Lance wakes up to feel something soft, but there is something loose and grainy. He sits up, notices the sunglasses on his face, making everything appear darker as he sees the familiar white sandy beach from his childhood. He lifts up his sunglasses to view the beach in it's entire glory. Just seeing the waves ebb to and fro on the beach, it's nostalgic. He's sleeping under the shade of his umbrella, lying on a pillow and towel, his usual regimen after swimming for an hour. He would coat himself in sunscreen during that time. What's funny is that he's in his regular clothes, sans his jacket, and he stretches. God his body is aching in strange places; how did he manage to sleep wrong on this wonderful beach?

To be honest, Lance is amazed that his brother, Lou, or anyone else didn't wake him up from his impromptu nap. He walks around and realizes that he owns a little section of the beach, and for that he's grateful for. Maybe it's because he's out there where the sun is, but there isn't that many kids running around like the other side of him. Occasionally a kid would run by the water, cutting through his part, but other than that he's alone. He notices a girl in a familiar orange two piece swimsuit-Lou got that two summers ago-and he waves at her.

The energetic brunette does the same before heading into the water, and already he can feel the sun beating down on him, and he wipes his forehead.

"Sometimes I forget how hot it is here," he says to himself as he takes off his shirt. "What was I thinking coming here fully clothed?"

The sun beats down on him, and Lance is getting worried once he spots a heatwave. He gulps and looks around behind him until he finds what he's looking for. The Snack Shack, best place to get garlic knots, nachos, shaved ice, and lemonade. They have other stuff, but god he needs something cool down his throat. His stomach growls, 'And some grub.' Lance snorts as he walks to the Shack.

He doesn't realize that he isn't wearing any shoes, and the sand is so hot. He runs across the small dunes and onto the small strip of grass that the Shack is on, after traversing across the scalding sidewalk. His poor feet have been abused on his trek to cool off, and he doesn't know if it's worth it or not. Lance sees the employee in the Snack Shack is Pauline, and she turns to smile at him. 'Definitely worth it.' He thinks as he starts to turn up the McClain charm.

He winks, "What can I do to get something refreshing, something to fill my stomach, and superb company?"

Pauline looks at him and she gives him a small smile. "Maybe when I'm finished with my shift."

'Holy crow, she actually accepted.' He thinks and he smiles. He has tried flirting with her ever since he was thirteen years old, and after years of being rejected, he finally has some sort of positive response.

He would punch the air in victory, but that would make him seem like a dork. He doesn't want to undo any progress he made with the gorgeous woman. Instead, he just leans over the Snack Shack and smirks. Pauline hands him a lemonade and a garlic knot, years of coming here has made her remember his order, and flashes him a smile.

He hands over the money, not bothering to read the price on the billboard above the counter. He takes his food and points to a tree a little ways away from the establishment. "When you're done, meet me over there." He winks for good measure as he takes his things, and he carefully walks on the thin strip of grass to the tree.

He sits down and watches everyone. From the time he spent walking to the Shack, talking to Pauline, and getting his food, people got to his spot of the beach. Oh well, he is not going back on there in his bare feet, the trek was horrendous for his abused heels. He wishes he has the intolerance to pain like he was as a child, he would traverse everywhere without shoes on that everyone would get on his case.

He'd rather not remember those times. It was a part of his youth that he was unaware of the finer things in life: stranger's expectations of you.

It was a dark time until that finer thing turned into a grand thing: care about your friends.

He takes a bite out of his garlic knot as he watches the people sun tanning, burying people in the sand, swimming, surfboarding, some people having sand poured down their swimsuits, and people making sand castles. There are people screaming, well one male voice, and it sounds painful.

'Probably got bits of rock in his trunk,' Lance thinks as he takes a sip of his drink. He relaxes in the shade and close his eyes.

"Lance!"

"Lance!"

"Lance!"

"Boyf!"

"Lance!"

He hears people calling his name from behind him. He opens his eyes and looks behind him. It's his family, his whole entire family, including those from Canada and America. They are all wearing a party hats and some fireworks.

Oh, he gets up and runs to them. Leaving his purchased food and drink behind. The firework show after going to any beach or swimming. As he gets closer to them, he can smell something delicious. His favorite foods shrimp empanadas and arroz concleche that are made on special occasions or upon request.

He jogs over to them and he recognizes Hunk's large build as he runs to his family. He even spots Cicero and Lou; the preteen happens to have dry hair despite playing in the ocean a while ago. He thinks nothing of it when he runs up to José, hugging his little brother tight. He misses him since his time at Varadero Beach, and it's weird to him. He's been home for the summer after coming back from his second year at the Garrison.

Everything's great back in school. He finally managed to get into the fighter class, and two instructors from the Romanian branch transferred to the one in Arizona. He thinks that Instructor Allura, who took over Iverson's position for flight simulation classes for the older students, is the best thing ever happened to him in the Garrison. He'd rather not deal with Iverson anymore, and he is only instructing students on flight theory now. He no longer torments him for two classes, instead it's only one, and he isn't constantly humiliated when he and his team make a simple mistake. Allura takes the time to say what he, Hunk, and Pidge went wrong and they can focus on it the next time they can get into the flight simulation. The other Romanian instructor, Coran, from what he seen, deals with maintenance for the engineers. He only managed to catch a glimpse of him fiddling with some device when he walks to Hunk's class to pick him up.

Life was great during the year, he didn't have Iverson breathing down his neck for two classes, instead that time is halved. He has an uneasy friendship with Instructor Allura, possibly due to his one too many flirtations with her, but he digresses. She is an attractive young woman, but she is also an ace pilot who managed to get into the Garrison at young age. He admires her, and he heard stories about the feats she did in the Romanian branch, how she stopped a man from stealing blueprints for a new plane with the help of Coran. Being able to be near her, taught by her, was an experience. It made his time at the Garrison enjoyable, even though he had a few rocky patches when he had to deal with Keith.

He was difficult per usual, absorbed in himself and only rarely he'll talk to other students. He did manage to get him to acknowledge him during their flight simulation class, managing a corkscrew to impress the gorgeous woman in the beginning, but it also showed off his skills in class. Keith did grudgingly acknowledged him, especially when he used a maneuver that isn't being tested for a rescue mission across the asteroid belt. Keith even gave him tips to improve on a few of his turns, like having to allocate on the trajectory speed of the ship before attempting to turn. They became sort of friends, ribbing on one another, although it was mostly Keith doing it during flight class, but he managed to top him in English.

The memory fades as he greets his whole family and friends. Heck, he even sees that Allura and Coran are there, taking up his invitation to come to Cuba to hit the waves. He wonders if Allura surfs, he would love to ride with her on the waves.

He sees them sitting at a long table, and there are cards out. There are empty seats and he goes to the nearest one. Keith, Hunk, Cicero, Melony, Pidge, and Shiro sit down with them.

He didn't even see Pidge at the party, then again, the guy is so short. Was probably hiding in a corner for a while before escaping to gamble with them. He swears the kid counts the cards during poker, no one should have his luck whenever they are playing a card game.

Lance stares at Shiro, trying to remember how his hero came to Cuba.

"Oh Shiro," Coran says as he noticed him staring at the older male, "is here because I invited him. A dear friend of mine if I do say so myself. Hope you don't mind."

Shiro is sitting across from him and Lance grips it. "Nice to meet you Lance, you have a wonderful party here." The black haired man gives him a serene smile, and he melts a little.

"Thank you." He slips his hand out of Shiro's hold and he tries not to grin too wide. He's been told that his big smiles makes him look like a idiot.

He doesn't want Shiro to have a bad impression of him.

Cicero starts dealing the cards out, "You guys okay with Egyptian Ratscrew? Won't be enough cards if we played poker."

"Sure," Pidge said and he raises his glasses, causing them to glint.

Cicero starts dealing the cards and just as Lance threw his card in the middle he realized something. Cicero hates Egyptian Ratscrew with a passion, saying that it can damage his gifted hands, not allowing him to play the music that he loves. He wouldn't willingly play the game unless he is coerced into it by some kind of incentive, be it blackmail or buying him a card to listen to music.

Lance glares at his friend as everyone literally slapped their hands into the middle of the table, Pidge having to stand up to even try to get near since he's at the end. Cicero's hand is in the middle, and everyone has been rough.

He suspiciously scrutinizes everyone and realizes that Hunk is wearing a orange shirt, not his usual yellow.

"What the hell?" He says under his breath, and people are skipping over him, not even bothering to wait for the birthday boy to put down his cards.

He knows that Hunk is attached to that yellow shirt, his dad got it for him when they went to Hawaii a few summers ago. His grandmother gave it to him, it was her favorite color that he also loved. He rarely wears something that isn't yellow; he wants to honor her memory, as the yellow shirt represented how kind his grandmother was, and how much he loved her.

He puts his cards down because his friends are all ignoring him on his special day before he gasps. His arm, the words aren't red, they are violet with the black outline.

"No no no no," He says as he stands up. "This isn't real."

He knows what the words are, red. He should have recognized that things were off. One his neighborhood isn't anywhere close to Varadero Beach. Two, Julia already quit her part time job in the Snack Shack. Three, he couldn't have smelled anything outside from such a distance. They aren't grilling, and he isn't in his house to guess what was made. Four, Allura and Coran are not human. Five, why would he invite Garrison Keith? He didn't even like the guy there, and now, now…

Shit. The explosion. Is Coran alive? Is he alive? Yes, he's dreaming. Why else would he be able to see his whole family and friends?

"Come on, come on wake up," Lance chants as he clenches his fists.

The make believe world is still from his realization, but he can hear shouts and another explosion.

He pinches himself, praying that the hackney is actually true.

He wakes up with a jolt and his hand hovers over his thigh, bringing out his bayard, and aims to the blurry purple figure. There's something big protruding out of it's arm, and he shoots. He misses the mark, but he does hit the Galra's back. Good enough for him.

Everything spins and he is knocked back. He winces, clenching his eyelids tight.

'Quiznak this hurts,' Lance thinks as his head is pounding, and his body collapses onto the object keeping him upright..

It's like his muscles over extended themselves and everything just burns. Hell, moving his arms to aim was too much. He's glad he did, managing to do something to help take out the Galra in front of him. Fuck, it hurts to even breathe now. He wishes he stayed in his dream, the real world is too painful to deal with right now.

He focuses on his ragged breathing, trying not to blackout. He's blocking out the sounds of fighting, he needs to remain focus on his raspy gasps.

Something touches his hand, and hauls him up. Lance barely moves his head, and he opens his eyes.

Everything is blurry, but he recognizes Hunk anywhere, even though his vision is spotty.

"Tell him...I don't hate him," Lance manages to say.

"Everything's going to be alright," Not-Hunk says and he would jolt if he wasn't in excruciating pain.

Fuck. Keith.

He tries not to snort. "We make...a good team."

He closes his eyes, everything is starting to get too bright and unfocused.

In. out. In. out. In. out. In…

Lance welcomes the unconsciousness, no longer having to deal with the pain.

...

..?

There is something beeping. Something opens, and his eyes flutter open. Lance takes a step, notices he's wearing a white long sleeved shirt, and takes a step out of whatever is confining him in a small space.

'The light is bright,' he notes as he blinks a few times to see that he is in the med bay. He sees that everyone is huddling together and two people-Coran and Pidge-have something in their hands. He staggers toward them to see what is entrapting everyone.

"Hey what are you guys doing?" He asks as he tries to lean over Hunk to get a better look at what is in Coran and Pidge's hands.

He recognizes the phone in Pidge, but whatever is in Coran's hand is drawing a blank.

"Oh just the intergalactic time race. What's faster, a second or a tick." Hunk says and looks at him. His eyes widen and he hugs him, "Lance!"

"Ooff!" He gasps at Hunk's bone crushing hug. His best friend loosens his grip on him.

"We were worried about you buddy!" Hunk exclaims supporting him by putting his arm underneath his armpit, masquerading it as a side hug.

"What happened?"

What did the Galra did to them? How did he get into the pod? Why is everyone here? What exactly happened when he was knocked out?

Too many questions to ask, so he had to stick to a two word question. He wonders if anyone caught onto it, no doubt Pidge did since he is the smartest one out of all of them.

"We will discussed what happened earlier after you eat. You must be quite famished from being in the pod for a long period of time," Allura states with all her regality.

It's nice to know that Allura does view him in a friendly light, at least comradery on her end.

Lance's lips quirk up to smirk, "Looks like someone's interested in the McClain."

The princess makes a noise of displeasure as she rolls her eyes, but he sees that she is smiling a bit.

Good old flirting, just how he likes it. He had to tone it down with Shiro around always reprimanding him.

Pidge, Keith, and Hunk groan, but his buddy does chuckle afterward.

"Looks like we don't have to be concerned about Lance McLame, king of not reading the mood," Pidge biting remarks as he pokes his side.

"Hey! My poor delicate ribs!" Lance protests, rolling with the banter that he and Hunk used to do with Pidge back in the Garrison.

It's been awhile since he heard Pidge make a Lance McLame comment, the guy's been a bit distant towards him since they got to space.

"Strange, I thought I recalibrated the pod to only open when the patient is fully healed." Coran muses as he goes to the pod he stepped out of.

"It is an Earth expression, you know when you tease your friends." Lance quickly says before Coran can do anything.

"You sure? Health is a important matter." Coran said as he turns to them.

"Just like the doofus said, we humans do that sometimes." Keith said.

"Ah I understand, and another example of weird human terms of endearment. Hopefully you and Pidge will reach the level of friendship like those two," Coran points at him and Hunk. "Same for you two with everyone else, it would be nice to see higher bondrates between everyone."

"Did he just rate friendship?" Pidge asks, leaning towards Keith.

"Did he call it bondrates?" Keith says incredulously.

Hunk and Lance look at one another. Their friendship was forged through trial and error. Hunk has a glint in his eye and Lance nods, realizing exactly what he was thinking. Tears were shed, one or two people were forced to go into events to support the other even though someone hates it, arguments were had, and on occasion, blood was spilt. The transition from elementary school to middle school was difficult for them and Cicero.

Shiro shrugs, "He just wants us to be closer."

"Exactly!" Coran snaps his fingers and heads out the door. "I'll whip something right up for you Lance, something that should fill you right up."

Coran leaves before anyone could protest.

Lance sags into Hunk, "It's going to be food goo isn't it?"

"Most likely." Hunk replies.

"It isn't that bad." Shiro says, "I find the flavor to be interesting."

'In a good or bad way?' Lance thinks as he looks at Allura who is crouching down to pick up the mice. 'Bad since the princess is in the room.'

"The texture is like jello," Shiro admits as he moves toward the door.

"Except it isn't as sugary," Pidge inputs, "and it is bicolored."

"I don't even like jello." Keith crosses his arms.

"You're just upset that you couldn't make it when you were younger," Shiro teases and Keith snorts.

"I was foolish, who lets a eight year old use a stove?"

"Someone who should read directions."

The two leave as they are sucked into one of their shared memories, and he has to admit that Keith and Shiro are close, just as much as him and Hunk. He accepted the fact about that, as people tend to be after knowing each other for a long time. What he didn't expect is that Pidge and Allura follows both of them, talking about spaceships from the tidbit he manages to overhear.

"Soooo you guys were concerned about little old me," Lance smirks as he straightens up, stretching his limbs.

"Of course we were, some of us were in the pods, but you got hurt really bad bro."

"I figured. Was having a really weird dream that I was back at home and everyone, I mean everyone was there. Princess and Coran showed up." Lance sighs as he starts walking out of the med bay, already sick of staying here.

From how surprised everyone was, spending a day, even when unconscious, it is too much.

"All of us paladins were there and our families and friends...shit. Did you tell them about what happened? Oh my god everyone must be freaking out! It's going to be like the first day again. Mamí will have my hide for getting hurt. No, Abuela will skin me alive." He grips his hair.

"Don't worry about it, I got you covered." Hunk says as the door opens for them.

A shiver goes down his spine. Sometimes, Hunk can be a little too honest involving their parents, well anyone they respect. It's a nice trait, but it isn't a good thing if anything happens to either one of them or the team.

"Got it." Lance said as he keeps pace with his best friend. "Oh wait, did you get a picture of any Arusians? I want to keep them updated with everything going on."

"Oh yeah I got that since you were posting selfies and other things before we left. Didn't help that I already read your message of keeping them in the know." Hunk rolls his eyes as the two head toward Lance's room.

"True true, but still we sort of got in the habit of both of us talking to them at least once a day." Lance sighs, "Anyway, besides the family what happened on your end of the whole Galra storming the Castle?"

"Oh buddy let me tell you it was horrible." Hunk starts, "So me and Coran had to go get a new battleship crystal at a Balmera, which is a living planet. It's just, it was under Galra control." He sighs as he looks at the ceiling.

"How did the two of you escape? Did you guys get captured at one point?"

"Yeah, but that's later. These people, Balmerians, have been enslaved for decades, no centuries. The Galra was making the Balmera sick, and those poor people forced to work, not having enough food. We got to get back there." Hunk's voice was wavering with barely restrained fury until the end.

"We are going to go back there," Lance says as he gives his friend a side hug.

"I am going to bring it up when everyone fills you in." He states and Lance nods.

"Did anything happen when I was asleep?"

"We had to clean up the village, it was a distraction when Sendak crashed the party."

They reach his room and he goes into his room. He reaches for his single pair of clothes from Earth, which is lying on his bed. He strips out of the white jumpsuit to get into his clothes. "Was everything okay?" He asks as he pulls his shirt over his head.

"Yeah, I mean we couldn't stay long for the reconstruction, but we did help out. We gave them some tools, but we couldn't stay long in case they do something again." Hunk says as Lance puts on his pants.

It's weird that he keeps saying that, like they up and left. A building can't move, but he figures that the Arusian village had to move somewhere else, away from their old home. He feels bad for the little guys who have to leave a place that was there for generations. Unless the Arusians are a type of nomadic aliens, in that case, they had to leave earlier.

"That's good. Wish I could be up to see them and help them out." Lance says as he laces up his shoes.

"If we ever come across ruined cities, yeah. I mean we are the Paladins of Voltron." Hunk said, sounding like Allura and Coran in Lance's opinion.

"You make it sound like a grand title. It's paladin not Paladin. I mean yeah we pilot the lions that make up Voltron, but it isn't really a title." Lance says as he puts on his jacket, and leaves his room with Hunk beside him.

"By itself, I don't think so, but hey, it's short for a title to some aliens whenever they say it."

"True, providing hope to the universe. Still feels weird for one word being a title."

"Think of it like King Henry. You know the word king doesn't sound as impressive unless it's with a name; although, being a king is a very important job." Hunk muses as they walk toward the dining room.

"True true, cannot even imagine being responsible for even a small group, let alone a whole country."

"Should we focus on infrastructure, education, homes, health, security, strengthening the army, cracking down on trafficking, saving money, focusing on the economy, the environment, and whatever else. Just thinking about it is stressing me out!" Hunk moves his hands as he lists each topic a king has to focus.

"Yeah too much work, imagine what King Alfor or Allura had to deal with...if you know."

The tension is palpable around them, breaching a topic that they haven't planned on.

"This is messed up." Lance says, "So messed up. Fucked up. How could someone do something like that?"

"In the end we can try to minimize the damage for war, but if it is inevitable, we need to protect all that we can."

Lance sighs, "People do things with a reason, even those who are emotion driven. Unless they are just power hungry."

"Who knows? Honestly at this point it doesn't matter what started this whole thing, billions of lives are subjugated or killed." Hunk spits out.

'It must be deplorable with the Balmerians, he's usually not this riled up unless...no this is Zarkon he's talking about. Some guy who tried to kill us twice and we didn't really do anything. Who attacked aliens he didn't know just to get into the Castle.'

"I hate this war already."

"No one should even like war. So much death and destruction, it's deplorable."

He sighs as this conversation is keeping the tension around. He knows Hunk knows about this, but it is necessary in Hunk's mind. Honestly, Lance would rather put it off right now, he just got healed from almost being killed by a bomb the other day.

Maybe it is time to have this conversation, with how the events are playing out.

"Lance, it's just...we knew there was a war, but until we actually saw something horrible, it didn't really stick."

"I know that, I'm well aware, but what can we do? Sure we have the strongest weapon there is, but you saw all those planets under Galra rule! We are just one team and there is a bajillion planets that need our help."

Hunk's fists tighten and passionately proclaims, "We still have to help, we have to try."

"No doubt on that buddy. Just, baby steps. A planet here and there, and maybe word will go out to other planets if information still travels freely," Lance responds, hopeful at the idea that with news other planets will start a rebellion to help overthrow the tyranny.

"You got to remember that they have been enslaved for a long time."

"Yeah but if they hear about Voltron, it'll give them hope. Didn't Allura say that Voltron gave hope to the entire universe one time?"

Hunks face scrunches up as he recalls the conversation Lance was alluding to. "I remember, I just hope Voltron isn't some kind of legend at this point."

"Hey all legends start somewhere?"

"All have a grain of truth to them."

The two reach the dining hall and Lance is thankful they worked through everything. He didn't want anyone to pick up any tension, they might ask questions.

It isn't worth riling anyone else up, especially voicing any troubling thoughts that everyone has mused on multiple occasions. Tensions will surely rise when this subject is touched, either due to others arguing what plan they should implement or taking out underline frustrations onto the subject.

Jokes and keeping connected is surely the way to go to prevent this, at least timed correctly; otherwise, it will backfire like the first couple of times.

"Hello everyone, the man of the hour and his best friend has arrived!" Lance announces as he walks to the table, to his seat where a plate of food goo is sitting there.

"Here I thought I was your best friend." Pidge dryly teases as Lance takes his seat.

"You're pretty up there, close to my boyf. You're like my boy."

"I still can't believe that I'm both of your best friend given the connotation to that word," Hunk teases, loosening up from their previous discussion.

They work well enough to play off each other.

"I'm not even going to ask." The diminutive teen said.

"You just need to know that it is right under best friend, and best friend is under my date." Lance says as he takes a spoonful of goo, and he shudders at the taste.

He should have prepped himself instead of taking a large bite out of the food. What can he say, he hasn't eaten anything for a day, of course he'll be hungry.

He's going to pace himself unless he wants to throw everything back up. He doesn't want to throw up the food that Coran made, even though it just tastes indescribable.

"Sounds like there is a story behind that," Shiro comments before asking, "Are you feeling alright?"

"Yeah, I'm good. Just, what happened yesterday?"

"Commander Sendak attacked the Castle and destroyed a portion of the Arusian village we visited the other day. Thankfully we managed to take care of it, but the particle barrier got online because the Galra controlled the ship. Luckily Pidge was inside the Castle and managed to mess with the particle barrier generator which allowed Keith and I to storm in. Hunk and Coran were off to Balmera, a planet to acquire a crystal to power the Castle because our old one was destroyed with the bomb. Shiro was fighting Sendak before he was captured beside you. We defeated Sendak and he is locked up cryogenicly, and we helped rebuilding the Arusian village," Allura summarizes and Lance nods his head.

"Huh, a lot of things happened," Lance says as he scoops a spoonful of goo and hovers it over the mice. "Sounds like Keith didn't do much," Lance teases, trying to gain a rise out of him.

"Excuse me? I helped with the village, fought Sendak, and cradled you in my arms!" Keith's eyebrow twitches, taking his joke way too seriously.

"Maybe you did all of that, but I only felt you hold my arm." He admits, trying to smooth the paladin who doesn't have a sense of humor.

"Yeah and that is cradling." Keith said pointedly.

"No. Cradling is when you hold both of someone's arms and hold them to their chest."

"That's exactly what I did."

Lance waves him off, "Sure you did."

"Boys boys boys, let's not argue about the definition of cradling okay? What matters is that it happened, and we are all here." Coran interjects, attempting to pacify them.

He doubts that even happened. No way he was cradled. As far as he knows, Keith just hold him, and either Hunk, Shiro, Allura, or Coran carried him. Well, maybe not Shiro once he thinks about it, they did say their leader did sustain injuries fighting the alien.

"We are not arguing, we are just having a slightly heated discussion about a definition of a word." Keith said and Lance nods his head.

"Yeah what he said."

Coran pinches the bridge of his nose, "Honestly you two boys." He shakes his head, smiling, "Now that that is out of the way, anyone else would like to talk before these two goes at it again."

He is not pouting, simply huffing out of his nose and crossing his arms.

"I do." Pidge says and he sighs, "I have an announcement to make. I haven't been honest with all of you from the beginning." The shortest teen has his attention. "I can't man up. I'm a girl."

"Yeah I figured." Keith said.

"We were supposed to think Number Five was a boy?" Coran said, tilting his head.

Shiro nods his head.

"I knew that since the shack," Hunk admits.

"Splendid Pidge for sharing that detail." Allura said.

"Wait, Pidge is a girl?! When did this happen?!" Lance points at Pidge, at Katie, who holds her hands up, startled at his response.

"I've always been biologically a girl." Pidge, Katie, said as she pushes her glasses back up. "I don't really care if you thought I was a guy, call me Pidge or Katie, I'd still respond to it."

"Huh." Lance spoons his food goo and feeds it to the mice. "Anymore life shattering moments? Secrets anyone wants to tell."

"The Castle is a ship." Keith inputs and Lance's jaw drops.

"No way."

Keith's eyebrow is raised up, "Why don't you go look out one of the windows?"

"Nay, I say nay." Lance responds and everyone gives him a baffled look, "uh, I mean, I'll take your word for it."

Keith gives him a shallow nod and uncrosses his arms. He seldom does that unless he proved his point, and he did. He's stating a fact, one that Hunk did allude to.

"That's all out of the way, I want to say I've been contacting my family on Earth." Lance says as he brings out his phone. "It actually works, surprisingly. If you guys remember anyone's number you can use it. I can ask someone to talk to the Garrison to get any emergency numbers if you guys can't."

He leaves his phone on the table, it is unlocked, and the mice mess with it.

"You ass." Pidge says before launching onto him. "You should have told me earlier when I made that charger."

"Thanks." Keith says, doing something in his peripherals.

He doesn't bother to speak as he watches Shiro. His eyes are sorrowful for a second before he's back to his face contours to a small frown.

"Take it for a spin if you guys want now. Just come bother me if you need to later. Oh, when you're done I have got to show you some pictures I took earlier." Lance grabs the phone from the mice and opens up his camera app.

Platt is posing in the back, he has two of his arms around Plachu and Chuchule. Chuchule has her hand up like she's punching the sky with a wide grin. Plachu is holding his tail and his fur is standing up on his head. Chulatt, the small thing is on Platt's shoulders holding his fingers out in a peace sign, almost falling off the shoulders of the largest mouse.

Lance snaps a photo and goes to his gallery. He looks over his shoulder to see that Pidge, Keith, and Coran are looking at his gallery as he swipes through the photos.

Besides the recent one of the mice, there is two pictures of Arusians. One is the chief Arusian beside Allura, shaking her hand in a ruined village. Allura is a bit dirty, she must have helped with the recovery of whatever battle happened there, everyone did. There is a picture of Keith and Shiro helping the young Arusians with something and Pidge is carrying something for the building.

Besides those two pictures the rest are familiar. A single picture of the bannistar in the main room, Blue, Red, Yellow, Green, Black, another picture of the mice but this time they are dog piled on one another, Coran eating a spoonful of space goo, and Allura unaware of her picture taken when she is working in the command deck. There's one with Pidge on her laptop, Shiro fighting a gladiator with his hand glowing purple, Keith fighting a gladiator with his sword, and there is a picture of Hunk making something that tasted vaguely like mangos and cheese even though it wasn't it. Pictures of the scenery, like a wide shot of the Castle, and the desert, were taken. A few odd photos of various paladins, primarily Shiro and Pidge, sleeping on the couch in the common deck, pictures of his room and bathroom.

He even shows some pictures, older ones, about his family and friends. Nothing from the Garrison of course, Pidge and Keith already know about it, just some snipits of people and scenes of his life.

As he shows them the pictures to them, Shiro, Allura, and Hunk are talking with one another. He listens with one ear as the three plan what they are going to do next.

"We need to go to Balmera now, Lance is awake and I don't know how long everyone will survive." Hunk protests to the two others.

"We know Hunk, we will get there." Shiro said.

"Yes, we will put a halt to the Garla. Damaging that poor Balmera." Allura states, "If only we stayed to fight at the beginning of the war."

"What matters is that we can do something now." Shiro states.

"Exactly." Hunk says, "It's just horrible to witness something like that. Who knows how long the Balmerians were slaves to the Empire?"

"Don't worry Hunk, I'll prep the Castle to set course to the Balmera now," Allura said as she turns to leave the room.

"Thank you Allura."

A/N: Even though I said I won't change a thing for my interpretation of season 3, Honerva and Zarkon will definitely happen.

In the dream Keith's mark is a mix of purple and white aka violet. Refer back to the beginning to see the meanings if anyone has forgotten.

If anyone has any questions leave a PM or review. It's nice to know what you guys think, either to improve a part, or even gush about what you liked!