A light breeze stirred the ocean into small, rippling waves that glittered in the early morning sunlight over Varadero Beach. In the McClain-Martinez household across the street, Rosa McClain-Martinez stood at the kitchen window, watching the water flow, and took a moment to just breathe.

The last twenty-four hours had been sheer pandemonium. From the moment she had stepped outside to see what her children had been yelling about only to freeze in horror at the distant streaks of light and far-off fireballs high over their heads, she had been constantly on the move, soothing terrified children, calling relatives, watching the news in a desperate attempt to understand what was happening. Brothers and sisters, both hers and Alistair's, had started arriving within ten minutes of her first phone calls with nieces and nephews in tow, gathering around the TV with the news channel playing and other stations and websites on every tablet and phone. And then they'd heard the rebroadcasts of the transmissions from the ships. Heard Human voices. Heard Alonza.

Alonza, her clever, smiling boy who they had cried over an empty casket for over a year earlier after the Garrison had called them and told them he was dead, in a training accident of all things, as if Alonza had ever been any less than scrupulously careful when other people might be at risk, because he would never forgive himself if he was the cause of someone else getting hurt. Alonza whose familiar cheerful voice she thought she would never hear again, calling out to others both Human and alien as the TV showed strange ships that no Human ever built engaged in a pitched battle high in orbit over the Earth. Alonza, her son, alive.

Shock. Disbelief. Eyes too blurred with tears to see the Garrison photo of her son on the TV or the footage of the battle raging back and forth, Rosa could only sit and listen, taking in her son's voice as her family argued around her or tried to explain things to the confused younger children. She could hear familiar anxiety, and stress that was more than understandable under the circumstances. But there was also an undertone of strength and confidence that she'd never heard from him before. While she didn't understand half of what was being said, it seemed as if he'd come into his own wherever he'd vanished to among the stars.

When he'd fallen silent, disappearing, she'd gathered, into one of the enemy ships in order to sabotage it, she finally took in the other voices and the faces on the screen and realized that she recognized some of them. Hunk she knew from countless skype calls during Alonza's time at the Garrison, her son's best friend who had been so good to him there. That he'd been killed in the accident as well was upsetting, but now it filled her with relief. Alonza hadn't been alone. And those were the faces of two of the crew of the ill-fated Kerberos mission, there wasn't a single person in the family who couldn't recognize Alonza's hero, the prodigy pilot Takashi Shirogane, at first sight or sound-by God, he'd been so devastated when the announcement of the supposed crash had been made, crying on the phone with her for hours-and that was definitely Matthew Holt, one of the scientists on the mission. She didn't know who the other two were, although they sounded young. None of them were her son, though, and it was his voice she waited to hear again with her heart in her throat. The relief when she finally did was overwhelming, and she'd sagged back on the couch in tears, not realizing until minutes later that the battle was finally, mercifully over.

Astonishment had given way to serious discussion after that, the grown-ups arguing back and forth about the implications of the events of the last few hours while the teenagers contributed updates now and then from the blogs and news sites and children requested juice or snacks here and there, too young to understand how close they had probably all come to death today. Alonza was alive. The Garrison had lied. The crew of the Kerberos mission were also alive, and the Garrison had lied about that too. The aliens? Who knew. There was a thick undercurrent of anger in the house, and the first reporter who'd had the nerve to knock at her door was also the last after the unfortunate man got the sharp edge of her sister-in-law Agatha's tongue. But there was joy, too, when Fernan informed them that the ships had finished landing in Arizona. Their boy was back on Earth, and it was only a matter of time until he came home.

They talked and they waited, no one wanting to be away when he arrived. Rosa found space in the beds and on couches for the youngsters as they started to fall asleep, and the adults curled up wherever they could find space on the floor. It was uncomfortable, but no one cared. Not when it meant being there when Alonza came back to them. By the time the sun rose she was the only one awake, too keyed up and overwhelmed to sleep, and under the morning light it finally began to sink in.

Her baby boy, whose picture she prayed over each morning. She couldn't see it from where she stood in the kitchen but she knew the placement of the frame, the candle, a few small trinkets that had been placed around it to be taken to his grave the next time they went. The loss had been like a knife in her heart, making its presence felt constantly, sharp grief and heavy guilt. What kind of mother let something like this happen to her son? The phone call, the funeral, they were moments that she would never, ever forget. But now, like a miracle from God himself, her son had been restored to her.

Her breath hitched and she pressed a hand tightly over her mouth to muffle the sound, hugging herself with her free arm as her body shook with sobs. This was happening. It was really happening. Alonza was alive, was coming back to her. She would get to see his smile and hear his voice and hold him in her arms and tell him how much she loved him and how proud she was because she knew, she knew she had never said either of those things enough. Tears were spilling over onto her cheeks as she shuddered and her heart seemed to be trying to soar and sink at the same time.

Stairs creaked behind her on the far side of the living room, followed a few moments later by strong arms wrapping themselves around her from behind and a bearded chin resting on the top of her head. Alistair, swaying them both on the spot in a comforting motion. "Easy, Rosa." He murmured softly. "Easy. I've got you."

Rosa leaned into her husband's chest, grateful for the support as her turbulent emotions, grief and joy and relief and shock and others she couldn't separate all at once, threatened to overwhelm her. The sea was a bright blur through the tears, and she had to press her hand hard over her mouth to keep her weeping quiet and not wake the sleepers in the living room.

Alistair held her until her tears were reduced to drying streaks on her cheeks and she was able to lace her fingers with his instead of pressing them to her lips. He kissed the top of her head, hugging her closer, and offered her a damp dishtowel to dry her eyes. "Better, sweetheart?"

She nodded, swiping at her eyes with a sigh. "He's coming home." Her voice was a hoarse whisper of joy.

"He is." Alistair's voice was equally quiet but no less relieved. "He'll be here soon, don't worry." He added, answering an unspoken fear, and chuckled. "As if he'd wait any longer than he had to after all this time."

Rosa laughed as well, and turned her attention back to the water. The waves still glittered white-gold in the morning light. The sun must be barely up in Arizona, if it was at all. Alonza was probably still in bed, he was never an early riser given the choice. It would likely be hours before he arrived, and some of the kids would be wanting breakfast soon. With a fond sigh, she started to turn away toward the stove.

Her husband's arms tightened, stopping her. "In fact…" His voice held a hint of excitement. "Call me crazy, but I think that's him now."

Pulling away from Alistair, she leaned on the counter, peering out the window across the sea. In the distance, she could make out a dark shape in the sky, small, but growing by the moment into the recognizable form of a blue robotic lion, one of the same lions from the battle yesterday. Her breath caught in her throat with sudden, absolute certainty, and she flung herself away from the window and headed for the door, all attempts at quietness cast aside in her haste. "Alonza!"

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Kurogane's arm was a reassuring weight around Alejandro's waist as they stood gripping the back of Lance's chair. His fingers dug into the padding in nervous anticipation. Up ahead, a thin, dark line on the horizon was steadily expanding into a coastline that spread out in either direction as they drew closer, colourful blurs resolving themselves into towns and cities, beaches and roads, and finally houses and people as they zeroed in on their destination. Alejandro swallowed hard around the lump in his throat. He recognized those buildings, the shops and houses and beaches. Memories, faded and blurred with time, were slipping sharply back into focus everywhere he looked, and he had to close his eyes for a moment against the onslaught.

Lance's sharp inhalation had them snapping back open a moment later. They were almost to the shore, waves lapping at the sand in front of them. And across the street, a house that he'd known like the back of his hand once, faded yellow paint and bikes in the yard and a small figure hurtling out the door-

"Blue, take us in, please, I can't-" Lance was choking out through tears, throwing off his safety harness and struggling to his feet. Alejandro stood frozen as the younger male pushed past him, Blue rumbling as she swooped down under her own power, settling in the sand of the beach and lowering her head to let her pilot out. Through the screen he saw the figure dashing toward them resolve itself into Rosa McClain-Martinez a moment before Lance hurtled out of Blue's open mouth and collided with her in a fierce, desperate hug.

"Alejandro?" Kurogane's quiet voice shook him out of his daze to realize there were tears on his face. He touched his cheek absently. When had he started crying? His partner sighed and wiped at his face with his sleeve. "Come on. We need to go down to the airlock for when it's time."

Alejandro managed a small nod at that. They'd agreed on that this morning; Lance would go out first, and once he had a chance to talk he would explain the basics of the time travel situation and introduce Alejandro and Kurogane. It had sounded so simple when they planned it out, but now the thought of stepping out there seemed daunting. But he let Kurogane lead him out of the cockpit anyway, tugging the green jacket tighter around himself. Family. Lance had promised.

They stopped in the shadows at the back of the airlock, the smell of the sea wafting in from Blue's open mouth. On the sand in front of her, Lance was buried in the arms of his parents, all talking over each other in rapid Spanish that took Alejandro a long moment to decipher. Holt may have made sleep-learning tapes to teach the others Spanish for his sake, but after a while the language had carried the weight of too many memories and he'd stopped using it. Now he was rustier than he'd even realized.

Distant shouting drew his attention away from the trio in front of him and toward the house across the quiet street. More figures were spilling out of the door now-someone else must have woken up and seen Blue on the beach-and his breath caught in his throat as they came running. Tia Agatha. Novia. Mariposa. Cousin Tajo. Tia Sophia. Tio Kieran. Cousin Antonio. Fernan. More and more, his brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins. The family he hadn't seen in over seven years, charging across the sand to sweep Lance up in a riotous hug, all yelling and cheering their joy. The lump in his throat was back. He could barely breathe, watching them. Loud, happy, alive.

He was crying again, and Kurogane pulled him into his arms, rubbing his back in silent comfort. Alejandro closed his eyes and buried his face in his partner's shoulder, listening to the joyous tumult outside over his own shuddering breathing.

It took several minutes for things to calm down enough for Lance to speak.

"Okay, okay! I know you guys're wondering where I've been and what happened. It's a really long story, and I'm really sorry for leaving without telling anyone." The guilt in his voice was as obvious as the tears on many of the faces outside the lion. "I'll tell you guys everything when we get inside, okay? But there's someone I want you all to meet first."

A ripple of confusion, and one of the older cousins making a wisecrack about Alonza finally bringing home a girl to meet the parents who just happened to have green skin. Lance flushed. "N-No! Nothing like that. Sort of. But no. Just let me explain, alright?"

Alejandro watched as the others settled down, listening expectantly. Lance ran his good hand through his hair, huffing out a breath. "Okay. So. I'll tell you guys the full story after, I promise. But for right now...basically, short version of the important part, we found out a few weeks ago that time travel is possible. And we found that out because two of us-of our group, Voltron," he gestured to himself, then to Blue "came back in time because things went really, really wrong and they were trying to fix that."

The family around him was dead silent now as Lance took a deep breath. "They...they lost everyone they cared about, in their timeline. But now that they're here, we want them to have that back. Okay? That's why I brought them with me. This is their homecoming too." He turned, making a beckoning gesture toward Blue. Alejandro breathed deeply, shaky and anxious. That was their cue. Kurogane squeezed his hand. "Right beside you, sharpshooter." He whispered softly.

As they walked down the ramp, Alejandro could hear the shocked murmurs, feel the stares. He couldn't blame them. The resemblance between himself and his younger counterpart was too obvious to miss. And given that introduction, all but the younger ones would already be putting two and two together.

"Mami, Papi," Lance's voice was quieter now as he focused entirely on his parents. Rosa had her hands clasped over her mouth in shock as her gaze flicked from Alejandro to Lance and back again. "This is...me. Another me, from a future that we're trying to prevent. He goes by Alejandro, after our brother. Since he," he nodded to the side at his eldest brother, who looked stunned at the revelation, "usually goes by Leandro-or did?" He gave his brother an anxious look, and sighed in relief when he received a nod that yes, the nickname was still in use, "Anyway, I thought we could call him-" a wave at the time-traveller "-Alej to avoid confusion. And this is Kurogane, Alej's...partner?"

His rambling trailed off into a thick silence filled only by the hush of the waves and a gull's cry somewhere overhead. Alejandro could feel dozens of pairs of eyes on him but his gaze was locked only on his mother. She was staring at him, emotions playing too rapidly across her face for him to identify all of them. Shock, definitely. Confusion, understandably. Horror, maybe, and he couldn't blame her as her brown eyes glanced to Lance and back to him once more. Comparing. The son who was meant to be here, who had saved them, against the one who had failed.

The quiet was stretching too long. This was a mistake. He shouldn't have come here. He didn't belong. Swallowing hard, he took a half step back as an apology started to form on his tongue.

Arms encircled him and he froze.

"Welcome home, baby." Rosa whispered into his ear, voice thick with tears as she pulled him against her, a hug every bit as tight as the one she'd wrapped around Lance a few minutes earlier. "We missed you so much."

Alejandro buried his face in his mother's shoulder and cried.

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Rosa leaned against the living room door frame, watching with a fond smile as the little ones swarmed over Alonza and Alej, talking over each other at a million miles a minute as they pestered the two of them with questions that they did their best to answer. If not for the sling around Alonza's arm and Alej's presence, it could have been any time that Alonza came home from the Garrison for the holidays.

Alej. Of all the things that had crossed her mind since yesterday as to what her son might have gone through while he was in space, meeting a time-travelling duplicate of himself was not something she'd considered. He was years older than Alonza, scarred and careworn, with his face etched with lines of grief overtop of the older ones of laughter. And yet, for all that, the two still looked so much alike.

Seeing him standing on the sand beside her son, her first feeling had been one of wrongness, like looking at a distorted reflection in a funhouse mirror. This was not, could not be her son, the little boy she'd let go off to the Garrison with his dreams of spaceflight. Time-traveller or not, this battered soldier couldn't possibly be her son, her smiling, cheerful Alonza.

And then she'd looked into those blue eyes, seen the hope and longing. Seen the hurt as he started to withdraw, closing in on himself the way she'd seen him do in those rare moments when his insecurities and anxieties showed through. And in that moment the horror was swept away and left behind a tired young man who'd fought so hard and so long to come home.

She'd let him cry himself out on her shoulder, clutching at her shirt like he was afraid she'd vanish if he dared to let go, and she couldn't help but feel her eyes burn with fresh tears for his pain. Alonza had said this older version of him had lost everything. Did that include her too? She had a painful, guilty feeling it did. But he was here now, and they were his family, even if they hadn't expected to be before he arrived. She was still his mother, and that meant that he was her son.

When the tears had dried or been wiped away on sleeves (she wondered at the fact that Alej was the one wearing Alonza's jacket. There was probably a story there, too), they made their way back to the house and crowded into the living room to listen some more. The story the pair of the had proceeded to tell was more bizarre than she'd ever imagined. From the Kerberos mission's capture by a race of conquering aliens called the Galra, to Shiro's escape and subsequent rescue from the garrison by Alonza, Hunk, and two others (she recognized the names now, Pidge, Alonza's antisocial teammate who had disappeared in the same 'accident', and Keith, the boy he'd been both infatuated with and aggravated by), and their discovery of the same Blue Lion who stood calmly on the beach despite the growing crowd of onlookers clustering around the edge of a spherical blue energy shield. They'd gone into space, discovered the lost Princess of an alien race, and found themselves on the front line of a ten thousand-year-old interstellar war.

And they'd been fighting ever since, right up until the Galra had decided to target their home in order to teach them a lesson.

Rosa felt a sick feeling settle into her gut as she listened. She could tell, from the hesitations, the pauses, the glances between the three, that as much as they were saying, there was just as much they weren't. You didn't fight a war without getting hurt. The visible scars on Alej and Kurogane and the bandages wrapped around Alonza's hand spoke volumes about what the Galra were capable of, and she wondered how many more were hidden under their clothes. She wouldn't press them for details right now-no doubt they were editing the story for the sake of the children-but she knew they were there.

At the end of the story, the adults dispersed, forming tight knots of conversation as they processed what they'd just been told. The teenagers formed uncertain clumps, casting wary glances toward the windows as though the Galra might return at any second. For all Rosa knew, they might, but she didn't doubt Alonza and Alej had some way of being alerted if the threat arose.

The little ones, though, didn't care about any of it. To them, the most important thing was that Alonza was finally home. And Alej? A new brother or cousin that Alonza'd brought home from space, who they were determined to get to know.

Her eyes shifted to the only other person in the room who was by themselves, the dark-haired young man who'd emerged from the blue lion at Alej's side. Kurogane, Alonza had called him, and said he was Alej's partner. He was sitting on the couch watching with a soft, loving smile as the other two were half-buried under children. While partner might simply have meant he was Alej's companion in time travel, the look on his face left no doubt in her mind exactly what the two meant to each other. Which told her exactly why he'd been brought along as well.

Crossing the room, she sat down beside him and gave him a small smile. "Kurogane, right?" She said, switching to English for his benefit. He'd seemed to be following along well enough so far, but she doubted Spanish was his native tongue by the look of him. "I'm Rosa. Alonza-and Alej's-mother."

"I know." His answering smile was shy but warm as he shook her offered hand. "Alejandro's told me so much about you. I'm glad to finally be able to meet you."

"It's good to meet you too. Alonza said you were Alej's partner. For how long?" Rosa couldn't keep the curiosity out of her voice. The recounting of their adventures had been thin on the details of things outside the war. She needed to know more, to know that if her son-sons-hadn't been safe, they'd at least been somewhat happy.

His dark eyes lit up at the question, sliding over to look at Alej, who was holding very still as Lur examined the scar on his face with as stern a frown as a seven-year-old could wear. "A little over four years, give or take." His mouth twisted in a wry smile. "But we were dancing around our feelings for a long time before that."

Her gaze fixed on Alonza, who was blushing and sputtering denials at Tajo. "Is that so?" she grinned. "And how long for that?"

Kurogane followed her gaze and laughed. "He's getting there, don't worry. I think he and Keith will admit their feelings to each other sooner than we did."

"So it is Keith, then? And he feels the same way?"

"Yes. Lance has liked him since their Garrison days, he just refused to admit it while he was trying to measure up to his level. Keith's feelings came later, much later, but they're there. Trust me." Another wry half-grin. "I know exactly how he feels about him."

So Kurogane had been Keith once upon a time. Rosa made a mental note of that. Hopefully she would get to meet this Keith soon, see the man beside her as he had once been when her son was first falling in love with him.

"Rosa."

Kurogane's soft voice drew her attention back to him. The smile was gone, replaced by a serious expression. The chatter in the background around them seemed to mute itself as she gave her full attention to whatever he had to say. "Yes?"

"I...wanted to thank you." He stared down at his hands, tugging at his sleeves as he sorted out his words. "For Alejandro."

She remained silent, sensing he wasn't finished.

"He's the best thing that ever happened to me. Even more than Shiro. When we got together, I...I was a mess. Trust issues, emotional baggage, the works. Hardly relationship material."

A surge of anger filled her on the behalf of both Kurogane and Keith at the troubled childhood those words hinted at. "I'd never have guessed from the way you look at him."

That brought a small smile back onto his face. "That's thanks to Alej. He didn't care that I was messed up. He didn't get upset when I struggled with our relationship. He accepted me and he learned to understand me and he helped me heal."

"That does sound like Alonza." Rosa smiled. In the middle of the floor, he and Alej were racing to see who could braid the sides of a giggling Juanita's hair the fastest with only one hand. "But I'm not sure why you're thanking me for my son's good heart."

"Because he got that heart from you."

She looked back over at Kurogane in surprise, brown eyes meeting darkest violet. He held her gaze, speaking with a quiet certainty that took her off-guard. "You raised him to be the kindest, most generous, most selfless person I have ever been lucky enough to meet. And he has a heart of pure gold that I know he inherited from you, based on the stories he's told me and what happened on the beach earlier. No one would have blamed you if you told Alej 'you are not my son.' He's not from this timeline after all. But instead you hugged him and told him 'welcome home.'"

His gaze dropped down to his hands again, clasped in his lap. "So thank you. For being Alejandro and Lance's mother, for raising him the way you did. I'm so lucky to have him. I love him so much. And he loves me."

Unable to find the words to respond to the quiet awe in that last sentence, Rosa did the only thing she could think of. She leaned forward and pulled a startled Kurogane into her arms, hugging him until his muscles uncoiled and he relaxed awkwardly into the embrace.

"Thank you." She whispered. "Thank you for loving my son. For making sure he was never alone and for keeping him safe all these years." She could only guess at the tragedies of the other timeline these two had come from, but their scars, and the fact that it was just the two of them here, spoke plenty of their losses without them having to utter a word. "Thank you for being there for him."

His own arms lifted to return the hug at that. "I love him. I'd protect him with my life a thousand times over and never regret it."

"I know you would." Rosa straightened, wiping her eyes on her sleeve as she smiled at Kurogane. "You'll keep protecting them, won't you? Both of them?"

He stared at her. "You know we can't stay?" He sounded almost relieved. They'd probably been prepared for a fight on the subject.

She sighed. "If it was up to me, I'd chain them to the radiator to keep them down here where they're safe." She admitted, drawing a surprised chuckle from the boy. "But it isn't safe, is it? Not until that war is over."

"No." He gave her a sad, understanding smile. "No, it isn't. And there's no one else who can take our places up there."

"Because of the lions." Chosen. That was the word Alonza had used to describe how they'd formed their bonds with the huge machines. The lions had chosen them.

Kurogane nodded. "Because of the Lions. Finding apprentices that the lions would accept would take time we can't spare. And they wouldn't be ready to fight."

"So it has to be them."

"Yes. I'm sorry."

Rosa sighed. The thought of Alonza and Alej going back into space, to fight a vast war against an enemy who thought nothing of blowing up entire planets, was terrifying beyond words. They had come back to her once, next time she might not be so lucky. But she knew her son. Knew he would never forgive her if she tried to keep him from protecting the people he loved and the innocents he'd never even met. She looked at Kurogane, letting the lines of grief and worry of the past year show on her face. "Promise me you'll protect them."

He straightened, pressed a fist to his chest, and bowed, an obvious salute even if she couldn't begin to guess where it came from. "I'll do everything I can to make sure they come home safely, Rosa." He lifted his head and looked into her eyes. "On my honour as a Red Paladin and a Blade of Marmora."