Among the Stars: Part Two - Far From Home

by The Lord of Chaos

The transition from Cadet to Paladin is rough and no one (except Lance) feels ready for the coming war. Yet fate's brought them together and failure's not really an option when none of them ever want the Galra to ever get around to taking over the Earth. Unfortunately, they've all got their own baggage to work through if they want to be able to become the saviors of the galaxy.

2. Memory of Light

A/N: The title of this chapter comes from the final book of the Wheel of Time series. Just a bit of a warning, there's mentions of religion in this chapter. I wasn't really planning on going there, but it just didn't seem realistic for a character I'd established as growing up religious to not have his religious perspective affected by everything going on.

---

Memory of Light

Lance had figured that if everything on the tablet had been translated into Spanish for him that it probably had some sort of native translation program, and if it had that, along with the camera in the corner, then it probably had the same point and translate features that his phone did back on Earth. This was nice, since he was able to figure out what the various products in the bathroom were. He probably shouldn't have assumed that whatever was good for an alien would be good for him, but it had been a long day and he wasn't going to fight a war without skincare. He rubbed a bit of moisturizer onto the inside of his wrist and waited to see if anything started burning. It was fine. The soap also seemed to be safe so he washed his face and moisturized before saying his prayers and getting into bed.

Generally speaking, daydreaming was most often the cause of Lance missing actual dreaming, and that first night on the ship was no exception. After fantasizing for a while about the cool awesome things he was going to do as a Paladin who fought in space battles and wooed alien princesses, Lance checked his watch to find that he'd been lying in bed for over an hour. It had been fun, but he did actually need to sleep. Sitting up in bed he crossed his legs and tried some deep breathing and some mindfulness.

Eventually, he must have fallen asleep, because he found himself dreaming about an angry bird that kept swooping at him and squawking really loud. The dream seemed to go on forever until he woke up and realized that there was an alarm going. His first thought was that there was an evacuation drill at the Garrison, but then Princess Allura's voice came in over the speakers, talking about being under attack.

Lance shot out of his bed. The lights seemed to have already come on with the alarm.

"Hurry Paladins, we can't take much more," Princess Allura said.

Lance found his pants and started hopping around to put them on.

"Oh no!" Coran's voice now. "The princess is dead, her head came right off."

Lance's foot caught on the hem and he lost his balance. Falling forward face first onto his desk, one might have thought that his hands would have shot up to protect his face, but instead they had decided to keep gripping his pants.

"Oh, if only you had been quicker!" Coran continued. "Now we're all doomed."

Lance rolled his eyes. He'd gotten the impression that Coran thought them a bit primitive, but the guy wasn't even trying to trick them properly. Maybe Alteans lacked deception skills.

By the time he got to the hangar, Princess Allura was already yelling at the others, with Shiro, the only one in his Paladin armor beside her.

"And where have you been?" She asked him. The cross look she gave him would have probably made him fidget if he wasn't already peeved about the wakeup.

"After your head fell off I thought I might as well stop my nosebleed," Lance said, going for nonchalant.

"What happened to you? Did you and Keith get into a fight?" Hunk asked.

Gyeong gave an incredulous 'No!' as Lance said indignantly, "Well if we did, I wouldn't be the one with the bloody nose."

"Enough," Shiro said. "Are you hurt?"

"No," Lance said. He was not telling anyone that he'd slammed his face against his desk, and he was hoping they'd just chalk it up to having just come from the dry dry desert. He was worried there would be swelling later though.

"Alright," Shiro said. "All four of you. We're going to turn the alarm back on, and you're going to run to the armory, get into your armor and back to your lions as fast as you can."

Hunk groaned.

"Should Gyeong be running while he's recovering from malnutrition?" Lance asked.

"I don't have malnutrition," Gyeong said.

"If he wasn't wearing that jacket, you'd be able to see his ribs," Lance said.

"Stay out of it," Gyeong ground out.

"Keith?" Shiro said, motioning for Gyeong to come over.

Red faced, Gyeong walked over towards Shiro, who gave him an appraising look.

"Punch a few new holes in that belt?" Shiro asked quietly.

"You're the one who was a prisoner," Gyeong said defensively.

"It does seem like they fed me though," Shiro said.

"I'm fine," Gyeong said.

Shiro nodded and looked at Coran who was holding some sort of device that he activated. Suddenly, the alarm started all over again. If there was one thing Lance had going for him, it was that he was fit; he might not dominate on the track as much as he did in the pool, but he would have placed a bet that he was probably the fastest runner in the castle. Though maybe the Alteans were like Vulcans, and that was a bad bet.

Hunk though, was just barely at the minimum for the Garrison, so like a good leader, Lance stayed just ahead of him, yelling encouragement. Gyeong actually was fast, and he took off past them, while Pidge, looking miserable, seemed to have decided to keep up with them.

"I know you're faster than that," Lance said. "Go partner with Gyeong getting your armor on."

He couldn't see Pidge's face, but he knew he was getting an eye roll for that. Pidge sped up, her robotic pet zooming after her. Hunk was the one who told him he was making a wrong turn. Probably for the best that he hadn't run off ahead of everybody else. He and Hunk made it to the armory and scrambled into the black under suits and leg pieces and then helped each other into their chest pieces. By that point, Gyeong and Pidge were running out the door.

"Come on, Hunk," Lance said as they took off again. "This isn't even a mile."

"I'm supposed to warm up first," Hunk complained.

"This is oddly easy to run in," Lance said, unable to figure out why the armor didn't feel cumbersome when it definitely looked like it should be.

They made it back to the hangar to a very disappointed looking Princess Allura.

"Unacceptable," she said. This time, Lance did wilt a bit.

"Did you twist your ankle as well this morning, Paladin?" Shiro asked, looking at Lance.

"You don't leave your slowest guy behind," Lance said, defensively. He suddenly felt like he was being ganged up upon.

"In the field, yes," Shiro said. "But here in the castle, we need lions launching as fast as we can. If that means one of you is the last one out there, then so be it."

"Enough," Princess Allura said. "The most important thing for you to learn right now is to form Voltron."

"That's a bit of an advanced skill, Princess," Coran said. "Perhaps some of the other exercises first?"

"We don't have time," Princess Allura said. "Voltron is ten thousand years late to this war. Everyone to your lions."

There was a bit of grumbling, though not from Lance. Flying was what he really wanted to do anyway, and forming Voltron sounded cool. He felt Blue like a charge underneath his skin as he settled into the pilots seat.

"Ready to rock this?" he asked patting the console to his right.

Blue leapt through the big hangar and out into the Arusian sky where Lance made sure to warm up with a bunch of cool flight tricks. He didn't think Shiro had really seen any of the good maneuvers he'd pulled the day before, so it was time to show off his skill.

"This isn't the time to play games," Gyeong's voice came in over the comms.

"I'm not playing games," Lance said testily, pulling around so his lion could stare down at Gyeong's while also checking to see if Gyeong was broadcasting to everyone. He was relieved to see that he'd started a direct line. "I'm practicing. Got to get used to what this baby can do."

"Whatever, just be ready to form Voltron," Gyeong said.

"Oh, I'm ready, way more ready than you, drop out," Lance said.

"I didn't drop out," Gyeong said angrily.

"You boys ready?" Shiro's lion was broadcasting to everyone.

"Yes, Sir," Lance was quick to say. "Er, Shiro," he added belatedly.

"So does anyone know how to form Voltron?" Hunk asked.

"I don't see a Voltron button in here," Pidge said.

Coran's voice came on. "Voltron's more of a frame of mind than anything else," he said.

"Great," Pidge deadpanned.

"Any more insight for us there?" Hunk asked.

"Well," Coran said, sounding a bit unsure. "When you form Voltron, you all control it together, your minds must act as one mind."

"I don't think I'm drift compatible with Gyeong," Lance said.

"You're a bit more compatible than you might think," the Princess's voice came in a bit higher than normal. She cleared her throat. "You are the chosen paladins of Voltron. Your selection was not random. You were meant to form Voltron together. Focus on your common goal, focus on your bond with your lion, you must work collectively as one."

"We'll give it a go, Princess," Shiro said. "Alright Paladins, start focusing."

Lance started by trying to probe at the recesses of his mind, where he knew that somehow, the Blue Lion was connected to him, then he thought about his goals, like the princess had said. He thought about keeping the Galra from Earth, and his family; he thought about how he was going to save the galaxy. Then he thought about how everyone back on Earth would react when they found out he was a space action hero. And Allura; she would look at him with those big blue eyes as she realized that he was the one for her. They'd go explore the galaxy together. Lance envisioned awesome space battles, and alien worlds that he'd discover, and there wouldn't be anyone there to tell him he couldn't do it.

"I don't think this is working," Hunk said.

With a spike of guilt, Lance realized that he'd stopped focusing on Voltron a while ago.

"We should fly in formation," Gyeong said.

"Good idea," Shiro said, leaving Lance with a scowl on his face. "That'll help us sync up."

So they did that. They flew in formation, and they thought about Voltron, and they waited, and they waited, but nothing seemed to work.

"Maybe we should stack up?" Hunk asked.

"Maybe we should eat some breakfast," Pidge said.

"Head back in," Shiro said. "We'll need to work out what we'll try next."

---

Failing to form Voltron had been frustrating. Especially since he had been a Paladin in a distant lifetime. He should have had some sort of leg up, but he was as behind as everyone else.

"Here you go," Shiro said, handing Keith another bowl of food goo.

"I really am alright," Keith said. His stomach was full anyways.

"You were out there for nine months?" Shiro asked.

"It wasn't so bad," Keith said. "I kept busy."

"What were you doing for money?" Shiro asked.

"Scrap metal," Keith said. It had mostly gone to keeping his hover bike going.

"There should have been a food bank in Tucson," Shiro said.

"I was a bit of a fugitive," Keith said.

"Did you see my parents?"

Keith shook his head. "I was over at their place when it happened, but…They were upset. I saw Adam, he said you'd asked him to look after me. He got transferred to Kenya though."

Shiro looked shocked for a moment. "Adam," he said, a little breathlessly, and Keith suddenly felt tense,

"Your fiancee," he said. "Remember?"

"Yes," Shiro said, suddenly. "Yes, of course. How is he?"

"Sad?" That was the best Keith could figure. "Should I have called him when I found you?" Keith asked.

"No," Shiro said. "No. You did everything right. I'm more concerned with your health right now."

"I'm fine," Keith said. "Really. Things sort of sucked for a while, but now it's alright."

"I'm sorry you went through that," Shiro said.

"It wasn't your fault," Keith said. He thought for a moment. "You came back." That's what was important.

Shiro gave his shoulder a squeeze. "I'm going to talk with our Altean hosts. You should go bond a bit with your new teammates."

Keith groaned, looking at the others at the other side of the kitchen. Lance was talking animatedly with Hunk while Pidge sat besides them tinkering with something Keith wasn't so sure she should be tinkering with. Was that Galran drone helping her?

"Consider it a team building exercise," Shiro said. "You can commiserate about the food." He walked away to find the Princess and Coran.

Keith grabbed his bowl and walked towards the others. Lance was talking about the Princess.

"So," Keith said, too loudly. "Food goo."

This seemed, miraculously, to be the right thing to say. Hunk had a lot to say about the food goo, and Keith didn't have to say anything at all. He could just stand there and listen without it being awkward. Lance also had several opinions about the stuff and Keith let himself enjoy Lance's energy. Every now and then though, Lance would glance at Keith's bowl, and Keith would find himself taking another bite. It wasn't good tasting, at all, but it was easy on the stomach, and he knew what could happen when you hadn't been eating much of anything and then you had a big meal. The others didn't understand why it was a bad idea for him to just gorge himself like he could make up for the past nine months in a few sittings. Keith had figured it out when he was eleven and he'd busted the padlock that had kept the refrigerator shut at one of the really bad homes he'd stayed in.

"Enough time wasting," the Princesses voice came from the doorway. "It's time for training."

Lance's voice dropped an octave, like it often did when he talked to the Princess, and he made a comment showing the Princess a few things on the training deck. Pidge accidentally spilled her drink in Lance's lap. Too bad the suit was waterproof.

So they trained. The castle had a big open bay for training that had all sorts of gadgets to change up the environment and provide obstacles and 'enemies,' that Hunk was probably planning to take apart. If Keith were honest with himself, and even with himself that was a big if, the exercises were a bit much, and he figured that he'd have probably done better a year prior.

Training went poorly. The whole point was for them to learn to work as a team, but they all kept messing up. Their first exercise had involved drones that flew around and shot at them, and they were supposed to shield each other to beat it, but somewhere along the way, he'd started arguing with Lance again, who'd tried to take charge in the face of a suddenly quiet Shiro, who'd broken from the group to just start destroying the drones.

The Princess hadn't been happy. The Princess from the day before was gone, and Keith felt like she was trying to channel the Garrison cadre from Hell Week.

Training moved on with each failure though. They guided each other through an invisible shock maze, just his luck that he got paired up with an irate Lance. They fought a robotic gladiator, ostensibly together, Lance again attempting to take charge, Hunk showing a great deal of hesitance, Shiro and now himself trying to charge the gladiator. It went about as well as the other exercises.

Next it was back to the cockpit.

"This next exercise will help you bond with your lions," Coran said.

Somehow. They were essentially supposed to fly blind, only using their connection with their lions to see through their sensors. Keith didn't know how it happened, but Lance managed to goad the both of them into flying straight into the ground without ever getting any sense of position from their Lions.

Next came weapons training, where Lance and Keith didn't have to work together. Their bayards had a training mode, where Keith's sword was blunted, the two rifles shot harmless blasts, and Pidge's weird cutting/shocking tool that also doubled as a grappling hook just made a zapping sound when it hit its target. Shiro's arm didn't seem to have a training mode, so he worked alone with the gladiator, which had settings for one on one. Keith found his eyes sliding over to where Lance was working with Hunk. They seemed to be doing alright.

"Is this right?" Pidge asked, holding her Bayard out in front of her.

"Your stance is wrong," Keith said.

"And…"

"You're leaving yourself open," Keith said. "It means I can do this." Using his Bayard he knocked hers away and placed the palm of his hand on her helmet and shoved. She fell over backwards.

"So what am I doing wrong?" Pidge asked, getting back to her feet, glaring a bit at Keith.

"I told you," Keith said. "Your stance-"

"How do I fix it?" Pidge asked.

"Do it like I showed you," Keith said.

"You are the worst," Pidge said.

Lance seemed to think so.

Keith was pretty sure their next exercise, trust falls, had been Shiro's idea. Allura though, had definitely placed Keith next to Lance. Keith realized he'd been placed next to Lance in most of their exercises that day. The Princess was meddling. Lance was supposed to be falling into his arms, the first time Keith would ever touch his soulmate in this lifetime, but even this managed to go wrong.

"Don't drop me," Lance said, as he started to rock back.

"Don't fall then," Keith said flippantly. He didn't know why.

Lance turned his head, for some reason, looking behind himself at Keith; he twisted a bit too much and managed to fall in the wrong direction. Keith tried, he really did, but Lance still fell. This was somehow Keith's fault. All they'd done all day was fight. Keith glared at the Princess when she started yelling at them again for their failure.

"Alright," Shiro said, after they'd been at it for far too long. "Time to hydrate. Change out of your armor, you won't need it for the next few exercises. Hit the showers, get cleaned up, I'll be in a meeting with Princess Allura."

Keith managed not to get into an argument with Lance while they were in the attached locker room. He thought Lance was too upset even to say anything.

---

"I don't think this common enemy tactic is working," Princess Allura said.

"We're not ready to face the Galra, Princess," Shiro said, shaking his head. "They need something to bond over. You're it for now. I've seen plenty of Garrison teams thrown together by a tyranical CO. It's good in a training environment. There's something else I wanted to talk to you about though."

"Go ahead," Princess Allura said.

"How difficult is it to replace a Paladin?" Shiro asked.

"Lance stays," Princess Allura was quick to say. "He is very important. I know he has been fighting with Keith, and that's not what we need, but they are both very important."

"Princess?" Coran asked, and he had a speculative look in his eyes. Princess Allura shook her head.

"I'm actually talking about Pidge," Shiro said.

"Pidge?" Princess Allura asked. "I thought Pidge showed a great deal of promise. His skills proved very useful in defeating the Galra yesterday."

"I found out last night that Pidge is fourteen years old," Shiro said. "He's still a child. He's sort of stuck out here with us, but I'd rather he wasn't directly in the line of fire."

"Oh," Princess Allura said. "That's…" She shook her head. "Fate doesn't care what his age is," she said. "He was chosen for a reason. Replacing a Paladin of Voltron is no easy task. The last time we lost a Paladin we went ten thousand pheebs without Voltron. We don't have much choice in the matter. We need all five paladins."

"There must have been shorter turnovers in the past though, right?" Shiro asked. "There've never been direct replacements?"

"There have," Coran said. "But it isn't at our own whim. Change happens when it's meant to happen."

"So was Voltron meant to be dormant for so long as the Galra ravaged the Galaxy?" Shiro asked.

The two Alteans shared another glance.

"That was different," Princess Allura said. "What's important is that we cannot just replace Pidge. Pidge is a part of Voltron. We can try to mitigate his exposure. For now though, let's focus on forming Voltron."

Shiro sighed. "I think I might have some more ideas on that one," he said.

---

Pidge had gone off to be by herself after changing. She knew that no one had been staring at her, but she still felt the need to get out from under their gazes. There'd been a girls locker room even, but she hadn't been able to just tell them she didn't belong with the boys. She should tell them. It was getting to be too much. Pidge was getting to be too much. Pidge was going to find her family, but Pidge didn't really need to pass as a boy anymore. That had been for the Garrison. There weren't any big secrets anymore. The only thing she was hiding was her gender.

The thing was, was that Pidge had never really had to come out before. She'd figured things out with her family's help at a young age and then her dad had been transferred soon after and she'd been going to a new school where no one had ever known that Katie Holt used to go by a different name. Hormone blockers had helped to make sure that she'd never have to worry about it. Now though, she was worried about it.

A lot of her worries centered around Lance. He was already making a big deal about her being fourteen. Would that get worse if he knew she was a girl? Moreover, Lance had made no secret that he was Catholic, and Pidge had always been a bit wary of people who were religious. She knew mostof them were fine with trans people, but… you never really knew. Keith seemed angry about everything, and she didn't really know him well at all, Hunk was way too much into her business, and Shiro (who was homo-romantic and of everyone she was most confident of his support) had forgotten her. Who knew what Altean culture had to say about gender identities. They seemed nice, but maybe that was what all the airlocks around the ship were for.

It didn't help that she'd had a roaring headache all day. She'd been going to pick up more caffeine pills that weekend in town, (caffeine wasn't allowed for Garrison cadets) but she'd never exactly gotten around to it. At least she still had her hormone blockers. Though those too would run out.

Rover nudged her. She'd added a few basic personality protocols the night before when adrenaline had still been keeping her up. She reached up to pat it. Rover toned out a proximity alert.

"Hey dude," Lance said, suddenly behind her, causing her to tense up, in spite of rover's warning. "We've got more training stuff."

"Be right there," Pidge said.

She headed back into the training room, trying to gather up some of the energy she'd been lacking all day. The room had transformed once more and now had a sunken area filled with cushions.

Shiro was back, still in his armor. "Before we get started," he said. "I wanted to address the matter of our little interviews last night. The point of those was for me to get a better idea of who I'm working with. That was the venue where I should have found out that Pidge is fourteen."

"Woah, what?" Hunk asked, looking at her askance. Everyone was looking at her. She glared at Lance.

"If anyone else left anything out, any limitations, I need to know about it," Shiro said.

"My age is not a limitation," Pidge said.

"We'll talk about that later," Shiro said. "If anyone has anything they need to talk to me about, I've got an open door policy."

He paused there as if waiting for some sort of admission. Pidge wasn't about to come out right then and there after that.

"Alright," Allura said. "You've all shown abysmal teamwork so far, and ordinarily we wouldn't even be attempting our next exercise until you were much further along, but we're going to need to move fast if you hopeless lot are going to make this work sometime in this decapheeb."

"It's not like you have a manual for how to form Voltron," Keith said.

"Forming Voltron comes from within," Princess Allura said. "And so far I haven't seen much within any of you."

Coran cut in. "You might find this next exercise a bit relaxing actually. We've got a nice comfortable area for you to rest in right here, and we've got these handy devices right here to help you meld your minds."

"Like Vulcans?" Lance said, sounding excited. "I'll totally mind meld with you Princess."

Pidge decided to step away from Lance in case Allura needed some room to kick his butt.

"This exercise doesn't involve the Princess, Paladin," Shiro said.

"Just you five," Coran said. "In order."

"There's an order?" Hunk asked.

"Well of course," Coran said. "You didn't think you would just form Voltron at random, did you? Shiro is the head of Voltron. Keith and Lance are the right arm and leg of Voltron respectively, with Pidge and Hunk on the left."

"Wow," Pidge said, entirely non-plussed. "It's almost like there should be a manual." She nudged Keith in the side. He looked at her with an inquisitive look and she remembered she was still annoyed with him.

So they sat in a semi-circle, with Pidge and Hunk to Shiro's left and Keith and Lance to the right. Coran handed out five headsets.

"What exactly do these do?" Hunk asked.

"They connect you, similarly to how you'll be connected through your lions when you form Voltron, but here, the device will help you attune to one another."

"But can people see what's in our heads?" Keith asked, his usual scowl firmly in place.

"On the surface level, yes," Coran said. "Just take a moment to get used to it. There should be no secrets or barriers between Paladins."

Pidge didn't want a look inside of Lance's head, one guess what was in there, and she didn't want anyone looking inside of hers. Somehow though, forming Voltron had become important to finding her family, so she'd just have to put it on and think about Voltron. An image appeared in front of her as she put on the headgear. It was the picture she kept in her log book, her and Matt.

"Oh, hey, I keep learning new stuff about Pidge," Lance said. "I didn't know you had a girlfriend back home."

Lance could see the image, so she cleared it from her mind. Lance wasn't thinking horrible things about the princess, as she'd suspected, but instead, much like her, he was thinking about his family. Pidge focused on Voltron. She probed around and… felt someone probing around in her head.

"Get out of my head, Hunk!" The feeling of it did nothing good for her headache.

"I thought there were no secrets," said Hunk.

"Paladins must be open with each other," Coran said.

"Damn Gyeong, what sort of gory sci-fi movies do you watch?" Lance asked. "Bit gratuitous there."

The image in Keith's mind had been of some sort of battle on an alien planet. Keith himself was white faced and scowling.

"Let's focus on your lions," Coran said. "Everyone focus on your lions, concentrate on the bond you share."

The images changed. The five lions stood proud.

"Now, go ahead and merge them together, merge your minds together. Five lions become Voltron, five paladins become a single joined force."

The images of the lions started to converge.

"Yes!" Coran said, sounding excited. "That's it, keep focusing. Keep yourselves focused on the union."

Pidge could feel them in her mind, four presences that crowded in. She didn't need the four boys brains in her own. She didn't need to be opened up to them. It was an invasion and she couldn't deal with it.

"No," Pidge said, ripping the headgear off of her head.

"Hey," Lance said. "We almost had it."

"Pidge?" Shiro asked.

"I can't do this right now."

"Yes, you can-" Lance started before Shiro held up his hand to stop him.

"What's going on?" Shiro asked.

I have even more secrets in my head. "I'm just really tired, okay? We've been trying to form Voltron all morning."

Shiro glanced back at Allura.

"You're tired?" Allura asked with scorn dripping from her like tar. "An Altean child of your age wouldn't have any trouble keeping up. Do you know who's tired? The countless people who have been enslaved or left broken by the Galra."

"Yeah, I know," Pidge said. "My family for example."

"Maybe it's time for lunch," Shiro said. "No use training on an empty stomach."

Allura scowled. "Very well," she said. "But this time you eat as a team."

So they headed off through the castle for the kitchens.

"Hey," Lance said, sidling up to Pidge. "You alright?"

"Why'd you tell Shiro?" Pidge asked, angrily.

"Because he needed to know," Lance said. "Did you think it didn't matter?"

"Look, I'm not going to let you or anyone else keep me from finding my family," Pidge said.

"And when you find them, I'll be right there to bust down the doors and get them out," Lance said. "But if you think we're just going to ignore the bit where you're a kid, then you've got another thing coming."

"Just stay out of my business," Pidge said.

---

They found a dining room next to the kitchens where Coran had already left a bunch of food goo for them.

"Sit in team order," the Princess said, causing Lance to have to get up again.

"Oh man," Hunk said. "Even eating is training now."

"Funny you should say that," Coran said as they took their seats. He looked at the tablet he was carrying and pressed a button. Suddenly, manacles snapped around their wrists. They were literally chained to each other, wrist to wrist. Lance's right arm was just manacled to the table.

"What the hecking hey," Lance said indignantly. "I'm chained to Gyeong?" He yanked his arm away, only to have Keith's arm follow.

"Paladins must be able to work together," Coran said. "And if you can't, you'll find it a bit difficult to eat."

The Princess sat down at the head of the table. "Well, do get started," she said. "You were too hungry to train, so let's get the meal done with." Lance wasn't sure how things were going between him and the princess, but he'd started to realize that if they were meant to be together, then he was in for a bit of a bumpy ride.

Lance went to grab his spoon, but suddenly his hand went in the other direction. Of course, Gyeong would be right handed, either that or he was just messing with Lance.

"Watch it," Lance said.

"Am I not allowed to eat?" Gyeong asked. "You were very worried about it earlier."

"Oh no," Lance said, snatching up his spoon. "Don't let me stop you, just don't get in my way." His spoonful of goo was suddenly jerked away and then there was a green splatter on the table. "Hey, you did that on purpose," he accused.

"I'm just trying to get a bite in," Gyeong said.

"The point is to work together," Coran said.

There was another splatter from down the table and Lance heard Pidge shout "Hunk!"

"Do all humans complain this much?" the Princess asked.

"The past couple of days have been stressful," Shiro said.

Keith stood up, jerking Lance's arm over. "We didn't come here for you to treat us like prisoners you could just toy with, like… like…"

"Like toy prisoners!" Lance said excitedly, standing up as well.

"Yes! Thank you, Lance," Keith said, and Lance turned to look at him, not sure he'd heard him right.

"You do not yell at the Princess!" Coran yelled back at them.

"Oh, the princess of what?" Pidge asked. "We're the only ones out here, and she's no princess of ours."

Lance watched the Princess scoop up some food goo with her spoon and fling it at Pidge's face, but it took him a moment to process what had happened.

"Get her Pidge," Keith said.

Pidge returned a volley, but Coran stepped in with a tray to block and stuck a spoon of his own in the food goo and flung a wide arc that hit all of them. There was food goo in Lance's hair.

"Oh, it's on," Hunk said.

Keith was flinging food goo. Shiro was flinging food goo!

Lance moved for his spoon, but his hand caught on his manacle.

"Help me out a bit," Lance told Gyeong. He didn't want to be the only one not throwing food goo. Miraculously, Gyeong dipped down to give Lance the reach.

"Allura, on my mark," Lance said, getting a scoop. "Now." Together their arms arced out flinging twin globs of green slime that landed on her shoulder.

Eventually, there was no more food goo to throw, and everyone was laughing, and Lance had not been prepared for this to be a part of his space adventure. He had a considerable amount of food on his face and he wondered what skincare properties the stuff might have.

The Princess sat back down, smiling for the first time that day. Was she smiling at Lance? "It seems you all can work together," she said.

Gyeong even smiled at that. He turned his head and looked at Lance and, still smiling, he mumbled something about teamwork. Lance huffed a laugh, and somehow getting Gyeong to smile at him felt like a bigger accomplishment than anything else. He couldn't believe he'd actually managed to work with the guy.

"I actually don't hate you right now," Lance said.

Gyeong's eyes got a bit big, and his face turned red and he turned away, causing Lance to deflate. Well that didn't last long, he thought.

---

Their manacles disappeared from around their wrists as everyone laughed and talked about the rollercoaster of a day they'd all had. Hunk helped Pidge get a bit of goop out of his hair while the younger boy bragged to Allura about a particularly good shot he'd gotten in. The night before, Hunk had thought the highlight of the next day would probably be getting to take a look at the wormhole generator. Getting covered in food goo would have probably constituted a bad day any other time, but somehow it was all good. Great even.

"Hey," Hunk said. "Lets go form Voltron now."

A cheer went up from Pidge and Lance.

"A bit of cleanup first," Coran said. "You do not want to clean food goo out of your lions' cockpits."

An hour later, they were back in their armor and splitting off in the hangar towards their own lions. Suddenly the idea of flying in the Yellow Lion was exciting.

"Hey Lance," Hunk said over the comm. "If we're the legs of Voltron, does that mean we literally get to kick alien butt?"

"All the way to the other end of the galaxy," Lance said.

"Let's do this," Pidge said.

"Do this we must," Hunk said, in his very best Yoda impression.

"Star Wars nerf herder," Lance crowed.

"Taking off," Keith said.

"Copy that, Red Robin, you are clear for takeoff," Lance said.

"That is not my callsign," Keith said.

"Saying 'that's not my callsign,' makes it officially your callsign," Lance said.

Hunk sighed, and started counting down towards a blowup.

"You're not even Flight," Keith said.

"All in favor of Red Robin?" Lance asked.

"Aye," Hunk said, because he had to show solidarity. He was the only one.

"Hah," Keith said.

"I'll get one to stick," Lance said.

That went surprisingly well. The red lion took off behind him as Hunk was just getting up the ramp of Yellow. Shiro and Pidge took off next.

"You ready buddy?" Lance asked in a direct channel.

"Ready to form Voltron at least," Hunk said.

"Keep a closer eye on your distance to Pidge this time," Lance said. "You drift a lot."

"Got it," Hunk said. He preferred keeping track of the ships systems instead of telemetry.

They both took off into the Arusian afternoon.

"Alright Paladins," Shiro said. "Let's get into formation."

Hunk joined into the cheer that followed.

They got in order, and flew in a V formation with Shiro at the head, and Hunk and Lance at the back.

"Feel your lions," Coran said. "Connect with your lions, and through your lions connect with each other. Five lions become one."

While keeping an eye on the telemetry to make sure he wasn't going to mess up colossally, Hunk probed around for the connection that Lance had described. He thought there might be something.

"Focus on your intent," Coran said.

'Come on,' Hunk said to himself. 'Form Voltron.'

There weren't any words, but the responding question in his mind was suddenly clear. Why?

'We've got to fight scary space aliens,' Hunk thought.

There was a low discontented rumble that Hunk was sure was just in his head.

"Isn't that what we're here for?" Hunk asked.

"Hunk?" Lance asked. They'd never broken the direct line.

"I got this," Hunk said. I don't got this, he thought.

---

Keith tensed up when the Princess started a direct line with him.

"I had a question about what we discussed yesterday," she said.

"Now?" Keith asked.

"I don't think you'll be forming Voltron just yet," the Princess said. "That's why I wanted to ask. You said Rigel Seven was destroyed by the Galra. Did they truly destroy the planet or did they occupy it?"

"Is Coran with you?" Keith asked.

"I'm alone," the Princess said.

"It was destroyed," Keith said. He tried to remember more. He didn't want to remember more. "We didn't know what these two factions wanted, but they did want something on the planet. They both wanted it for themselves. One of them lost, and… They did something to the core."

"I'm sorry," the Princess said.

Keith stayed silent. It wasn't about the planet. The communications panel indicated that the Princess was talking to everyone.

"I think that's enough for now," she said. "Good work today, Paladins. I have one more task for you."

"Anything for you Princess," Lance said.

Keith sighed.

"The Castle of Lions has been keeping a log of intercepted communications for the past ten thousand years," the Princess said.

"I can work on processing that," Pidge piped in.

"Perhaps later," the Princess said. "A great deal of them are distress calls. Requests for aid. There's one planet that reported an attack by the Galra and it doesn't seem to have a great deal of strategic importance based on it's location, so I don't think the Galra would have stuck around after they took what they wanted. It was about forty phoebes ago, so I'd like to send you through. Scout out the area. If the Galra are gone, then the people there might have good information for us."

"And if the Galra are there?" Shiro asked.

"Then I'll trust you to make the decision on how to proceed," the Princess said. "The planet in question is called Rigel Seven."

Keith's breath hitched, and he narrowly avoided saying anything incriminating. He'd already told her that the planet had been destroyed. There wouldn't be anyone there for them to talk to. He didn't want to see it again.

"We're on it," Shiro said. "Alright Paladins, this is an information gathering mission. If we make contact we've got to be diplomatic, I'll handle communications. If we encounter the enemy you will wait for my word on whether we'll engage or fall back."

"Copy that, Team Leader," Lance said excitedly, and Keith, who already had a twisted feeling in his stomach, wished he'd take it seriously.

"The wormhole is opening now," the Princess said.

"Wait," Hunk said. "Should Pidge be going if there are Galra there?"

"No," Pidge said. "We'll just form Voltron when there isn't any danger present."

"We're all going," Shiro said.

Keith grit his teeth and followed as Shiro led the formation through the wormhole.

"Pidge?" Shiro asked.

"The system has twelve planets, two exoplanets, and three asteroid belts," Pidge said. "I've got the seventh planet from the sun, and I'm sending you the vectors."

"Any sign of Galran activity?" Shiro asked.

"Negative," Pidge said.

"Stay in formation," Shiro said.

They shot off towards Rigel Seven.

"What do you think they look like?" Lance asked.

"Who?" Hunk asked.

"The Rigelians," Lance said. "The Alteans look pretty human, and the Galra were humanoid at least."

They hadn't called themselves Rigelians. They'd called themselves an old word from a dead language that meant the Chosen. No one had known why anymore. They'd had ink black skin that had absorbed energy from the sun and their boneless bodies had been vaguely humanoid most of the time, it was just a bit more of a practical structure to assume for a lot of tasks.

"Guys," Hunk said. "I don't think anything's alive down there."

They were close enough, Keith could pull up the picture on his viewer. New memories surfaced, against his will. There definitely wasn't anyone left alive on that planet. The process had only just started when Keith had left the system for the final time. When it became clear they wouldn't be evacuating anyone else. The planet now glowed red and orange where it wasn't blackened char.

"It's a lava planet," Lance said.

"Was this a natural disaster?" Hunk asked.

The devices had landed on the poles. Reports from the ground said that it started with devastating earth quakes. Of course it had all started two weeks earlier when a purple ship had parked itself in orbit and started leveling cities from above.

"I'm no geologist," Pidge said. "But I don't think civilizations form on planets that are this unstable. If they went from being capable of interstellar communication to this in a few decades, I don't think it was natural.

"Any signs of life?" Shiro asked.

"We can circle the planet?" Pidge said. "But I'm not expecting anything."

There'd been two billion people on the planet when the Galra came. It had been obvious from the beginning that they were no match. By the time the first ship had taken off with refugees a few hundred million people had already been killed across three of their largest cities. Keith and Lance had been part of a group warping out of the solar system at the time to explore one of the neighboring systems. He remembered the message they'd received that had called them back immediately to pick up as many civilians as they could. They'd never encountered alien life and the first thing Lance had said over the comms was that it had to be a bad joke from Central.

"There's remains of some structures still standing here and there," Pidge said. "The planet was clearly populated once. We've also got what looks like the remains of a superstructure in orbit, looks like half of some sort of habitat dome."

The Dedarite had been a prototype ship, it was going to ferry the first large generation of settlers to Actic five, the only habitable planet they'd come across in their explorations. It had barely been space worthy when the Galra attacked, but it had been loaded up with as many civilians as they could fit. The Galra had been ignoring the smaller ships. They hadn't been a threat, and one of the Generals organizing the evacuation had speculated that the extermination was a matter of practicality for what they wanted to do on the surface. The Dedarite though hadn't been ignored. It had been preparing for FTL when a fighter had taken out the engines and ruptured the dome. It had been built to ferry a thousand people, but there'd been more than twice that onboard at the time.

"The moon's coming up," Pidge said. "There's the remains of a facility on it. No atmosphere, no life signs."

They'd had the start of a planetary defense system. Land based weapons had difficulty piercing the atmosphere and the heavy ionosphere, so there'd been a small network of satellites, and an addition to the base on the moon had added the most powerful phased matter beam they'd ever created. A single fighter had destroyed it and the rest of the base while it was still charging up.

"That's definitely the remains of a Galra ship in orbit," Pidge said.

When three new ships had appeared, they'd thought that someone had answered their distress call. It hadn't mattered that they all looked the same, the three ships had destroyed the ship that had been bombarding them for over a day. Then five more ships had arrived and there had been a war in orbit, stray beams striking the planet at random.

Keith looked down at the planet below him. Everything was gone, but he could imagine that he could see the small continent he'd called home once. It was during that lull in bombardment that they'd landed a second time, in a canyon where civilians had gathered away from the city. Lance had been in Keith's ear as he'd taken off. They weren't talking to each other, they were just keeping the channel open. Lance's voice the only comfort he had as Keith listened to him help civilians get into safe positions for take off. The bright beam had come out of nowhere streaking just past Keith's own ship and the line had gone dead. He'd never experienced the complete memory of it, he'd never wanted to dwell on it. Now, in orbit over the dead planet, it felt as if it had just happened and Keith found himself keeping an eye on the Blue Lion on the telemetry and listening for his voice over the comms.

"That's one complete orbit," Pidge said. "There's nothing."

"I'm calling it," Shiro said. "I don't think there's anything more we're going to find here."

"What happened here?" Lance said.

"Who knows," Pidge said.

"There's… There's some structures on the poles," Keith said, trying to force his voice into sounding normal.

"Most of the magma seems to be emanating from the equator," Pidge said. "I think the poles are just where you'd expect to find the most intact structures… Hold up. Okay, yeah, those are Galra tech, I think. It looks like they bored into the planets crust."

"The Galra just destroyed this planet?" Hunk asked.

"Looks like it," Pidge said. "Shiro already said they destroy worlds."

"Yeah, but why?" Lance asked.

"Because they could," Keith said. Because Admiral Regulus hadn't been able to leave with what he had come for, and he didn't want anyone else to have it.

"Do you think anyone escaped?" Lance asked.

Their fleet had managed to carry three hundred and twenty five people off of the planet to Actic Five. Keith had made four runs and had gotten back for a fifth when he'd seen geysers of lava erupting all over the planet. Toxic gases from the release had probably killed most people before they could have been burned to death. Three hundred and twenty five people had been added to the small colony of a hundred and fifteen that had already been there. Thirty more arrived days later from an expedition to the Prendit system. They'd been too far out to help in the evacuation.

The only edible crops they'd had had been the ones they'd brought from home. Nothing native was suitable for them. They hadn't been ready to feed so many. Over a hundred had starved to death before they had been able to ramp up production. It hadn't helped that Actic Five's sun didn't put out half as much energy as they'd absorbed on Rigel Seven. The colony's limited lighting hadn't been able to make up the difference for so many people and people had been rotated on and off of the ships that had been equipped with lights that more closely approximated the light of their home. The Dedarite would have had the seeds they would have had to plant upon arrival in order to have avoided the tragedy, and the habitat dome for them to thrive in, bathed in the memory of the light of their home.

Lance never got to see it. Lance never had to see the slow death of their people. Even as they'd been dodging particle beams the size of skyscrapers tearing through their atmosphere, Lance had had hope that the people they'd saved would be able to rebuild. He'd already been talking about their new society when he'd died.

"Maybe as a slave in some Galra work camp," Pidge said bitterly.

"This is so messed up," Hunk said. "They didn't just… Someone actually sat down and engineered a device that could destroy a planet. Someone did that and then they used it. How does that even happen?"

"You ever hear about Hiroshima?" Pidge asked.

"That was ages ago," Hunk said. "We got better. How does an advanced society do this?"

"What if they do this to Earth?" Lance asked.

Nothing on Earth could stop them.

"They won't," Pidge said.

"How do you know?" Lance asked.

"Because we're going to stop them," Hunk said.

"Paladins!" Princess Allura came in. "We need you back here now. The castle's under attack."

"Oh no," Hunk said.

"Break formation," Shiro said. "Full speed back to the wormhole."

"On it," Lance said, punching his lion forward. Red was faster though. Whatever Zarkon had sent for them, he likely knew that they had all five lions. They couldn't form Voltron yet, though.

Keith was the first one through, and whatever it was, he felt it before he saw it. There was a cloying sickness that he'd never felt before that radiated menace. His telemetry showed an object quickly advancing on the castle, and Keith took off after it.

"Shields?" Keith asked.

"They're up," Coran said. "Though we still haven't gotten them properly calibrated."

Keith finally had a visual on whatever it was. It was humanoid, in that it had two arms and two legs and a head, but there, any resemblance to a human stopped. It was massive, probably twice as big as one of the lions, and it looked like some sort of cyborg bastardization of flesh and machine. It was facing away from Keith, heading straight for the castle, as something on it's front started to charge up.

"I think it's going to fire," Keith said. He was still too far away. A large orb of energy shot out of it and soon reached the castle. The hexagonal panels of the castle's shields lighting up under the onslaught. A few of them winked out momentarily before reappearing.

"We won't be able to take many of those," Coran said.

Keith was still far away, but he fired anyway. The thing had plenty of time to dodge out of the way. It turned to face Red. Shiro came in on the comms. "Keep it distracted till the others get here." The Black Lion was the closest behind him.

Keith fired again as a glowing orb started forming from the chest of the invader.

"What is that thing?" Lance asked.

"The enemy," Keith said. The orb launched at Keith, forcing him to dodge, even as it zoomed by him, Keith felt like he could point to where it was behind him, as if he could feel the energy.

"It's changing trajectory," Pidge exclaimed. The orb that had gone past Red turned midair to shoot after Shiro. Missing the Black Lion, it returned to the invader which quickly caught it in its hand and slung it at Lance.

"Woah," Lance said excitedly a moment later. "Did you see me dodge that?"

Keith felt it as the orb shifted direction. "Look out!" he said.

The orb that had narrowly missed Lance had reversed course and hit the Blue Lion on the back. Keith watched as the icon for the Blue Lion winked out on the comm panel.

"Lance!" Keith called out. There was no response. The Blue Lion was in free fall. "Cover me," he said, taking off after his soulmate. "Lance, come in." The light of the Blue Lion's eyes had cut out. "Lance, respond." It slowly tumbled as it plummeted to the ground. "Lance, are you alright in there?"

"Keith, bank right!" Shiro said.

He would have felt it coming if he hadn't been so focused on Lance. As it was he just barely dodged it in time. Pulling in close to the falling lion, he matched speed and latched on using Red's jaws and started slowing their descent.

"You're a sitting duck," Shiro said. "Get some distance."

Keith carried the Blue Lion away.

"Lance respond!" Keith yelled into his comm. Still nothing. Keith decided that getting more distance wasn't as important as getting into Blue's cockpit. He searched around for a covered area to set down.

"Woah! Hey, guys!" Lance's shaky but gorgeous voice came in. "Switched to my earpiece. Systems are starting to come back online."

"Are you okay?!" Keith asked.

"I lost inertial dampeners," Lance said.

That meant 'no, I got thrown around inside my cockpit as I tumbled through the atmosphere.' In the background he could hear the others continuing the fight but he only had ears for Lance.

"How's your head?" Keith asked.

"Fine," Lance said. "What am I missing?" Keith ignored the question.

"Are you bleeding?" Keith asked.

"If I am, it's all staying inside the suit," Lance said flippantly.

"I'm going to set you down soon," Keith said. "There's a gulley that'll give you cover. Open up and I'll come check you out."

"Negative," Shiro's voice cut in. "If he's not seriously injured, set him down and get back here."

Keith growled. "Got it."

"Gyeong's got me?" Lance asked.

"I've got you," Keith said.

"Huh," Lance said.

"I'm setting you down," Keith said. "Brace, brace, brace."

"Brace, brace, brace!" Lance echoed back, even though there was no one else on his ship to relay the warning to.

"Don't get out of your lion," Keith said.

"Systems are coming back," Lance said. "I'm getting back to the fight right as soon as I can."

"Not until your lion's at one hundred percent," Keith said, shooting off, back into the battle.

"And let you guys have all the fun?" Lance asked.

"This isn't supposed to be fun," Keith growled.

---

Dodging was not fun at all for Hunk. It wasn't even the motion of the ship. The inertial dampeners cut most of that out. But the view out of his cockpit still left him feeling sick to his stomach. It was like playing the worst of Lance's first person video games.

"Oh, why does it keep coming for me?" Hunk asked.

"It probably realized you've got the slowest lion," Pidge said.

"What did I miss?" Keith asked as the Red Lion got back to the fight.

"It can take a hit," Hunk said. "And it doesn't seem to be getting tired. How's Lance?"

"You heard everything I heard," Keith said.

"You're going to have to form Voltron," Coran said.

"We're a bit short handed right now," Shiro said.

"Unless we can do anything with four Lions," Hunk said. "Is there anything we can form with four lions?"

"I'm almost ready to get back in the fight," Lance called over the comm.

"Oh, thank god," Hunk said.

"Wait till you're ready," Keith said. "Pidge, what are you doing up there?"

Hunk thought that should be obvious, regardless of Shiro having given the orders over the comms.

"We're engaging," Shiro said. "Pidge is keeping some distance to get in some good shots while we've got it distracted.

"Hunk's got the slowest lion," Keith said.

"He's got the most heavily armored lion," Shiro said. "Not up for debate."

The orb shot off after Keith, and Hunk groaned and leapt forward to ram into the giant cyborg thingy. He latched on with his claws and roared out a particle beam right at the thing's side before it grabbed him and threw him off.

"I just got propulsion!" Lance said.

"Stay down until you have everything else," Keith said.

"Meditate with your lion, Lance," Coran said. "It'll speed things up."

Hunk hated how little he knew about the alchemy mumbo jumbo.

"Firing!" Pidge said.

Everyone else gave the cyborg space while Pidge shot at it. The cyborg also had plenty of time to dodge out of the way. The battle kept going at a bit of a stalemate from there and Hunk was glad that he hadn't managed to eat much food goo at lunch.

"It's charging up again!" Pidge said.

"Keith!" Shiro said.

"On it," Keith said.

Hunk cut off a blast of his own as the Red Lion cut in and latched onto the arm that kept emitting the orb.

"It's there," Pidge said. "Disengage, disengage!"

Keith flew off just as the orb got shot out, just narrowly missing him.

"Hey guys!" Lance said. "I'm back, did you miss me?"

"Are you alright?" Hunk asked.

"Pfft, it'll take more than that to take out Lance Sanchez," Lance said. "Wait, wait wait, you guys have been drifting West."

"We wanted it a bit farther away from the castle," Shiro said. "Do you think you're all ready to form Voltron?"

"No wait," Lance said. "There's a village down there."

"Oh yeah," Pidge said. "He's right, we're getting close."

"Okay, we start drawing it North," Shiro said. "Hunk, you harry it from behind. Lance, join Pidge, try shooting off towards it's south facing flank. Keith and I'll do strafing runs."

Hunk tried to keep an eye on the village as he attempted to goad the cyborg away. They hadn't even noticed it. Just one shot from that orb would have destroyed it. Or a stray shot from one of the lions. It wouldn't take some planet buster to destroy the people below, just carelessness on their parts.

"Coran," Shiro said. "Where are we on weapons?"

"Targeting works," Coran said. "But accuracy isn't the best."

"Okay, we'll give you some room. Give us cover while we form Voltron."

Oh, they were doing that again? In the middle of a battle?

A particle beam was emitted from the castle, missing the cyborg, but garnering its attention.

"Alright team, its time to form Voltron" Shiro said. "Formation on me. The castle can't give us that much time."

The rate of fire from the castle accelerated, most of the shots were misses though. Hunk gave it a wide berth as he went over to the others.

"Focus on your lions," Coran said.

Flying was hard enough. He felt at the edges of his mind where somehow the presence of his lion rested.

"You are one with your lion," Coran said.

Hunk tried to think of himself, not as a person flying a machine, but as a part of a whole.

"You are one with your team," Coran said. "One purpose drives you, drives the creation of Voltron."

He couldn't quite feel the others. They were connected, he knew that, somehow, but he couldn't really feel it. 'Got to form Voltron.'

The answering thought drifted through his mind again.

Why?

"So we can destroy the cyborg."

Disappointment, it was a feeling.

"What do you want from me?"

More.

"That's what I've got."

More.

"So we can stop the Galra."

WHY?

"Because they destroy planets!"

Nothing.

"Oh, so that's not good enough?"

A memory was drawn to the front of his mind. A poster with a high resolution image of Neptune that was on his wall at home.

More.

Neptune was lifeless. Rigel seven hadn't been. Rigel seven had been full of life, like Earth was full of life, like the galaxy was full of life. Like there was life down below.

"The village, the castle, we have to protect them, Voltron needs to protect them!" Hunk said. "They destroy civilizations, they kill people. That's why we need to form Voltron, that's why we need to stop the Galra."

There was a growling purr in his mind, and then it was like something slid into place and he felt a convergence in his head. He felt the others, Lance to his right, Pidge right over him, Shiro holding them together.

"Did we just?" Hunk asked.

"Heck yeah we did," Lance said.

Hunk was… Hunk was a leg, he was a leg of Voltron. But he didn't see from his cockpit, he saw from Shiro's, he saw from the head.

"Any moment now!" Coran's voice called out, sounding desperate.

"Let's go," Shiro said. They shot forward towards the cyborg.

---

Five minds controlling one body. Shiro could feel Voltron, as if it was his own body, and though it was his command, it was Pidge who raised their arm and fired at the Gladiator. The orb came for them again, and as they were dodging it the Gladiator comes at them again, striking out with a pulsing hand. They were busy with that when the orb struck them in the back. They cried out as one. Another strike from the Gladiator sent them flying back as the glowing orb started to charge again.

"Okay," Lance said. "I'm going to kick the orb next time."

Maybe they weren't totally in sync.

"It's firing," Pidge said.

"Shield!" Shiro said. He didn't know how, but he knew that the green lion summoned their shield.

The left arm of Voltron came up, but instead of a shield, a massive particle beam shot out, which completely missed the Gladiator.

"Sorry," Pidge said, even as Shiro guided them in a dodge. He kept them moving, struggling to both avoid the orb, and the Gladiator's strikes, and then they had to avoid the orb's return. No sooner had the orb returned to the Gladiator then it flung it back at them. Shiro found himself giving way to Lance, and they shot forward with Voltron's right leg held high, to kick the orb. They missed the orb, but so it also missed them.

"Grapple," Shiro said, as they came in reach of the Gladiator. He felt as if he was guiding Keith and Pidge as they took control. Keith blocked the Gladiator's strike and locked it's arm while Pidge took a close up shot at it's center.

"There's the orb," Pidge called out, and the propulsion in their legs kicked in as Lance and Hunk guided them away.

The orb was quickly flung at them again, and they narrowly missed it, but they weren't able to avoid the Gladiator's kick that almost had them colliding with the castle. Keith and Pidge just barely managed to stabilize them in time.

"Looks like he's recharging," Pidge said.

"Quick," Shiro said. "Hit him before he can shoot it off again."

They flew forward, both arms charging up to deliver a blow, but as the orb finished charging up, the gladiator dodged to the side, narrowly dodging the twin beams as it flung the orb at them. It struck them and Shiro felt the blow as if it had struck his own body. The Gladiator was already charging up another one as they regained their baring.

"Isn't Voltron supposed to be the strongest weapon in the galaxy?" Hunk asked.

"You're not exactly ready to draw out it's full potential," Coran said.

Shiro could feel the agitation coming from Hunk and Pidge at that. Then they were dodging the orb again, and engaging with the Gladiator.

"Guy's this thing is following video game logic," Lance said, as the orb returned once more to the Gladiator.

"Not now Lance," Shiro said. The orb was slung at them again.

"No, wait," Lance said, as he helped propel them away. "It's like the final boss, it's got a pattern, you've just got to figure out the pattern."

"Damn it Lance, this isn't a video game," Keith said, as the orb returned to the Gladiator and he flung it back at them.

"It's going to recharge now," Lance said. "After it catches the orb, it's going to recharge it."

They dodge the orb as it returns. The Gladiator catches it and starts recharging.

"Well, shit," Pidge said.

"Hah," Lance crowed. "Three throws and then recharge."

By the time they've readied their attack, it's already flinging out the orb.

"Alright," Shiro said. "Focus on defense. When the orb is returning after the third throw, that's when we ready our attack."

Dodge, dodge, hit. "Ugh, I hate this thing," Lance calls out. The orb is mostly charged up by the time they regain their bearings.

Shiro could feel the damage piling up, even as he knew that it was slowly being repaired.

Another successful dodge left them open to a strike that had them crashing into a cliff face.

"Got you covered," Coran said, and the Castle resumed firing at the Gladiator to give them time to get back up.

"We've still got this," Shiro said. "Two more throws."

"Come and get it, you big ugly troll," Lance called out.

"Here it comes," Pidge said.

"Wait, no," Hunk said. "Just one more throw."

The Gladiator was already mid throw, and Hunk didn't have time to communicate what he'd figured out, but it didn't matter. Shiro wasn't sure if the concept was communicated through the link, or if they were just operating on the same wavelength, but he understood then what was going to happen next.

"Ready the attack as soon as we dodge," Shiro said.

"I've got something," Keith said.

"Do it," Shiro said.

Pidge and Hunk both aimed their thrusts at the cliff face right behind them, and they flipped out of the way just before the orb would have hit them. It hit the cliff behind them in an explosion of rock.

Shiro felt a charge in his right hand.

"It's charging up a new one," Pidge said.

A massive sword materialized for Voltron. Shiro felt as if he was wielding it in his own hand.

"Now," Shiro said.

They rushed forward, and as slow and cumbersome as the fight had been, it ended suddenly. They struck the Gladiator through with their sword and the orb that had started to form guttered out and died as the Gladiator fell.

"Yes!" They cried out as one.

They felt victorious, they felt connected, they felt like one, they felt…

"Moments over!" Pidge said, and Voltron fell apart, the five lions hovering in the air over the fallen Gladiator.

"Thank you," Keith said.

"Guys," Lance said. "We were having a moment. Nobody mention that when they're making the movie."

Keith's sigh was loud over the comms.

"Fantastic work Paladins," Allura's voice came in. "Today is the rebirth of Voltron, and a loss for Zarkon that will echo through the Galran Empire."

"We were glad for your help," Shiro said. "Alright team, I think we've earned a proper meal and a rest."

"So is there anything to eat that isn't goo based?" Hunk asked.

---

Keith didn't really care how Lance had sounded over the comms as they'd landed. Lance was full of bravado and so much bright energy and Keith didn't trust his assessment of whatever injuries he'd sustained when he'd been hit. He rushed to land first, and he was up the ramp to the Blue Lion as soon as it dropped.

"Sanchez?" Keith asked, as he got into the cockpit.

Lance was reaching over to pick his helmet up off the floor. There was blood on the side of his face and down the front of his armor. Keith felt like pulling his hair out. "Why was your helmet off?" he bit out.

"What are you doing in my lion?" Lance asked.

"Checking you for injuries," Keith said. "Which you have because you weren't wearing your helmet."

"I had to activate my earpiece," Lance said. "Helmet rolled away. Inertial dampeners might not have been at one hundred percent when Voltron took a couple of those hits."

"I told you to wait," Keith said. "Come on. You're going to the infirmary."

"I'm checking on my team, and then I'm eating something," Lance said. "Also, you're eating something. You really need to eat something."

Lance was an idiot. There was a lot of blood, and the guy just wanted to go get something to eat.

"You need to get checked out," Keith said.

"It's a scratch," Lance said, walking down the ramp. "It's not even bleeding anymore."

"Because you've got a hand plastered over your scalp," Keith said, walking out after him.

Keith followed him over to the Green Lion, where Pidge was coming out.

"How're you doing Gunderson?" Lance asked. "Er… Holt? Wait, is your name even Pidge?"

"Pidge will do fine," Pidge said. "Also, you're dead to me."

"I came to make sure you weren't dead," Lance said. "Status report."

"I don't need you checking up on me," Pidge said. "I'm fourteen, not four. Thanks to you, everyone's treating me like I'm a kid."

"You are a kid," Lance said.

Pidge flipped him off as she walked off, Rover following dutifully after.

"Can we go to the infirmary now?" Keith asked.

"Don't need the infirmary," Lance said, turning towards the Yellow Lion. "Shouldn't you go eat a sandwich or something?"

Keith thought about storming off. He certainly felt like it. Lance was being stupid, and he wasn't exactly on death's door. He didn't need Keith to hover, but after the day that Keith had had, maybe he needed to hover. It was just harder now to see Lance looking at him like that when he'd smiled at him earlier.

"Hunk, buddy? How're you doing up there," Lance hollered up at open jaws of the Yellow Lion.

"Small bit of cleanup," Hunk said.

"You spew?" Lance asked.

"Just a bit," Hunk called back. "Not a lot to spew in the first place."

"Any injuries?" Lance asked.

"I'm good," Hunk hollered back, and then a moment later he appeared in the entrance. He took one look at Lance and swore. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," Lance said. "Hungry though, come on."

They started walking towards the kitchens, and Keith wanted to know why Hunk at least wasn't calling Lance out on his bullshit.

Lance reached up and tapped his earpiece. "Shiro," he said, and paused a moment. "Just letting you know I've got eyes on everyone else. We're all accounted for."

Keith activate his own comm. "Shiro," he said. "Just letting you know Lance has a head wound and doesn't want to go to the infirmary."

"Hey!" Lance said.

"Keith, Lance, meet me and Coran in the infirmary," Shiro said.

"I don't need Gyeong to babysit me," Lance said.

"Not up for discussion," Shiro said.

"What did you think was going to happen when you got to the kitchens?" Hunk asked.

Lance's cheeks tinged red.

"You go eat," Lance said. "I'll catch up later."

They split from Hunk and started heading towards the infirmary.

"Well at least it backfired on you," Lance said.

"What are you talking about?" Keith asked.

"Oh, I've got your number," Lance said. "But it's going to be Lance Sanchez who the Princess is going to fall for."

Keith scowled. "What the hell are you talking about? What does that have to do with anything?"

"You wanted to have her all to yourself, right after our victory, with me off in the infirmary," Lance said. "I mean, I get it, but I thought we could be gentlemen about this, but okay. Two can play this game."

"You're concussed," Keith said.

"I've got my eye on you Gyeong," Lance said.

"I'm not interested in the Princess," Keith said.

Lance snorted. "Yeah right," he said.

He should have just told Lance that he was gay. His soulmate should know that he was gay. It wasn't anything he'd ever felt the need to shout about, but it wasn't anything he felt like hiding, other than that he just never really talked about himself with others anyway. Just then though, he didn't feel like he could tell Lance. He should have been able to tell Lance anything, but he couldn't. He should have been able to seek comfort in the arms of his soulmate after what he'd been through as they'd orbited Rigel Seven. He should have been able to tell Lance that he had been so scared when he'd seen the Blue Lion falling, but he couldn't tell him any of those things. Keith didn't get any of that. This was the lifetime where he didn't get those things. This was the lifetime where Lance hated him, and chased after princesses. He hated being Keith. What would happen in their next lifetime? Would Lance remember hating Keith more than he remembered loving him?

Coran was in the infirmary when they got there. "Yikes!" he said. "Set him up on the exam table."

"Hey," Lance said. "I don't need to be set down anywhere." He sat himself down.

Keith figured he'd leave them to it. Let Lance stew a bit thinking he was off charming the princess or whatever.

"Nope, you stay too number four," Coran said.

"Number four?" Keith asked.

"I've got you ranked by height," Coran said. "Makes things simpler."

Keith didn't have anything to say to that, though Lance seemed to think it was funny.

Coran scanned Lance and asked him what a human's blood pressure was supposed to be.

"What are you reading?" Shiro asked from the doorway. Keith hadn't noticed him arrive.

Coran opened his mouth but paused. "Units don't translate," he said. "I can use you as a baseline."

Shiro walked over and Coran scanned him.

"You're a bit low," Coran said, turning to Lance. "We'll keep an eye on that. No swelling in your head, so that's good, looks like it's just a deep scalp wound." He rustled around in a cupboard and pulled out a squeeze bottle of something. "Go use this to wash with over the sink there, and we'll get it closed up in a dobash." He turned to Keith. "Your turn," he said.

"I wasn't injured," Keith said.

"Just a check up," Shiro said.

Keith had gone through plenty of physicals on Earth, but he had no idea what the alien scanner was going to find.

"If we're using Lance as a baseline, then he is a bit malnourished, though I couldn't say how serious these levels are for your species," Coran said.

"Told you so," Lance said from the sink.

"I'm fine," Keith said.

"Best thing for it is to make sure he eats plenty," Coran said.

"That's what I said!"

"Well, I don't think that'll be a problem," Shiro said, clapping Keith on the shoulder. "I'll get this one to the dining room. What about Lance?"

"He seems to have lost a bit of blood," Coran said. "No strenuous activities for…"

"It's normally a day after you give blood," Shiro said.

"We'll check back tomorrow," Coran said. "A good meal and a good night's sleep will probably do him some good. Also, plenty of fluids."

"You got that Paladin?" Shiro asked.

"Copy that," Lance said. Holding a towel to his head he got back up onto the exam table.

Coran got out a device and some bandages. "We'll have this healed in half a varga."

"Are you hungry?" Shiro asked. "We can send you some food, and I don't want you in the kitchen until you're no longer covered in blood."

"I'll wait until I'm showered and changed," Lance said.

"Alright," Shiro said. "Come on Keith"

Keith gave one last glance back for Lance.

"So is this going to scar?" Lance asked.

Keith sighed as the walked through the door.

"Do you want to change first?" Shiro asked.

Keith shook his head. He actually was pretty hungry.

"You did really well out there today," Shiro said. "How are you adjusting though? I didn't really get to talk to you yesterday."

"I'm alright," Keith said. "Things have been hectic." It wasn't like he didn't have plenty of reference points to go off of though.

"Well, good looking out for your team mates today," Shiro said. "I'm going to rely on you a bit to make sure we don't have anyone trying to sneak off when they should be heading to the infirmary."

"That was a good call Lance made," Keith said.

"Skipping the infirmary?" Shiro asked.

"The orb," Keith said.

"It was," Shiro said. "We should have figured it out sooner. It was a bit obvious."

Keith shrugged.

"Almost as obvious as your crush on Lance," Shiro said.

Keith groaned. He really hoped it wasn't really.

"How are you getting along with Hunk and Pidge?" Shiro asked.

"No issues," Keith said.

"Did you know either of them at the Garrison?" Shiro asked.

"Never talked to them before," Keith said. "I'm not really here to socialize."

"So why are you here?" Shiro asked.

He couldn't say that he was making sure his soulmate stayed alive.

"It just sort of happened," Keith said. He shrugged. "Do you think we're going to win?"

Shiro had always seemed a bit of an optimist, but Keith didn't think him delusional.

"I think we have to try," Shiro said. "Some things just have to be done."

That's what Keith had felt in the desert. Nothing righteous like Shiro was talking about, but rather the sense that he had to do what he was doing regardless of whether or not it made sense. Even when chasing after it had meant cold and hungry nights in a shack in the middle of the high desert, it had been the only thing he could have done.

Maybe fighting the Galra was like that. He was angry with them for what they'd done, all the distant planets in peril though were a distant concept for him. The empire was a stain on the universe, and fighting them would feel right, would feel familiar, Keith knew. He thought that in past lives, that what he was fighting for would have mattered more to him than the fight itself, that he would have fought alongside Lance for a common goal that they shared, rather than just the need to guard Lance to his last. He just didn't feel like he knew who he really was in his current life. There wasn't any other motive he could ascribe to his willingness to fight.

He looked up at Shiro, who he'd only just gotten back. He thought he could fight for Shiro too. "You've got me," he said.

"Yes," Shiro said, nodding. "I'm glad you're my right hand man."

Keith nodded. "I don't think Pidge would have been good with a sword."

Shiro laughed for some reason and ruffled his hair. They got to the kitchens where Hunk was timing how long food goo would jiggle if you hit the side of your bowl with a spoon and Pidge was doing something with rover, looking both irritated and tired. When Shiro was done eating he pulled Pidge away for a conversation and then Hunk left to go help the Alteans with whatever they were fixing after the battle. Keith had to admit that Allura was very hands on for a princess.

It was an hour later that Lance finally showed up. Keith would have denied that he was waiting for him if he had asked.

"No scar, huh?" Keith said.

"Nope," Lance said. "Was the princess here?"

"Nope," Keith said.

"Huh." Lance went and got himself a bowl. "Did you eat up, hotshot? You're going to need it if you don't want me kicking your butt in training."

"Aren't you on bedrest or something?" Keith asked.

"No!" Lance said. "I'm on light duty, and it's only one day, so watch out."

"For what?" Keith asked.

"For me!" Lance said.

Keith nodded. "Well, I will definitely look out if you ever need catching again."

"Hey!" Lance said. "That definitely won't be happening again."

"Good."

"Whatever," Lance said. "I guess I should thank you for catching me. But don't think I'm going to go easy on you. I'm going to beat you as a pilot and it'll be me the princess falls for."

"Whatever you say," Keith said. Lance was fine. There wasn't any point to Keith being there. He got up. "Have fun on bed rest tomorrow."

"Light duty!"

Keith went and found the princess. He had no idea what she was doing.

"Do you have a minute?" he asked.

"What's a minute?" the princess asked.

"Um, a moment of your time," Keith said. "I wanted to talk about that thing we talked about yesterday."

"Oh, yes," the princess said. "Did you remember anything."

"Is that why you sent us there?"

"I thought some of you needed to see what it was we were fighting for."

"There's survivors," Keith said. "There's a nearby star system. I could pick it out on a chart. They need help. We didn't get the right kind of sunlight there."

"How many?"

"There were little over a two hundred left when I died," Keith said.

That gave the princess pause. "I'm sorry for your loss. We'll do for them what we can," she said. "It should be easy enough to resettle them somewhere else with a more suitable environment."

Keith nodded.

"Did you remember anything else?"

"Nothing I want to talk about," Keith said.

"How's your second half?"

Keith shrugged. "He lost a bit of blood, but the wound already looks healed. Also, you need to stop meddling."

"It's not normal for a pair of wanderers to be apart like you are," the Princess said.

"Well, we are," Keith said. "It's not going to get better just because you keep pushing us together."

"I'll have you know I was considered a match maker among my friends," the Princess said.

Keith shook his head. "Fate couldn't get it right this time," he said. "What makes you think you've got it."

"Princess!" Lance said from the doorway. "I just wanted to see how you were doing after the castle took that nasty hit."

"The castle's the one that took the damage," the Princess said. "This is about done here. Do you two think you two could get this panel back in place? I've got to talk to Coran about the wellyart ionizer. Thanks. Good work out there today."

She was already out of the room.

"Huh," Lance said.

Keith eyed the panel, not sure how it was supposed to lock into place.

"Fancy finding you here," Lance said. "Still in your armor; nice touch."

Keith sighed.

"I've got my eye on you Gyeong."

---

He was too keyed up to settle down, and his quarters were too small for him to pace in properly, so he'd gone off and let his restless legs guide him through the castle. He'd walk it out and then he'd go through his nightly routine and everything would be fine. His head was too active to even think about settling down just then.

Lance kept vacillating how he saw the adventure. On one hand, everything was awesome. He was in space, piloting the most powerful thing in the universe, fighting a war against an evil alien empire, saving Earth, saving the Galaxy, and fate had chosen him and dropped him right next to an alien princess who'd literally fallen into his arms. It was everything he'd ever dreamed of plus a bunch of things he'd never thought were in any way things he could possibly strive for.

At the same time, there was an element of too good to be true. Like a mistake had been made. He kept pushing that to the background. It wasn't like he hadn't believed he could be the best pilot in his class. But this was so much more, this was chosen one stuff, and even though it was easy enough to imagine himself saving the galaxy, it was a bit harder to actually believe that he had what it took. Those doubts had reared up when he'd been in free fall after his lion had taken that hit. For a moment he'd thought that his super awesome, amazing and cool adventure was coming to a rather abrupt and violent end. His last thought would have been of his mother, back on Earth, never knowing what had happened to him.

He'd missed his family dearly back at the Garrison. They'd only been a FaceTime away, but they hadn't been there. Now they were countless lightyears away, and he didn't know how they were doing, or what they'd been told. The Princess had told them that they'd been fated to become Paladins, but Lance didn't know if he was fated to ever see his home again. It could have all ended that day. It could have all ended with Lance lying broken across his control panel. Maybe the only thing Lance had ever been fated for was ferrying the others to the fight. Maybe he'd done what he was supposed to do. The cargo run was over, and for a moment, he'd thought it was over for him.

Then Gyeong had caught him. Gyeong who still thought he was nothing. Gyeong who looked pained just looking at him. Sometimes Lance felt like he was on top of the world. On top of the Galaxy, and then he saw Gyeong looking at him in frustration, or Shiro looking at him like he was a Cadet out past curfew, and he was reminded that in the grand scheme of things, he was just a leg of Voltron, a seventeen year old kid everyone had always expected to fail.

He'd wanted more than just adventure at the Garrison. He remembered that when he was feeling low. That it wasn't just about being an awesome space pilot. He'd had responsibilities at the Garrison, and he'd been proud of them. He was worried though that no one needed Lance the team lead. They certainly didn't seem to want Lance the team lead.

Eventually his legs carried him back to the paladin quarters and Lance considered doing rounds. It was already late though. Maybe he'd check on them in the morning. He went back into his own room and washed his face, enjoying the warm water on his skin. He would have liked to have used an astringent, and then a gelatin face mask, but he didn't have anything for that, yet. Hunk had mentioned something that Coran was using to fabricate replacement parts, and Lance was hoping it could do more than that. That night he settled for just moisturizing and then sitting down on his bed and doing some deep breathing exercises and some meditation. It was difficult. His thoughts kept drifting to the planet they'd seen earlier that day.

He changed into the blue pajamas that had been left for him, surprisingly in his size, and knelt next to his bed. He said the Lords Prayer, replacing food goo for bread, and sparing a moment to realize that there wasn't any communion in space.

Did that matter?

"Oh heavenly father," he said. "Thanks for that save back there. I thought I'd be visiting with Saint Peter for a moment there, if you know what I mean. People keep talking about fate, but Mamá always said you always had a plan for all of us, so if this is your plan for me… well, no pressure I guess." Was that hubris? "I'll do my best. I'll protect Earth, and I'll stop the Galra, and I'll save everyone else. All the planets they've enslaved." They were all God's people, weren't they? He thought about Rigel Seven, and swallowed thickly. Had they been God's people too? He cleared his throat.

"Please watch over Mamá and Papá and the twins, and my brothers and sisters and everyone. Please comfort them if they're upset about me. I don't know if you've heard from Pidge, but, please help him find his family. Please let them be alright."

He prayed for his fellow Paladins, and for Allura and Coran. He prayed for Earth and the Galaxy. He prayed for guidance.

He got back up onto his bed and got himself settled. His thoughts though were unsettled. Prayer was normally comforting, for a moment he could push whatever he was worried about off of his shoulders, at least until morning, but that night he kept thinking about Rigel Seven. It was one thing to hear Shiro say that the Galra destroyed worlds, but it was another to see it. He thought about Altea. He told himself that God had a plan. It had been easy to have faith in that when he'd grown up in a peaceful and prosperous world. Easy enough to see God's plan in history books when he saw how humanity had marched forward together from war and disease to the verdant and just world he'd grown up in. And yet…

And yet there'd been a war going on for the past ten thousand some odd years. Civilizations that had risen and fallen longer ago than there had been civilizations on Earth. Planets full of people had been destroyed. He knew that there were people who thought the Earth had been created less than six thousand years ago, and he'd always thought that that was silly, but still. He felt like the perspective he'd viewed the universe had changed. God was the creator of the universe. The people of the universe were his people. How was Earth different from Altea, or Rigel Seven. Where the Galra part of God's plan? He tried not to think about it, but it was a long time until he got to sleep.

---

A/N: Hope you liked it. I wanted to have this out a bit ago but grad school is slowly killing me. Please drop me a review. Alternative title for next chapter: Please Sir, That's My Emotional Support Rover.