Lance didn't really know what pushed him to join the Galaxy Garrison, one of the many branches in the military. Maybe when he saw how his sister had signed up for the military*, he thought he could follow in her footsteps. Maybe it was when Takashi Shirogane had come to his school to recruit young students. If that was the case, Lance knew he had fallen in love with the pilot seat during the trial simulation. Lance felt like he could list a whole number of reasons, but his mind would always bring up one, and that is how he felt connected with space. Since a child, the Cuban boy longed for the stars, the chance to explore the outer regions of the galaxy. His parents always warned him about his dreams, his siblings would joke on how aliens could abduct him from a space mission. However, the young boy didn't pay attention to them saying this; instead, he continued his pursuit for adventure.
When the time came to sign up for the Galaxy Garrison, he was able to persuade his long-time friend, Hunk, to sign up for the engineering department. The Cuban knew that while his friend loved creating in the kitchen, he loved tinkering in the mechanic shop with his uncle. He was hesitant at first in joining the Garrison because of how far away it could be from his family, but with Lance with him there, he was more than positive in what his decision was going to be. The two friends had made a promise to be each other's pilot and engineer whenever they got the chance to do so. Lance knew he always had big dreams, and sometimes reaching for his dreams exhausted him, he knew he could always count on Hunk to pull him down to earth whenever he felt that he pushed himself beyond his limits. While Hunk was always hesitant to reach his dreams, he counted on Lance to give him a push in order to get on the right path toward his dream. The two were like two peas in a pod, never going anywhere without each other, always supporting each other ever since the age of 12. However, when the two signed up to go to space, neither one of them would have thought they would be saving Senior Officer Shirogane from the very Garrison they admired, alongside a drop-out and a mini genius.
Lance glanced at the pinned documents all around the walls of the rundown shack Keith had brought them to in the middle of the desert. Pictures of wall engravings, in the form of a Lion, seemed to take most of the space on the walls. Red strings attached to the pins led to other documents which led to more documents or pictures. In all honesty, he felt like the whole room reminded him of a conspiracy theorist movie. From where he and his other two classmates where he moved the thin curtain that covered the window and watched as Senior Officer Shirogane was talking with Keith. The way the two spoke each other, as if familiar to one another, reminded him how Keith and Junior Officer Warfeld** spoke together after Senior Officer Shirogane had disappeared during the Kerberos mission. He quickly closed the curtain away as he saw the two beginning to turn around and approach the shack. Hearing the door open, Hunk and Pidge glanced at their direction and stood up from where they sat on the floor, tinkering away with Pidge's homemade technology. Keith had approached a covered piece of furniture and pulled away the cover that concealed what was underneath and revealed even more conspiracy weird stuff.
While the two had kept talking Lance felt a strange pull of energy(?), he didn't have the right word to describe it, for what seemed like the hundredth time since their arrival to the shack. He remembered feeling this strange pull when he had first arrived at the Garrison but he thought it to be him being nervous in a new environment. Too busy with trying to figure out what it was, he barely heard what Keith was talking about when he heard his name being called out by the Senior Officer. The adult stretched out his hand to greet him, Lance did as well, but before he connected their hands Lance glanced down to see it was the new prosthetic arm that he would be shaking. It wasn't that he was uncomfortable in shaking hands with the alien tech, but some form of energy that the arm emitted was what sent a shiver down his spine. It felt the same as the strange energy he felt emitting from the desert, but it was more sinister, almost as if it was tainted. Not wanting to the seem hesitant to the higher ranking officer he gave him a smile and quickly shook hands with him. Pidge was the next to shake hands with him after introducing himself and Hunk. It didn't surprise the Cuban when he heard the younger boy ask about the rest of Shirogane's crew. The boy was practically obsessed with the Kerberos mission, it was easily seen when he would get angry when he would hear someone talking bad about the crew. It almost made Lance wonder what was going on, but he wasn't one to pry. Yet.
Lance couldn't imagine what it would feel like to lose one's memories, not being able to remember your past, would scare even the bravest of persons. And here was his hero, his idol, unsure of what to do with lost memories of his alien encounters. Veronica had told him stories of friends who went to battle and never returned the same. She told him how some would block out everything that had happened to them during their time in battle, an aftereffect of the trauma they experienced she said. Sometimes it would affect them for the whole life others temporarily, she had seen many having to be discharged from the military because of their mental health being unhealthy.
"Sorry to interrupt, but back to the aliens. Where are they now? Are they coming? Are they coming for us? Where are they at this very moment?" Lance looked over to his nervous friend, his hands waving about as he spoke. There were three levels to Hunk's nervousness, verbal rambling, vomiting, and cooking, a lot of cooking. Lance was surprised that his friend had yet to vomit over the course of a few hours.
The three cadets and Keith looked over at the stressed-out officer as he explained that the aliens spoke of obtaining a weapon, Voltron. Lance's eyebrows furrowed, that was the same word Pidge had told them when they were on the roof before everything went to utter chaos. None of this could have been a coincidence. Shirogane appearing out of nowhere on an alien ship, Keith being in the vicinity at the exact moment, the strange pull of energy that kept coming from the desert, and lastly Voltron. Lance was confused as to what to think of this whole situation. It wasn't that he was scared, he was just unsure of how to proceed with what was happening. His mind kept going through a million possible outcomes as to what could happen to them, but none could have prepared him when they saw how the rock formation in front of them resembled the Fraunhofer line Hunk had shown them back in the shack. This was definitely not a coincidence. Lance had always lived by the motto that things happen for a reason, whether they be good or bad reasons only time could tell. However, this made it unsure. Lance didn't even notice he had spoken out loud on how freaky this was until he saw Pidge nodding beside him.
They continued on their way following as Hunk led them to their destination. In the cave, there were even more of the Lion carvings that Keith had found. The pull of energy Lance felt seemed to intensify the more they walked into the cave. He could practically feel a headache on the edge of beginning, but not in a painful manner, almost as if something was telling him something, or at least trying to get into his head. Lance glanced to his left to see a full-body engraving of the Blue Lion Keith spoke about, wanting to see more of the carving, he used his hand to remove some of the sand that had covered some of the lion's form when it began to glow. Not just the one carving, but all carvings that they could see, there was more of the blue glow that seemed to go further into the cave, but before they could make their way there, the ground underneath them collapsed. They each gave out a surprised yell as they went sliding into what was below them, the ground felt wet as they had entered an underwater ravine. Seeing the end of the tunnel, Lance braced for impact as his body fell into a small pond at the bottom, the rest soon followed after. The Cuban was the first to get up and look at what was before them.
The Blue Lion, exactly like the one that was found on the cave walls, was looking down on them. This Lion was what Lance had been feeling pull him into the desert, a blue giant mechanical Lion. Around the mechanical beast was a blue force field, almost as if it was protecting it from any damage that could be done to it by anyone or anything. Next to him, he heard Pidge ask if this was Voltron, but something in his head told him that it wasn't, at least not exactly. Keith was the first to make his way toward the barrier and the rest followed soon after him; however, Lance couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched, not by his companions, but by the Lion, almost as if it was reading him. He voiced his thought of being watched as they made their way ever so closer, no one else was getting the same vibe as him, so why was it only affecting him? He heard Keith ask how they should get through the force field before them under his breath before giving him a sarcastic answer.
"Maybe you just have to knock," Lance let out a small yelp of shock as the barrier around the Lion seemed to disappear. He was so distracted that he didn't even notice how a blue wisp*** followed his hand before disappearing. The five of them watched as the Lion's eyes lit up, and the engravings around it lit up the same blue as the ones they found in the cave above them. In his mind, he saw five Lions, each of varying sizes and colors come together to create this huge robot that seemed to be hovering in the sky. Before he could say anything else, he could hear Hunk talking followed by Pidge asking where the rest of the Lions were at.
It was then that the Lion crouched down so its head was directly in front of Lance, with its mouth open and a ramp leading inside, it was almost like it was enticing Lance to go inside. The cadet glanced at his companions, each with their own expression of hesitation before he made his way into the Lion. The energy coming off it felt exactly what had been pulling him to the desert since he was 15 and entered the Garrison. He helped himself into the cockpit, inside the Lion's head, to see an empty chair, almost as if it was waiting for him. As he sat down and got comfortable, the chair moved forward up to where he presumed the eyes of the Lion were. He watched as holographic screens appeared around him, all in a foreign language he didn't know how to read. Pidge and Hunk, who he didn't even hear follow him inside let impressed gasp at the technology around them. Before any of them spoke, the black screen in front of them turned on to give them the same exact view of what they just came from.
Beside him, he heard as Hunk talked how they were inside a futuristic alien cat head, but Lance was too busy with something talking, but not with words, inside his head. Instructions were being transferred into the pilot's mind on how to turn on the ship, it felt strange to him, but the feeling he got from it felt comfortable in a strange way. He didn't know how to describe the feeling exactly, he only hoped that the guys behind him had heard the same thing.
"Did you guys hear that?" He glanced back at them, each giving him a confused expression as to what he was talking about.
"I think it's talking to me," he said as he looked at the holographic screen before him, on the right side there appeared to be a constellation map from the galaxy and to the left a keypad. He hovered over the keypad and allowed for the Lion once again tell him what to do, following its instructions, he pressed the screen tiles to turn the Lion on. They felt as the Lion stood on all four legs and let out a deafening roar, Lance on the other had admired how two handles appeared out of nowhere in reach of his hands. The cadet could feel how scared his friends were, and Lance not wanting the atmosphere to feel heavy, did what he did best, lighten the mood by crashing the lion into the cave wall to get out, he could have looked for another way out, but this was easier. Piloting the Blue Lion felt exhilarating, the feel of the handles in his hands, the maneuvering capabilities was beyond what the simulation and training fighter planes were capable of. The fluid motions from the Lion had felt like he was swimming in water, and the cool presence he felt coming from the Lion and into him seemed to further aid in that thought. However, it seemed that his fellow cadets and Senior Officer didn't share the same thoughts as him when he heard Keith telling him he was the worst pilot ever. Not his fault the Lion didn't have extra seats for them. For what Keith said, he made sure to do another roundabout before continuing on and pressing the accelerator, as if the giant cat wasn't fast enough it could apparently go even faster. He continued on testing the Lion's maneuvering capabilities on land, as he followed the instructions being sent to him, introducing him to new maneuvers, each different from the rest.
"Make it stop, make it stop!" Poor Hunk looked as if he was about to puke and Lance felt sorry for the guy.
"Sorry, buddy, but it's like it's on autopilot." He wasn't lying, sure the Lion was telling him what to do, and he was moving his hands following those instructions, but it's like the Lion was a part of him, using him to steer itself. They were connected to one another in a symbiotic way, and it felt comfortable, familial.
"Where are you going?" asked Keith.
"I said it's on autopilot! It's telling me there's an alien ship approaching Earth, and I think it wants us to stop it." Lance answered hurriedly. The Lion purred, or he assumed it purred.
It was Pidge who spoke up next in a tired tone, "What did it say exactly?"
Lance explained to the younger male that the Lion spoke no words but transmitted ideas into his mind. After telling them this, Hunk expressed his worries by asking them if they should just give up the Lion and hand it over to the aliens orbiting Earth. All eyes turned to the taller male as he kept rambling, and before Lance could speak up and tell them what the Lion said, officer Shirogane spoke up.
"You don't understand, these monsters spread like a plague throughout the galaxy, destroying everything in their path. There is no bargaining with them, they won't stop until everything is dead." On saying that, everyone gave Hunk a pointed look as if saying, told you so. The Samoan looked at the older male before nodding and understanding the situation they were in.
Lance piloted them outside Earth's atmosphere and into space only for an alien ship to appear before them out of nowhere. The only way he could describe its appearance is that the aliens did a hyperjump to their exact coordinates. The ship was bigger than any human-made ship he had ever seen, heck it was bigger than any plane he had ever seen. It was of dark gray in color and an ominous purple glow that came off it. There wasn't any room to breathe for the five of them before the ship started to fire on them. Lance heard Pidge yell at him to get them out of there before he began evasive maneuvers, the maneuvers the Lion sent him were some that could not have been possible on any human-made ship he knew of. The cadet was glad that they didn't have to go up against the alien ship with a Garrison fighter ship if they did, there was no way they would have been able to avoid the lasers being shot at them.
He hit the thrusters giving them an extra boost to get away from the ship's range before turning back and using his left hand to push forward the handle to let out a blue laser beam in return. The beam was able to go through the front portion of the ship before making the middle of the ship set off explosions. Lance piloted closer to the ship to land on the side to use the Lion's claws to tear open the side of the alien ship. From where he was, he could hear the sound of nails on a chalkboard and the see the sparks of electricity coming from the friction caused by the metallic claws meeting the outside of the ship. As he piloted them away from aliens, they all heard more explosions coming from where the Lion had used its claws. Lance hit the accelerator once more, making sure that the ship was tailing them, trying to get it away from their home planet. As they tried to escape, Lance mentioned to them that the ship didn't appear to be shooting at them anymore; instead, it was chasing them, as if they were given orders to do so. He watched as the stars and planets he passed became blurs as they zoomed past them in an effort to lose their pursuers. The cadet wasn't paying any attention to how far they got until the senior officer mentioned Kerberos. Lance could feel that they were running out of options to get away from the ship, and he didn't know what the fuel source for this Lion was, so he started to get concerned at the possibility of running out of energy. The Cuban was practically begging at this point for a way out of this situation, and fast when a pocket in space opened up in front of them. Around the pocket were symbols, like the ones the Lion had on its screens. The Lion urged him to go through the wormhole, Lance shared what the Lion was saying to everyone else.
"Senior Officer Shirogane, you are our officer here, what should we do?" Lance asked as they all glanced at the adult in question.
"Whatever is happening here, the Lion knows more than we do," he began. "I say we trust it, but we're a team now, we should decide together."
The rest of the newly formed team nodded in confirmation.
"I guess that means we're all ditching classes tomorrow," Lance said before he flew the Blue Lion into the wormhole. Going inside the, weirdly timed, wormhole was more straining than Lance thought it was. The energy being emitted from the wormhole was pushing them back and if Lance could feel the pushing strain sitting down, he wondered how his teammates felt standing up. He assumed it felt worse. As they got out of the wormhole, they reappeared in front of a planet that looked like Earth, next to him he finally heard the vomiting sounds of one nervous Hunk, as he was busy doing that the Lion had sent the seventeen-year-old a displeasing sound, in which Lance silently apologized for his friend.
Behind him, Officer Shirogane spoke, "I don't recognize any of these planets, we must be a long way from home."
Lance looked down at the navigation screen to see the right side of the screen had changed the constellation map of the Milky Way galaxy into an entirely new one. The senior officer was right, there no constellation that looked familiar to him, and it was scaring him. How far away did the wormhole take them exactly? The Lion pushed into his mind again, pushing him to enter the planet's atmosphere once he caught his breath. However, before he told the rest of the team what the Lion had transmitted, he made sure to check the radar to see if the ship had followed them through the blue wormhole. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw no alien warship on their tail, pun not intended.
"The Lion wants us to head to that planet, I think it wants to go home," he felt a hand press his right shoulder, almost as if telling him to keep going, so he did. Entering the atmosphere almost felt like entering Earth's atmosphere, he felt everyone brace themselves by either them holding on Lance or the chair he was sitting on. In a matter of seconds, they flew past clouds and soon Hunk began to once again voice his opinion on the situation.
"Is it just me or is anyone else having second thoughts about flying through a mysterious wormhole? Why are we listening to a robotic Lion anyway?" Before Hunk could continue rambling, Lance cut him off.
"It got us away from that alien warship, didn't it?"
"I don't know if you noticed, but we're in an alien warship," said Keith in the most annoyed tone possible.
"Oh, are you scared?" teased Lance.
"With you at the helm? Terrified." Replied the older male. First off, thought Lance, rude.
"Alright knock it off," interrupted their officer. "No one is happy to be in this situation, but we are here now. If we want to get through this, we've got to do it together. First, we find out where we are headed, Lance?"
The pilot felt all eyes on him, his team waiting for him to give them the answers they wanted to hear, and honestly, he couldn't tell them anything. The Blue Lion had stopped communicating with him as soon as they had entered the planet's atmosphere. When he shared that with them the atmosphere in the cockpit grew tense. Lance grew up in a large household, and when his big brother Luis had his two kids, the family grew even more. Some form of sound was always heard, and the family was known to be loud, now Lance considered how quite everyone in Lion's head was and couldn't stand it anymore. He took his experience in annoying his older siblings as children and decided to let one rip.
"Wait! Wait, wait, wait! Shh!" That grabbed everyone's attention. "Listen. I think I hear something."
As he let it out in a slow manner the others got invested in the sound until they finally smelt the gas that Lance had passed. Watching them freak out and complain, he glanced outside to see a castle come into view, "But seriously guys, there is a castle up ahead."
The castle wasn't like anything he had ever seen before, five towers shone brightly as the sun, or he is assuming what is the sun, to hit them just right. White paint on a metal-like material with a blue coat made it seem surreal, a castle, like this, would never exist anywhere on Earth. They watched as the top of each tower gave off a blue light as they approached it, this really was surreal.
Lance flew the Lion down to the ground, and before they all headed out, the Japanese male cautioned them on entering unfamiliar territory. When they had all made their way out, the Lion had stood up and let out another one of its deafening roars to the castle. As if that was the key to enter the mystical building the doors slide open showing them a long corridor leading to an open space with stairs leading further in. It was Hunk who spoke first by saying hello, the others looked back at him as he spoke. To their surprise, a light shone above them, and a computer-like voice spoke to them telling them to hold for an identity scan. Keith and Shirogane immediately got into defensive positions in front of the cadets waiting to see if anything was going to come out and attack them. They watched as the lights around them began to slowly illuminate, the group followed the lights as they turned on, leading them to an empty space with a control panel. When Pidge got closer to it, two pods erected from underneath them, and the closest one to Lance opened up revealing a girl who opened her eyes and gasped out for her father. Lance quickly made his way to her seeing as she was about to fall from what he assumed was a long sleep. The dark-skinned alien looked up to see Lance, and he wasn't going to lie, she was pretty, like really pretty. Her blue eyes and pink scales below them stood out on her skin tone, her white hair did as well, and if Rachel could see her, the first thing she would ask was how her skin was blemish-free. Lance greeted the girl in his arms and gave her a smug smile.
"Who are you? Where am I?" he did not expect to hear a posh British accent coming from the girl, but from the way she dressed and the circlet on her head, he assumed she was important. Oh, he was definitely going to flirt with her.
"I'm Lance," he began. "And you are right here in my arms."
He had expected her to blush or to thank him; instead, what he got was a critique against his ears. He always knew his ears were a bit bigger than most, as did the rest of his family, but he did not appreciate others pointing it out. Who tells someone that their ears look hideous on their first meeting anyways? No one except the girl in his arms apparently. He defended his ears, and at that moment the girl pulled on his left ear turning him to face his companions and on his knees, she had grabbed a hold of his right arm twisting it behind his back as she began asking him who he was, the location of a king and how they got in her castle. The Cuban replied to her with tears in the corner of his eyes about the Blue Lion bringing them here and not knowing anything more than that. The princess, he guessed, she did say this was her castle, let go of him and spoke to the others asking how they got their hands on the Blue Lion and the location of a Paladin, whatever that was. She had let out a gasp and made her way toward the control panel. At that instant, the second pod had opened to reveal an older alien male with ginger hair and the same scales underneath his eyes, but in blue. The man opened his eyes to see that Lance was next to him, in a state of shock the man jumped at Lance, only for the teenager to move out of the way. The man began to tell him of all the ways he could have dealt with Lance if not for his case of "chamber knees, "seeing as the alien male wasn't all that bad, Lance entertained him.
"It can't be," the gasp Princess Allura gave out halted whatever dance fight Lance was having with the ginger-haired man. "We've been asleep for 10,000 years."
The Princess called the man next to Lance, Coran telling him that their civilization was gone and all because of Zarkon. In his peripheral vision, Lance saw his senior officer express a face of recognition to the name. When he said the name, it wasn't a question, more of a statement, it was almost as if he was trying to remember whose face belonged to the name.
"He was the King of the Galra." She said this with a distasteful tone. "A vile creature and enemy to all free people."
What the fighter pilot before them said about being held prisoner by Zarkon surprised the two Alteans, shocked that the "vile creature" was still alive. He kept going, explaining that Zarkon was looking for Voltron and how they came across the Blue Lion by coincidence, was it really a coincidence though?
"He's searching for it because he knows it's the only thing that can defeat him, and that is exactly why we must find it before he does." The way she said "we" almost seemed as if she was expecting them to accompany her on her journey to find the rest of the Lions Lance had seen in his vision back on Earth. He was still reeling in from shock on how somebody could be asleep for 10,000 years and not wake up for anything that could be going on outside them. He was sure Rachel, who was aiming to be a nurse had a tone of questions in concern on how they received nutrients and were able to stay alive in a coma for 10,000 years. Lance watched in silence as the last Alteans comforted each other, he felt that this scene was only for those two and shouldn't be interfered with so he said nothing during this time, he noticed that no one else of his team seemed to say anything either. Princess Allura was the first to break their hug when she heard a squeaking sound coming from the sleeping chamber, she was in only moments ago. She made her way only to see four mice looking up at her, and not just any mice, Altean mice. Her sense of happiness was cut short when a warning sound came from the control panel in the middle of the room, the screen showed them a battleship like the one they got away from back in the Milky Way Galaxy, now they were finally able to put an alien species to the ship's design, Galran.
"A Galran battleship has set its tracker towards us," exclaimed Coran.
"How did they find us so quickly?" The princess had asked in no one in particular.
Lance spoke up, "I double-checked when we made our way through the wormhole that no one followed us. It can't possibly be the same battleship we got away from in our galaxy, I was able to damage it using the Blue Lion enough that I'm pretty sure ended up giving it extensive damage."
"Are you sure you even aimed correctly? For all we know, you could have aimed at insignificant spots on the ship," Keith murmured.
"You try navigating a ship whose handling and maneuvering ability you aren't used to for the first time while trying to get away from a Galran ship sending lasers your way. When you do that, then come talk to me," Lance snapped.
Keith looked over to him, and before he could say anything more, their senior officer walked their way physically separating the two from each other, "Stow it, cadets! This is no time to place blame. It's time to work as a team."
He turned back and question the two Alteans on how long they estimated they had before the Galran ship made its way toward them. Lance could tell that Coran was unsure when he said they could arrive in a couple of days, it wasn't that he didn't trust the older man, but they should have been given precise information at this point. The princess, on the other hand, was confident in her advisor's estimation and proclaimed that by the time they would arrive the team of five humans would be able to reform Voltron ready to defeat Zarkon's empire. And empire that has been expanding for over 10,000 years. Yeah, Lance, wasn't really too sure about that whole idea. He knew was a daily daydreamer and was sometimes caught with his head in the clouds but even he knew when to think rationally.
All Lance wanted to know was how they were supposed to find the rest of the four Lions, and as if sensing his thoughts, Shirogane was the one to ask this question to the Princess. She had them follow her and Coran to what they called the Bridge of the castle. Once there, Coran explained to them that Allura was connected to the Lions through her life-force, curtesy of King Alfor. They watched in awe as a giant crystal above Allura glowed down upon her, the light shown outwards and showed them a constellation map that filled every inch of the room they were in. Pidge was the first to speak out in awe as she saw that the Blue and Black Lion were both in the same location, the Castle of Lions. Coran gave the youngest, what Lance assumed to be a compliment, and Allura nodded at him, as if proud. The royal advisor explained to them that Alfor was the one who locked away the Black Lion to keep it away from Zarkon's reach and in doing so, had the other Lions scattered amongst the galaxies, only when all four Lions gathered together would the Black Lion be freed.
"As you have found, the Lions choose their pilots, it is a mystical bond that cannot be forced. The quintessence of the pilot is mirrored in his Lion, together they form something greater than science can explain." Once Allura said that Lance couldn't help but question why the Black Lion was locked up if it chooses its own pilot, there was this nagging feeling deep in Lance's chest, but he thought nothing more of it as the Princess was beginning to explain the attributes of each Lion beginning with the Black Lion./
"The Black Lion is the decisive head of Voltron; it will take a pilot who is a born leader and in control at all times. Someone whose team will follow without hesitation," she had begun moving the holographic lion closer towards Shirogane as she spoke. "That is why Officer Shirogane, you will pilot the Black Lion.
"The Green Lion has an inquisitive personality and needs a pilot of intellect and daring. Pidge you will pilot the Green Lion. The Blue Lion is the friendliest of the Lions and is the most accepting of others and needs a pilot who has the potential to be more than just a friend but someone others can rely on and someone who can rely on others. That is why the Blue Lion chose you, Lance." The Cuban watched in awe as Princess Allura moved the holographic version of the Blue Lion towards him.
"The Yellow Lion is caring and kind. Its pilot is one who puts the needs of others above his own, his heart must be mighty, as the leg of Voltron, Hunk, you will be able to lift the team up and hold them together. The Red Lion is temperamental and the most difficult to master, it's faster and more agile than the others, but also more unstable. Its pilot needs to be someone who relies more on instincts than skills alone, Keith you will fly the Red Lion. However, I cannot locate the Red Lion's coordinates yet, there must be something wrong with Castle, after 10,000 years it might need a bit of repairing, don't worry though, we will find it soon." Lance glanced at each of his team members, all with varying expressions written on their faces. Senior Officer Shirogane looked at the Black Lion before him with a determined look in his eyes. Pidge gave off an interested expression, probably more curious as to what made the Lions each different. Hunk glanced at the holographic Yellow Lion with uncertainty and nervousness. Keith glanced at the Red Lion and gave it a smirk.
"We don't have much time, we need to focus on retrieving the two Lions whose whereabouts we do know about. Pidge and I will go after the Green Lion, Lance, I want you to take Hunk and go the Yellow Lion. Keith, I want you to stay here if you locate the Red Lion, go get it,"
"Yes sir, Senior Officer Shirogane, sir!" Lance said as he gave him a salute, one that he had grown accustomed to giving to all officers who outranked him. However, he wasn't the only one who said this, Pidge and Hunk followed suit. This seemed to catch the officer off guard and gave them a smile.
"You don't need to call me Senior Officer Shirogane out here, and no saluting if you can. Just call me Shiro, it's easier."
He nodded his head to Pidge, as he followed Coran, and soon the three cadets followed the two toward the hangers.
On getting ready, the two groups made their way out of the planet's atmosphere getting into position as Princess Allura would apparently open two separate wormholes leading them to the exact coordinates of the Green and Yellow Lions. As they got into position, Lance was too busy calming his best friend down and trying to hype him up by telling him to be more confident in himself, that he almost missed Coran telling them that if they got stuck on the planets after the wormhole closes in two hours, they could at least live out the rest of their lives in peace. Lance and Hunk shared a shocked look before yelling out to Coran about what he had just told them. On the other side of their communication, the Cuban also heard Shiro and Pidge expressing their concerns. Is this how Alteans expressed comfort? If it was, Lance wanted none of that.
Going through the wormhole, the two friends found themselves in front of a planet that resembled the red color of Mars, and as they entered its atmosphere the radar on Lance's left began to pick up signals. Not just any signals, Galra signals.
Great, they had the planet filled with Galra, just fan-freaking-tastic.
Lance was able to warn Hunk to hang on tight before beginning evasive maneuvers to evade the two Galran pods after them. Lance would like to say, that while he wasn't the worst pilot in the world, he wasn't the best either, and that was felt when one of the rockets they were trying to evade hit the left side of the Blue Lion and knocking it down from its trajectory path and into the canyons below them. Before they crashed into the ground below, the Blue Paladin quickly pulled the handles toward him in an effort to pull the Blue Lion back into the air. For a brief second, the Blue Lion hovered above the ground before picking up speed again as the Galran pods began to shoot lasers at them. In front of them, more Galras began to shoot at them from a crater below. Blue began feeding him ideas that they weren't Galran per se, but sentries, robots created by the Galrans. That eased his mind when he had Blue shoot at them with its—her—laser. Lance could see mining equipment in and out of the crater, he was about to ask Hunk if the planet could possibly be a mining planet for the Galra when he heard his friend tell him they were right above where the Yellow Lion should be.
His day just kept getting better.
Hunk began to ramble questions on end, and Lance, being the patient friend he is with his friend finally snapped from the stress that he had built up from the first battleship he had fought off alone, the news of a second battleship coming to get them, and lastly having to fight off a whole lot more of the Galra alone. So yes, Lance snapped at his friend, and he felt bad for it, he really did. He gave his childhood two warning counts that he would drop him off at the entrance where the Galra were mining for ore. He honestly didn't feel bad about ejecting his friend from the Lion as he turned back to face the Galra on his six. Lance muttered a sorry buddy before continuing on. He glanced over at the timer he had programmed for 2 hours, they had an hour, and 30 minutes left until the wormhole would close on them, he just needed to buy his friend time. He stayed in front of the cave entrance until he finally saw Hunk making his way down into the abyss, before luring the Galra above and away from any harm that could befall him. Blue's radar picked another Galran pod joining the two that had been on him since he arrived at the planet, he glanced outside as he saw the three making their way toward him laser canons already aimed at him. Blue sent him an image of bullet-like lasers being shot from its—her—tail so he followed her instructions and inputted the new keys into the holographic panel in front of him. He watched as the lasers hit dead center on two of the pods, but when those two were out of commission, three more took their place. An hour and 5 minutes, Lance speed up into the air doing somersaults over the pods before diving back down and having Blue sink her metallic teeth into the Galran spacecraft. Lance knew he got careless when three of the spacecrafts had continued to make their way toward the mining entrance firing laser beams and rockets its way. Lance panicked and had Blue fire at a pod that was in sight, but he was too late, the craft was able to send a rocket right above the entrance, having it collapse in on itself.
One hour.
Lance glanced at the timer before he continued to focus on the Galra sentries before him as they continued following him and Blue. There was only so much speed and energy that the Lion had, and Lance knew that he wouldn't be able to take them all. The Cuban boy kept murmuring underneath his breath for Hunk to be alright, this boy was his friend, his rock, his home away from home. If something happened to him, Lance would never be able to forgive himself. He could practically feel Blue warning him, that there was only so much damage she could take before she wouldn't be able to move. As more and more sentries appeared before him, their attacks got bolder and they held nothing back. The Paladin jolted in his seat as he felt a direct hit on Blue, he turned Blue around getting ready to fire at the sentry piloted pods, when he Blue got hit underside and then on her back. The two began a fast descent to the ground, and this time, Lance was unable to pull her back up. Lance counted Blue rolling on the ground seven-times before coming to a full stop. The seventeen-year-old got hold of his bearing quickly to hear the warning bell come from Blue and see as the three pods made their way towards him. Yeah, Lance was having a bad day. He braced himself as two rockets were fired at him, only for the Yellow Lion to come up from the ground in all its armored glory take the hit for him. He watched as Hunk piloted the Lion to jump on the pods that were still firing at them and crushed them in one fell swoop.
"Hunk you big beautiful creature, you just took that hit like a champ!"
"Actually, I was trying to get out of the way. Thankfully, what the Lion lacks in speed, it more than makes up for in armor."
"Hunk just take the compliment and roll with it, come on we need to get out here we have twenty minutes before the wormhole closes in on us."
As he said this, more sentry pods had come out of the woodwork and had made their way towards the duo, as Lance began evading more possible damage being done on Blue, Allura hailed in on his screen warning them about the wormhole closing any minute. Luckily, he and Hunk were able to go through the wormhole just in time before it closed. The two stayed up in space for a bit to gather their composure before heading back to the castle. Entering the Lion hanger, the got out of their respected to Lions to see that the Green Lion was already there. Meaning that Pidge and Shiro had arrived before them, Lance was willing to bet a year's worth of his mamá's Ropa Vieja that they didn't have to fight off Galra in the planet they went to. He was confident he would win the bet as there was no trace of battle on the Green Lion. He gave Hunk a side hug, whispering to him to not make him worry ever again, and apologizing for snapping at him earlier, and for ejecting him from Blue. The Samoan took Lance's worry and apologies to heart and returned his hug before the two headed off to the bridge. There they found the rest of the team waiting for them.
"I will never, ever, return to that nightmare of a planet ever again in my life. Why was it that fighting off the Galra battleship seemed easier to fend off than a bunch of sentries and sentry pods!" Exclaimed Lance as he rubbed his shoulder, trying to get it crack. Lance glanced on time to see Pidge throw a smile at Shiro's direction when they said they had a hard time too at obtaining the Green Lion, little liar.
He listened to what Coran explained to them what good and bad news they had been able to gather while the two teams had been opposite sides of the galaxy. Lance was anything been impressed on the so-called news that was being presented to them. Lance sighed as the screen in front of them began to receive a hailing transmission from the Galran ship. He watched as the Galra introduced himself as Commander Sendak, and he looked like he had seen better days if the mechanical eye that replaced a normal eye was anything to go by. To Lance the Galra looked no more than an overgrown cat that was able to stand on its hind legs, was it rude to think that? Maybe. But he couldn't quite keep the but thinking of the Grumpy Cat meme that had trended back in the 21st century, but with the mechanical eye, and purple fur. The newly named Paladin watched as his friend expressed his concern about having to face the Galra ship, way too early without any proper training and only four—technically three, thank you Pidge—working Lions.
Yeah, it was way to tense, and besides the Princess gave him the perfect opening, so no, he did not regret opening his mouth, "Girl you've already activated my par-," only to be stopped by Shiro before he could finish his sentence, party pooper.
Hunk looked over to Shiro, asking him if they could finally panic.
"No. We've just got to figure out our plan of action and figure it out quickly."
Lance was the first to state his opinion on the matter, he wasn't even surprised when Hunk seconded his opinion, "I say we pop though a wormhole and live to fight another day."
"We can't just abandon Arus!" cried out Pidge. "The Galra will keep destroying planets and capturing prisoners until we stop them."
"Okay, but if we run, maybe Sendak will follow us and leave this planet alone, like when we left Earth," countered Hunk.
Lance looked in surprise as Keith spoke next in favor of Pidge, "Sendak could destroy the planet then come after us anyway. Staying is our only option."
He felt a frown growing on his face when he heard Keith, man Lance just knew they weren't going to get along at all. "You aren't the one flying a Lion though mullet. We still have zero understanding of how long the Lions can run from the energy source they are recharging themselves with, nor if they are even recharging correctly after 10,000 years of no use. Blue has already taken enough damage from the first Galra battleship and the Galra infested mining planet Hunk and I came back from. How about you put yourself in the shoes of somebody who had to learn on the spot how to maneuver a giant sentient Lion while trying to avoid enemy fire. So, all in all, shut your quiznak."
The expelled cadet gave the Cuban a frown before replying back, "I don't think you're using that word correctly."
"What do you know Mullet?" he questioned, as he leaned forward.
"We're staying."
"Leaving!"
"Stop!" The four cadets turned away from each other, as Shiro spoke with the Princess trying to get her input on the situation. Unsure of the best course of action, Coran took Allura out of the bridge and to a different room where she could apparently speak with her father. Alien tech is weird. As the Princess and her advisor left, Shiro turned to the four cadets, a lecture already in place, Lance could just feel it. So, he sat at the foot of where Allura once stood waiting for the lecture to begin. Shiro spoke told them while their opinions are valued, they should always take into account the opinions of others, if not, this team would never work out the way it should. But could Shiro really blame them? Out of the three other cadets in this room, Lance knew Hunk the most, he was only briefly introduced to Keith when he became the star of the fighter pilot course and had recently met Pidge when he became Lance's communicator when he was moved up to the fighter pilot course after Keith's disciplinary issue. Lance knew how to consider opinions, especially in his household with four older siblings and parents who held strong opinions on Lance signing up for the Galaxy Garrison the first time he told them. The way they all looked at him as if he would be hunted out in space, or be taken away from them. At 14 years old, it confused him as to why his family seemed so adamant in not wanting to see Lance at the Garrison. It was Veronica who promised their parents that she would make sure to check up on Lance every moment she got, as the two being a part of the military would be able to keep closer contact hours with each other. The next summer he was finally able to sign up for the military branch of his dream, and he was glad he had Veronica to help him through all that.
The reminiscing boy was awoken from his memories when Princess had come back to the bridge in what appeared to be armor. She gave them an inspirational speech and had them follow her to the armory to get into their suits of armor. Each suit resembled one another except in the aspect of colors. Princess Allura later passed out their respected bayards, explaining how each took a distinct shape in weapon for the five of them. The bayard Lance received turned into a blaster that seemed to fit comfortably in his hand, for its bulky size it was well balanced and give him a good grip on the underside and the handle of the blaster. Marksmanship was always something he felt proud of, he used to go to the nearby archery range with his father and siblings during vacations, and not one of them was able to do better than Lance. When he learned how to handle blasters at the Garrison, many of his instructors were surprised that he would take out the highest score of previous students and set new higher bars.
They all returned back to the bridge to create a strategy against going Commander Sendak and to retrieve the Red Lion. Lance still wasn't sure on the whole idea of having him and Hunk be distractions for the Galra warship, especially with the warning of getting out of the ion canon's way in time. Yet, here they are, in front of a Galra ship bigger than the Castle of Lions. Great. The Cuban took the initiative and opened a hailing frequency to the Galra ship, hoping that it would go through while Pidge took the Green Lion, Shiro, and Keith to the side of the ship's hull. The first face he saw when the hailing call got through was that of Commander Sendak, actually, he was able to see the whole upper torso of the alien. Red-Orange armor clashed, terribly, with his purple pigmentation, and the prosthetic that replaced his left arm seemed too big. The Paladin wondered if he could even move that thing.
"Attention, Galra ship. Do not fire. We're surrendering our Lions," the two waited outside for 20 tense seconds, halfway through, Lance remembered asking for Pidge's ETA and receiving a response when the doors to the hull slid open. A gleam of purple light was what had him tell Hunk that it was time to away from the Galra ship and begin to damage the ion canon. On Blue's radar 22 Galran fighter pods were shown advancing on their location, Lance quickly told Hunk to focus on the ion cannon while he focused on the enemy pods. Hopefully, Blue was well charged by now so she could take a few hits. The Paladin and his Lion sped off, warding off as many of the fighters off Hunk and making sure to diverge as many of the laser beams as he could from his fellow Paladin. As he kept diverging enemy fire his way, from his peripheral vision he saw as Hunk throw his Lion toward the canon only to be bounced off by a particle barrier and sent tumbling a few good meters away.
"Hunk, you okay there buddy?"
"Yeah," he replied, "but that is definitely a force field surrounding this thing."
Worried about their situation out here, Lance called on his team members inside the ship, "Guys, we have a bit of a problem," he heard Shiro's voice before continuing. "The canon has some sort of force field around it, Hunk can't through it. Also, there are too many fighters joining the fight now and we are about to take heavy damage here. So, if you could hurry it up, that would be great. Thanks."
As he said this, he saw a small red bleep on Blue's radar, thinking it was another enemy, he whipped his head in the direction, only to see that it was Keith being thrown into space. He was about to make his way toward the guy, when he heard a roar, different than Blue's, and saw the Red Lion opening its mouth to get Keith inside. He watched as the Red Lion quickly jumped into battle and Hunk was finally able to break the particle barrier around the canon. Finally, something, went their way. The four Lions quickly hurried back to the Castle of Lions to retrieve the Black Lion.
They reached the Lions' den and saw for the first time the Black Lion in all its glory. It was magnificent, he thought the Yellow Lion was big, Lance now saw that it didn't stand a chance at the size of the Black Lion. Lance had thought with the canon damaged slightly they would be able to take a breather, only for Allura to tell them that the battleship was still making its way toward them. She called them to form Voltron, but Lance's main question was how? The only answer he got from Blue was the five Lions coming together to create the awesome robot, as they exited the castle from the Black Lions hanger. That didn't help, not one bit.
As they dodged enemy fire coming from fighters, they gave out a bunch of ideas, before Shiro recommended them flying in formation and hopefully be able to combine. For a few seconds, they felt nothing, only to be met with strange energy pulling them in. It was Shiro who told them that it was the Galran battleship that was sucking them in.
"We can do this. We have to believe in ourselves," began Shiro in a determined tone. "We can't give up. We are the universe's only hope. Everyone is relying on us, we can't fail, we won't fail! If we work together, we'll win together!"
Lance had to hand it to Shiro, he knew exactly how to motivate those around him, he now saw what Allura saw in him and made the connection to the Black Lion. There was this moment of shared determination between the other four Paladins when a sense of calm seemed to feel the air around them. Energy began to form around them, bringing them together as one, Lance didn't know how to describe what he was feeling until he saw on his holographic screen what appeared to be Voltron. There he saw that he and Hunk formed the legs of Voltron, Keith and Pidge formed the arms, and Shiro formed the head. It was almost mystical. Everyone let out a gasp in awe, questions began to flood the comms of trying to figure out how they even formed the robot they were in. Lance couldn't help but remember the old Power Ranger TV shows that would sometimes re-air on TV and how they would form a giant robot with mechanical beasts of their own. But this was real, no CGI took part in what they found themselves in, the Blue Paladin couldn't be any more excited. This whole experience was surreal.
Shiro got the team back on track as he maneuvered Voltron to turn toward the canon, where Pidge and Keith quickly grabbed hold of it with their Lions. Lance could feel his arms beginning to move the handles of the Blue Lion on their own, almost as if there was a connection between him and what Shiro wanted them to do. In one fell swoop, they were able to rip off the canon right off the ship and throw it into the air where it crashed into old ruins. He could feel Blue being pulled back alongside Keith before going into a kneeling position so Keith could blast a laser beam right through the hull of the ship. Voltron leaped back into action with it kicking a hole open on the top of the ship with the Yellow Lion only for the Green Lion to set off a beam of its own on the inside, destroying what was inside. The next to go were the hangers, getting rid of possible reinforcements form sentries and fighters was something that they wanted to avoid, followed by attacking the back thrusters of the ship. They watched as the ship began to explode from all points, they were able to hit with Voltron, Lance could hear everyone else, including himself, let out a yell in triumph for their first victory with Voltron. When they saw that what was left of the ship descend to the ground, they felt Voltron disengage, the Lions finally separating and the energy that bonded them as one, disappear. Shiro ordered them to all get back their Lions back to the entrance of the castle. As they each exited their respected Lions, Coran and the Princess were seen running outside to meet them, each with proud expressions directed toward them.
"Good work, Paladins!" Allura was the first to say. Lance thanked her as they all caught their breath for what felt like the first time in ages.
"We did it." Said their leader.
"Heck yeah, we did," smiled Keith as he got his helmet off.
"We may have won this battle, but the war has only just begun. Now that Zarkon knows Voltron has been reformed he will stop at nothing to it within his grasp and do everything he can to stop us from freeing the known universe from him." Allura told them bluntly.
Coran was the one who spoke next, "You only had to fight one ship, wait until you have to fight a whole fleet of them! It's not going to be easy being the Defenders of the Universe."
The paladins all looked him, eyes blinking at what he had just called them, "Defenders of the Universe, huh? That's got a nice ring to it."
Lance agreed with Shiro when he heard their new nickname, maybe Lance can get used to space.
.
.
.
But as said before, Lance was always one with his head in the clouds, and the newly formed team couldn't imagine the trials and tribulations that they would find themselves in. And family secrets that would be uncovered that will shake the foundation of a certain Paladin, but that is for later on the story, this is now.
*In this, Veronica, is originally a part of the Navy.
** Junior Officer Warfeld is Adam.
***Do you guys notice that in episode 1? I love small details like this.
Getting to Arus took 6 whole pages, 6! I think this is going to be a very, very detailed oriented fanfic. Yeah, this was episode 1 of Voltron. Wow. Keep in mind that episode is an hour-long, this took me about 5 to 6 hours to write. I think it was worth it. Hopefully, you all enjoy.
Lance is going to be very observant to the needs of those around him as you all can probably tell.
Anyways, what did you all think?
This will mostly follow Lance, but I could add different POVs if you all want either in the story or as mini side stories for this series. (Yes, this will be a series. I think 1 to 2 chapters per episode if it all works out. I have everything planned out, beginning to end. If you guys want me to make changes then I will take them into account but keep in mind that I will not be able to fit everything in. The endgame for the main relationship will be Klance, but it is not immediate, I am more focused solely on the story and plot itself before getting to that point in the series. Plus, I don't think the ship will be heavy but more of a romantic form of fluff if that makes any sense. So, if you aren't a big Klance shipper, I think you will be fine, but if not you are welcome to not continue reading this series. The series will follow the eight seasons of Voltron, but I will be combing season 3 and 4 into one season, so 7 "books" in total, but don't quote me on this, I may combine 5 and 6 as well.) This au of mind has been telling me to write it since VLD ended, I love the show, but the way some parts were glossed over, didn't sit right with me.
You're probably like, what about your other stories xHalfPrincex?
I need to pick off where I left off on Attack on Titan (manga) for me to create a good storyline for the fanfic (I am going to retitle this story I don't really like the prototype title).
For Blue Exorcist, I am having trouble writing chapter 12, chapter 13 is kind of done, but I have to post it after 12 if not I will have this nagging feeling at the back of my head. I am thinking 14 or 15 chapters for that story total, this is considered "season 1," and then I will continue it in "season 2".
