A/N:

Hey there! This chapter has scenes from episode 9 of season 7. I hope you enjoy!

"The Earth is overrun by Galra."

The sentence reverberated through Lance's head like a heavy bass beat and pounded against his forehead with a ferocious intensity that threatened to split his skull. It horrified him, knowing that his home planet, which he had always believed to be beyond the touch of the war that had broken him in so many ways, had been under the oppression of the Galra while he was away. At first, he could hardly comprehend the news. Surely, this was all a cruel joke? But Lance knew no one would ever even consider joking about this situation. Whenever he'd imagined Earth, and his family, in his mind's eye, he always saw it unchanged. He'd never paused to consider that his world might be in danger, or that his family might not be safe. With a pounding heart, he tried to steady his nerves.

His family was fine. They were waiting for him.

However, the more he attempted to convince himself, the more he worried. Whatever doubt that existed in his mind about the Galra controlling Earth disappeared the moment he saw Platte City. One a thriving city full of life, it now cursed the land that it rested on as a desolate phantom. Buildings, emanating a sorrowful aura in their collapsed state, streets, disfigured by the debris that blocked their path, and dust of splintered glass, soot, and ash, surrounded him. The mourning atmosphere of the city reminded Lance of the other civilizations he'd seen ravaged by the Galra, and Lance felt as if he were in a room comprised entirely of thin glass. If he took one misstep, everything would shatter around him. The dilapidated metropolis, soulless and razed, sent a haunting shiver through his body, and Lance gripped his blaster tighter, the unease of approaching confrontation nagging his bones. As he continued through the city, the rest of his team behind him, his senses were on edge, and he made certain to survey every angle. Just when the team passed a sagging building with an enormous hole in its side, several sharp, violet laser blasts began to rain upon them.

"Take cover!" Lance ordered, shoving his back against the windshield of a nearby overturned car.

Keith dove next to Lance as the rest of the team scattered, hiding in various positions and shooting back at the circular drones that were attacking them. Grabbing a brief opportunity, Lance stood from his crouch and managed to send several shots to the nearest drone that hovered above him, however, he didn't have enough time before a drone's blast hit the car too close to him, and he had to return to his position behind the windshield.

"I'll distract it, you take the shot," Keith commanded, his back to Lance.

"Don't miss," he added, and Lance tried to focus on the situation at hand, and not the jab at his abilities.

Keith sprang from the safety of their position and launched himself over the roof a nearby car, running at top speed down the desolated street. Sure enough, the drones turned their attention to his movements, giving Lance the chance to leave his spot and train his blaster on his target. Raising his scope to his right eye and closing his left in deep concentration, Lance aimed. As soon as he pulled the trigger, he positioned the blaster to the angle of the second drone, and in turn, the third, managing to destroy them all within five seconds. As Keith asked Pidge about a way to tell when the drones were approaching, Lance allowed himself to exhale slowly. His nerves, like fireworks beneath his skin, refused to settle, and he assured himself in the fact that he had easily shot those drones. Yet, he still couldn't calm himself. Before the group had time to truly recover, more blasts began to besiege them, and once more, the group dashed to find cover. Instead of drones, however, this time they were under fire from three Galra soldiers. Adrenaline enticing his veins, Lance shot one soldier in the shoulder, and managed to take another out completely. Calculating its movements, and the angles, Lance began to train his scope on the third soldier, but before he could pull the trigger, he heard shots from behind him. Pivoting, Lance managed to enhillate one drone, the machine exploding from the impact of his blast. As Lance began to focus on the other drone, a blast originating from someone else's gun destroyed it, and Lance was left to watch the rubble.

"I had it!" Keith snapped with hostility, and Lance glanced behind him, to where Keith faced two newcomers. They wore Garrison colors, and Lance's eyes rapidly darted to the rovers parked nearby. In the heat of the quick battle, Lance hadn't even noticed their arrival.

"Drones send distress signals when they're attacked. Our weapons neutralize those signals, so unless you want to deal with a swarm of those things, let us handle it. Now, let's get out of here before more show up," One of the Garrison members snarled.

Lance recognized that voice. And the aggression behind it.

James Griffin.

Lance remembered him from his time in the Garrison, and, all in all, he'd disliked Griffin almost as much as he'd hated Keith.

As Lance scrambled to the rovers with the others, he deliberately chose to board the one that Griffin wasn't driving. Old insecurities resurfaced at the sight of him, and Lance would rather not encounter him just yet.

The drive stretched to an eternity. The thick air clogged Lance's throat, and his fingers moved so frantically that he was certain that even the Garrison girl noticed. He didn't recognize her, but she seemed about his age, and he couldn't help wondering if she'd been in his class. Or if he'd even flirted with her at one point. The thought that it was more than likely that young and naive Lance had hit on her twisted his stomach, and he couldn't imagine doing anything like that now. He'd probably vomit if he tried. Hyperventilation threatened to overcome his lungs, and Lance deliberately tried to slow his loud and probably irritating breathing. Goosebumps rose on his arms, as he was certain everyone in the rover was painfully aware of his anxiety. His back shuddered, and he found himself sitting straighter, biting the inside of his lip, and stuffing his hands under his thighs, hoping that if he did that, he wouldn't annoy anyone. Gulping, he stared out at the barren landscape that rolled past his window, and gnawed at the soft flesh of the inside of his mouth. Would his family be there? Did they know he was alive? Were they safe?

Worries swarmed his thoughts like a nasty hive of wasps, and he found himself asking the one question he'd refused to allow himself to even ponder before.

Are they dead?

A severe chill descended onto his body, and, paralyzed, he tried to face the possibility. What if he never saw his mother again? What if he never got to hear his sisters laugh again? Or, what if his brothers never teased him again? What would he do, if his family were dead? How could he possibly go on? They had been his hope in the midst of torture and captivity, and in the dark moments after, when he'd wonder if staying alive was even worth it. Without them, he'd lose to himself. There was no doubt in his mind, the blow would be the last one he'd ever receive. Shaking, Lance forced himself to look at his fellow passengers. At Pidge, who perched at the edge of her seat with excitement and anxiety battling for dominance over her features, at Hunk, whose eyes carried a heavy burden, and Keith, whose face was turned away from him. They had supported him all this time, and they hadn't given up on him. How would they react if he entertained his thoughts? What would they do? Would they even miss him? Lance couldn't pretend that this was the first time he'd thought of this, or even the twentieth. His mind had run through every possible outcome hundreds of times, and each time, he'd never felt any satisfaction. His musings, dark as they were, left him more numb than before in most cases. As the rover crested a hill, Lance's eyes widened at the sight before him. An enormous dome of orange shielded the entirety of the Garrison's base, and the sight of Altean technology on Earth left an odd feeling in his brain. The moment of truth was fast approaching, and after several moments of agonizing silence traveling across an empty plain, the gates opened before their rovers, and they were admitted into a dark tunnel that cast shadows across their faces. Lance's hands picked up the riff in a song that he'd once struggled drastically with, but he didn't even realize that he'd moved them from under his legs. Sweat dripped down his forehead and burned his eyes, but he didn't care to try to wipe the droplets away. In a moment of self-awareness, Lance found that his jaw was clenched so tightly that he could barely open his mouth, and that his spine ached from the strict rigidity that he'd enforced upon it for the entire ride. Emerging from the tunnel like it was a wormhole to a whole other reality, Lance blinked at the vast difference within the dome than outside of it. The stark change from a carnaged city to miles of nothing to rows of neat and militaristic buildings caught Lance off guard slightly, but his heartbeat was pounding so hard that he could hardly dwell on it. If his heart jumped any higher, he was certain that it would fly right up his throat and out of his mouth. Gulping for the upteenth time, Lance felt his convictions waver, and all of the sudden, he wanted to be anywhere but where he was. He didn't know why, but the thought of confronting a daunting possibility terrified him more than the prospect of returning to the heat of battle, or even another term in captivity. If his family wasn't there...

He couldn't look. His eyes glued themselves shut, and the complete darkness that faced him, though consuming and interwoven with despair, comforted him with its familiarity.

He felt the rover stop, but he couldn't bring himself to see what lay beyond.

The soft whoosh of the door opening alerted him to the fact that his friends were probably already rushing to enter the other universe that awaited them, but Lance couldn't move from his seat. His body was made of solid ice, and the rover was the frozen arctic that kept him from melting.

He felt Pidge move beside him, then her voice penetrated his fear, the emotion in it cracking the glacier that had formed around him.

"Mom!"

He couldn't stop himself.

He opened his eyes.

What he saw reminded him that he wasn't the only one who'd left their family behind. Pidge's small, birdlike body was wrapped in the arms of her mother, and the two of them knelt on the ground beside the rover, tears falling without shame from the both of them. With his heart in his throat, Lance's eyes met Hunk's, and his body moved without the consent from his doubts. He exited the rover as fast as possible, disregarding his icy fear for one second. That one second was the best decision of his life, for as soon as his feet hit the ground, a voice he could have recognized his sleep cried out, "Lance!"

In shock, Lance turned his gaze to the direction of the voice, and the sight that greeted him was more than he could have ever hoped for.

"Uncle Lance!" Two children sprinted towards him, and Lance's body surged forward, his only thought on the people before him.

"Hey!" He cried, skidding onto his knees to throw his arms around his niece and nephew.

Not two seconds later, more arms encircled him, until he didn't know why he'd ever been worried in the first place.

"My son," His mom's voice murmured from next to him, and tears welled within his eyes.

"It's so good to see you."

"We never gave up on you!"

"I missed you so much."

Their voices filled his head and calmed him, but he still couldn't process that they were there. That they were alive. Their embrace seemed to protect him, at least for a moment, from all the misery and horror that he'd endured, and all the darkness that lurked behind his shoulder at every turn.

"Oh my gosh, you two are so much bigger now," Lance marveled, looking at his niece and nephew, while there were so many thing he wanted to say, so many confessions he needed to make, this was the first thing that came to his mind. They were five years older than when he'd last seen them, and in fact, he was surprised that they remembered him at all.

"You're the same size!" His nephew exclaimed, "But those are new!"

His nephew pointed to the scars on his temple, and suddenly, Lance's temperature dropped. The safe haven that his family had created crumbled around him, and the memories, the unwanted memories, flashed through his mind. Xeris's charred face. Lightning. Blood.

So.

Much.

Blood.

Lance leaned back involuntarily, and the look that crossed his face must've scared his nephew, because he inched away from Lance with a confused look in his eyes. Trying to compensate, Lance let an infectious smile spread across his face and ruffled his nephew's hair.

"Yeah, they are pretty recent," he amended, but he could hear the strain in his own voice.

"How'd you get 'em?" His nephew warmed back up, instantly forgetting the previous moment.

"I just got them in a space fight," Lance shrugged, but the eyes of the kid before him began to absolutely sparkle at the sentence.

"Wow! A fight in space! What was it like?!"

"Well…" Lance didn't want to recount the story at all, especially not here, not now.

"Shhh, honey, Uncle Lance doesn't want to talk about it right now," Lance's sister-in-law chided, and Lance cast her a grateful look.

"I can't believe you're here," Rachel, Lance's sister, hiccupped through her tears.

"Me neither, Rach'. Me neither."