Daniel remembers that when he was young Voltron and it's paladins were heros. He, like most other kids, admired and looked up to them. Then one day, when he was around 10 years old something happen.
They were holding a ceremony for Voltron when suddenly, out of nowhere, the lions started to act up, causing a panic. It was then ordered that the lions to be taken to concealment since they were a threat to the universe. No one fought that decision, it was as if suddenly everyone had forgotten everything Voltron had done for them.
Currently, 16 year old Daniel was studying -and dying of boredom- at the Earth's Garrison.
In all honesty the major reason why he had applied there was because that's where the paladins of Voltron -at least most of them- had studied, and it was known that after the whole ordeal with the lions some had settled there as -at least- part time teachers. That was probably why he had hoped (more like expected) for the classes to be a lot more practice driven, not these boring slow and sitting and taking notes kinda class.
He sighed, bored to the bone, while not paying attention to the teacher. So of course he wasn't sure what to say when the teacher asked something and followed with Cadet Daniel. He hesitated for a moment and looked around, stopping at the guy next to his seat who locked eyes with him, trying his best to secretly tell him something.
Oh "The battle of Gemini 4?"
"Correct" said the teacher.
Daniel smiled at the guy next to him who nodded in approval, Daniel nodded back.
"Commander Lance" greeted the teacher, clearly surprised "To what do we owe your visit?"
Daniel looked up behind him. There was Commander Lance McLain, looking at him with a strange look in his eyes. He chuckled at the amazed looks most of the teens were giving him.
"Just came by to see the cadets, after all the first term is about to end and I still haven't come greet the newbies" said Lance with a relaxed shrug, he whistled "This place looks nothing like when I was a cadet" he walked up to where the teacher was. He turned in his place to not give his back to the students, he waved "Hello everyone" he grinned "Any of you bored?" he looked at Daniel.
Was I that obvious? he couldn't help but chuckle "Maybe" he whispered under his breath.
"Can't blame you, after all you won't get any actual piloting training until your… third year I think?" he looked at the teacher for answer, the teacher nodded.
Daniel huffed. Third year.
"So if anyone has any question then go ahead and ask" Hands darted up and Lance looked around. "Yes cadet?"
"Sir" said Daniel, "With all due respect" Lance's smile trembled "Why are you teaching here instead of protecting the universe? What really happened to Voltron?" Lance's smile disappeared.
"Dan!" practically shrieked the teacher "You know talking about Voltron has been forbidden by Sky Marshall Wade, there are consequences for violating this order" he turned to Lance "I apologize for him"
"It's alright," Lance shrugged "I'll talk about this once. Yes, I used to be a paladin of Voltron but after the… incident, that's something I've put in the past. Myself along with Tech Sergeants Hunk and Pidge are now loyal soldiers in Galaxy Alliance Military" he explained dryly, without the smile "And Princess Allura is ruling in the new Altea planet"
Daniel stood up "What about the black paladin? Commander Keith?"
"Ex-Commander Keith is a wanted fugitive and nobody knows his whereabouts"
And damn was Daniel angry "How could you and the rest of the team just turn your backs on Commander Keith and Voltron?"
Now Lance seemed truly unhappy "Defending the universe is our top priority and that's exactly what the Galaxy Alliance is doing. Voltron was just a vehicle."
"Just a vehicle?"
"That's enough" Lance walked up to him "You are coming with me" he looked at the guy next to Daniel "You too"
"Me?" he croaked "What did I do?"
"Guilt by association"
UGH
Lance had a hand on their shoulders while he walked them to Sky Marshall Wade's office. The aforementioned was having a teleconference with some of the Galaxy Alliance's leaders. His lion sleeping by his feet. He seemed… unhappy, to say something. He seemed to be especially angry with Coran the Altean ambassador. Everyone was dismissed and he turned to them.
"Commander Lance" he greeted "These must be the cadets you told me about"
"Yes Sir" said Lance pushing them forward.
Daniel cursed internally, the Sky Marshall was scary.
"Normally I don't like to concern myself with petty academy matters, but I take my No Voltron policy very seriously" he hovered over them, frowning deeply.
"Sir!" said Daniel "I take full responsibility he doesn't belong here! I hardly know him and -!"
"Do not speak Cadet" interrupted the Sky Marshall "And don't play that sickening nobility card either" the lion walked around them "Is a liability in combat, I don't need some sass who will hesitate to consulate their moral compass. Of course this won't be a problem for you if you don't violate my policy again" he started raising his voice more and more "Because the second offence will mean expulsion!" he then spoke normally again "However, this being your first you receive the automatic sentence of cleaning duty for the rest of the first term, and all of the second term as well. I hope this teaches you to scrub Voltron out of your lives completely"
"I'm sure this experience will show them an entirely different perspective on Voltron" commented Lance while taking out some buckets and soap from who knows where.
"It already has" muttered Daniel angrily.
Once on the toilets, alone with his classmate and already cleaning he spoke to him.
"Man, I'm so sorry I got you into this… mess"
"Hey" said the guy calmly "You just said what I was thinking I'm just more the no confrontation type" he smiled.
"Yeah, speaking of type I've been meaning to thank you for helping me in class. How do you do …?" he motioned with his fingers as if he was playing a videogame "That?"
"A techgician never reveals his tricks" he responded smugly while showing off his edited toilet brush.
Daniel chuckled "You are an interesting guy" and walked to him "I don't even know yo-"
"It's Vince. Should I pretend I don't know your name is Daniel to make this less awkward for you?" he said making Daniel chuckle again.
"Probably. Well, I definitely owe you one Vince" he reached out to shake his hand.
"Yeah, don't worry about it" he shook it "You can just save my life sometime"
Both looked disgusted at their hands. So they went wash them.
"So Vince, what do you think of this place so far?"
"You mean besides the life sentence of latrine duty?" they dried their hands "And the fact that one of our heroes turned out to be a total snart"
"Yeah" they walked out the room "And then there's this I came here to fly jets and all first years do is stupid simulators" they walked by the simulators room so they took a peak in.
"Actually I like the simulators all the fun of fly with none of the death"
The door opened "Wha-" he looked back at Vince.
"You wana?"
Daniel smirked "Totally"
They ran in, taking advantage that the room was completely alone and jumped into some of the machines.
"Wait" said Vince, taking notice of something "I thought you didn't like the simulators"
"I don't, at least not when we're supposed to be in them. But now" he said a little bit more to himself "We're like Commander Keith, rebel outlaws, operating in the shadows"
They activated the simulators and began.
These were battle simulators, so they were shooting enemy units while flying, both sharing the same simulation even in different machines.
"See? These simulators are way too easy" bragged Daniel, shooting the units down "I'm ready to stop pulling 12G's!"
"Is this interesting enough for you?" Vince got in front of him, taunting him to race.
"Hey! I thought you were nonconfrontational" said Daniel smiling.
"I am… in real life"
Suddenly a third simulator joined them.
Vince noticed it first "Well would you look here. It seems the simulator wants to feel more hurt" he joked.
"Easy peasy" said Daniel smugly.
The third simulator took up and left them behind easily.
"Well, can't you boys keep up?"
Oh damn "Commander Lance?!" squeaked Daniel.
"You just wanna get expelled, don't you?" he taunted "Considering his is most likely your last act as G-A Cadets… Hope you're strapped on tight"
"Why?" asked Daniel "Is not like these simulators are gonna OH" he couldn't not scream.
Neither couldn't Vince. Both screamed as the simulators suddenly weren't simulators and they found themselves flying through the empty corridors of the school. Daniel sheered.
"You might wanna pull your emergency brake" said Lance calmly "Right. Now"
Both Lance and Daniel landed smoothly, Vince's simulator hanging not very high from a tube.
"Your simulator almost killed me!" he shrieked, getting off the machine.
Lance hovered around Daniel and took a photo from the teen's pocket. It was of the paladins, probably from an old magazine or something.
"Huh. And Voltron contraband to boost" he said with a very annoying tone "Wade would throw you in a secret holding cell for that." his tone suddenly changed, his pose more relaxed as a door opened behind them "Lucky for you I'm not Wade" he got in the room, followed by the teens.
The room was big and there was what seemed to be trash and machines parts all around. There was a big computer and someone was typing fast.
"Boys" said Lance "Welcome to -"
"The den" said the person that was previously typing, turning to them on their chair.
"I would like you to meet -"
Vince gasped "You're Pidge"
"The Green paladin!" added Daniel.
There was the sound of a laser firing and a oops, they turned to find-
"The Yellow paladin!" said Daniel.
"Everything alright?" asked Pidge.
"Yeah just checking something" said Hunk, Lance chuckled.
"Is Keith here too!?" asked Daniel excited looking at Lance.
"Always with the Keith" sighed Lance, although he seemed amused "But no" he said giving the photo to Pidge.
"Why did you put glasses on top of my glasses?" complained Pidge. Hunk and Lance were laughing.
"I… uhm… Six eyes?" Pidge joined the laughter "I don't know I'm not an artist"
"Well" said Hunk "Gotta get back to duty," he walked to the exit "But I'll look forward to working with you… in the future"
"Huh?" Daniel and Vince looked at Lance for an explanation.
"We need to keep up appearances" he said "We're pretending to be the epitome of the good soldier, and loyal to Sky Marshall Wade so he never suspect our underground activities. Pidge and Hunk built this secret network that has access to Wade's G-A resources"
"It's been quite useful on helping Keith on his secret mission"
"What kinda secret mission?" Daniel couldn't not ask.
"The kind that's, a secret" Lance raised a brow.
Daniel groaned "Okay fine. But you haven't explained why we're here, what does any of this have anything to do with… us?"
"Let's just say your talents have been noticed and we would like to cultivate them" said Lance "In fact, how would you like to take a very cultivating course right now taught by, yours truly"
"Totally!" exclaimed Vince "What's the course?"
"Toilet scrubbing 101. Oh wait, you have a bt of experience, we'll call it 102" Pidge snorted.
Daniel pinched the bridge of his nose "Okay, we can tell that there's something cool going on here but if it involves cleaning more toilets"
Lance was absolutely amused "Look, we'll be asking you to do a lot of things in the future that won't seem to make sense, but there will always be a reason. The question is, after what you've seen, do you trust me?" he asked completely serious.
Daniel smiled nervously "I think so. Why won't you give us a straight answer about anything?"
Pidge snorted from the desk. Lance ignored that "Partially because you're not ready to know but mostly because it's way more fun for me this way. So, I'll ask again. Do you trust me?" he raised his brow seemingly cheekily "Cuz if you don't I can have Pidge erase us from your memory"
Vince and Daniel shared a look. Daniel inhaled deeply "Okay. We're in."
"Phew" Lance did as if he cleaned sweat from his forehead "That's a huge relief cuz we do not have a memory erasing device, that is science fiction"
"For now" Pidge muttered for themselves.
They got the boys to sit in front of a screen connected to Pidges laptop.
"School is in session" said Lance, Pidge put a photo of Wade on the screen "How much do you know about Sky Marshall Wade?"
"He's head of the Galaxy Alliance Military division" answered Vince.
"And a snart who hates Voltron" added Daniel.
"True" snorted Pidge "But is more complicated than that. Wade has been wanting control of the Alliance's military for years, always claiming that Voltron is dangerous because of the power of the lions is an ancient technology that isn't fully understood."
"Tho we can't prove it," continued Lance "We know he sabotaged Voltron to turn the public against it"
"I knew it!" explained Daniel.
"Wade used this as an excuse to convince the Galaxy Alliance that Voltron's power isn't to be trusted and got most of the lions to be stored and sealed on Altea"
"However I believe that Wade just wanted to study their technology"
"Well I believe is time to start your first class project" jocked Lance, Daniel and Vince stared at him with curiosity "Wade is a well decorated General but he's particularly proud of is four strype pin, Hunk has made a replica of this pin and you boys are gonna swap this out"
"You master revenge plan is to switch out his favorite pin for a fake?" mused Daniel.
"Yyes, remember our earlier conversation about trust?" Lance had that smug smile on his face.
Which Daniel mirrored "Remember you don't have a mind erasing device?"
Lance snorted "Touché. Let's continue anyway, shall we?" bot boys nodded "Latrine duty happens to be the only hole in Wade's security." they walked out the room "The toilet cleaning cadets happen to have pretty much unfettered access and like all disciplined army men Wade does everything in an airtight schedule, and I mean everything. Now, we already know you have a talent for sneaking around, so when Wade's Coda's offer is 0600 that's your chance to make the swap, should be a piece of cake."
They were doing exactly as planned, careful and quite afraid of being catched by the Sky Marshall. They breathed when they got out the bathroom.
"Nailed it" whispered Daniel as he silently high fived Vince "Nice"
"Sweet" said Vince.
They heard a low growl and froze. It was Wade's lion, getting closer to them. They heard the toilet being flushed.
"I think he's finally finished" commented Vince "Like us"
The lion roared to their faces. Daniel put the toilet brush on it's mouth, both began running immediately. Vince screamed when he noticed the lion -without the toilet brush- running after them. He slipped and crashed with the wall. The lion jumped to him and he truly believed he was done for. Daniel jumped and pushed the lion away, he took Vince's hand and dragged him away, both getting through a door that they immediately closed so the lion couldn't get them.
They gasped for air.
"Ho-how did you?" asked Vinc "What were you thinking?!"
"I didn't think at all, guess you're lucky I'm impulsive" both were smiling.
"Yeah well, consider the saving my life debt paid, I was gonna hold it over your head but-" the shut up when they heard Wade talking, and -as quietly as possible- sneaked away.
"Ah~ there it is, nice job boys" congratulate Lance "Piece of cake, right?"
"More like piece of meat" murmured Vince.
"Well, you did such a good job I've decided to expel you from the academy after all" Vince and Daniel stared at him baffled "Unless you rather stay and finish up your two terms in latrine, you are showing great promise in that field of study" Daniel and Vince looked at each other both surprised and relieved "Go on and pack your bags boys, we're taking a road trip"
"This is all happening so fast" reflected Vince.
"I often find fast is he best way" commented Daniel.
Lance put the pod in autopilot and turned to the teens "So I think you boys have earned the right to know a bit more about Wade's pin, more like pins," he said stretching the blue, red, green and yellow stripes away from each other "And more like keys than pins" he separated them, red and blue on his left and green and yellow on his right.
"The keys to the lions" said Daniel connecting the dots.
The pod landed and the door opened. There stood a tall woman with pointy ears and pink marks under her eyes, dark skin and long curly white hair.
"Welcome to Altea" she said "And welcome to the castle of lions"
The castle was huge. Daniel and Vince stared at it in disbelief and awe.
"Where's the black key?" finally asked Daniel.
"I assure you" said Lance "It's in good wrists"
The lion roared back to life and no one could do anything as it stood up and race through the hallways, destroying everything in its way. It broke out and ran on the floor of the asteroid it was in before taking of into the distance