The inside of the lion was exactly what Lance was expecting. It was familiar and homey and he found his way to the pilot seat easily. It was kind of like being back at his house where he could just flop into the nearest chair-
Which is of course what he did.
The others joined him moments later.
"Woah," said both Pidge and Keith in unison.
"Alright," said Lance, messing with the controls. They were nothing like the Garrison simulators or the images they saw in books. These controls were more streamlined and futuristic, like they'd come right out of a super cool sci-fi film. "Very nice. Very nice."
Hunk, his ever nervous self, looked ready to start pacing if there had been room enough in the lion to do so. "Okay, so, just so everyone gets it- we're in some sort of- futuristic alien lion head- ship- right now. Like, now."
Lance was about to make a sarcastic comment to put his old friend off edge, but he was stopped at the sound of a warm, almost familiar purr- kind of like his cat Nacho's purr but louder and a bit more machine-y. It had the same comfort that was attached to Nacho's though, so he wasn't too alarmed.
Well, actually, he had thought based on that one documentary he watched that lions couldn't purr.
Maybe space lions can, offered his brain.
"Uh, did you guys hear that?" he asked, glancing around in shock.
Keith gave him a dubious look. "Hear what?"
The other three looked just as clueless, which was kind of annoying.
"I think it's trying to talk to me," said Lance. "I, um- hello, great Blue Lion!"
In a different situation, he was sure Hunk would have face-palmed. In fact, upon witnessing the awkwardness of what he'd said from anyone else, Lance, too, would have face-palmed.
The lion didn't take any offence, though. Or, he hoped the following roar wasn't because it was offended.
Pidge yelped and Hunk screamed as, suddenly, the lion took off. Lance scrambled to get control of the machine, but the Blue Lion had a mind of its own. They shot out of the cave and soared over the desert. After the terror of the sudden take-off wore down, Lance couldn't help but let out a whoop of joy.
"You are the worst pilot ever!" Keith yelled.
Lance laughed at him. The Blue Lion simply radiated joy as they shot across the desert and into the sky. The sand and rocks sped by out the windows, and the Blue Lion did a couple of ecstatic flips.
"This is so awesome!" Lance exclaimed happily. "Woo-hooo!"
"Make it stop, make it stop!" Hunk wailed.
"I can't make it do anything, buddy," Lance offered somewhat apologetically. "It's like it's on autopilot or something."
"Where are you taking us!?" Keith demanded.
"Dude, I told you, it's on autopilot," Lance said in exasperation. "But it- sorry, sorry she, it's a she- says there's an alien ship approaching Earth! We gotta go stop it!"
"Um, did she say that?" said Pidge dubiously.
"Well, she isn't saying words," admitted Lance. "More like feeding ideas into my head. Kind of. But I get the gist!"
"Well, um, if this is the weapon they want," said Hunk, "what if we, I dunno, gave it to them? As a peace offering? So they'll leave us alone- sorry, lion, it's nothing personal-"
"No!" Shiro snapped, surprising Lance with his ferocity. "You don't understand. These monsters- they spread like the plague. They'll taking over the whole universe. Earth will just be next. They won't stop until everything is either theirs or dead. And if they get this-"
"Oh," squeaked Hunk. "Never mind. Bad idea."
They breached the atmosphere. Though nothing had changed inside the cockpit, Lance sucked in a deep breath and released it. All those years dreaming of going to space, and finally, here he was.
The giant alien warship in front of them was kind of a downer, though.
Blue (he was so totally calling her Blue) let out a fearsome roar. Hunk sank behind the pilot seat as if hiding.
"There's the alien ship," he managed.
"They found me," breathed Shiro in horror.
"We've got to get it out of here, lead it away from Earth!" Pidge said.
"Good plan, hang on!" said Lance.
With Blue's help, they rocketed away from the Earth.
"Okay," said Lance. "I think I know what to do."
"Well, be careful," warned Pidge. "It's not a simulator."
"Good thing too," said Lance brightly, "I always crash the simulators!"
That didn't appear to set Keith or Shiro at ease, but Lance was fairly sure he had this. It was way better than the simulators- he'd been right in thinking a real ship would be nothing like them.
"They're gaining on us!" Pidge warned.
"Why aren't they shooting us?" Lance asked. "They're just following."
"That's not a good thing!" Hunk yelped.
"Where- where are we?" said Keith.
"Look," said Shiro. "Kerberos. We're at the edge of the solar system."
"But it takes months to get here, not five seconds," said Pidge.
"Well, we need to get farther," said Lance, trying to urge Blue to get them anywhere but here. Somewhere safe-
A glowing wormhole appeared before them. Lance stared at it, mesmerised.
"What is that?" asked Hunk in alarm.
"So, maybe I'm crazy," said Lance. "But I think we should go through."
"Where does it go?" asked Pidge.
"Somewhere safe," Lance said with such absolutely certainty he shocked even himself. "But- Shiro, you're the senior officer. What do you think?"
Shiro looked mildly alarmed.
"I say we trust the lion, and your instincts," he said. "But we're a team. We need to decide together."
"I say we go for it," said Keith.
"Haven't got a better plan," concurred Pidge.
Hunk let out a low moan. "Alright."
"Suppose we're skipping tomorrow," Lance muttered wryly.
Then they shot through the wormhole.
Lance fell back in relief as the wormhole disappeared. He didn't know where they were, but the warship wasn't with them.
They were safe.
Then Hunk ruined it by vomiting. Blue made a noise of annoyance.
"So sorry," he managed.
"I'm surprised it took this long," muttered Pidge.
"I don't recognise these stars or constellations," said Shiro. "We're nowhere near Earth."
"Blue wants to go to this planet," Lance says. "I think- it may be going home."
"Um, okay" said Hunk. "Is anyone else doubting the intelligence of flying through a mysterious space portal- wormhole- thing? Why listen to a robot lion?"
"It served its purpose!" Lance defended. "We're safe from the alien warship."
"We're in an alien warship," Keith pointed out.
"What, scared?" Lance challenged.
"Uh, with you piloting?" he retorted.
"Knock it off," said Shiro, cuffing Keith over the head. "We need to work together, okay? No one's exactly pleased to be here, but at least we're relatively safe."
"What do we do?" said Pidge.
"We find out where we're headed," said Shiro. "Lance? You seem to have some clue what's going on."
Lance shifted awkwardly. "She's not really talking anymore and- well I don't know where we are- oh. No, we're headed to that castle."
"A castle?" said Pidge, leaning over to see.
"Woah," said Keith and Hunk.
Blue landed in front of the castle and let them out. Lance took a step forward to stare at it. It vaguely gave off the same feel his house gave off- if his house was suddenly devoid of all of all his beloved family members, that was.
It felt wrong that it was so empty.
"Keep your guard up," warned Shiro. "My crew was captured by aliens once, and it's not going to happen again."
Lance took another step forward, and suddenly, Blue roared and the doors opened.
"We going in?" he asked hesitantly.
"I guess so," said Shiro.
They walked in carefully. It still felt empty and wrong.
"From the size of the lion, I would have expected bigger steps," Pidge said.
Suddenly, a blue glow lit up the area where they were standing.
"Please hold for identity scan," said a computerised voice.
They froze, and a few moments later, the hallway lit up.
"I guess we go that way," said Pidge.
The blue glow around them offered some comfort. The place felt a bit less cold and empty and dead, but it was still eerily still and silent. Lance wasn't sure why, but he was certain this place wasn't supposed to be so empty.
"Hello?" called Hunk hopefully. Only his voice echoed back to him.
"Okay," said Lance. "This is seriously freaky. It's like- like you know those things on the internet? '13 Creepy Abandoned Places That Will Haunt Your Dreams'? Those articles?"
"I don't read those, they give me nightmares," said Hunk matter-of-factly.
"I don't like this," said Shiro. "Stay on guard. We may be dealing with an ambush- and even if we aren't, something happened to make the inhabitants leave."
"Or something killed them," said Lance grimly. For a brief moment, red flashed across his vision and alarms and screams filtered into his hearing, but he blinked and it was gone, like all the nightmares he's had since childhood.
They finally came into another room- some sort of control room, but Lance really wanted to say it was a med bay for some reason. As they walked in, two pods rose from the floor. Lance took a step towards, the nearest, which held a beautiful girl with white hair and pointed ears.
He put a hand to the glass.
"Are these guys dead?" said Hunk hesitantly.
Lance shook his head. "I- I don't think so- I-"
The pod opened suddenly, and the girl fell out with a cry. "Father!"
Lance was quick to catch her, and she looked up at him. For a moment, they stared at each other.
"Are you alright?" he asked her carefully.
"I- who are you?" she managed. "Where- where am I?"
"It's okay," he said. "My name's Lance. You're- well, I'm not entirely sure myself. It's a castle, and I think this is the med bay, or something similar?"
Her brow furrowed. "Your- your ears."
"Um, yes?" he said.
"They're hideous!" she exclaimed. "What is wrong with them?"
He blinked dumbly at her. "Um, nothing?"
She broke away from him then fiercely shoved him to the ground. "Who are you? Where is King Alfor? What are you doing in the castle?"
"King Alfor-" he echoed. The name sounded familiar- was there like a movie character named Alfor, maybe? "Look, a giant blue lion brought us here. That's all we know!"
"How do you have the Blue Lion?" she demanded. "What happened to her paladin? What are you all doing here- I- how long has it been?"
"I'm sorry," said Shiro peacefully as Lance stood and wandered over to the other pod. The man inside had a warm sort of familiarity. He kind of reminded Lance of his dad, back on Earth. "We don't know what you're talking about, but if you explain, maybe we can help."
"I am Princess Allura of Planet Altea," she said formally. Lance's head snapped up to stare at her.
He was starting to think a movie wasn't why he recognised these names.
"I must find out how long we've been asleep," she said, moving to a control board thing and poking at it.
Lance's attention was drawn as the man stumbled out of his pod. He blinked, then jumped into a fighting stance. "Enemy combatants!"
He nearly fell over, but regained his composure. "Lucky you I've got a case of the old sleep chamber knees! Otherwise I'd-"
He stopped suddenly as he observed Lance.
"You'd what?" Lance asked curiously. He frowned. "Uh, you okay?"
The man shook his head. "I'm sorry- you look just like-"
"It can't be!" Allura gasped.
The man turned his attention to her and walked over to join her. Lance followed a moment later.
"Princess?" said the man hesitantly.
She gave him a wide-eyed, terrified look. "We've been asleep for over ten thousand years!"
A/N: Again, you guys, I'm really sorry this took so long. I've had a bunch of bad family stuff going on. Part of the reason I'm updating today is to distract myself because guess who hates being sad?
So I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Love you all bunches! 3