Okay, don't come at me for this...but I just barely finished watching Voltron. Yeah yeah I know I was like 4 years late, BUT I WATCHED IT EVENTUALLY! All in all, it was a pretty good show! It was fun, and I enjoyed it!
Ummm, yeah so this has been stuck in my head ever since I finished the series and I just had to write a fic about it! Enjoy, mah little baguettes!
Lance lurched upward with a gasp, placing a hand on his head. He breathed slowly, trying to calm his rapid heartbeat as he remembered what had woken him. A voice calling his name.
Lance. Lance. Lance.
The woman's voice that had supposedly woken him was nowhere to be found; instead, Lance stood in a white space, with no floors or sides. It seemed to be glowing, pulsating in a disorienting, strange way.
He glanced down to see that he was in the same pajamas that he had fallen asleep in. Lance was also barefoot.
Weird, he thought.
"Lance? Is that you?"
Lance turned to see Hunk and Shiro off to his right. He waved. "Yeah, it's me. Where are we?"
"I'd assume something like the time we shared each other's consciousnesses."
Lance turned to the sound of Pidge's voice, and found her standing next to Keith on his left.
"Or at the center of all things," Hunk piped up.
The rest of his sentence was left unspoken: Like when we said goodbye to Allura.
"Look!" Shiro exclaimed, pointing into the supposed center of the white light.
Lance raised a hand to shield his eyes against the blinding whiteness. His heart froze in place.
Five lionesses stood in front of them, each a different color. Blue. Red. Black. Yellow. Green. But they weren't mechanical; they looked like colored versions of real-life lionesses, except noticeably larger.
"Is that—" Lance breathed.
"I—I think so," Pidge answered shakily. "Voltron."
"No, Katie," the Blue lioness rumbled. She gestured with a clawed paw towards them. "You are Voltron."
"Woah, woah woah!" Hunk sputtered, making an 'x' with his hands. "Take it back a couple notches. You're alive?!"
The Green lioness said, "In a way. But not at all."
"Cryptic," Pidge mused. Her mouth quirked into a smile. "I like it."
Hunk elbowed her, but he was also smiling despite his best efforts.
"You are the Paladins of Voltron," the Yellow lioness explained. "Voltron is a real thing, just as you are real people of a real planet: Earth."
Green cut in as she padded towards Pidge, who let out a little eep! as the lioness stopped in front of her,
"We are a concept, forged into life by the alchemist Alfor after he saw the White Guardian on Oriande. We can only be brought into a being by the Paladins who forge a bond with our mechanical...essence, if you will."
The Red Lioness rose to her paws, twitching her ears. "We are the vessels of which the Paladins harness their power. We were 'created' to help you curb your abilities into something manageable."
Lance's mouth formed in a silent oh.
"It was you all along," Keith murmured, mainly to himself. "You helped to tell me the secrets of my Lion. Like how to use the bayards."
Red nodded in confirmation, her powerful neck rippling with muscle.
Hunk put a hand on his head. "Oh, man," he groaned. "This is a little too much for one night."
Yellow had made her way to stand beside Hunk. Her tail twitched playfully as he spoke. Then she did something surprising: she laughed, a rumbling sound from deep in her chest.
"Your confusion is understandable," she chuckled, her glowing eyes twinkling with mirth. "One might say it is humorous to an entity such as ourselves."
Hunk reached out and ruffled her fur, it's thickness almost enveloping his entire hand. "I have been known to be humorous," he agreed, grinning broadly.
Pidge saw Hunk pet his Lioness and tentatively reached out to pat Green on the head.
Green, sensing this, brought her large head forward to place Pidge's palm in the middle of her forehead.
Pidge giggled and stroked her fingers along the lionesses ears. Green arched under to touch, purring softly.
Black stood and made her way forward. She had the beginnings of a mane, the layers of fur making a proud ruff around her neck and spine. Scars decorated her flank, rippling when her muscles contracted as she padded on silent feet.
Keith shifted ever-so-slightly closer to Shiro as the lioness halted in front of him.
Her glowing golden eyes traveled up Shiro's metal arm until her gaze met his. She appeared to be smiling. "Hello, Takashi. It's lovely to see you again."
Shiro staggered slightly at the sound of her voice. He looked like someone had punched him in the stomach.
"It was you," he whispered, eyes wide. "You—you were there with me."
Black leaned down to nuzzle his head. "Indeed, I was."
Shiro closed his eyes, leaning into her strong jaw. "You were all that kept me sane."
Keith whipped his head around to stare at him. "Where?" he demanded. "When?"
"In the Black lion's consciousness, after my battle with Zarkon," Shiro explained, his eyes still closed. "Someone talked with me. A woman's voice. But I never imagined...that it was actually her—my Lion—speaking to me. She saved my life."
Keith ran a hand through his hair. "I…" he began, then licked his lips before continuing, "This is too much. Too much after too little...it's overwhelming."
Black looked him over fondly, like a mother looking at her child. "Keith," she chided gently. She tipped his chin up with her tail.
"Part of being a leader is recognizing that there are things you can and cannot control. And letting go of the things you can't. Allow this uncontrollable time to flow through you, and allow yourself not to be upset."
Keith folded his arms across his chest.
Black leaned forward and licked his cheek, getting him to smile.
"Often, the best things to happen are unpredictable and uncontrollable," she told him. "That is why they stay with us for the longest time."
Keith begrudgingly nodded as he stroked the side of her neck gently.
"Lance McClain."
Lance tore his eyes from Keith to see Red sitting in front of him. "O-Oh," he stammered. "Hello."
Mirth danced in her glowing eyes; for a second, Lance thought he saw flames circling their irises.
"I think that we are past formalities, don't you?"
Lance rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously. "Yeah, I guess so," he admitted.
Red blinked at him fondly. "You've grown so much since that first day. I am so proud of you."
His cheeks heated. Lance's eyes flicked down to his bare feet; he couldn't bring himself to meet her fiery gaze.
"You are still unsure," she remarked softly, "after all this time."
Lance felt shame rise in his throat as he nodded. "I just—I don't know why you chose me after you had initially chosen Keith."
Something heavy draped across his shoulders, and Lance jerked his head up to see Red's tail curled around him. He was drawn to her side as she pressed his entire body against her soft flank.
"Some things have to change in order to keep the balance," she told him quietly, "but that does not mean that I valued you any less than Keith. You changed over time, and in doing so, you changed to encompass a similarity to me. Your friend grew up to become the Black Lion's Paladin. You grew up to become my Paladin; our souls are equal to each other."
Lance huffed a laugh. "That's intense," he mumbled into her thick fur.
Red pressed her nose to Lance's forehead. "You are my Paladin, and I am your vessel. Nothing in the entire universe will ever change that."
Lance felt his eyes brim with tears as the warmth from her nose stayed on his head.
"Go," she whispered. Her flaming eyes trailed on something behind him. "There is someone who needs to speak with you."
Lace glanced over his shoulder to see Blue sitting a few yards away from the others. She was staring at something in the distance, but he couldn't tell.
He walked up to meet her, his hands in his pockets.
"Do you miss her?" he asked quietly. His voice was swallowed up into the white void.
"Everyday," she replied.
Allura's face suddenly appeared in his mind's eye, just as beautiful as he remembered. "Me too."
Blue dropped her head with a mournful sigh. "She is far away from me now. And it hurts to feel her so faintly."
"She was your true Paladin," Lance said. "It must be horrible to not feel that connection anymore."
Blue raised her head to look at him. "You were my true Paladin in the beginning," she said.
Lance sighed, feeling that doubt begin to creep back into his mind. "I know. But things changed, and—"
"Change is not bad, nor does it make us forget the ones who were there for us in the beginning," Blue interrupted. "You were there for me in the beginning, when you woke me on Earth."
Lance drew in a sharp breath as he remembered when he first laid eyes on the Blue Lion. Her towering figure, blue honey-combed shield, her majestic stature. But he remembered her vacant eyes most of all. He was a boy searching for an adventure; she was a concept searching for her connecting Paladin.
"I guess in some ways," he said quietly, "we were just two lost souls trying to find meaning in ourselves." He raised his head to smile at her. "And then I saw you, and realized that I'd gotten a meaning in my simple farmer life."
"You found me, Lance." Blue's golden eyes pierced his, even though her voice was impossibly gentle. "For the first time in 10,000 years, I was finally awakened by who you were. Your presence, your life, the entirety of you. You were my missing piece and I was finally completed."
Lance felt overwhelmed by the sudden honesty in which Blue was talking to him. He shrugged, feeling his face heat. "It's nothing," he mumbled.
She hooked her paw around his back and drew Lance into an almost smothering hug. It was one of the best hugs he'd ever received.
"Thank you for finding me," she whispered, her whiskers tickling his neck as she spoke.
Lance laid his head on her great chest, feeling the steady rhythm of her breathing.
"And Allura thanks you as well."
Tears sprang to Lance's eyes as he remembered when he'd first met Allura all those years ago. When he was just a boy from Cuba and she was an Altean princess that fell into his arms. Back when everything had begun to get complicated. Back when everything was simpler than it was now.
Her thick fur began to feel lighter, and Lance jerked his head back with a strangled noise in the back of his throat.
Blue was fading, her outline becoming lighter and lighter with each passing second.
Lance whirled around to see all five lionesses also disappearing into the white light.
"No, no, no."
It was falling apart all over again.
"Not you, too."
Red managed a sad smile. "It will be okay," she told him. Her voice was getting fainter as she became more transparent.
"I don't want you to leave," Lance whispered.
He clenched his hands into tight fists as tears slid down his face.
"Please. Don't go."
He squeezed his eyes shut as if he could hide from the piercing whiteness of his surroundings, as if he could hide in the fantasy world in his head, where everything stayed the same. Where everything stayed good.
"We're not leaving. Not really."
Red's breath was warm on his face as she bent her head to his. She leaned forward to press her nose against his forehead. Lance's eyes flew open.
Something sparked, then filled his body with an ichour-like feeling, swamped with nostalgia and stars and galaxies.
"We are a concept," Black whispered to Keith, her nose also against his forehead.
"Once we are brought into reality," Green continued as Pidge buried her face into her fast-fading body.
"We can never truly disappear," Yellow purred, swiping her tongue across Hunk's cheek.
Blue watched from a little ways off, love filling her gaze. "And we never truly leave," she finished.
Red pulled away from Lance, and the boy reached a hand up to his forehead. He ran his fingers over the warm mark left by her nose in awe.
The Lions backed away to stand in a line before the Paladins.
"Wake up," they whispered in unison.
Then the world exploded in a blinding white light, and the Lions vanished.
Lance lurched upward with a gasp, placing a hand on his head. He breathed slowly, trying to calm his rapid heartbeat as he remembered what had woken him.
A harsh blue light flooded his room, and his body seemed to burst with adrenaline.
The Lions!
Lance flew out of bed and down the hallway, his feet slamming against the hard floor. He flung open his door and raced to the courtyard as fast as he could, the other Paladins right beside him.
The Black lioness' eyes had flared to life with blue light.
"Hurry!" he panted as he saw the other Lions' eyes light up to match their leaders'.
Their thrusters ignited in blue fire, propelling them upward into the air.
Lance skidded to a halt, nearly colliding with Shiro. They all gazed upward in awe as the Lions took to the sky.
The Black Lion reared back her head and gave a thunderous roar.
The other four lionesses repeated her call, tipping their mouths to the night stars.
Lance's Altean marks flared to life as Blue's roar awoke a deepness inside of him. Tears formed in the corners of his eyes as he watched the Lions move away, his hair fluttering around his face.
The Paladins were silent as they watched their Lions leave. Voltron's time had come to an end; this was their goodbye.
Out of the corner of his eye, Lance saw that a strange mark was glowing in yellow, green, red, and purple on the other Paladin's foreheads, echoing their own Lions' colors.
"Coran?" Pidge asked in a whisper as she pointed to her forehead. "What is this?"
Coran, who had run out with them to see the Lions before they left, was standing as still as a stone.
His eyes were swimming with tears. "It's the Lion's Mark. Alfor drew it after he saw the White Guardian's face, making it a symbol of power and strength within the Altean community."
He drew in a shaky breath as he looked back at Allura's statue as the Lions flew over her before they disappeared into the night.
"It is also the Mark of Love."
Lance felt tears running down his face, but didn't try to stop them as he saw everyone crying. He managed a smile and touched the rune on his forehead as Blue's words echoed in his ears,
We never truly leave.
Ehehehe i'm crying.
But let me know what you think :D
