Chapter Text
The group rushed to the bridge, Shiro started barking orders as soon as they entered, "Pidge, scan the download from the ship. Find out where Zarkon's central command is. Allura get ready to wormhole."
"On it!" Pidge called as she slid into her seat, she looked confused briefly by the additional information but ignored it for the moment in favor of finding Lance's coordinates.
Coran walked up to Allura as she stood at the castle control, her hands shaking slightly, "What happened? Where's Lance?"
"They captured him," Keith spat out as he started to pace.
Coran gaped at him for a moment before turning back towards the princess, "How is that possible?"
Shiro moved towards Coran, gripping his shoulders tightly in a form of comfort, "I'm sorry things didn't go as planned but we can't focus on what went wrong. We've got to figure out how to make it right." Shiro said, turning to Pidge who stared at her screen looking hopeless, "Pidge, anything?"
They shakily nodded, as they upload the screen up front for everyone to see, "Yeah, look at this."
The all gasp as the screen zoomed out to capture the entire ship, "Look at the size of it!" Coran whispered horrified.
"I think we should go in right away. Every minute we waste gives Zarkon time to prepare for us." Pidge stated.
"But how, we have no idea what we're walking into. The only person who could know is on that fucking ship." Keith shouted, Allura subtly flinched feeling as if this was her fault.
"Um, do you guys not remember the Balmera? We could barely take out one fleet. But this... a base this size could hold a thousand fleets!" Hunk argued, gesturing the size of the center. Shiro watched the group argue, not knowing what to do.
"Or maybe we shouldn't go on this mission at all," Keith muttered bitterly, making everyone stare at him gobsmacked, "Think about it. We'll be delivering the universe's only hope to the universe's biggest enemy."
Hunk made a sound of disgust, "Keith, that's cold, even for you. It's Lance, we can't just leave him? He wouldn't leave you."
Keith crossed his arms, his knuckles going white from how hard he was gripping his arms, "I'm not saying I like the idea. I'm just thinking like a paladin."
"No, you're thinking of yourself because you're too scared to do what's right!" Hunk snapped at him.
"Lance knew he was going to get captured, that's why he gave Allura Blue! He wanted us to be able to form Voltron!" Keith shouted back, "Fuck sake, I don't want him gone! I need him! But this is obviously what he wanted!"
Pidge stood up, moving between the two, "Okay, we're all upset because we lost Lance." She said trying to get everyone to calm down.
"No, Allura lost Lance!" Keith argued, gesturing to Allura, who glared at him.
"ENOUGH!" Shiro bellowed, hands clenched at his sides, "This isn't helping! ?Bickering isn't going to do anything! The longer we stand here and argue, the longer Lance is Zarkon's hands, Zarkon who Lance thinks is from the future." Shiro revealed, making everyone who didn't know gasp. Shiro took a deep breath, "Let's focus. How are we going to get Lance?"
*With Lance*
Lance kicked and punched at the figure who held him by the neck, managing to knock of their mask to reveal a grotesques face. From the corner of eyes he saw Allura manage to escape, before the ship lurched forward as hyper-speed was reached.
The speed made the druid stumble, Lance taking advantage of this, dug his fingers into the hand on his throat tight enough to start bleeding. The druid dropped Lance who crouched down into a fighting position, picking up his bo staff he charged forward. Just as the blow was about to hit, the druid teleported across the room and went to struck Lance with lightning.
Fortunately he dodged, and went to attack again, his staff managed to hit his target, knocking the druid down but a shot to the back made Lance stumble. The last thing Lance saw before getting knocked unconscious was the druid's face grinning at him.
When Lance next opened his eyes, he noticed he was in a dark cell, no light reached inside, which he was grateful for. He laid there for a few minutes just staring up at the ceiling, waiting for the ceiling to stop spinning. However he never got a chance for it to stop before the door opened, letting in a bright light, Lance cursed to himself as he saw Haggar walk in, with only a sinister smile on show. "Come with me." She ordered.
Lance never got the chance to get himself up as two sentries gripped his arms and dragged him up, the dizziness caused him to throw up, narrowly missing his armour and feet. 'Oh fuck me,' he thought to himself, as he stumbled in time with sentries through the corridors up to the throne room 'This will leave a bruise,' he thought as he tugged on the sentries to try free himself, only for them to tighten their grip.
By the time they reached the throne room, Lance felt a lot better. Maybe not to frightening standard, but enough to stand tall in the face of his enemy and be snarky to him. Zarkon watched Lance silently and Haggar moved to his right. "Well you aren't the one I thought to get captured," Zarkon said, breaking his silence. Lance watched him warily. "You seem scared paladin." he sneered at the human who defiantly stands with his head held high.
The statement threw Lance off a little, "Well when you're stood in front of a 10,000 year old alien you tend to hold a little fear." Lance snarked back.
Zarkon smiled, sending shivers down Lance's spine, "So you do know me?" Lance fought not to show the panic he felt at that statement.
Lance shook his head, "Just what Allura has told us," Lance admitted, only continuing when Zarkon stayed silent, "Like how you killed her dad, destroyed her planet and took over almost all of the universe," Lance said, slowly realizing that, that is all he truly knew about Zarkon.
"Oh?" Zarkon paused, seemingly shocked, although Lance couldn't tell by his facial expression. "So she didn't tell you about my past?"
"What? The past before the 10,000 years?" Lance asked sarcastically, before gritting his teeth as his knees gave out, glaring at Haggar as she struck him with lightning. 'I will not give them the satisfaction of screaming.' he thought to himself and the pain died down to back ground ache.
"Yes, before the destruction of Altea," Zarkon replied normally as if the paladin in front of him hadn't just be electrocuted, watching the paladin get back to his feet, Zarkon grinned, "So she hasn't told you that I am the black paladin?"
Lance froze, wide eyed as he stared at the old galra, "Wh-what?" he stuttered. Zarkon let out a booming laugh 'Fuck, fuckity fuck fuck,' Lance thought to himself, as all his past experiences ,where Shiro struggled for control when Zarkon was near, slotted into place. "You're lying! Allura said that all the old paladins were dead!" Lance shouted, trying to escape the sentries hold.
"Yes, she seems to have told you that," Zarkon said thoughtfully, "But alas its the truth, the human pilot has a weak bond, nothing more than that, but I have control."
"What do you want with me?" Lance asked, Zarkon narrowed his eyes at the human, "When Sendak took control of the castle, you said you wanted me alive, Why?"
Zarkon stayed silent, as he watched the boy for a few minutes, "Indeed I did. There has been some recent information that has come to light recently, some rogue galra have infiltrated my command," He watched as Lance's eye-widened with shock and a grin came across his face, "What do you know about the Blade of Marmora?"
Lance couldn't help it, maybe it was the pain or maybe he finally lost the last of his marbles, but whatever the case was, he started giggling, "You can't even control your own people!" He said once he saw Zarkon's questioning look, Zarkon raised his hand, and the next thing Lance felt was a fire spread across his nerves, "Motherfucker!" he shouted, squeezing his eyes shut as he jerked in place.
"What do you know?" Zarkon bellowed.
"Nothing!" Lance shouted back as the pain died down, "I don't know what the Blade of Marmora is!"
Haggar whispered something to Zarkon but Lance was too far away to hear it, "The princess sent you back! I know it, tell me what you know."
The pain in Lance's system grew and grew until he was biting his tongue to stay quiet, tears sprung up in his eyes, "I don't know anything," He cried out, "I've been in space for a couple of days! I don't know what the Blade of Marmora is. Please!" Lance begged as he tried to pull away from the sentries, only to cry out when the sentry holding his left arm tightened to the point that the bone snapped. Lance begged and pleaded with Zarkon that he didn't know anything, that he was sorry and to stop as Haggar continued to torture him.
Soon enough, Zarkon forced the witch to stop, "He doesn't know anything, her spell obviously malfunctioned and sent you back instead of the boy," He ordered and Lance wanted to sob in relief as the pain stop increasing, as well as, the information that Zarkon wasn't the one sent back, but Haggar.
"What do you want me to do with him?" She asked, looking right into Lance's eyes, which were wide and clearly showed that Lance was disorientated.
"I don't care, make him into a new champion for all I care." As much as Lance wanted to cry at the sadistic glee on Haggar's face, he held his head high and tried with all his might to seem unbothered at this new development.
*With the team*
As everyone settled down after the arguments, Shiro stood at the front facing everyone, "Everyone, eyes front. We've got a plan to get Lance. We're going to jump to the heart of the enemy, unseen and undetected,"
"We'll hide the Castle here, inside one of these giant gas planets in Zarkon's command system. The gas is so dense, we'll be hidden." Coran explained, bringing up the gas giant that the castle will be hidden in as a reference.
"From there, we'll use the Castle to scan for Lance on Zarkon's ship and attack before Zarkon knows what hit him."
Pidge held up her hand, drawing everyone's attention, "I hate the be the bearer of bad news but how are we meant to fight when we only have 4 lions, and Lance also warned us that you lose control of the Black Lion during this fight."
"I will pilot the blue lion," Allura said looking down at her hands, "Only until we get Lance out of the ship though, he told me that this was the plan if he got captured,"
"That's fine and all but we can't form Voltron with Allura," Keith stated.
Shiro wanted to sigh but held off on doing so, "It doesn't matter. We're not leaving without him." With that Shiro gestured for the others to take a seat before sitting down himself, Allura opened up a wormhole to the gas giant and headed in, the group gasp at the size of the command center, it being bigger in person. "We're here."
Coran pressed a few buttons before bringing up a visual of the command center, "I'm detecting Lance's energy signature. From this distance, the signal is pretty weak, but he's somewhere in Zarkon's main ship." Shiro took in a deep breath as he wiped his hands on his thighs, worried for what Lance may be going through.
"Gives us a starting point." Keith muttered to himself.
"Once we get closer, we'll be able to narrow down the location where number 3 is being held," Coran explained, using a simulation for what will happen.
"Okay, guys, this is it. Voltron is going to come in fast and without warning. We'll smash our way into Zarkon's ship and grab Lance. Before they know what his them, we'll have Lance and be on our way." Shiro directed.
"Still can't form Voltron," Pidge stated, pushing up her glasses.
"Right," Shiro paused, his confidence slipping, not that he showed that to the others, "We go in as our lions, find Lance's signature, free him, form Voltron and get away."
Hunk played with his fingers, "I feel like this is going to go very badly," He said before moving to get to Yellow, the others following suit.
"Allura, trust yourself. We got you're back." Shiro stated before they went their separate ways. The main paladins got into their Lions and went, already joining the fray. Allura however stood in front of the Blue Lion, who had her shields up. She hesitated briefly, before knocking on the particle barrier, the shield went down allowing Allura to enter.
Allura got the feeling that she was being welcomed back to something she previously knew, "I'm not the Allura you know," Allura whispered to Blue, "But Lance needs our help, so please help me." She begged, a feeling washed over her, like a blanket being wrapped around her shoulders, guiding her to press certain controls. Soon enough Allura flew the Blue Lion right into the battle, almost as if she had done this for years.
"What is that?" Hunk asked as a purple dome formed around Zarkon's command center and the surrounding area, even trapping the castle.
Pidge made a noise at the back of her throat, "I don't know, but I hope once we get Lance, we can find a way out of here." Pidge said into the comms, as she dodged a fighter ship only to fire at another, "They're going to fire!" She warned, seeing the main ship power up to fire a laser.
"Dodge!" Shiro commanded, steering the black lion closer to the main ship but in the opposite direction from the laser, the others did something similar, working their way through the Small fighter jets as well as the bigger fleet ships. 'You're a fool to bring Voltron here' Shiro heard Zarkon say in his head.
"Paladins, I hate to be a bother but look ahead." Allura said, the others moved their lions to face the same direction as Blue, only to see a hoard of fleets, as well as a frozen Black Lion.
"Why do I get the feeling these guys knew we were coming?" Hunk groaned, as the fleet got closer, releasing more fighter jets.
"There's no end to these guys!" Keith shouted, hitting yet another ship, only to be replaced by two more ships.
From the corner of his visor Keith saw the castle fly into the battle. "Coran attack! I've waited 10,000 years for this!" Coran yelled taking out majority of the smaller ships, the others rejoiced briefly.
"Something is overriding the controls! My lion is not responding." Shiro declared, sounding panicked.
Keith flew the Red Lion in between the small ships heading straight for Shiro, "Shiro's in trouble! I'm going in!"
The group, now separated, fell apart slightly, What do we do now, guys? Our plan isn't really working out as... well planned!" Hunk cried out as he got hit, only for Pidge to cover his back, by killing that ship. then turning and destroying the ship that was trying to sneak up on Allura.
"I'm going for the Black Lion. You guys get Lance, now!" Keith ordered.
"I've identified Lance's exact location. Uploading the coordinates to you, now. In the meantime, I'll provide covering fire from out here, all alone, against an entire fleet. So, yeah, do you mind hurrying?" Coran asked, slightly rushed as he maneuvered the castle around the ships, auto-lock engaged.
Static came out of the comm before Allura's voice broke through, "Would now be a bad time to say, I've lost control of the Blue Lion?" She asked, watching as the controls moved themselves.
"Are you sure Allura, you look like a pro?" Pidge asked
"Quite sure," She replied panicked, first Shiro and now her? Something was going on, as she watched the Blue Lion fly through the ships, destroying the ones too close to herself or her team, she slowly realized that they were heading towards both Lance's position and Shiro's.
Blue slowed down slightly as she grabbed Shiro before speeding up towards the command center. "Whoa! Who is that?" Came Keith's question, distracting Allura and Shiro briefly as they checked each other over for injuries.
Coran gasps as he zooms in on the figure walking on the outside of the ship, "It's Zarkon! Keith, get out of there, now! Zarkon's too powerful!"
"This is my chance to put an end to the Galra Empire! I have to take it!" Keith argued, switching off his comms not that Coran realized as he continued to rant. Allura and Shiro held onto different parts of the inside of the Blue Lion, as she destroyed part of the ship, right where Lance's location was.
The two exited the Blue Lion and into the hallway of the center command, "Lance!" Shiro called out, not worried about anyone finding them, as he assumed they were all out in the ships fighting the castle and the other lions.
"Shiro! Allura?" They heard Lance call out, running down the hallway, playing a sick version of marco polo wasn't fun, but thankfully they managed to get into the correct room. Shiro rushed in, giving Lance a tight hug, only to let go of him when Lance let out a pained groan.
Pulling the kid away and looking him over, Shiro paled at the state of him. His armour was cracked in multiple places, and his under suit slashed, but the worse was the hazy eyes and broken arm, "Oh, Lance." Allura whispered, as he walked towards he giving her a one arm hug.
"I'll be fine," Lance blinked, "But we gotta go now, before the witch shows up," he stated holding his arm, stumbling towards where he knew where Blue was, "Sorry for taking over the steering, but any longer and we'd be screwed," He muttered when Allura stabled him, helping him move towards the lion.
Shiro stood frozen as he watched Lance and Allura start to leave, Lance turned around to look at the older man, tilting his head slightly before giving him a smile, "You coming, Shiro?" he asked, knocking sense back into Shiro's head who nodded as he caught up. The trio entered the Lion with Lance sitting down, Allura took up the side with the broken up while Shiro took the other side.
Taking off, was a shock but so was hearing the comms, "Keith, get out of there!" Coran shouted, as alarms started to blare in the background, "Keith, do you copy? You don't know what you're dealing with! He's too powerful! Listen to me, it's imperative that you don't engage the..."
"Coran he can't hear you, his comm is off." Lance interrupted
"Lance!" Pidge, Hunk and Coran cried out in relief, at the sound of his voice. Lance took a moment to look at the battle before him. "Are you okay?" Hunk asked.
Lance didn't respond to that, which worried Hunk and Pidge, "Hunk, I want you to take the left flank, fleets 1-3 there. Pidge same on the right. Coran take front and center, cover us, I'm going to drop Shiro off in Black, take Allura to the castle and then we get out here."
"Ten-four!" The cadets shouted, moving into position, fighting their new quadrants, more organized now that they had a plan. With that Lance sped through the ships once again destroying the ones that go too close and on occasion firing at Zarkon to distract him long enough for Keith to get space between the two or to get in an attack.
"Once in your lion, grab Keith, we all meet at the castle." Lance ordered as Shiro entered the Black Lion, getting an affirmative, Lance made his way to the castle, providing light aid but not fully joining the battle.
"I got you, buddy!" Shiro said as he swooped in, grabbing the Red Lion and heading straight for the Castle, the others joining shortly. As soon as Lance landed the Blue Lion, Allura ran to the bridge ready for a wormhole as soon as the others also land. Lance relaxed in his chair, the adrenaline wearing off slightly to the point he didn't realize the others had landed until they started arguing about a wormhole.
"The Galra barrier is jamming our ability to create one!" Coran replied to Hunk who asked where the wormhole was. The fleet moved around the castle, "They have us completely surrounded!" he cried, only for the purple shield to start coming down seconds later.
"What just happened?" Pidge asked as the last of the purple faded.
"Who cares? Wormhole!" Hunk ordered, which Allura was happy and quick to do so. As the left the surrounding area a bolt of lightning struck the wormhole, turning into an angry red colour, with vicious shaking.
"Coran, what's happening?" Shiro asked, his lion starting to slip.
Various beeping came through the comms, "the integrity of the wormhole has been compromised. It's breaking down"
"Listen to me!" Lance shouted, "Pidge, make a satellite, Hunk don't trust any mermaids, Shiro stay inside the black Lion, Keith make your way to Shiro as soon as you can!" Lance ordered, to the confusion of the others, "We have no control over where we're heading! If you land in the same place as last time, use my hints!" Lance shouted, falling out of the castle first unwillingly exiting the wormhole.
The others groaned and screamed as their lions slipped and fell out of the castle, all of them wishing for just one day off. Lance gripped onto Blue as she spun out of control with one hand, Looking at the planet he was plummeting to his stomach twisted violently 'Jul'brin' he thought to himself, before hitting the surface and being knocked unconscious.
The End