."

They all looked a little confused at that statement, so Allura stepped forward, taking the lead:

"You could have easily hurt one of my Paladins. You're clearly a trained warrior. Yet you deny to know of even the existence of the Galra and their Empire, and you say you don't even know where you are or how you got here. Why should we answer your questions if you are unwilling to answer ours?"

"Because if you do you can forget I was ever here and those questions wont matter anymore." Nico said.

"Is that a threat?" Keith sneered, his muscles tensing.

"No," Nico replied, "It just means I'll be able to leave wherever this is. I never meant to come here and I didn't even know it existed and I still don't know what it is." He ranted, getting tired of all these questions and suspicions.

"So…" Allura said a little warily, "You really are lost?" Deciding to believe his desperate ranting for now, Allura approached the boy, crouching down so that she was level with him. There are very few places left in the universe who do not know of the Galra Empire… perhaps… She thought before continuing inquisitively. "Tell me, are you human?"

Nico studied the woman's face. He recalled the others calling her a 'princess' before. He looked at her elfish ears and the strange triangular markings beneath her eyes. The man with the moustache that had chased him also had these features; They don't look like any monsters I've seen or heard of… He thought, Not Greek nor Roman. Besides, if they were monsters they would've killed me by now, and they'd be able to tell I'm a demi-god.

He looked at her a little warily. After his disappearing act the other day, he wouldn't be able to lie about having very non-human powers, so eventually, he answered her: "Half. But you and moustache man clearly aren't."

Allura stood as a sad look fell across her face, "You would be correct. Coran and I are the last of our kind… we are Alteans." She quickly moved on however, forcing a smile onto her face as she said, "I am Princess Allura and… moustache man over there is Coran." She couldn't help but giggle slightly at the nickname.

"I'm very proud of my moustache! I'll have you know the ability to groom a fine moustache has been passed down my family line for generations-!" Coran said, twiddling his moustache.

Alteans? Nico thought, I've never heard of them before, not even legends… could they be something outside of the Greek and Roman Pantheons? I wish Annabeth were here...

"May I inquire as to what your other half is, Nico?" Allura asked. He only stared at her in silence. "I suppose that could be a sensitive issue… Though I assume you are from Earth then?"

Nico's forehead wrinkled in confusion, "Yeah… But where are we then?"

"Right now, you are aboard the Castle of Lions in System G5H. Very far from your planet Earth in System X9Y." Coran said.

Nico's eyes widened, the ends of his brows dropped, and his mouth slightly agape. He whispered, "What?"

There was no way… He thought, They have no reason to lie to me now, but… its just not possible… Nico didn't understand the way Coran had described their position and the position of Earth, but why would he make something as ridiculous as that up when Nico was tied to this chair?!

Coran's forehead wrinkled in sympathy and pity, "You are a long way from home, my dear boy."

Nico's head slumped forward as he stared at the floor in front of him, his mind going a mile a minute as everyone stood before him in silence; their postures had become more relaxed, their faces less suspicious as Allura had questioned him further.

That cant be right! Nico thought frantically, sure China or Australia, but space… How is that even possible via shadow travel, even with the Fates help?! Just exactly where have they sent me?!

"Prove it!" Nico said; his tone sounded almost as though he were challenging them, but a small amount of franticness still broke through despite his best efforts. "Prove to me that what you say is true!"

The paladins all looked at him with sympathy; even Keith, though some of his suspicion still lingered.

Shiro moved forward, untying his bounds from around his feet and the chair. However, the strange restraints around Nico's wrists snapped together once free of the chair, keeping his hands tied to one another.

"Follow me." Allura said solemnly.

Nico followed behind her, the rest of the group surrounding him on all sides as they made their way through the blue lit halls and through a large set of doors. Nico recognised this room as the place he had first encountered and fought them all, with the large, black windows and oddly large chairs dotted around the room.

Allura went and stood at the centre console, placing her hand on the strange device as she turned around. Suddenly the room was filled with tiny, glowing orbs which circled all around them; Nico saw that some of them had a strange writing beneath them, almost like a label.

"This is the Castleships current location." Allura explained, zooming in for a moment on what looked like a hologram of a spaceship. Nico stared at it for a moment before the strange 'map' zoomed out once more, and Allura made it race across what was probably hundreds of stars and planets, the tiny orbs turning into mere glowing lines.

Lance and Coran looked down, remembering the time just a few days ago when Coran had shown Lance this exact same thing.

"And this…" Allura said, "Is Earths location." Finally, the map focused once more and the blurring lines stopped to reveal the Solar System Nico knew.

He stood there, shocked. The distance wasn't even measurable… It was so large that his brain nearly couldn't process it all. In a daze he mumbled, "What date is it?" A jump like that he was probably out for weeks at least, even with the Fates interference, and maybe even months-

"Well when we left Earth the date was June 12th, 2115…" Lance said, holding his chin as he thought.

"Wait-" Nico said, snapping his head round to face Lance, "Did you say 2115?" Lance nodded, confused. "That's not possible." Nico whispered, eyes wide.

They watched as Nico started to back away, his bound hands gripping the hair over his forehead, his shoulders hunched and body tensed as he began to hysterically mutter to himself, his head slightly shaking from side to side:

"Shadow travel can't take you into the future, its just not possible! I can't have skipped time again, I can't! Not again! A hundred years is just not possible it's not real!" His head snapped up and his hands dropped from his head as he stared at nothing in front of him, "The others. Will they have noticed I'm gone? Would they have searched for me?" He gripped his head and looked down once more. "There wouldn't have been a body to find… nothing to burn… they would've thought I'd just disappeared and died without a single word and left them all behind… Reyna, Will… My life was just getting better why did the fates do this?! WHY?!" The final word ripped from Nico's throat, shadows erupting out from around him; as he had begun to panic the shadows in the room had quickly gathered around him, swirling around his form and nearly consuming him before they rushed outwards in an explosive force at his final cry.

When the paladins had seen the shadows moving in they rushed towards Nico, shouting at him, trying to get him to stop and calm down; but their cries had fallen on deaf ears. When the shadows erupted out from Nico they hit the paladins like a tsunami, slamming into them like a physical entity. As soon as it did, they collapsed, their limbs heavy and bodies limp, unconscious to the world.

Nico's breathing was erratic as he released his grip on his hair, panting for a few moments before his gaze snapped to Allura, limp on the floor next to him. He raced over, gripping the front of her dress with tied hands as he leaned over her, pulling her face closer to his own.

"Tell me how to go back! There must be a way so TELL ME!" He screamed at her, his throat raw and his panicked eyes wide and unblinking. But Allura's head simply lolled back, her own eyes wide and staring at nothing, her mouth hanging slightly open, her breathing faint.

As the silence endured Nico's eyes became a little more focused on what was in front of him; Allura's eyes were blank, her expression full of fear. Tears were beginning to gather at the corner of her eyes, and Nico's face dropped. His face became gaunt as he stared at her, realizing what he must have done. He released her from his grip in shock, her limp, upper body falling the short distance back to the floor with a heavy thump, her eyes never blinking once.

Nico backed away from her, his head frantically turning only to see the rest of group were in the exact same condition, collapsed in heaps on the floor on which they had once stood only moments ago.

Nico's mind drew a blank in his panic, and he ran.

Shiro was the first to startle awake, a lion's roar faintly echoing in the back of his mind as he instantly sat up, gasping for air. He looked around him; the others were also beginning to stir, groaning and holding their heads as they slowly sat up from their skewed positions on the floor.

"Is everybody alright?" Shiro asked urgently, trying to stand to help the others up.

"I think so…" Keith replied, "But what was that?"

"If I had to guess, it probably had something to do with those creepy shadows that exploded from around him." Hunk said, his eyes finally beginning to focus again as he held his head.

"Did anyone else get those weird flashes?" Lance asked, staring at the floor in front of him. "They were like, pictures or… memories?"

"Yeah…" Keith said solemnly, his gaze lowering as well, "Of things we feared, things we've lost."

"No… Not just that…" Lance replied, his brow creasing in thought, "There were flashes of things I've never seen before. Weird things."

"Now that you mention it, there were some things I've never seen before…" Pidge said, "They almost looked like - monsters or… giants?"

"I've never seen something like this…" Allura said, having wiped the tears from her eyes once she'd realised they were there. "Using shadows… incapacitating us all so quickly…"

"I have heard of creatures who can bend light to their will, but shadows…" Coran said distractedly, searching the recesses of his mind for information. "Whatever this 'other half' is, they're certainly not from this galaxy."

"Whatever he is, we must find him again. There are far more questions now than before which need answering." Shiro said, taking the lead, "He's far too unstable to let wander around the Castle, and we don't know how long we were out for. We need to find him fast."

"Right." They replied in unison, everyone now standing once more.

"Allura, Coran, can you find him with the ship's interface again?" Shiro asked.

"Yes," Allura replied, "and with the hand cuffs on he shouldn't have gotten too far."

The two Alteans moved over to the centre console as Pidge spoke:

"If his powers do drain his energy, then he's bound to be even more exhausted than before. That should've slowed him down as well."

As they began the search Allura said with slight worry in her eyes:

"I… I think I remember seeing him after that wave hit us. I have a faint memory of someone shaking me, and I think they were shouting… it sounded like it was so far away though I couldn't tell what they were saying. It must have been Nico…"

After a few moments of silence, it was Hunk who spoke up: "Guys, I think we need to try peace. I remember seeing his face as he left before I lost consciousness and… he looked terrified. He's just a kid, like us. Even with those strange powers."

"We'll give him a chance," Keith said, arms crossed. "But if he hurts us again I don't see peace being an easy option. We still know nothing about him except his name and that he's only half human. And that the date of when we left Earth seemed to make him panic and do this. We need to know why."

Shiro's brow had creased in thought whilst the search had started, and he said, "Allura, check the Black Lions Bay."

"What?!" Everyone gasped, staring at Shiro.

"I think it was the Black Lion who woke me up…" Shiro explained, "I just have a feeling."

Allura quickly entered the commands in the console, and a camera feed of the Black Lions bay appeared before them. There, a small figure in black was edging his way around the Lion, who stared at him with glowing eyes.

Their eyes widened in horror as they all sucked in a breath before racing for the door and rushing towards the Black Lions Bay.

"Well, there goes the peaceful approach." Hunk sighed as he followed behind them.

Nico ran and ran, turning corners blindly as the fear and denial in his mind battled with his thoughts:

There's no point trying to go back. Even if you made the journey here, you don't have enough energy to return. The Fates were the ones that brought you here, and they clearly want you to stay. You couldn't make that jump on your own, so why are you even trying? The voice in his head asked; it was a mixture of realism and desperation, almost pleading him to stop at times. You're in a different time now- how old are we now anyway? - you know that you can't go back in time, you can't return to them, so stop fighting the truth they showed you and start accepting it.

He stumbled through a doorway and saw a bench covered in tools against a nearby wall. He scrambled through them, trying spanners, wrenches, screwdrivers, anything that looked like he might be able to pry these hand restraints off with, but nothing was working. They had taken his sword whilst he'd been passed out and he hadn't the energy to summon it to him now, so these would have to do.

Nico froze. There was something behind him. Something big. And it was growling.

He grabbed the nearest tool and spun around, brandishing the spanner in his tied hands at the threat.

His conflicting thoughts ceased for a moment, his eyes widening at the sight before him; a ginormous, robotic cat stood just metres in front of him, and it stared at him with yellow, glowing eyes.

The Lion took one large, heavy step towards him, its metallic feet clanging against the floor, its head lowering; its footstep reverberated through the ground, and it made Nico's feet ever so slightly lift off of the floor beneath him. He tried to back away, but he just bumped into the bench behind him. The Lion drew closer, and Nico was trapped, the spanner in his hands still extended towards the robotic beast.

The beast stopped right in front of him, its head looking down on him from high above; then it roared in his face, its jaw opening wide and the loud sound reverberating around the room. The force of the wind that came with this roar ripped through Nico's hair and clothes, and he was forced to close his eyes and turn his head away, his face skewing slightly in order to stop his eyes from watering.

When the roar finally ended, Nico waited for a moment, and then tentatively looked back at the beast; why wasn't it attacking him? It just stood over him, staring.

Nico looked at the beast closer, muttering to himself: "Is this the 'lion' they were talking about? A robot?" He decided to try his luck and started slowly waving the spanner in front of the Lion. "Good kitty… Look at the spanner… Now… Fetch!" He threw the spanner as far as he could with his hands bound, but it just clattered uselessly across the floor as the Lion continued to stare at him. "Guess that only works on dogs then," Nico said, his face dropping, "Even the three headed kind…"

The two beings stared at one another in silence. The robot was clearly intelligent, but it held a strange energy about it, like some kind of life force…

After a while of silent staring, Nico decided to try his luck, and he began to edge around the lion towards the door, always facing it with his hands splayed in front of him in a placating manner.

It was at this time that the Paladins arrived at the doorway, yet they paused at the sight. Nico's back was towards them, and he was too focused on the lion to notice their entrance.

"I don't want to hurt you…" Nico said calmly, "I'm just looking for a way out of here… That's all."

The lion turned, following his movement. It then roared in his face once more; the paladins tried to rush forward in panic, not knowing what the black lion would do, but Shiro's extended arm and serious look stopped them from advancing any further. They watched in nervous confusion.

"Okay…" Nico said, turning his face back towards the lion. "Look, I know I- I hurt your friends up there, and I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hurt them! But how would you like it if you woke up in a strange place with no idea how or why you got there and the only people that are around attack you and ask a million questions about things you know nothing about and have never even heard of before in your whole life!" Nico panted as he ranted to the lion, releasing all his pent-up thoughts; the threat of the lion had cleared his head long enough for him to see reason, and begin to discard his panicked thoughts. He then looked down and said resentfully, "I don't even know why I'm trying to get out of here… It's not like I have anything to go back to now anyway, not in this time."

The black lion suddenly sat down and lowered its head to be level with Nico's. He looked at it warily for a few moments; the air around it had changed slightly. Cautiously, Nico reached out a hand towards its 'snout', staring into its large, glowing eyes. Seeing that the lion made no move to attack him, Nico gently stroked the cold metal of the robot's snout.

"Huh," He said, smiling slightly in amazement as they lion dipped its head a little, "You're just like Mrs O'Leary and Cerberus; big and scary on the outside but a big softy within… Percy better have looked after her." He added with a scowl.

The paladins faces dropped at this, yet they couldn't help but feel slightly guilty about how they had attacked him after his rant; if he had been after or even heard about the Lions, he certainly wouldn't be acting around one like he was now.

"How are you doing that?!" Lance exclaimed.

Nico jumped and span around to face the group standing in the doorway, his shocked face quickly turning defensive and holding a light scowl to it as he said, "How long have you been there?"

"Long enough." Shiro said.

"Then why didn't you capture me again?! After what I did to you, you all just stood there?!" Nico said, unable to stop the confusion and disbelief from entering his tone.

Shiro calmly walked over to the lion, standing by Nico's side as he placed his hand on its muzzle; Nico turned slightly to face him also, watching in confusion as Shiro said:

"I am this Lion's Paladin, which means we have a strong bond connecting us to one another. She trusts you, and I believe that means we should too."

Pidge also walked over to them, pushing her glasses up as she said, "Sorry for attacking you like that. We have a lot of enemies, so we immediately saw you as one. We jumped to conclusions."

"We are all truly sorry that we did not believe you when you said you didn't know where you were, but we want to make things right. We want to understand your situation better, so then we might be able to help you return home." Allura said.

"We still want answers," Lance said, "Like how you got here and what all the shadow voodoos about, but…"

"We'll do it peacefully." Hunk said, a small smile on his face. He seemed very pleased. "We trust you, and you trust us. We'll answer each other's questions this time honestly."

"But we won't hesitate to lock you up if you threaten us again." Keith said, eyes narrowing slightly.

"So?" Coran asked, "Do we have a deal, shadow boy?"

They had all moved to stand in a loose semi-circle around Nico as they had each spoken; Nico stared at them all, thinking. Trust wouldn't just be formed over this one conversation; he knew they would still be suspicious of him, watching his every move, but so would he of them, until he learned more. This was the best way he'd get the answers he needed, and if the Fates had wanted him here bad enough to trap him in a different time, he may as well find out why.

"We have a deal." Nico said. He then held his hands out in front of him as he continued, "Though I'd appreciate it you took these restraints off my wrists."

They all hesitated, looking at one another unsurely.

"You said we should trust each other, right?" Nico was reminded of the time he had said something similar to Jason, but when they continued to hesitate, he sighed. He wasn't sure if it would still work in this time, but he tried anyway. "I swear on the River Styx that I will not harm you, nor try to take your lions."

The faintest echo of thunder rumbled around the ship, causing its inhabitants to look around in confusion.

"What was that?" Keith said, his eyes narrowing at Nico in suspicion.

"I've made an oath that I cannot break, or I will face dire consequences." Nico said grimly, "These oaths are not made lightly by my kind; I mean what I said."

They stared at one another for a few long minutes before Shiro stepped forward with a small smile on his face, "Thank you, Nico. We will trust you, as we promised." His wrists were then unbound, and Nico flexed his freed fingers gratefully.

"Why don't we go have some food?" Allura suggested, "It's been a long day so far, and it'll be a long night. There are some questions that need urgent answering."

"Alright!" Hunk said, "I'll go prepare something!" The group started to make their way towards the door, Lance saying:

"All this running around has worked me up an appetite! I could eat a horse!" He groaned.

"Is that some kind of strange Earth beast?" Coran questioned.

Their conversation of Lance explaining to Coran what a horse was faded away as Nico and Shiro stood by the Lion, watching them go. Shiro turned to Nico with a friendly smile on his face:

"I'm Shiro, in case you were wondering." He laughed as he extended his hand to Nico.

Nico knew he had a long way to go till he gained all their trust, and he could see in Shiro's eyes that he hadn't forgotten about the shadows earlier either. But he shook the paladin's hand anyway, saying:

"Nico. Nico di Angelo."

The two then left the hanger together, the lion watching them as they left, its face as emotionless as ever. As the automatic doors closed behind him, Nico looked back at the beast curiously; that lion had saved his bacon, and he couldn't help but wonder why.

A/N: Holy mother of cow... hope you guys are prepared for a long one cus I'm completely overwhelmed by your response! I honestly wasn't expecting this kind of response to my fic AT ALL, but I am so thankful to every single one of you who favourited, followed, and especially to those of you who reviewed. This isn't exactly an uncommon way for Nico crossover fics to start; Nico accidentally shadow travels to the crossover universe, gets captured, gets interrogated ect. But I do have big plans for this fic and I'm excited for where its gonna go.

I AM NOT ABANDONING THIS FIC! So please stop worrying about that, cus I have no intention of doing so even if yes, it takes me a year to update (college left me with no life outside of art). This update would have come yesterday, but I came down with a 24hr stomach bug so was unable to finish writing this chapter. Apologies for it being slightly shorter, I did consider adding some of the next chapter in but as that's a heavy dialogue chapter as well I decided against it and went ahead with updating it now for you! I'm hoping to update this fic a few more times over summer before I leave for uni, but then we shall have to see what happens with updates. Just bear in mind I am not abandoning it, I will let you know if I ever do.

Also, if anyone has any information on quintessence, both the good and bad variety, whether that be stuff you know or have theorized, or links to essays or posts people have made on it, then please let me know in either a message or review, cus that stuff will be vital to me in this fic.

I made up the year after researching when we might be able to reach Pluto, and ik it may seem like Nico accepted it a little quickly, after seeing all this space stuff and everything that was said and has happened, I think I'd panic too.

I would usually thank everyone by name and respond to reviews in this section, but seeing as I got 104 for this chapter, I'd be here for hours and you want this update now lmao. I may need to start replying via message now...

Just know that I treasure every single one of your reviews and have reread all of them at least 6 times, and please keep reviewing because it does motivate me when I actually have the time to write. Though I must say, getting 5 plus reviews in a row which all say "I love it! Please update soon!" or something very similar, it can get a little draining... I WANT to update, but life happens, so it can get a little frustrating to get so many reviews with just that. Don't get me wrong I still love and appreciate your reviews still! But if you just tell me one small thing you enjoyed (or didnt), be it a character interaction, a description, plot point, future musings, whatever it is, it motivates me to write 100x more effectively than just asking for an update... Ik I shouldn't complain, but that is the effect it can have, though in hindsight that is likely a result of my slow updating...

SO PLEASE RANT AT ME I WANT TO HEAR IT ALL.

It makes me overjoyed you like my concept and to know others saw the similarities between Nico and Keith also, that will be something I explore further personality/circumstance wise in the future. To those of you who haven't watched Voltron before, I am amazed your reading this because I could never blindly read a crossover! I'm amazed and thank you!

Silverspirit: Big shout out to you cus your my favourite kind of reviewer! Your theorizing and abundant questions actually made me think about things I hadn't considered in my fic, and as a result, you've made this story all the richer, so thank you! To answer one of your questions, I do not think there will be monsters; they have enough to deal with with Alien races after all, and I see them as just an Earth thing.

Anyhoo, I am behind on voltron by like 4 seasons now... blame college again. So whilst I have seen some spoilers, try not to go too deep into that territory please. Thank you again SO MUCH for all your support, it really blows my mind. So as always, whether you like what you read or not,

PLEASE REVIEW!

See you in the next one,
-Limegreenarcher