Chapter Eight:
Time seemed to blur after that.
Pidge didn't remember how long they stood on the tarmac before everyone was herded into armored cars and driven to a hotel. Apparently, it was the same hotel that Lance, Hunk and Shiro's families were staying at, and where Mrs. Holt had organized their get-together.
Pidge definitely remembered that there was a lot of food, and that they couldn't remember the last time they had eaten so much.
The Sanchez-Garcia family had prepared tons of food to bring, more than enough to feed the entire family (not only Lance's immediate family, but both sets of his grandparents had come, with promises from his aunts and uncles and cousins to call and Skype) as well as their new, honorary family members. Lance was more than pleased to discover that this included his emAbuelita/em's famous empanadas and made each of his teammates eat one to prove that they were the best in the entire universe. Hunk's mother and sisters, like Hunk, were stress-bakers; the Galra invasion had led to at least a dozen concoctions consisting of coconut cakes, pineapple upside-down cakes, and loaves of sweet bread in addition to a lot of other non-dessert type food. Apparently, Mitsu and her mother had joined the Kekoas in the hotel kitchen, with the mother and daughter creating the traditional Japanese meals Mrs. Shirogane served at home; there was a lot of rice-balls, gyoza, buns stuffed with red-bean paste, mochi, and a honey-flavored sponge cake that Shiro very quickly remembered as being one of his favorite foods. But for Pidge, the highlight was their mother's famous peanut-butter cookies.
There were round tables set up, but they all ended up as close as possible. There was a lot of chatter and laughter as everyone ate. There were lots of questions about the Lions and the Castle and Voltron. There were a lot of stories that were shared. Lance's siblings were quick to catch him up on the family gossip and spill embarrassing dirt on each other, which usually left a few people angry while the others howled with laughter, the angry ones waiting until it was their turn to get revenge.
As Lance had predicted, his three youngest siblings were in awe of Allura and the fact that she was a real live princess. Lance's nine-year-old brother Raymon quickly tried to flirt with Allura, which—like Lance's own flirtations—did not work at all and Allura simply thought he was a really charming Earthling child. The rest of Lance's siblings—along with Mitsu, Luana, Kalea, Lani and Tali—were more curious about space and the other aliens they had met.
"Are there lightsabers and stuff?" Lance's brother, Miguel, asked.
"What's the weirdest alien custom or tradition you've experience yet?" Lance's sister Maria asked.
"Is there a universal measuring system or does it vary by planet and galaxy?" Tali asked.
"Do all the ships look like that or is that just what Altean ships look like?" Mitsu asked.
"What do you do if you do something completely normal and it's not on the planet you're on?" Luana asked. "Like, if you sneeze and apparently that's enough to start a civil war or something?"
"What's something that's like a universally understood concept or gesture or whatever?" Kalea asked.
The answers ranged from Paladin to Paladin, but they agreed on the answer to Kalea's question, one they had found out the hard way a few times now:
"You break it, you buy it."
The moms and Lance's grandmothers had all apparently decided—in lieu of Keith not having any of his own family there—to gang up on the Red Paladin, all proclaiming him to be too skinny and stuffing food onto his plate. He ended up getting seated across from Lance, who had his baby sister Bella on his lap, the seven year old having claimed Lance's lap as her seat the moment he sat down and made it clear that she was not going to move anytime soon. But Keith soon realized that her blue eyes were trained on him, narrowed slightly. He shifted awkwardly under her gaze when he noticed, then shyly waved at her. She then turned and looked up at Lance, saying something in Spanish that made him laugh and respond in the same language.
"Hey, if you're going to make fun of me, at least do it in a language I understand." Keith said, which only caused Lance's grin to grow bigger.
"You hear that, Belleza? He thinks we're making fun of him." Lance asked, gently poking his sister in the sides.
Bella suddenly had a rather large, mischievous grin that Keith thought looked rather like her big brother's.
"Maybe we should keep letting him think that." She said.
Keith was suddenly really grateful that Lance didn't introduce Keith as his boyfriend, if this is what he got when he was just Lance's teammate.
Just then, Keith and Lance both noticed a young soldier coming in the room and up to Shiro, passing him a note. Shiro had barely thanked him before he was out of the room.
"Everything okay?" Keith asked as Shiro read the note.
"We have a meeting, tomorrow morning at eleven." Shiro explained. "With the President of the United States. It'll be in one of the conference rooms here, since security has already swept through."
"Good." Allura said with a nod. "I wish to establish diplomatic contact with as many of your world leaders while we are here, as well as answer any and all questions they may have about Voltron and the Galra."
"Ooh, ooh, can you do an official interview for the blog while you're here?" Lani asked excitedly.
"I believe we can arrange that." Allura promised with a smile.
"Qué?" Mrs. Sanchez-Garcia said suddenly, looking around at the Paladins, before focusing on her son, her eyes wide. "No entiendo. What do you mean 'while you are here'?"
"Well," Lance said, shifting Bella some on his lap as she twisted around to look up at him. "Well, I guess we'll need a few days to make repairs and get some supplies and stuff. But then we have to go back."
"Por qué?" Bella asked, reaching up to clutch onto Lance's shoulder, her eyes suddenly wide and teary. "Para qué?"
"Because we have to, Belleza." Lance said, gently running his thumb over her cheek, giving her a smile. "We're the Defenders of the Universe. It's our job."
"Yeah," Hunk said. "There's so many planets that have been under Galra rule for ten thousand years. We need to help them, to free them."
"It's horrible, what the Galra have done." Allura said. "They'll either destroy worlds with a single blow, or they will slowly kill planets over hundreds of years. One of our first missions as Team Voltron was to rescue a Balmera, a petrified living creature the size of a planet. The Galra were slowly killing it and enslaved the Balmerans who lived there."
"And they force their prisoners to work in labor colonies." Pidge added. "And that's where my dad and brother, Matt, are."
"Emperor Zarkon has little care for the lives of others. What he can't use, he'll destroy." Shiro said.
"No." Mrs. Sanchez-Garcia said, shaking her head as she stared at Lance. "No. You are finally home… No, I forbid it."
"Mamá," Lance said with an almost groan. "It doesn't work that way… I have to go. It's not like they can just find a new pilot for Blue that easy." Lance then hesitated and looked around at the other Paladins and Allura, suddenly looking a little panicked. "Right?"
As all five opened their mouths at the same time to say, "no, of course not", someone spoke before them.
"Yeah." Shinji said. "I mean, you're all really young. Wouldn't it be better to give the Lions to older pilots and soldiers? People who have a lot more training?"
"No. That can't be done." Coran answered. "To do so would be detrimental not only to the entire universe, but to each of the Paladins and their safety and well-being. Not to mention, the Lions have already chosen their Paladins. If they are offered another pilot now, the Lions could reject them entirely. And, if they don't, if they let anyone other than their chosen Paladin pilot them, the new pilots would never be given the same protection that this team has."
Everyone turned to stare at Coran, who had thus far been uncharacteristically silent that evening.
He nodded at Mrs. Sanchez-Garcia and her husband, then at Mrs. Kekoa, Mr. and Mrs. Shiorgane, and Mrs. Holt.
"My good ladies, my fair gentlemen, your sons—and, small non-binary child—will be safe, so long as they are together. Or, perhaps more accurately, as long as they are Paladins of Voltron." Coran explained. "You see, to form Voltron, each Paladin needs to form a bond with their Lion, with their individual teammates, and as a team." Coran looked at each Paladin individually before saying. "And all of these bonds are stronger with this team than it ever was with the Original Paladins."
"The Original… Wait, how do you know?" Hunk asked, brow furrowing.
"Well, I knew the original Paladins." Coran said simply.
"No, how do you know we're stronger than them?" Hunk reiterated.
Coran pressed his fingertips together and leaned back in his chair.
"The fact that your fates seemed to all be tied together before you knew anything about Voltron, to begin with." Coran said. "That five perfect candidates found each other before they ever found the Lions. Five candidates that were accepted by the Lions almost instantly once they were found. Pidge and Shiro are connected by the Kerberos mission and their respective relationships to the good Commander Holt and young Matthew. Shiro mentored Keith, who until his expulsion was in the same class as Lance and Hunk, who were randomly assigned as roommates at the Garrison. And then when Pidge entered the Garrison, they were assigned to a team with Lance and Hunk."
"Which we wouldn't have, if Keith hadn't been kicked out and I hadn't gotten bumped up to fighter pilot." Lance said with realization.
"And if I hadn't been expelled, I wouldn't have started searching for Blue." Keith said.
"And if I hadn't been promoted to flight crew, I might never have met Pidge." Hunk added. "I started as ground crew. I liked ground crew, by the way. There were a lot less alien warlords to be taken down when I was part of ground crew."
"And if I wasn't part of Lance and Hunk's team, they wouldn't have had a reason to come follow me to the roof that night." Pidge said contemplatively before looking up at Coran with a frown. "But, that's all like a fluke, isn't it?"
"Not a fluke, Number Five." Coran said. "Fate and destiny. They work in interesting ways, don't they?"
"So, we were all destined to know each other one way or another and become friends?" Hunk asked.
"One way or another." Coran answered. "And the Lions—particularly the Blue Lion—have a part in shaping your fated convergence."
"Blue?" Lance said, blinking. "Because she was the one on Earth?"
"Amongst other things, yes. But the Blue Lion was the only Lion to call out for the Paladins, even though the one who heard her first was not to be her pilot." Coran said.
"Yeah, why was that?" Keith asked. "I spent months tracking her down, but then she chose Lance. Not going to lie, that kind of pissed me off at first."
"The Blue Lion represents faith and trust." Allura said softly. "She would need a Paladin with an open heart as well as an open mind."
"The Blue Lion needed to trust someone to bring her Paladin to her. She chose to put that trust in you, Keith." Coran said. "But while you are open-minded, you keep your heart closed off and withhold trust. Like with the Red Lion, you need to have someone earn your respect before you give them trust and let them in. Lance, however, will trust until given a reason not to. The Blue Lion and the Red Lion are designed to balance each other in that regard."
Keith nodded in understanding, as did Lance, who was now starting to understand his Lion better as well as his own relationship with Keith.
"But that can't be your only reason for saying that." Shiro said.
"You are correct." Coran said. "As I told you when you first started forming Voltron, it took years of individual practice and bonding for the Original Paladins to form Voltron. But you all managed to cram all of those years into a single day. And even after all that training, it took months for the Original Paladins to form Voltron as easily as you did on that afternoon. And the Green Lion and the Black Lion proved how strong the Paladin-Lion bond is for your team the very next afternoon."
"Wait, you mean when Green and Black moved on their own to protect me and Shiro when the Robobeast crashed on Arus?" Pidge said.
"That is exactly what I am referring to." Coran said with a nod.
"They weren't supposed to do that?" Shiro asked, brow furrowing.
"Well, yes, but after years of bonding." Coran said. "I will admit, I did not believe either of you at first when you told me of that incident. I cannot tell you how long I spent denying that the only explanation was impossible. Improbable. You were all so young, so inexperienced. And yet, two days later, I was forced to concede that the impossible was not only possible, but happening. And we have Sendak to thank for that."
Then, Coran turned to look at Lance.
"And you, Lance." He said.
"Me?" Lance said, pointing to himself, confused. "Wait, how? What did I do?"
"It started when you realized that the small droid was not, in fact, Pidge's Rover. That it was a bomb." Coran said.
At this point, it appeared that the assembled parents, siblings and friends were just now really grasping what kind of danger that the Paladins faced on a daily basis. And based off the expressions on their faces, none of them liked it. Coran, however, did not notice and continued to speak,
"The explosion very nearly killed you, Lance." Coran said, ignoring the pained noises that were coming from the Sanchez-Garcia clan that came from his statement. "Actually, the entire day without a healing pod should have killed you, too."
By now, the Paladins and Allura had very wide eyes, all shaking their heads and making gestures at Coran to stop talking, especially as Lance's mother seemed to grow angrier and angrier by the second and Hunk's mother was biting her lip, looking at her own son with concern. Even Mrs. Holt, who promised Pidge her full support, was looking a little remorseful at making such a promise so soon.
"Coran… Coran, that is the opposite of what we need right now!" Hunk said, waving his hands.
"And then, of all things, you come out of a coma for a matter of seconds and use that time to shoot at one of the most feared commanders in the Galra fleet, giving your teammates an upper-hand in defeating him!" Coran said, ignoring them.
"Welp," Lance said dramatically, slumping backwards in his chair, head dangling over the back of it. "I'm grounded. It was nice flying with you guys. Thanks for letting me play Voltron with you. Let me know if you guys defeat Zarkon. Maybe I'll be let out of my room by then and allowed to interact with the outside world…"
"Coran, maybe we should change the subject now…" Allura said quickly.
"Hang on, let me finish." Coran said, giving Allura a sharp look that took her aback and surprised the other Paladins, who had never seen Coran be sharp with the Princess. "I have gone over that footage dozens of times. Lance was able to come out of that coma to protect his teammates. But at the same time, it wasn't Lance."
"Wait, what?" Lance said, immediately sitting up straight again. "Yeah, that was me. I remember that."
"Yes, you do. But it wasn't you in control. Not entirely, at least." Coran said.
"Then, if not Lance, who?" Shiro asked, his right hand almost instinctively curling into a fist.
"You can relax, Shiro." Coran said immediately. "I know where your train of thought is going. But it is the opposite of what you think. It was the Blue Lion."
"Blue?" Was the echoed response.
"Wait, what, how?" Hunk asked.
"Can all of our Lions do that?" Pidge asked, eyes wide.
"Yes, Pidge, they can, but only in incredibly dire circumstances." Coran said. "As for how… Well, by now you have all realized that the Lions are to some extent sentient? I believe the term you have all used to describe them before is 'magic'. And they are magic. They are immortal Lion goddesses, who have taken metal forms to serve as protectors of peace throughout the galaxy. These Lions have chosen more than just pilots. They have chosen someone to share their magic with. To use that magic to protect that person."
Coran then looked directly at Lance's mother as he spoke.
"I cannot promise that they will come home without a scratch. But I can promise you that these Lions will bring their Paladins home, so long as the bond between them stays strong. There will be scars, yes. But they will come home, alive." Coran said. "So long as they are a team. So long as they can form Voltron… Yes, they will have to fight, but they do so for those who cannot."
Mrs. Sanchez-Garcia's glare and anger seemed to melt as she looked at her lap, hiding her face. Her husband gently put a hand on her back.
"Mamá, papá," Lance said softly, reaching across his father to grab hold of his mother's hand. "Por favor?"
Mrs. Sanchez-Garcia hesitated, then looked at her husband, before both nodded.
"Muchas gracias!" Lance said with a sigh of relief, grinning.
"But you all have to promise to keep in touch with us on a regular basis." Mrs. Kekoa said, looking at her own son as she said so. "Let us know that you are okay."
"We can try, but we haven't exactly had the best luck with cell-phone signals in space." Hunk said.
"No, but… Hunk, you said you managed to get a connection to the internet while in space?" Lani said.
"Well, yeah, so I guess e-mail and stuff…" Hunk said.
"Or…" Lani said. "A video blog, maybe? Perhaps one that already exists and is dedicated to Voltron with a follower count in the millions?"
"Are you asking to go to space with us?" Shiro asked.
Lani hesitated, then nodded shyly before saying,
"I mean, I'll do stuff other than blog! I don't really have any special skills like fighting or piloting and I can barely tell the difference between a wrench and a screwdriver, but I can cook or clean and I do know some basic first aid from lifeguard training. Oh, I can sew a bit, too, if that helps. Really don't know what other kind of space chores there are to be done, but I could probably do it!"
"Hey, excuse me, those videos are a two-woman job." Tali said, standing up to come put her hand on Lani's shoulder, a small smile playing on the corners of her mouth. "You just going to ditch me and go solo?"
"Well, I didn't want to speak for you." Lani said. "I mean, you have your Gran and your job…"
"My Gran knows I've always wanted to go to space. And I hate my job." Tali said with a wave of her hand. "Besides, I've been training to go to space since I was twelve. And I think with the help of Hunk, Pidge and Coran, I can probably pick up alien engineering skills." She looked up at Shiro. "So, how about it? Will you let the two of us go with you?"
"Ask Allura." Shiro said instantly. "Her castle."
"Ask Shiro. He is Head of Voltron." Allura said with a small smile. She had already decided she liked both girls and would love for them to join the Castle. Especially because she could see just how much Lani meant to Hunk. "But, my answer is yes."
Shiro sighed and rubbed his forehead.
"Okay, Tali's legally an adult so none of us could stop her if we tried. And I get the feeling I have tried before." He said.
"You have, and you failed. Many times, actually." Tali said with a nod.
"But Lani, you at least need parental permission." Shiro said, ignoring Tali.
"That's fair." Lani said with a nod.
At that point, the Paladins attempted to recapture the lighter mood, promising to introduce their family members to the Lions and show them around the Castle. Keith, however, glanced over to see that Lance's lap was missing a little sister and turned just in time to see Bella leave the room, somehow unnoticed.
Keith stood up, excused himself, and went to follow the little girl.
He didn't have to go far.
He found her sitting behind a large potted plant across from the dining room, her arms wrapped around her knees and sniffling.
Keith hesitated; he wasn't good with kids, or girls, and definitely not tears. But—he told himself—he was good with Lance, and this was Lance's little sister. Lance's precious Belleza.
Eventually, Keith wanted this little girl to know him as her brother's boyfriend. But, more importantly, he wanted her to like him.
So he took a deep breath and stepped forward, going to sit down on Bella's other side.
"You know, it's not a good thing to wander off on your own." Keith said. "Stranger danger and all that. It's not safe."
Bella looked up at him with narrowed, teary eyes.
"We're probably in the safest building in the world right now." She pointed out, gesturing to where a group of guards stood chatting.
"Uh, fair point." Keith said. "But you're going to make your Mom and Dad and Lance worry about you."
"Let them worry." Bella spat bitterly. "I'm angry with all three of them."
"Why?" Keith asked.
"Because!" Bella said, kicking one of her legs out into the air, glaring at the toe of her dirty pink sneaker. "Because Lance is leaving me again! And because mamá and papá are letting him!"
With that, she brought her leg back down and buried her face in her knees, crying again.
Keith awkwardly reached his hand out, gently patting her on the back.
"You know," He said quietly. "Lance was so scared you'd be angry with him when he got back.
Bella's shoulders stopped shaking some as she listened.
"He told me that you didn't want him going back to the Garrison at the beginning of the year. That you wanted him to stay home." Keith said.
He remembered, just the night before—had it really only been the night before?—laying in Lance's bed, gently running his hand over Lance's stomach while Lance stared up at the ceiling, his own hand in Keith's hair, telling him about how, the day before he moved back to the Garrison to start his third year, Bella had woken up from a nightmare. That she had seen him walking into the Garrison, but when she followed him, he was gone. She couldn't find him. He just disappeared. She begged him to stay home, to not go back, had cried and clung to him. And Lance, probably for the first time ever, told his Belleza no. He wasn't just going to drop out, especially not after he had finally made fighter pilot. She was understandably angry with him, but Lance refused to be swayed. She had reluctantly hugged him and kissed him good-bye at the airport, and he promised her that he would see her at Christmas.
But then, he had done exactly as she feared.
He walked into the Garrison. And disappeared without a trace.
"I don't know if this makes you feel better at all, but I don't think Lance really wants to leave. He'd like to stay here. But he knows he has a job to do." Keith said. "He gets homesick really easily. He misses you and your parents and your brothers and sisters. But he knows that there are families under the Galra that have been separated. Other little sisters who just want to be with their big brothers. Pidge is one of them. Lance is trying to help Pidge find their big brother. He has a job to protect the entire universe, and bring families together. And he's very good at it."
"But is what the Mustache Man said true?" Bella asked, lifting her tear-streaked face, lower lip quivering just like Lance when he was upset. "Will he be okay? He'll come home?"
"Of course he will." Keith said. "He's got us to look out for him. And he looks out for the rest of us, too. That's how our team works. We're kind of a family of our own, I guess you could say. We all still have our own families, so really it's like a lot of small—well, your family is huge so not-so-small—families are making one big one."
"So, does that make you my brother now, too?" Bella asked.
"Yeah, sure, I guess. If you want me to be." Keith said with a shrug.
Bella hesitated, then nodded.
"Yeah…" She said. "That'd be cool." She hesitated, then said, "But you promise that Lance is gonna come back?"
"Of course he is." Keith said. "Bella, look at me."
Bella hesitantly looked up at Keith, tilting her head as Keith looked directly into her eyes.
"Bella, I promise you, as Lance's friend and as yours, I'm going to make sure your brother comes home in one piece. I promise I'll protect him so that he'll come home and be able to stay home. That you'll be able to hug him as much as you want and will never have to worry about him again." Keith said. "You have my word as the pilot of the Red Lion, as a Paladin of Voltron."
Bella bit her lip, then held up her hand, her pinky finger raised.
"Pinky promise?" She asked.
Keith linked his pinky finger around hers and nodded.
"Pinky promise." He confirmed.
Bella smiled.
"Gracias." She said.
"De nada." Keith said, utilizing one of the few Spanish phrases he remembered from hours of Dora the Explorer on the television in the group homes. "So, will you tell me what you told Lance earlier? About me?"
"Oh, that." Bella said, grinning now. "I told Lance that he lied about how ugly your hair was. That it's not really that bad at all."
Keith frowned at that.
"Yeah, and what did he say?" He asked through gritted teeth.
"He told me I'd appreciate it's ugliness as I got older." Bella said with a giggle.
Lance was going to pay for that later.
Keith suddenly smirked.
And he knew exactly how.
"Hey, you wanna hear about all the embarrassing stuff your brother's done in space?" He asked.
Bella's eyes lit up.
"Uh huh." She said, her grin growing.
"Alright then, let me tell you the story of the time your brother got himself handcuffed to a tree because he was flirting with a girl."
"Was it Princess Allura?"
"No, but after this one I'll tell you the story of their first meeting. You'll love it."
And Keith was right. She did.