Maybe Lance was just a bit paranoid, but he thought it was very suspicious that they didn't run into any more trouble on the way to the Balmera's core. Or would it be heart? It was a living creature, after all. Were they going to see its heart? Oh, yikes, were they in its blood vessels or something? That was weird.
"I don't like this," muttered Keith as they approached the core.
"Oh, thank goodness, I'm not crazy," said Lance. "Let's just be careful."
Keith nodded, and the two of them walked forward side-by-side.
"Where are the Galra?" he heard Shiro ask through the comms. Lance and Keith entered the doors carefully, prepared for an immediate fight. Lance held his bayard tightly. "If this was an ambush, they should be here–"
The door abruptly closed behind them. Lance tightened his grip on his bayard as it formed into his blaster. He hovered his finger over the trigger. Something felt really wrong, and now they had no exit. They were cornered, and that was never good. Not that he had much experience fighting, but he knew based on video games that it was never good. Unless he had super high stats and great weapons, he was always screwed when he got cornered – and right now, Lance and the others (save Shiro), were the real-life equivalent of, like, level two.
He could see Shiro and Pidge on different parts of the higher level he and Keith had entered on, and Hunk below them, helping Shay removed some kind of muzzle. The sight of it sickened Lance – man, he really hated the Galra.
"Oh, this is a trap," realised Hunk. Then his face morphed into panic. "Oh, it's a trap!"
"Keep your guard up," said Keith. He and Lance both powered up their jetpacks and moved down to the level Hunk and Shay were on – near the big, glowing mushroom thing that must have been the core. Or the heart? Lance didn't know and wasn't sure whether or not he cared the correct terminology, especially right now. There were bigger things to worry about.
"The Galra," said Shay. "Somehow they knew you were coming back."
"How?" asked Pidge. Lance wondered the same thing. It wasn't like they broadcasted their plans to the universe. They couldn't exactly call ahead to the Balmera and say, hey, we're coming to save you, hang tight.
Shay shook her head. "I know not, but they set this as a trap for you, using me as the bait."
"Why did they choose you as the bait?" asked Hunk anxiously. "How could they have known? Rolo?"
It made sense that Rolo and Nyma had known they were planning to return, but had they mentioned Shay's name to Rolo? Lance suddenly couldn't remember, and he had kinda hoped the hot guy had turned to their side after the whole mess. But who else could have given them away, if not Rolo and Nyma?
"It doesn't matter," said Shiro. "We have to figure out how to get out of here."
"The Castle-ship?" Lance suggested unsurely. He addressed Allura on the comms. "Allura? Can you please come and get us?"
"We're underground," said Keith. "How is she going to come get us?"
"Teleporters or something?" said Lance. Unfortunately, Keith had a point. They couldn't exactly blast their way through the Balmera to get to them. They were completely and utterly on their own.
"We're quite busy at the moment!" Allura's voice rang over the comms. There was a commotion from their side, but Lance couldn't tell what it was. "We're surrounded by fighters and we're taking heavy fire."
Great. They were trapped and Allura and Coran were getting shot at. The Galra must have wanted them out of the way so they could finish what they started – the extermination of the Altean race. That thought made him sick too. Lance heard the blare of the Castle's alarms. Oh, he really very much hated those alarms. They always – always meant something bad. They meant attacks and that someone was going to die–
Wait. No one had died, they did not mean someone was going to die.
"Paladins, you need to get out of there immediately!" said Allura.
"Oh, this is it," lamented Lance. "We're all going to die!"
"Get it together, guys," said Shiro in his strong leader voice – the one that made it seem like he knew what he was doing and was a Responsible Adult™. He looked upwards as if to talk directly to the Castle. "Allura, we'll get there as soon as we can."
"Perhaps my fellow Balmerans can help us escape," said Shay.
"Uh, no offence, but how?" asked Pidge. "We're stuck – how will we reach them?"
Shay smiled, then walked up to the heart-core and placed a gentle hand on it. "This is how we communicate. The Balmera can sense our vibrations and send a message to others in the tunnels."
"Are you sure someone will be able to hear your, uh, hand?" asked Keith dubiously.
"The Balmera will deliver my message," she said.
She lowered her head and closed her eyes. The area around her hand lit up. Lance heard a faint crooning. The sound and sight rang familiar, and Lance closed his eyes and imagined someone else – he wasn't sure who – standing by a crystal, making it glow, the Balmera pleased and welcoming. He opened his eyes again to watch Shay, only to notice a faint blue glow under his feet. For a moment, Lance was entranced, and he almost knelt to examine it closer. But then he snapped out of it, stepping back hesitantly. The glow faded. Shay continued sending her telepathy-hand message.
None of the other paladins had noticed. Lance didn't dare bring it up. Maybe it was a Balmera – thing. He would ask Coran later. It didn't seem to be happening to the other paladins, but maybe that was because they were focusing on Shay and not imaginary Alteans on the Balmeran surface.
Alteans. Where had he gotten that idea?
Lance physically shook his head to throw off those thoughts. Instead, he focused on the almost musical crooning of the Balmera. It sounded like a whale, not that Lance had heard a whale in real life. If Lance had doubted before that the planet was actually a living creature, this sealed the deal.
Then – breaking the magical moment – Allura's voice sounded again. "Paladins! Do you copy? We have a battlecruiser that's locked onto us! I – I don't know if we can handle another hit, not if it fires with its ion cannon."
"We're working on it, Allura," Lance said. "Shay's sending some sort of message using her hand and the wall? Also, the ground glowed for a second, but I think that's not related. Anyway – yes, we copy."
Hunk sent Lance a worried, curious look, apparently catching a tone in Lance's voice that Lance himself had not caught. Lance shook his head subtly and gave him the equally subtle eyebrow code for, 'We'll talk about it later.'
"Shay, you're certain your message is being sent?" Shiro asked.
The answer was apparently yes, because a few seconds later, there was a crash and a hunk of crush metal popped out of the wall. From the dust, four other Balmerans walked in.
"Rax!" said Shay in delight.
"We must make haste!" said the other Balmera, probably Rax. "We know of a shortcut through the tunnels. Come."
"Allura, hang on, we're on our way," said Shiro.
They seemed to be just in time. The Galra were already trying to kidnap Blue when Lance arrived, but as soon as he entered her, she let out a gleeful roar and destroyed the fighters.
"Nice job, girl," Lance said to her.
My paladin, she purred in response.
He flew up to join the others, wincing at the sight of all the Galran ships surrounding the shielded Castle. Those shields couldn't hold forever. Allura and Coran needed help, and they needed it soon.
"Everyone make it?" asked Shiro.
"You got it," said Lance. "Who d'you think you're flying with? Amateurs – woah!"
He jerked back on the controls and narrowly avoided flying Blue into a rock. He heard her amusement in his mind, then an image comparing him to a baby lion cub. He sent back his indignation, but this only amused her more.
"Want me to answer that, cadet?" asked Shiro, a teasing undertone to his voice.
"No," said Lance mulishly.
"Let's go!" said Shiro.
The fighters weren't hard to destroy, but there were a lot of them. Each destruction lit up the Balmeran sky with explosions and bright lights. It might have been pretty if Lance and the others weren't, you know, fighting for their lives. Lance tried to make good use of his ice – it was actually fun to freeze the fighters and see how destructive that actually was, because apparently these things couldn't handle a little bit of ice.
Then there was a bright purple light, and alarms sounded from the Castle again. Lance looked up to see the big battle cruiser hitting the front shield of the Castle with a purple beam – the ion cannon. The Castle must have rerouted all of its energy to that shield at the bow – and even that wouldn't be enough for long.
"Mierda," Lance cursed to himself.
"Paladins, we need you immediately!" said Allura. "A few more ticks and we're through!"
"Alright, team!" said Shiro. "Let's form Voltron!"
"Yeah!" Lance and the others agreed.
So far, the exhilaration of forming Voltron never faded. Lance loved every second of it, even if it didn't take long. Promptly getting to yell dramatically and save the day made it even better. They pushed the ship upward, forcing the canon away from the ship and up into open space. Lance took a brief moment to observe the patch of stars the beam was aimed at, completely unfamiliar and another reminder of just how many light years from home he was.
He looked away before the thought could hurt too much.
In response, the Castle shot its own attack at the Galra ship. Voltron moved out of the way, and the beam went straight through, leaving the battlecruiser to explode and also blow up several fighters nearby. Even Voltron was pushed slightly back by the force of the blast, coming to rest near the Castle-ship.
"Yeah!" said Hunk.
"Nice shot!" cheered Pidge.
Lance deflated in relief into his seat. They'd won. They'd freed the Balmera.
"The Castle is going to need time to recover," said Allura. "Let's land on the Balmera and go from there."
"Sounds like a plan," Shiro agreed.
It was nice to be able to land on the Balmera without being shot at. The remnants of the Galran structures were still smoking – or, in a few cases, still frozen. Lance hoped the Balmerans would be able to clear it away and maybe reuse it, and wondered if Voltron could help. He hoped they could rebuild – how long had they been imprisoned? How much of their culture had they been forced to abandon under their captors? Were there those who could remember freedom, or had every Balmeran been born into Galran rule?
"Seems to me like a mission accomplished," said Keith as they landed.
"Good work, team," said Shiro.
"Just in the nick of time," agreed Allura. "The Castle defences need time to recharge."
A spark of light appeared in the atmosphere. Lance instinctively tensed in his seat as he heard the Castle alarms blaring once again. The light grew closer and more distinct – some kind of ship – until it finally crashed into the Balmeran surface. Lance cringed away, even though none of the dust could hit him. That had to hurt the poor Balmera.
"What… is that…?" he asked. It looked big, it looked Galran, and it looked like it meant that their fight was far from over. Lance's grips tightened on Blue's controls. She let out a rumbling, warning growl aimed at the alien ship.
"Trouble," said Shiro.
A/N: I LIVE!
Guys, I am so, so sorry that it's been, what, half a year? University hit me like a truck this semester, so I haven't had as much time as I'd like to write. I can't promise when the next chapter will come but I promise it will, eventually, come. I love this fic too much to let it go, even if the show is over.
Speaking of, anyone else still crying? I'm still crying.
That said! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Not my best, but a chapter nonetheless. We're getting closer and closer to Crystal Venom, so prepare yourselves.
Love you guys!