Terminal Velocity • Voltron x Terminal List

V

"You get scared too, Tío Leo?" Raphael asked, then they weren't sitting in Raphael's bedroom anymore but in the kitchen instead, and Raphael was staring up at him, unblinking. The action figures had been abandoned in the pool of slowly-spreading blood. Raphael's mouth hung open as though he were waiting for Lance's response. Veronica was just beside him, eyes open, staring at him, asking him why he hadn't been able to fight the bad guys and protect people and save the princess.

"All the time," Lance said, staring down at them, and to his horror, and matter how far he reached, he couldn't grab them, couldn't hold them, couldn't–

--

Lance jolted upright, and it took him a second to process the knocking at his door. He poured out three more pain relief pills and downed them before shaking his head and making his way over to the door, only opening it when he'd identified Keith.

"Sorry," Lance muttered, rubbing at his eyes before turning to look at the clock. When was the last time he'd slept until eight?

"No worries," Keith said easily, coming inside and shutting the door. By the duffel bag slung off his shoulder, Lance took it that he'd already cleared out of the other room and was just waiting on him. "You needed the sleep. When was the last time you got any rest?"

"When's the last time you got any?" Lance returned, brushing off the question as he made quick work of gathering his belongings: phone, check; gun, check. He logged into the communication app and was relieved to see that his message from last night had been received and that preparations were already in the works. He sent a quick thank you and logged out of the app before looking up at Keith. "Estás listo?"

Keith scanned his face for a moment before giving a brusque nod, then giving the whole room a once over before nodding to the door. He threw his duffel in the truck, and Lance provided directions for him to start driving.

"So. About last night," Keith said, breaking five minutes of silence, and Lance looked over at him.

Was Keith going to freak out like Pidge and tell him to stop? Lance thought that Keith's tactical mindset would prevent that outcome; even if Keith wanted him to see if the tumor could be removed, he'd still realize that they didn't have time. Leads were already being buried almost as fast as Lance could uncover them. If they took a few weeks off to go investigate medical treatment that may or may not have any positive effect, the whole operation could be covered up. Not to mention that Lance's enemies – Capstone, the sicarios, his own government – could track him down at any point and take him out first, so–

"What did...Pidge mean? About...you dying before, and not to joke about it?" Keith asked tentatively, and Lance blinked, shutting down his other derailing thoughts as he realized that Keith didn't want to talk about the tumor that was eating up his brain.

"Oh, that," Lance said, and Keith looked over at him with a frown. "Hey, don't give me that look. It wasn't a big deal."

It had felt like it at the time. Back in those days, dying and being resurrected had been...pretty surreal. And the fact that nobody had really asked about it, checked up on him outside of Coran and Allura for the one moment she could pull her eyes off Lotor...Lance couldn't lie; he'd been hurt by it at the time. But eventually, it had just become one of those things that they'd sort of joked about, probably because Hunk and Pidge and Shiro didn't realize how serious it had actually been. And maybe because getting hurt wasn't out of character for Lance. He'd spent more time in the pods than any of them. Almost always the result of protecting someone else. And yet even that, they'd found a way to twist. Joking that he was clumsy, that he needed to pay better attention, that he was trying to get out of chores, that maybe he liked the pods better than his own bed...

"I jumped in front of a blast to save Allura," Lance explained with the least amount of detail possible. "And I sort of died for a minute, but she brought me back, so...no harm no foul."

"You...died?" Keith asked, and the truck slowed down as Keith took his foot off the gas to look over at Lance. "When...when was this?"

Lance shrugged. "I don't know. You were with the Blade, we were working with Lotor–" His face scrunched up involuntarily at the mention of his name. "There was a lot going on back then. You know how intergalactic space wars are."

"But...you died, and I...I didn't even know," Keith echoed, turning back to face the road, and the car began to gradually pick up speed again until they were moving along at about the same pace as earlier.

"Yeah, well, you'll get your chance this time around," Lance said, looking out the window and immediately regretting his words as he saw how Keith's shoulders immediately hunched up and his hands clenched into fists on the wheel.

--

"Where are we going, anyway?" Keith asked after a bit. "We need to be heading south to cross the border, so why am I driving west?"

"Who said anything about driving?"

--

"My boys!" Coran greeted with a big smile and open arms. He ensnared Keith first, who tensed up before relaxing in his hold and patting Coran on the back (or tapping out; Coran was stronger than Lance ever gave him credit for, and a hug from him was like a hug from a boa constrictor). Eventually, he released Keith and turned to Lance, his smile faltering and his eyes shining with grief.

"Come here, my boy," Coran said, and Lance hesitated before stepping up to him and giving him a one-arm hug. "I'm terribly sorry, Number Three," Coran whispered, and Lance just nodded because there wasn't really anything he could say to that.

"I didn't even know you were on Earth," Keith said after Coran had let go of Lance.

Coran turned to him with a small grin. "To be quite honest, Number Four, I wasn't. But then I received a communication from Number Three here and got here as fast as I could."

"That's..." Keith squinted. "Not even temporally possible," he said, eyes lifting up to the sky as he tried to calculate how long it would take to get from New Altea to Earth, and then from his designated landing zone to the middle of Mississippi.

"I have my ways," Coran said, winking with a twinkle in his eye as he twirled one side of his mustache. "Perhaps I may have used a bit of...what does number three call it? Altean witchcraft?"

"Alien voodoo," Lance said with a nod. "Thanks for coming, Coran. And sorry for the late notice."

"Not a worry, my boy, not a worry," Coran said, putting an arm around Lance's shoulders and steering him toward a helicopter that was parked about fifty feet away. "Do you have coordinates for me?"

Lance nodded, pulling up a map on his phone and zooming in on their destination, then turning his phone so Coran could see the latitude and longitude on the display.

"Uh, Coran?" Keith asked when they were almost at the helicopter. "Have you ever flown one of these things before?"

"Flown one, Number Four?" Coran asked with a laugh. "I've read the entire manual on this Earthly contraption!"

"Okay, that's cool and great, but that didn't really answer my–"

"Besides," Coran said as he popped into the helicopter and returned with two helmets, tossing the first to Keith. "I've got two of the best pilots in the universe right here with me!" He turned to Lance and handed over the other helmet. "Care to ride shotgun, Number Three?"

Lance quirked a half-smile before putting on the helmet, smile dropping off immediately as another migraine announced its imminent arrival. "Let's do it."

--

published 09/27/22

4807 words