This was the last chapter I wrote before I started posting it online. I just finished touching it up. Like, just now. So the next chapter? Will probably not be submitted in a day. Sorry, this is it for the daily uploads! And more than likely just...it? I do still have other scenes written down, and I'm hoping to be able to work up to the reveal to the whole team, since that has been written down already.
If you're on AO3, you might have noticed the new fanart. I made it, please look at it :3 notice how on mobile the screen (hopefully) doesn't have extra side space that sometimes makes scrolling hard, and on desktop the picture is on the right side of the text. I'm very proud of my editing skills, yes :3
If you're on FFnet...there's a new cover image! It's the sketch of this fic I did last year, when I only had 1 and 2/3 chapters written; AO3's first image.
Princess Allura is a fairy tale princess. Selkie eyes still don't work on mermaids.
1
They were staying to fight. It was stupid, if you asked Lance. Hunk shouldn't have to stay. Hell, Pidge, Keith, and Shiro shouldn't have to stay, but at least they were happy to.
Of course, all they had to do while Hunk swam for his life and worked his genius on a foreign dolphin mecha while Lance distracted a bunch of warships was clear a little seaweed from the Green Dolphin's fins or laze around in the castle.
Allura's father was now a mirror, just like everything in the Castle of Dolphins. Seriously, the refraction barrier, the advanced scrying, and now this? Mermaid tech all came down to the use of reflective items, which made sense considering they lived underwater. However, Lance hadn't been aware a lost art of theirs had been keeping the conscience of kings inside mirrors.
That was what humans called a haunted mirror, now that he thought about it. Creepy.
Allura's father spoke of destiny in private, and then the princess talked the crew into it.
"Destiny, shmedstiny," Lance grumbled under his breath.
After Allura's less than stellar (in Lance's opinion) speech had convinced Hunk, his biggest concern was the paladin suit fitting him. Lance griped to himself, unsatisfied despite the fact it had been the dream of many selkie, Galra, and other children to be a Paladin of Voltron.
Like he was becoming.
"This is not as exciting as I thought it would be," he murmured.
Hunk's fault. No, it wasn't. He wouldn't say that.
"The bayard is the traditional weapon of the Paladins of Voltron," Princess Allura introduced them their weapons by the time they'd suited up. After looking at himself in one of the many mirrors around, Lance had given in to his excitement and forgotten how bitter he'd been about Allura's decision.
(No, he was still bitter, but he was also a paladin and technically this princess was now his princess. And Hunk's, so the Hamoan couldn't run away either! Ha!)
He jumped on his toes, going up in quick bursts and sinking slowly again and again. It visibly annoyed Keith, who was behind him, so he continued to do it even after getting tired.
"Each bayard takes a distinct shape for each paladin," she continued. The bayards made their way to their respective paladin.
Hunk's became a very heavy cannon.
Keith's a (lame) sword.
Lance's turned into an assault rifle. Sweet, guns for the win.
Pidge's turned into a...
"What is that?" Lance leaned into Pidge's weapon, not recognizing it as a weapon. It had sharp edges, but it was so small! Was Pidge the melee sort? "It's very cute," he teased him.
Pidge shoved the bayard into his torso lightly, and the green evil released a shock wave into him, causing him to tip over.
"Yeah," Pidge agreed smugly, the little monster, "it's pretty cute."
Shiro's bayard had been lost with the previous paladin.
"How are we going to find the dolphin? The base is pretty big," Keith asked Allura when she explained the details of their infiltration.
"It's not a matter of 'we,'" Pidge smiled at him, "It's a matter of you."
"Right," Hunk said excitably. "Once you get in, you'll be able to feel its presence and track it down."
"Yeah," Lance grinned at him. "You know how you felt that crazy energy while we were in the caverns?"
"You made fun of me for that," Keith reminded him flatly.
"And I'm proud of that," Lance's smug grin widened, "but it's exactly like that. Think of it as echolocation. Except you're not blind."
Allura warned Keith with a more serious tone, "Remember, the Red Dolphin is extremely temperamental. You have to earn its respect."
Keith nodded.
Shiro continued on to establish a plan.
...
"Hunk, you dismantle the cannon while I take these jerks surfing!"
They had already tipped the Galra off to the fact that they weren't really going to give them the dolphins. What kind of idiots would they be if they did that?
This obviously meant the chase was on, and it was Lance getting chased again. Of course, this time Hunk had a bulky yellow magic mecha dolphin to protect him, which made Lance feel better about turning away from him.
"Ten-four." OK.
If Hunk had to choose between going home and staying in the undersea right now, Lance had a feeling the entire team would be on the same page.
Hunk slammed himself into a wall. Great strategy, but to no avail.
"What the quiznak?" He complained. Ah, the word was taking quite nicely. "What is that? A force field?"
"That's what I'd call it," Lance said.
Dash, dash, dash. Dodge, dodge, dodge. Crash, crash, crash. Pow, pow, pow. More dashing. More dodging. More crashing. More powing. Repetitive, but somehow, it wasn't getting boring. Lance had missed swimming, but he didn't remember swimming feeling like this!
The black, red, and green paladins were inside, sneaking around. Red Dolphin was their priority, and that was all Lance had cared to hear about. He and Hunk had the really fun-dangerous job—distraction.
It was also a lot more fun than sneaking around. He found that funny, since undersea residents liked to pride themselves in their sneaky side. It was all such bunk, really. They just never went to the oversea, like selkies did. Selkies were the real pros at sneaking.
It was a good thing he was no longer selkie, then, because he was being the least sneaky one in the world right now, even crowing loudly inside his dolphin as Galras chased him.
"Whoa-ho-ho!" He almost jumped in his seat. "Yeah, buddy! This is way more fun without Hunk's barfing!"
Hunk slammed himself into the force field. Again. Luckily, Lance's confidence had built up to the extent that he felt like he could keep the ships distracted for weeks.
On the other side of the ship, Keith had been sucked into the abyss of the ocean, incapacitated by shock and a temporary whirlpool. Then the Red Dolphin saved him and everything was more well than it had been before.
Inside the ship were Pidge and Shiro, rescuing prisoners. Not according to plan, but not a bad turnout.
They didn't have their helmet mics on. They hadn't communicated the change in plans to Hunk or Lance.
Lance couldn't have known.
Hunk had given up on the stupid slamming technique and started using his dolphin's quintessence blasts to attack the force field. Good on him. It disintegrated much more easily than it would have if Hunk had continued to slam his dolphin into it for another five decapheebs.
Soon after, the Green Dolphin launched itself out of the ultra-whale-sized, shark-shaped vessel, its screen showing on Lance's left.
"You made it!"
"Kitty Rose has left the stage," Pidge responded. Shiro was behind him, but no Keith to be seen.
"Let's get the heck out of here!" Lance suggested, already guessing where Keith could be.
"Hope I stopped the cannon," Hunk admitted as his dolphin swam toward them. "I could barely make a dent in it."
"What'd I miss?" Keith's voice and screen showed on Lance's right.
"Ah, so he lives after all!" Keith sucked and all, but it was still a good feeling to see him piloting the Red Dolphin with a smile.
"It was a close call, but yeah," Keith sounded somewhat proud of himself.
Oh, quiznak it, Lance could let that go this time. He had, after all, gotten his dolphin.
2
Back in the Castle of Dolphins, Shiro finally got his own magical mechanical mammal. Lance could feel his relief, seeing his leader in the open for the first time in forever. Or maybe if was Blue's relief. Whatever the case, all the dolphins chortled loudly in response to the Black Dolphin's squeal. It was frankly a little adorable, but it made Lance feel empowered.
He could hear Allura and Coran cheer on another line. Then alarms and red lights flashed. Lance was starting to get tired of those alarms and red lights.
Can we get just twenty minutes to be happy?
Not under the sea, and certainly not with Galra forces biting at their ships were already sinking to the castle's depths, preparing for a clash with the paladins.
"Sendak is already entering the breathable atmosphere," Allura informed. "We need Voltron, now!"
The pseudo sunlight of the castle's atmosphere had been dulled down to a pink—the day had come and gone without him realizing, but Lance had no time to feel sleepy.
The dolphins lined up for battle, an extra barrier between the turf and the Galra. The refractive barrier stood out against the water despite blending into its colors. It was, after all, refracting the light.
A single blast was all it took to shake them. It encompassed the surrounding bubble the castle had built for itself, like a billion tinier but just as potent blasts rather than a single one.
"Man, those guys repair those things fast," Hunk noted under the pressure.
"The barrier gets weaker with every hit," Coran said from Allura's line. "Once the shield goes down, the castle will be defenseless!"
"I can give you cover with the castle defenses for a while," Allura said, "but you have to form Voltron now of we'll all be destroyed!"
Is there a course on how to do that? Lance wondered for a second.
Another shock wave hit them.
They all groaned under its force, but Shiro recovered first. "Listen up, Team Voltron! The only way to succeed is to give it all you've got! This looks bad, but you can do it! Are you with me?"
Sure, Lance felt he could follow this man over a cliff and still be fine. He nodded in silence.
"I'm nodding, is everyone else nodding?" Hunk asked in infinite confidence.
"Yes."
"Let's do this!" Shiro shot forward, and the rest followed.
Oh boy. "Yeah, but how?" Lance asked.
"Good question," he acknowledged. "Does anyone have any idea on how to form Voltron?"
"I don't see a 'combine into giant robot' button anywhere on my dashboard," Hunk told them.
That's because you can't read, Lance thought. Mostly, he had been flying on dolphin instinct, like his teammates. It really was the way to go, but the controls did have words on them. He looked, and, indeed, there wasn't a "combine into giant robot" button.
"Quiznak, you're right," Lance shrieked.
They continued to swim in line, leading the Galra in circles and barely avoiding their shots.
"This is insane!" Pidge sounded panicked. Lance felt panicked too. "Can't they just cease fire for one minute so we can figure this out? Is that too much to ask?" In his frustration, he did a little twirl to catch one of the ships in the dolphin's mouth before sending it crashing into another.
Rough.
Keith added, "We've gotta do something." The Red Dolphin stopped and faced the others, leaving the formation as well.
Hunk yelled, "Combine!" and slammed Yellow into Red.
"Hey!"
"Okay, that didn't work," Hunk sounded bemused.
"Crashing into things. Doesn't. Work!" Lance yelled into his helmet. "Stop trying!"
"Quickly, Paladins! Our energy levels are running low!"
"Maybe if we fly in formation, we'll just combine," Shiro said, but it sounded more like a question. "Up, on my cue! One, two, three, Voltron!"
For a second it really felt like it would work, but nothing happened. They simply went deeper and deeper into the sea. If they were in the oversea, they would have been close to the surface.
The undersea was much larger, however.
"Nothing's happening," Shiro said.
"No wait, I feel something!"
"Me too. Like, like, like we're all being pulled in the same direction!"
"Uh, guys?" Shiro shook them out of their excitement. "I think I know why. Look up!"
They were being pulled in by the Galra base.
"What the quiznak!"
Pidge yelled, "Sendak's ship is sucking us in like a maelstrom!"
Finally, a big word Lance could understand and they were going to die in less than a minute!
A final wave of shock at the castle brought the down the barrier surrounding it, leaving Coran and the princess incapacitated inside.
"Oh no," Shiro exclaimed.
Hunk screamed. "I don't care what you say, Shiro, I'm panicking now!"
"It can't end here," Pidge reasoned, but life wasn't like Lance's fairy tales. Of course humans couldn't form Voltron and win a fight against the Galra. The undersea had been conquered in seven years, and they had moved on to the oversea. They were too strong.
"This is it," he lamented to them.
"It's been an honor flying with you, boys," Keith said, and Lance could agree with him in their final moments. A moment of silence fell among them.
"No!" Shiro yelled. "We can do this! We have to believe in ourselves!" Lance lifted his head to look at the screen. "We can't give up. We are the ocean's only hope!" He had said he would follow this man into death. "Everyone is relying on us. We can't fail! We won't fail!
"If we work together, we'll win together!"
"Yeah!"
In one word, he could feel everyone's resolve. And he meant, everyone's. There was no mistaking it, because Lance had never felt so determined to beat the Galra back in his life. It was shared between them, and it was so strong among them.
The dolphins flew into formation. They closed in on themselves and expanded to connect to each other.
The stories had been wrong. Voltron didn't become a siren in times of battle.
It became a human.
He'd known. He'd know, he'd known, he'd know, but he'd refused to realize it until he had become a right leg! A leg!
"Legs," Lance breathed in a hitched voice.
"I can't believe it," Keith shouted.
"We formed Voltron," cheered Pidge.
"I'm a leg!" Hunk enthusiasm melted into theirs.
"How," Lance gasped again, shaking in his seat. They were humans! And Voltron was human shaped! "How are we doing this!?" He was a leg, by Aegir! Sirens don't have legs like this!
"I don't know," Shiro did not answer him, "but let's get that cannon!"
Maybe fairy tales do exist, after all, Lance thought numbly when they were back at the castle. After beating the Galra ships. They were back at the castle, safe. Nobody was even injured.
Allura had already thanked them, and they were discussing the situation.
"How did we do it?"
"I was just, like, screaming the whole time," Hunk offered as an explanation. "Maybe that did it."
"We looked like a human," Lance said, still stunned.
Pidge fixed his glasses, frowing. He was deep in thought, but out of his shock and awe. Shiro reached for his shoulder, already aware of his inner turmoil.
"We're not going to stop searching until we find your brother and father," he assured him. "And wherever they are, I know they'd be proud of you."
Pidge smiled at him gratefully.
Lance stared at the man and child before him. Pidge was looking for his family, too. He had felt it. It had seemed like a passing feeling while they were Voltron, a short moment of disappointment in their determined collective.
And it hadn't even been him.
Pidge was looking for his family, and he had never forgotten it. Yet here Lance was, playing hero. His family, whether it be his uncle, his parents and sisters, or his neighbors—he hadn't thought about them. Not even a little.
"We won the battle," Allura said, breaking him from his thoughts, "but that was only just begun."
You're wrong, Lance wanted to say. The war begun seven years ago. It took my family.
"I fear the dolphins will be in more danger as knowledge spreads of their reappearance," she continued.
"Good thing you paladins know what you're doing," Coran added, "because you're going to have to form Voltron again and again and again!"
"Totally," Hunk agreed, before leaning in in shocked realization. "Wait, what?"
"We barely survived forming Voltron one time!" Lance said, also disturbed.
"And it was only one ship," Coran said, stepping forward to enhance his words with a demonstration. "Wait unil you have to fight a whole fleet of them! It's not going to be easy, being Defendors of the World."
It was a unanimous agreement that "Defenders of the World" had a nice ring to it.
But to have these four teenagers and a rando guy (admittedly one epic rando guy) manning the ocean's greatest hero? Lance shook his head, accepting the facts with a little lament.
The Paladins of Voltron: four and a half humans.
What a day.
3
"Lance," Allura's voice called out to him as the newcomers were shown to their quarters.
Holy quiznak, Lance was going to be living like royalty. He was hungry, but that meant nothing to his limbs and eyes, all droopy and slow.
Coran was leading them around. Allura had tagged along despite the fact he'd insisted that she sleep now.
"We've slept for 5,000 years, Coran. I cannot bring myself to sleep so soon again, especially not before the paladins have rested."
"Yes, Princess?" Lance stayed behind. He had no query with sleeping. He liked sleep and hadn't had a 5,000 year nap to traumatize him from it. But this was a very pretty princess, straight out of a storybook (in more ways than one). He would lose sleep for her any day of the week.
Shiro and the others continued to drag their feet after Coran, who seemed a little too excited after the afternoon's battle. He chipped and chattered away like a squirrel. His words were starting to sound like squirrel sounds to the crew as well.
Lance smiled at Allura, indicating he was awake enough for her.
"You," she hesitated to speak, looking down. Resolved eyes then met Lance's. "You are not human."
Lance knew she knew, so it shouldn't have been as shocking to hear. Still, it broke him away from whatever droop he had developed. His eyes widened a bit more, his posture straightened. "I'm a little more human than most selkies are," he allowed, smiling sadly.
"So you are a selkie after all," she wondered, putting a hand on his forearm. "But your skin."
"Like I said," Lance highlighted a little forcefully, "a little more human than most."
"I am sorry," she whispered. "I thought selkies couldn't...come back without their seal skin," she mused, looking at him thoughtfully.
"The Red Paladin did, didn't she?" Lance tested. Allura didn't answer. He sighed and continued. "I wouldn't step foot into the ocean for seven years. I imagine the Red Paladin was kissed by a mermaid or something, but I came in with the Blue Dolphin."
A smile touched Allura's lips. "So you have returned home?"
"I..." Lance looked around him.
No, not quite. His home was among rocks, with his sisters, not in a castle like this. Home was welcoming. The ocean water was not. Not anymore. It didn't want him here, but he was going against it with ever move he made.
"My family lived all over the place. We visited the oversea so much, it was our home practically half the year."
"I see." She closed her eyes for a moment more, thinking. "Well, sir Lance, son of..."
She paused, and he filled in the gap automatically, "Maklain and Gama."
"Son of Maklain and Gama. I welcome you to the Court of Ys."
Lance grinned timidly, a flirty look in his eyes. "Oh? Why am I the only paladin to receive this special treatment? You wouldn't happen to be attracted to young selkie men such as myself—"
"Of course not," Allura waved him off. "I fear no one else on this ship but you and I can shape our quintessence to our desire, however."
Lance blinked. "Coran can't do magic?"
Allura nodded. "He is a great charmer, but his specialty lies in maintenance of the castle. He won't learn more than that for fear of forgetting what he knows."
Lance took a moment to think. "You're going to teach me magic? I haven't done it in so long!"
"Which means you are rusty," she frowned at him. "I never finished my own studies, so that might be problematic."
He grinned sheepishly. "I actually...never finished my studies either. I was too stubborn to, but also too young. My family wasn't into teaching children magic either."
She narrowed her eyes in confusion. "At what age did you begin?"
"I was five and being taught by a lunatic," he said as-a-matter-of-factly. "Besides, before I could continue, the Galra," he trailed off, sighing wistfully.
"The Galra," Allura gasped, shooting forward to grab one of his hands. "You were there when they began their attacks?"
"I was the only one who escaped," he said, a tear in his eyes. He looked down. Sure, you couldn't see tears in the ocean, but it was a little obvious when Lance started to cry, and he didn't want Allura to see. "My uncle, the lunatic I mentioned," he clarified, "left me on an island and Hunk's family adopted me."
"Adopted?" She asked, pretending not to see him cry.
"By their laws, we are brothers." He smiled a little to himself. "In heart we're brothers too. He is, in fact, the best brother I could have. Blood, land, and sea could not tear us apart."
He looked up again to give Allura his best smile, to show that he meant it. He loved Hunk, he was family.
"Brothers," she breathed. "A selkie and a human."
He had been confident in saying that, but grew hot under her stare, the sea water feeling colder around him. "I'm sure it's been done before. Selkies and humans have had children, right?" Lance half asked, half screamed, dragging his hand away from hers. (Selkie-human hybrids: webbed little mongrels who couldn't quite fit into either society. Poor fellows.)
"But a bond like this is unheard of," Allura told him. "At least not in my time." He flushed at the word "bond."
It had also been unheard of in his own time,and he suspected Allura's generation had interacted with humans much more than his parents' had.
"You don't have to sound so fairy tale princess-like," he squawked at her. "We're brothers, it's not that special!" Says the guy who had only just a moment ago challenged the world to separate him and Hunk. "His little cousins are super annoying," he added to make a point.
She giggled, but became serious after a moment. "Lance. You came back to the sea despite the hardships you've faced and have decided to stay."
"I have," he acknowledged. Hunk wasn't leaving, and even if he had, Lance would have planned to come back.
"You have been keeping this secret from your team? I don't think that's healthy for your relationships."
"We can't tell them!" Lance yelled. It was loud, and he winced at his voice. "Sorry. I just...I gave Hunk my skin when we met."
She gasped, connecting the dots. "He's the one who-"
"It's not his fault!" He interrupted before she could accuse his brother completely. "I was the one who gave it to him. I was my choice, and he only did what I was telling him to do." He looked her in the eyes seriously, putting emphasis on his words. "I don't want him to find out. He'd feel terrible if he knew he had taken my coat, even though I was the one who gave it to him."
"Truly a complex bond," Allura murmured to herself in all her fairy tale princess splendor.
He groaned. "Princess Allura, it has been very strange day," he confessed. "I never thought I would manage my way back into the ocean, much less the undersea. We also found all of Voltron again." He paused before informing her, "Back when I was a child, Voltron was only a fairy tale."
"A story?" Allura frowned at the thought.
"Exactly! I didn't even think the Castle of Dolphins was real, or that it was part of Ys. Today was like getting sucked into a whirlpool of mythos. Imagine the other paladins. They must feel the same, considering mermaids are also just fairy tales for them."
"How could we have been forgotten like this?" Allura exclaimed. Lance didn't know if she was mad because the world forgot Voltron, Ys, or the existence of mermaids. Maybe all three.
He leaned into her, just as outraged. "I know! The stories don't even get it right! Before today, I thought Voltron would be a siren with wings and bird feet and—I didn't think—" Lance fell back, letting the water take him, stunned again. "Legs!"
"Legs are very useful in battle," Allura told him knowledgeably. "Especially if one can already walk, swim, and fly."
"Voltron can fly?" He gaped. "But it doesn't have wings! And why would it need to fly anyway?"
She looked at him strangely. "Voltron is the defender of this world. Sirens live in the skies, as do many others. You did not seriously think our savior was bound to the sea, did you?"
He had, in fact.
"We protect..." His mouth flapped as he found his words. "That would mean we'd have to leave the undersea," he tested. She nodded. "I thought the sirens could defend themselves. I didn't even think sirens had enemies," he shook his head. "They sound terrifying. Who would want to fight them?"
"How old were you when you lost your skin?"
He blinked. "Ten decapheebs, thank you very much." It pretty kind of summed up to ten years. Although, now that Lance thought about it, his age was no longer entirely accurate. Ten decapheebs and seven years old, was he?
"Then you never had a real tutor?"
Lance gave the word a dirty look. Teachers sucked, school sucked, he was a little glad he had graduated high school and now no longer had to go to the Garrison.
He stuck out his tongue and said, "My parents were planning to keep me home-schooled," he made quotation marks with his fingers. "Home-schooled" really just meant he would learn as he traveled. "Sadly, I received a human public education instead."
Allura looked displeased. "You haven't had sufficient studies then. In any area. We have plenty of ways we could teach you in the castle, don't worry." His horror must've shown, because she gave him a sweet smile and said, "For now, we should head to bed. We can continue to discuss once we have both rested."
"Are you suggesting what I think you're suggest—"
Unamused, but too tired to glare at his licentious smirk, Allura turned around and walked away. "I'm sure you can find your chambers alone. I'll be heading to mine."
"Huh?!" Lance's smirk fell. "Wait, I don't know my way around!" She didn't stop to listen, and was already around the corner. "Man, rude," he said, scratching his head and looking around for a mall map.
"Number three?" Coran's voice caught his attention. Lance turned around with a shy grin.
"Coran! Coran, the castle's best charming man. Oh, Choran," he sang. "You wouldn't happen to know where my room is, would you?"
Coran looked adequately enthusiastic with the little rhyme, and nodded approvingly. "Of course," he winked, "I'm sure you'll find your room suitable to your every selkie need."
He knew too.
Lance thought about it. "That's a little specist, don't you think?" Coran looked confused. "I'm just like any human at this point." What would a selkie even need? Would he even like beds in his seal form? "Also, can you never call me selkie in front of my friends? Ever?"
"Most assuredly."
"Thank you, man. Lead away!"
Coran the Charmer. His charms specialize in castle maintenance, and could therefore be useful for other awesome things, but he doesn't know battle magic. Maybe some defensive charms, but mostly passive. Nothing active. Yeet.
Allura didn't finish her studies here either, damn. That doesn't mean teachers aren't available. Sure, underwater there's no one left to teach, and no mermaids seem to be at their disposal, so most mermaid magic (generally dealing with advanced magic and mirrors) will likely be lost.
But there's mythos all over the world that can teach them magic. Lance and Allura will be classmates! This might be a little heavy on the former though, since he knows so little. He can do like a cute little night light, and it will even stay when he's out of the water, but underwater? This boi is dead :0