A/N: I'm gonna quickly start posting this story here before Season 6 crushes all my hopes and theories whether I like it or not.
The first thing Keith sees upon his arrival back to the Castle of Lions is a room full of pink. Everyone, including Matt, are wearing traditional Altean funeral robes. And in the middle of the bridge is a large portrait of Lance from one of the selfies he took in his previous missions. Everyone is sitting down with their heads down with their tired eyes. But when Keith shows up, they all simultaneously look up.
It is Shiro the first to walk up to Keith to greet him. Both Keith and Shiro extend their arms and quickly embrace in a brotherly hug before parting away.
"I'm glad you can make it Keith." Shiro says.
"I heard a part of what happened from Kolivan. Is he really-?"
"I'm afraid so, Keith. It looked like the Galra set up a trap for us, and we took it unknowingly and it cost us."
"We should have known from the start!" Pidge blurts out folding her arms to her chest.
"Come on Pidge, no one knew." Matt says comforting his sister.
"I COULD have known if I had tried harder to scan the ship for anything suspicious."
"We all tried our best." Sniffles Coran wiping the tears from the corner of his eyes. "Lance would not want us to be angry right now."
Keith could feel the knot like feeling tangling itself just from watching his friends' interaction unfolding in front of him. Usually at this very moment, Lance would jump in and add a quick joke or quip to lighten the mood. But that is now the past and he is not here in the present.
"I never got to say bye to him." Keith mumbles under his breath.
Suddenly, the Red Lion appears passing by in front of the castle flying towards the debris of the battle.
"Who's flying Red?" Keith asks.
"No one." Answers Allura, "The Red Lion is somehow flying on his own."
"I think…" Hunk interrupts before pausing a bit as he looks out at the window, "I think Red believes Lance is still alive."
"He's right." Allura sighs as her eyes lower before looking back at the others, "For many days since of Lance's disappearance, the Red Lion would not budge from this site. It is drawn to it. I do not know how it works but the lion is still connected to Lance no matter how many of us appear before it be his next paladin."
"Keith." Shiro places his hand on Keith's shoulder, "I know this is a difficult time and you just came back, but we need a new red paladin to rise up. You are the only one who can pilot the Red Lion, even without the red bayard. No matter how much I want to mourn over Lance, we need to move on. For the Voltron coalition."
"I…I don't think I can."
"I know you can."
Keith's eyes furrow but moments later relaxes. His eyes meet Shiro's eyes and he says, "I'll see what I can do."
When the Red Lion flies back to the Castle of Lions, he positions himself laying down on the floor as if he just came back exhausted from an unsuccessful hunt. That's when Keith walks in wearing his old red paladin suit. He gets closer and closer until his boots are barely touching the mechanical lion. And yet, the Red Lion remains still.
"Hey Red, its Keith. You know, your old paladin."
The Red Lion does not move an inch.
"I heard what happened to Lance. I still can't believe it happened to him."
Nothing.
"You know, I miss him too. I wish he was still here."
Soft purring could be heard coming from the Red Lion. Keith gasps a little when he sees the lights shine from the lion's eyes. His mouth opens up allowing Keith to walk in. Inside, the lights were not on. Puzzled, Keith walks towards the seat. When he touches the top of the chair, a pulsing force blows through Keith's head causing him to close his eyes. It was silent until a familiar voice snaps his eyes open.
"You know, if we had the technology I would paint some hot flames on your body."
Keith looks straight down from where he is standing and sees the familiar paladin in his blue armor. It was Lance.
"Lance!" Keith shouts as he tries to grab hold of him. But his hand passes right through Lance and the former red paladin does not take notice of Keith's presence. "Is this Red's memories?" Keith thought to himself.
Soft purring rumbled through the control area and Keith sees Lance laughing in his chair, "Ridiculous? It's not ridiculous! I think it's cool! And you know what, I'm going to put 'Lance was here' right on top of your head. How do you like that?"
More purring echoed around Keith and Lance, "Oh, don't be a party pooper. I think the ladies would go gaga all over your new tats."
Suddenly, a transmission signal beeped and Shrio's face appear on the small screen, "Lance, we're in position. You're up next." After that, the screen blipped out.
"You hear that Red? It's show time!"
Lance took both controllers in each of his hands and maneuvered them to make the Red Lion move very quick within seconds. On the front screen, the Red Lion was approaching a Galra battle ship that was surrounded by multiple fighter ships from both the rebel and Galra sides duking it out with lasers. The Red Lion easily moved around them heading straight to the giant ship. As they get near the ship, Lance got up and ran to door to Red's torso.
"Ok Red, this is it. I'll see you later." Lance ran into the next room and jumped out of Red's torso that opened up and jet packed right onto the exterior of the Galra ship. From where Keith was standing, he saw Lance was able to blast a hole into the Galra ship.
Red flew to a safe distance watching the battle unfold. The rebels were struggling at first but with the Green and Yellow Lion entering the battle, the Galra forces were dwindling. The giant ship suddenly shut down and no lights were coming out. All the smaller ships stopped working and began to idle around. Shrio's face popped on the dashboard again.
"Good work everyone. Now, focus on the battle ship. Lance get out of there."
As soon as screen disappeared, Red started to move toward the Galra ship. All the rebel ships and Voltron Lions began to blast at the Galra ship. Suddenly a transmission comes in from Lance.
"Guys, there's something here! Everyone needs to leave now. It looks like a bomb!"
Shiro's voice could be heard in the intercom, "Everyone fall back immediately! Lance get out quick!"
Red's speed quickened trying to get as close as possible to the spot he left Lance off. He sends loud roars at the ship hoping his red paladin could hear him. Then, a loud boom blared out before the impact force halos across it's perimeters. Some of the rebel ships were pushed away by the explosion. And others, were consumed by it. The Red Lion was lucky as it spiraled away from hitting the impact. He continued to spin until he was caught by the Blue Lion.
"Lance? Lance? Are you all right, Lance?" Allura yelled in the intercom before Red shut down and all the lights dwindled until it was dark.
The next thing Keith sees is Red waking up and sitting up. Red looked down and saw all the paladins wearing the Altean funeral robes. But Keith could feel a pulling sensation in Red as it readied itself to fly back out into the battlefield.
From below, Keith could hear the shouts from his friends with bundles of "Where is the Red Lion going?", "Come back!", and "Stop Red, Lance is gone."
Still here
It was all that Keith could hear from Red in his head. Images of each paladin, except for Hunk, approaching Red in the hanger is played through the Red Lion's screen. Each unsuccessful of being the new red paladin. Then Matt showed up, but with no success. The last was Hunk who slowly shuffled his way to Red. His eyes tired and red, looked up at Red.
"Can I…just sit with you?" Hunk mumbled out.
Red doesn't move or speak so Hunk walked over to one of Red's feet and sat down by it. He laid his head on Red's foot in silence before he unfurled his memories of Lance to Red. Hunk mentioned the first time he met Lance and all the shenanigans he and Lance got into at the Garrison. And then he mentioned about what he and Lance would do in the castle on their own time and how they promised each other they would get back home to their families. Lance joked once that he hoped that their heroic efforts would excuse them from all the homework that they missed. That's when Hunk broke down one more time and started to cry.
The screen goes blank and everything turned dark. Keith opens his eyes and finds himself in the cockpit of Red but in the present time. He then hears Red's purr.
"You still feel Lance's presence?"
Red's purr gets louder.
"Ok, I'll help you look for him."
The next day, Keith and Red head out into the space debris roaming around for their lost paladin. Keith begged Shiro to give them just one day to search for Lance. He explained everything that went through Red's memory. A reluctant Shiro sighed but agreed to Keith's request. Before Keith left, Hunk quietly approached him giving him a container.
"If you see Lance." Hunk says, "Give him this. He might want some hot soup after being outside for so long."
Whether Rebel ship or Galra ship, they all look the same in this heap of rubble. It has been many hours since their search, but they have come up empty. Keith tries his best, but his anger has been rising. He does not know if he could hold it down any longer. His finger itching to push the button to charge up the fire beam and blast everything in his sight.
All of a sudden, Red perks up. Keith looks around and sees something in the distance shining. Then out of nowhere, a small space ship zooms out and begins to float aimlessly in the rubble. There were no lights or engines emitting from this unknown ship. Red runs towards it jumping from one rubble to another trying to get as close as possible. The Red Lion nabs the ship with his mouth and cautiously flies back to the Castle of Lions.
Keith speaks through the intercom of his helmet, "Guys, Red found a ship intact. It might be Lance. Get a healing pod ready!"
At the hanger, everyone is there waiting to see what Red has fetched. Red enters and places the unknown ship on the ground. He then opens his mouth to let Keith slide out. Everyone is running towards the ship with Hunk in the lead trying to open the door. Inside through the corridors, the paladins find someone slump over in the pilot chair in a familiar black suit and helmet.
"Wait, is that what I think it is?" Pidge blurts out.
"Isn't that the same suit that alternate universe Shiro wore?" Hunk chimes in.
Shiro's eyes twitches, "Alternate what?"
Allura walks over and grabs the helmet and jiggles it until it comes off. Under the helmet was an unconscious man whose features were a lot similar to Lance but has long brown hair that reached his shoulder and eyes covered by red goggles. Coran joins Allura and decides to pull the unconscious man's goggles off only to find familiar blue markings under his closed eyes. Allura gasps and quickly moves the man's hair to the side to confirm her suspicions. Under the brown locks are pointy ears just like her ears and Coran's ears.
"He's Altean!" Allura exclaims.
"What?" everyone shouts followed by an uproar of confusion among them.
That's when Shiro steps in, "Everyone calm down. We need to get him to a healing pod right now. We can ask questions later."
Shiro walks over to the mysterious Altean, cradles him in his arms, and picks him up before walking out of the ship. Matt is walking right behind him before coming up to Shiro's side.
"So," Matt speaks up, "you got an alternate version of yourself?"