Chapter Four: The Mending
Lance was drowning. He floated in the great darkness that wrapped itself around him without ever letting go eyes closed, too exhausted to fight off the tainting black and take in the air he desperately needed. He didn't know how long he'd been there, and he didn't know if he'd be able to ever see the light again. A part of him longed to break free. The rest simply didn't care, because he didn't mind if he was gone as long as…
As long as…
As long as what?
It took too much work trying to remember. Lance was tired, so tired. He felt like he'd fought long enough. He just wanted to rest.
Just as he resigned himself to float aimlessly in the dark forever, a speck of light glimmered in the distance. Lance squinted at it, wondering what it was doing there. Somehow, it felt warm and nice. Like cuddles.
Then the light overwhelmed him suddenly. He gasped as the dark was chased away for the first time in so long, as steady yellow and passionate red overwhelmed his vision. Memory rushed in as the dark was swept away, and with it came the terror and panic.
No. No! he pushed away the yellow and red, desperately trying to get them to get out, the dark will get you, let me be the only one it claims, please. But once he could get taste of what air felt like, he found himself not wanting to drown again. It didn't matter how much he didn't want his friends to be dragged under, he just didn't want to be overpowered by the dark that had held him captive for so long.
Don't push us away, Hunk sent a thought through the bond Lance thought was already broken. Had it mended itself somehow?
She'll get you. I can't let her get you. Lance sent back, still trying to keep both yellow and red at arm's length. Please. I don't want you to get hurt.
We don't want you to get hurt either, Keith heatedly replied. We want you back.
But Haggar could get you through the bond. Unless she's defeated or we can make the bond Haggar-proof, I can't let you do this.
We'll drive her away, Hunk resolutely decided, yellow flaring in determination. We'll get her out of the bond. We'll get you back at the castle, and we'll find a way to protect the bond from Druid magic. But you gotta let us help you, Lance. We can't do this without your help.
Lance wasn't sure he could take that risk. If they weren't careful, Haggar could easily extend the corruption she had planted in Lance's quintessence, the taint that still smudged his blue and made him feel so gross, but he also wanted that taint to be gone. Both Hunk and Keith could fend off the darkness for so long, surely all of them together could fight off Haggar's influence?
A wave of steady resolution and fierce protectiveness from yellow and red swept muddy blue, and Lance made his decision then and there. Both Hunk and Keith had been strong, fighting off the destructive dark that had overwhelmed Lance long ago. They were the piercing ray of lighthouse in the middle of tumultuous, stormy sea, and Lance wanted the safety they promised.
Okay. He reached out and gripped the warm colors. They enveloped him immediately, heat flaring off of red to fend off the dark while yellow wrapped itself around blue to shield him.
Then both yellow and red slammed into blue, pushing in and pulling out the taint that had muddled Lance's quintessence. Hunk barricaded what bright blue still remained and pulled in anything that had been cleansed while Keith burned away the dark that clung to Lance like glue. Fueled by their determination, Lance let whatever was left of his own power to cleanse the corrupted core. Water cleansed, he remembered. He should be able to cleanse his core.
Just as the dark seemed to relent a little, just as a spark of hope bloomed in their chest because maybe, maybe, this is doable after all, maybe they could drive Haggar off completely, a new wave of vicious darkness smashed into them. A screech and a wave of anger that felt somehow familiar to Lance grabbed them strongly.
I will not let you take away what is mine! The dark, now looking almost ominous purple, growled at them. The Ice Mage will serve the empire. I won't let you get away.
Lance is not yours, Keith growled at Haggar, flaring up his heat to get her to release her hold, but she persisted.
If you won't let go, Haggar hissed, then you shall have to be claimed, as well.
Fear and panic gripped Lance immediately. No!
Too late. Waves of inky black rushed to them, more vicious and persistent than before, crawling and gnawing at the colors that once were pristine. All three Paladins cried – Lance in terror, Hunk in panic, Keith in anger – and the onslaught continued. They tried to force away the darkness, but Haggar was relentless and much more experienced in the way of magic. Keith fought still, refusing to keel over, but Lance was too exhausted, and Hunk's focus was to keep Lance's quintessence clean and nearly didn't pay any attention to his own dangerously darkening color.
Then sharp green and sleek black rushed in, fending off the inky black that had threatened to roll them over. With a cry, Pidge rushed at ominous purple, which drew back in sheer surprise that these newcomers would risk corruption, themselves.
Shiro, Lance breathed.
Shiro's black shimmered, almost silvery. Lance, he acknowledged before he rushed ahead and joined Pidge in the fray, creating a cacophony of green, purple, and silvery black.
Something else, something soft and royal and so unmistakably pink slid into place, sitting next to the tired blue. Lance, I need you to do something for me. Keith, Hunk, you two as well.
Lance stared at the pink in surprise. Allura? You can reach us through the bond?
Not for long, Allura answered urgently. I'm using my connection to the lions to get here. Since Haggar is here, I need to fight her here as well, though I won't be able to actually stay for long. I need you to do something for me, all of you.
What is it? Keith readily asked.
I already asked Pidge and Shiro of this, Allura spoke quickly, words so rushed they almost mashed together. I can hold Haggar off for a bit since I can use a bit of magic, but I won't be here long so you all have to drive her off on your own. The problem is that you aren't well-versed in magic, and you don't have enough sheer power to drive her off with it. So I need you all to get in touch with each your lions and borrow their power instead.
Allura, that's… Lance gulped. I cut off my bond with Blue. She hasn't been responding.
I'm sorry, Lance, but you have to try, Allura insisted. It's the only way I can think of. With that, she left them, and pink suddenly turned aggressive as it took over from green and black to face off with purple.
Pidge and Shiro receded to the background, turning to join the rest of the Paladins. Allura explained everything, right? Pidge asked them.
Yeah, I'm trying to get to Red right now, Keith nodded.
Yellow's all ready, Hunk added.
Great, cause Green's ready too. Pidge looked at Shiro expectantly.
Black's been ready for a while. Shiro turned to Lance. Lance?
Lance frowned, reaching for the cold remains of his bond with Blue. Blue's not responding.
Try, Lance, Shiro prodded.
If we want to drive Haggar off, shouldn't just one lion be enough? Lance protested.
Allura is sure that if we want to make sure the bond would be safe later on this is the way, Shiro explained. She is also sure that this way, we'll tie our quintessence with our lions'. It should protect the quintessence from corruption, too.
Lance concentrated and reached deep. He gripped at the end of the broken bond and tried to feel Blue, tried to get her to answer him. He called, over and over, pleading her to answer, channeling his desperation and fear and hope through the unresponsive bond. The connection remained silent.
His friends patiently waited wordlessly, which Lance was grateful for, though he could feel their agitation through the Paladin bond. After a while, though, their agitation spiked suddenly as the pink within their midst vanished away. Purple began to surge up to attack the cluster of colors.
Desperation within Lance spiked like never before. He gripped the tatters of the bond and all but screamed, BLUE!
Finally, a spark. The bond tightened and twined, suddenly reconnecting and mending itself in an incredible speed. Rushes of feelings nearly overwhelmed Lance, waves of relief and anger and indignation and protectiveness making him unable to speak. Lance sent waves of apology and panic in return, pleading to Blue, please, please, help, else we'll all be tainted.
Around him, he could feel the presence of Yellow, Red, Green, and Black through their respective paladins. Their power surged up and charged the bonds, and instinctually Lance knew that with the addition of Blue there would be enough force to drive off anything that harmed or could harm the Paladins, the Lions, or the bonds. He could feel Blue, too, slowly building her own energy into the mix through her newly rediscovered bond with Lance.
Haggar's darkness swirled and rushed to them.
Lance closed his eyes tight, almost ready to be blasted by the repulsive darkness that he had become familiar with, when Blue's power bubbled up within him. At the same time, the other lions' power surfaced, rising up and mixing with one another, including Blue's. They swirled and twined around one another, creating a concoction of power that felt almost like Voltron, but somehow… different. A bit more unstable, and a bit more… biting. There was an undercurrent of anger that never appeared when forming Voltron. Was the fact that they were using the bond as a conduit to release that energy instead of the actual Voltron playing some important factors in how it felt so different and yet similar at the same time?
The mix of power that created Voltron-but-not-really rose, creating a ghostly avatar above the Paladins' heads. Haggar screamed, her purple sending vibes of anger and fear mixing into one. She tried to stop the dark, to pull back out of the connection she was currently forcing herself into, but the avatar didn't let her. It stood, its shape resembling Voltron itself, and ran to Haggar with a semi-transparent blade held in its hands. It slashed.
A blast of pure, unadulterated energy flung Lance out of the depths of the bond. Suddenly he found himself in his own body instead of the otherworldly place that was the mental plane the bond manifested in. It was disorienting, to expect yourself to be in one place only to find out that you were in another. It was made even more confusing by the fact that the alarms were blaring loudly.
As he blinked a few times, eyes staring at the ceiling above him while trying to reorient himself, he became aware that whatever muddy dark that still persisted within him had completely evaporated from his skin.
"Paladins!" Allura's voice trilled above the screams of the alarms. "We need to move now! The guards finally realized what's happening. We need to get out of here before they start capturing people."
Someone shifted near Lance. "Will do, Princess," Shiro told her. "Can you guys move?"
"Yeah," came Keith's reply, as he pushed himself up. One by one, the Paladins followed his example, though Lance did it last.
And Lance froze. He let his eyes roamed the room, taking in the view of frozen Druids within pillars of ice. He gulped and asked to no one in particular, "I did this, didn't I?"
"You weren't yourself," Hunk objected.
"But it was me," Lance whispered. "It's my ice. I can feel it." He let go of what little control that he apparently held to keep the pillars of ice in place. The ice vanished, and the Druids fell. Lance looked away swallowed a bile that rose when he saw that some of them were smashed like broken statues, probably during a battle or something.
Pidge nudged Lance. "Come on, Lance. No point in dwelling on that, now. We need to get out."
Shiro and Hunk both pulled Lance up to his feet. All six of them left the room, though halfway to the door Lance paused when he saw Haggar sprawled not too far away.
"Do you think she's dead?" he asked softly. He wasn't sure what he felt about it.
"I wouldn't know," Shiro answered. "She's like a cockroach sometimes, able to survive seemingly extremely lethal attack."
"No time to check, we need to move now," Keith urged. From outside the door, the Blade of Marmorra members motioned to them to move, and the sound of hurried footfalls announced the coming of the guards.
"Is it secure to go out from the way we went in earlier?" Allura asked Kolivan as they began navigating through the long corridors.
"Mara made sure of that," Kolivan replied.
Even though they moved fast, the guards eventually began to catch up with them. Lance was confused as to why there were so many Galra soldiers around when Alpha Kaj's security was made up by Druids and drones, but then he remembered the mess in that room he was put in. He shuddered. He summoned his bayard so he could help fend off the attacks, but he found himself too weak to do even that.
Useless little thing.
"Don't call yourself useless," Hunk growled as he blasted a group of drones with his own bayard. "You were in there for three weeks, and your quintessence is pretty much depleted. You're great on your own right."
"Aw, Hunk, thanks for the compliment, but that doesn't change the fact that I can't help you guys here." Lance threw him a smile. He paused. "Wait, three weeks? Really?"
"Boys, run first, chat later," Shiro grunted. They complied.
They managed to escape Alpha Kaj somehow, even with the shots from the drones and guards raining around them. By the time they reached the Castle of Lions, Lance had been too exhausted to do anything more than leaning on Hunk, who readily supported him.
"We'll get you to the pod soon, so hang on a bit," Hunk whispered to his ear.
"Wait, I gotta see Blue…" Lance shook his head to chase away the weirdly comforting dark that slowly seeped through the edges of his vision.
"Blue will understand, Lance. You need rest."
Lance could see the logic in Hunk's words, so he let himself be ushered away into one of the healing pods. He reached to the mended bond with Blue to send thoughts of apology and promises to talk later.
The bond remained silent.
It took a whole day and a half for Lance's quintessence level to go back to normal, during which he spent in a healing pod. It took another half day for him to be released back out because the pod also cleansed the remaining taint of corruption and the wounds he received during the time he was captive. By the time he was finally back out again, he had expected to feel Blue's distinct voice in his mind.
The bond was silent, still.
After assuring the others that he was fine, Lance rushed into Blue's hangar. He watched her there, laying still without moving with the particle barrier up. He pressed his palm into it, hoping that it would be enough to coax her into lowering the barrier, but she remained unresponsive.
That had been three days ago. For the most part, Lance had spent his time in the hangar just sitting around, trying to send his thoughts and feelings through the bond to get her to respond. Most of them were frustration, by this point.
"Blue, just open up," he sighed. "It's me. It's gone on long enough. Come on."
Blue stayed silent. For some reason, Lance got the impression that she snorted. He scowled.
The sound of footsteps made him turn, and to his surprise he found Pythia approaching him. He threw her a smile, stood, and greeted, "Hello. I thought you went back already?"
Pythia returned his smile. "I have reasons to believe I may be needed again here," she answered. "Princess Allura has agreed to make contact with my planet, however. I'll act as an envoy of sorts for a while. My people will decide later whether it would be more beneficial if I stay here or go back home."
"I'd be glad to have more beautiful ladies around here," Lance admitted with a grin, "but I think you should at least meet your family while you still have a chance to."
Pythia smiled solemnly, but didn't say anything. She turned to look at Blue. "Have you had a talk with Blue Lion?"
"Ah, no." Lance rubbed his neck, partly because of the embarrassment and partly because it was getting sore. Pythia was just so tall. "I've been trying to reach her and get her to lower the barrier but she's not responding well." He winced at how frustration bled out freely in his voice.
Pythia hummed. "I'm sure she wants to talk to you, as well. Perhaps you should try not being so prickly with your approach."
Lance winced again. "Is it really that bad?"
"It's bad enough that a complete stranger can pick it up," Pythia answered, all three eyes twinkling with amusement.
Lance sighed. "Yeah… you're right. I really should start treating my girl better."
Pythia smiled and bowed slightly. "Then… I shall leave you two. I wish you the best of luck, Blue Paladin."
Lance returned the smile. "Thanks, Pythia." He watched her leave, waited until the last strand of her way too long hair disappeared around the corner. He sighed and turned back to Blue.
The gigantic robot lion was still lying motionlessly, but now he could feel something through the bond. Blue was watching, waiting, wanting to know what he would do.
Lance stepped closer to the particle barrier and pressed his palm to it. He breathed, closed his eyes, putting his forehead at the barrier, pressed. "Blue, just open up," he breathed softly, sending his apologies and desires to truly reconnect through the bond. "It's me. It's gone on long enough."
A spark of contemplation, and the barrier was down. Lance smiled as he took a step back, sending thoughts of gratitude to Blue. She was still silent for the most part, though.
He walked closer to Blue. She opened her mouth and let him in. He stepped in, walked to the cockpit, and sat on the familiar seat. He leaned back and closed his eyes, letting Blue's presence wash through him. She was waiting.
His mind wandered to the time he cut off their bond. Blue definitely didn't want him to do that, yet he still did without even giving her the chance to talk. Granted, he believed there was no time to look up other solutions, but Blue must have been really hurt because of his action. He'd be really hurt too if he had been Blue.
"I'm sorry, Blue," he whispered softly. His eyes were beginning to feel hot, wet. "If there were more time, I wouldn't have done what I did. But I was sure there was no time. I was sure that breaking the bond was the only way to make sure everyone is safe."
There was a flare of anger, far stronger than the lukewarm impressions that had gone through the bond before. It was surprising, given that Blue had been largely silent. Well, still silent even now, but before she didn't even send feelings down the link.
"Okay, I wasn't safe," Lance admitted once he got through his surprise. "I just thought… better me than everyone else. That was selfish of me."
Blue's anger receded, but she didn't say anything more. She was still waiting for him to say more.
"Blue," Lance hummed, "I'm sorry for what I did. I'm sorry that I hurt you. I'm sorry that I cut off the bond without your consent. It must have been painful for you. I hope I can make it up to you somehow. Please, Blue… will you give me a chance?"
Silence, contemplation. It was a moment too long for Lance, and nervousness gripped his every cell.
And then, a purr; an actual voice down the bond, one that Lance hadn't realized he had missed so badly until it finally reached him and filled him with warmth and love and just a bit of frustration.
Lance.
Lance laughed, a single relieved tear falling down his cheek as he finally felt like things would be alright again.
Blue.
A/N: Ayyy, it's finally done! Well, I mean, it was done before I posted chapter one, so really it was all just the waiting game, but still. Anyway, Lance will have issues because of how he was corrupted (thanks, Haggar), and I plan to address that in the rest of the series.
That's right, folks, this will be a series. The first installment would be Seas-Stream-Rain, and this is the second. The other stories will be about how the other Paladins get their own elemental powers. I plan to make them okay to be read as stand-alone stories, though. Next in the series would be Keith discovering his powers, though I'm not sure when it'll be uploaded. Soon, hopefully.
Anyway, thanks a bunch for sticking around, following, favoriting, and/or reviewing. Your support is greatly appreciated, and the reviews have honestly made me smile so much. Definitely much more than being offered a slice of cake, and that's saying something.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and have a great day!