Lance wouldn't call his mindset "good", but it's definitely better. His medicine and therapy has worked wonders. He's far from cured, but he'll take any improvement that he can get. As his depression improved, so did his daily life. He got better grades more easily and was able to maintain some awesome relationships. Hunk was basically the best person ever. It was almost as if they had known each other for years. His growing relationship with Pidge was also really nice, and Hunk probably appreciated having someone in the group that could understand all of the tech mumbo-jumbo that he was so interested in. Lance tried to understand, he really did, but a lot of it was simply beyond his level.
Lance would have never guessed that he could ever feel this good ever again.
"Lance! You're going to run into something!" A desperate Pidge cried out. They were holding onto their chair so tightly that their knuckles were almost completely white. Hunk had jumped up from his seat and puked in some unknown section of the ship that did God knows what.
Lance flashed a smug smile at them. "Don't you worry about that. They call me the tailor because of how I thread the-"
"Look out!"
The ship crashed straight into some sort of space debri, and a message popped up on the window screen reading: "simulation failed". That must be at least the third time that they've failed it.
As they exited the ship, an angry voice could be heard.
"And that's the perfect example of what not to do," it said. The voice belonged to their instructor, and today he seemed to be in an even worse mood than usual, if possible. There was definitely a lecture coming.
Before he could start going off on Hunk and Pidge, however, Lance decided that he would simply draw all of the aggression towards him. It was the least he could do to thank his friends for putting up with him everyday.
"Sorry, sir... that was my fault," he said quietly. Iverson turned quickly towards him, his face contorted into a scowl. Oh, boy. There was a storm coming.
"Damn right it was!" He took a step towards Lance and yelled in his face. "What the hell were you doing out there?" Before Lance even had a chance to answer, Iverson was talking again. "Don't forget that you're only here because the person at the top of the class dropped out! I sure hope that you don't intend to follow in his footsteps."
Ouch. Now that hurt a little bit. Was he really so pathetic- no. He's been better lately, he's not about to let that be ruined now.
"N-no, sir," Lance stuttered out. He hoped that his face didn't show how the comment really made him feel.
After the three failures were dismissed from class, they discussed what happened. Pidge seemed a bit upset with the events that had occurred.
"What the fuck, Lance?" She said, anger tickling in her voice. "Why did you say that? It wasn't all your fault!"
At this, Lance simply shrugged. "Well, it definitely wasn't either of you guys' faults. It doesn't really matter, though. I don't care what he says!" At this last statement, Lance flashed a confident grin that was only half fake.
Pidge groaned and punched his shoulder. "You are the worst." They let out a laugh so genuine that Lance couldn't help but to smile too. This is what he lived for: making other people happy.
Lance looked over to Hunk, who still looked slightly green. He was leaned against the wall and looked incredibly uncomfortable. Lance walked over and patted him softly on the back, giving him a sympathetic look.
Hunk looked up at his friend's concerned face and smiled weakly, giving a shaky thumbs up. "I'm good."
That night, after all of the faculty had finished patrolling the halls, the group agreed to sneak up to the roof together. They definitely deserved a break, and this is just what the doctor ordered: stargazing on the rooftop at 3 am.
Pidge had brought their computer with them, of course, but Hunk and Lance came empty handed. Sometimes, Lance actually believes that their computer is somehow attached to them.
They made some light conversation for about ten minutes before something extraordinary occurred: a humongous, bright object zoomed across the the sky and landed right on the Garrison's campus. None of them had any idea of what it was, but a slight twinge of anxiety and excitement pulled at their thoughts.
"Woah..." Hunk said quietly, staring at the rising pillar of smoke in the near distance. "What was that?"
"I have no idea." Pidge said. They closed their laptop and pulled out their convenient binoculars because obviously that's something that you just carry around. "Let's find out."
Pidge looked around for a moment. "I can't see anything!" They said with frustration.
"Let me try!" Lance said, taking the binoculars from Pidge without waiting for them to respond. He looked through them carefully, but wasn't able to see anything of the crash either. However, he was able to spot a flash of movement off to the side and saw the back of a mullet. He groaned.
"What?" Hunk asked with concern, squinting into the distance. "What do you see?"
"It's Keith! I'd recognize that mullet anywhere." Lance put down the binoculars and started to leave the roof.
"Where are you going?" Pidge asked.
"There is no way that I'm letting him see that before me." Lance moved his hand in a motion that implied that they should follow. "Come on!"
And that was it. That was what started it all. They could have just ran back to their rooms and hid, hoping that the Garrison staff would never find out that they had not been there in the first place... but they didn't. Maybe they should have...
They tried to discreetly approach the area. There were already Garrison officers surrounding what looked like a crashed space ship.
"Aliens?" Hunk suggested, and Pidge gave him an extremely disappointed look. He shrugged and said, "Just throwing out suggestions."
Distant yelling could be heard from inside a tent, and Lance spotted Keith on the outside of the tent. The boy entered it and soft thuds could be heard.
"Let's go." Lance whispered and started making his way towards the tent.
Once they entered the tent, Lance could see Keith helping a man off a table. Wait... was that... Shiro? Shiro as in his childhood hero who went missing years ogo? No way that he was going to let Keith steal his thunder. He was going to rescue his hero, not Keith. And he said just as much.
"Nope. No way. Absolutely not." Lance walked over and put his arm around Shiro, helping to support the barely conscious man. "I'm going to rescue Shiro, not you."
The boy looked Lance up and down. "And who are you?"
Honestly, Lance was kind of shocked. Was he really that forgettable? "Uh, the name's Lance."
"Who?" Well, that answers that question.
"You know! Lance and Keith: neck and neck?" Yes, it's true. Lance had sort of made up a little bit of a rivalry with the boy. It was a good motivator for him when it was a bad day. Besides, with Iverson constantly reminding him that he'll never be as good as Keith... well, that may have had something to do with it.
There was a shout from outside of the tent, and Keith sighed.
"You know what? Whatever. I don't care. Just help me." He started moving towards the exit quickly, and Lance just followed his lead with Pidge and Hunk close behind.
They made it to a hover bike and hopped on. Keith started it up, and they started flying away, but the Garrison was not about to let that happen. They quickly had multiple ships behind them, and they definitely weren't moving fast enough to outrun them.
"Go faster!" Lance cried out. They were getting closer by the second, and Lance definitely didn't want to get caught.
"Well, we could go faster if we got rid of some uneccessary weight." Keith responded, hunched over with an intense expression on his face.
"Oh, good idea!" Lance looked around the hover bike and realized there was nothing on it except for them. Wait. "Oh, okay. I see what you meant by that."
Suddenly Keith was shouting. "Big guy, lean left!" And, not knowing what else to do, Hunk did it. Of course, then they all saw that they were heading straight towards a cliff.
"You're not going to-" Pidge started, but Keith cut them off.
"Yep."
They drove right off the cliff, and everything seemed to slow down. Is this really how they were going to die? Oh, well. It would probably be better- no. No.
Well, of course, life wasn't done with him yet, and they miraculously survived. Keith had graciously (not at all because it was forced) let them stay at his house over night. No one slept much, though.
The next morning, there was much to be discussed. Honestly, Lance wasn't completely sure of whether any of last night's events had actually occurred. That is, until he woke up in his "rival's" house. He yawned and got up from the floor. He got maybe half an hour of sleep total. Everyone else was already up and gathered together talking.
"Oh, fuck," he started. "That actually happened?"
"Hey, Lance," Hunk greeted. "How'd you sleep?"
Lance gave him a sideways glance. "Great. Just great."
At this, Hunk suppressed a laugh by putting his hand over his mouth. "Yeah, me too."
Shiro walked over and stuck out his hand towards Lance. "You're Lance, right?"
"Yep! That's me!" He said cheerily. He started to stick out his hand but noticed that the hand he was about to shake wasn't actually a hand. It looked like it was some sort of complex prosthetic. After just a moment of hesitation, Lance grabbed the other's hand and shook it with a smile. "Nice to meet you."
Keith cleared his throat and spoke. "Anyways, as I was saying. I've been feeling this weird energy from out in the desert, and I think it might have something to do with whatever took Shiro." Well, that seemed a bit farfetched, but then again... here was a guy who'd gone missing years ago and returned with dope-ass anime hair and a fucking robot arm, so... yeah.
"Okay, let's go then." Shiro said, and made for the door. "It's not safe here, anyways. The Garrison will be looking for us."
Once again, they could have said no. Lance could have ran away and hid until he was sure he was safe, but he didn't. He felt strangely like he was meant to do this. He had to go with this group to whatever obscure location they needed to go to.
Eventually, they found themselves in the a cave, and the cave drawings... glowed? All Lance had done was brush a hand across one of them.
"Woah," he said quietly, staring in awe at the sight of the semi-circular cave being bathed in an ocean blue light.
Once they ventured even deeper into the cave, Lance saw something that was more shocking than everything else combined. There, right in front of them, was a gigantic robotic lion. It had a soft blue light emanating from it like the cave drawings and appeared to even have some sort of forcefield surrounding it.
"I found it a little while ago," Keith said and put his hand against the barrier. "But I don't know how to get its forcefield down."
Lance scoffed and jokingly said, "Have you tried knocking?" And gave a few light taps on the shiny matter.
Apparently, that was exactly what it needed because as soon as Lance knocked, the barrier came crashing down and the lion roared to life. Stooping down and opening its mouth to invite them in.
Next thing Lance knew, they were flying out of the cave (by crashing through the wall), and he was desperately trying to avoid hitting things because oh, God this was nothing like the simulator and he wasn't even good at that and-
"You are a terrible pilot!" Pidge screeched and grabbed on to Lance's head, effectively blinding him.
"Well, it'd be a whole lot easier if you moved your hands!" He shouted back, but realized that he sort of knew where he was going even though he couldn't see.
They spiralled upwards as everyone screamed, and Hunk got sick multiple times. After a chaotic ride, it seemed to get smoother after they somehow ended up in space. It was so much more beautiful than Lance ever anticipated it would be.
Suddenly, a large, swirly-looking circle object appeared, and oh, boy, did Lance want to go in it. It was almost like a little voice was talking to him in his head.
Go, Lance. Go. You must help you and your friends fulfill your destinies.
What was that? It was vivid, so there was no way that he was imagining it. Maybe it was...
"Guys, I think my lion's telling me to go into that circle thingy." He had already started to accelerate towards it. At this point, it didn't matter what the others said. He was going in.
"Are you sure?" Pidge asked quickly. They were now clinging onto Hunk, who had vomit stains on his shirt, for support. "It looks like a wormhole. I mean, this thing could be trying to kill us."
"Yeah," Keith agreed. He looked like he didn't care about their current situation, but Lance could tell he was terrified on the inside. "This seems like a bad idea."
Lance shrugged and continued. "Potentially, yes, it could be trying to kill us, but I trust it."
And, with that, they flew right through and into an unknown place. Lance's vision was left blurry and distorted for just a moment, but once it cleared up, he could see that they were hurtling straight for the ground.
"Oh, shit!" He screamed and tried to slow down, ineffectively. They ended up crashing down right in front of some sort of castle looking building.
After a moment of everyone calming down from that one hell of a ride, Keith looked over at last and sarcastically said: "Nice landing."
Geez... He tried his best. But... that's not good enough. "I'd like to see you try to land a giant robot lion!" He shouted back. He threw his hands up in the air and exited the lion. There was no way he was going to let them see the tears in his eyes.
They decided to enter the castle, of course, and eventually ended up in a room with two pod like things and a whole slew of other items that Lance had no idea of what they were. As they were looking around in awe, Lance decided that it would be a great idea to touch a random button on one of the pods.
There was a hissing noise and suddenly, someone was falling. On instinct Lance ran forward and caught them.
"Woah! Are you okay?" He asked, but, boy was he shocked when he looked down and saw a beautiful girl with white hair and pointy ears. Way out of his league, and he knew it, but he couldn't help the blush that spread across his face.
"Where..." she started in the most heavenly voice, and looked around, confused. "Where am I? Who are you?"
Lance gave her the best smile he had and said, "The name's Lance, and you're right here in my arms."
She scoffed and looked up at him. Then, her faced changed from disgust to shock. "Your ears! They're... hideous."
Abort mission! Repeat: abort mission! His ears? "Hideous" he can understand, but why just his ears? Well, his initial assumption had been correct: this beautiful alien was completely out of his league.
"Coran? Coran?" She looked around and spotted the other pod. She pressed a button on it, and a middle aged man with completely orange hair and the most ridiculous moustache that Lance had ever seen stepped out. "Coran! What happened?"
The man, who Lance assumed was named Coran, looked at her and didn't seem to truly understand what was going on.
"Princess? He said questioningly. She was a princess? What the- where the-
"What the fuck is going on?" Pidge finished his thought out loud for him.
Coran looked over at them as if just noticing that they were in the room. A look of confusion and concern swept over his face and he quickly tapped a few buttons on the pod and gasped.
"Princess, we've been asleep for..." He hesitated, biting his lip. "Ten thousand years."
The princess took a large step backwards and paled. "Ten thousand years? But that means..." She stumbled, and Lance was afraid he was going to have to catch her again. However, she righted herself, and turned towards Lance and the others. "Well, I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Princess Allura, and I've got a lot of explaining to do."
ong story, short... this super mean since dude, Zarkon, destroyed their planet, Altea (so now they're the only two left), in revenge and in search for the most powerful weapon in the universe, Voltron, which was made up of five robotic, sentient lions that they were now supposed to pilot. So... makes sense, right?
Obviously, they need the lions to form the Voltron thing, so that's what they're doing now. And it's pretty chaotic. Shiro and Pidge went together to get the green lion, Keith went to get the red lion, and Hunk and Lance went to get the yellow lion. Once they all had theirs, Shiro would get his: the black lion. It's hard to say how Lance and Hunk's part of the mission is going, however, because there's shooting and purple aliens that Lance vaguely remembers being told that they're called Galra. Everything seems to be going at least okay, though- o h, God. Did Hunk just get killed?
"Hunk?" Lance screamed, tears already starting to form in his eyes.
There was a moment of silence before Lance saw a giant yellow lion burst through a mountain, driving in only a way that Hunk could, and, God, Lance was so relieved. He had one job: keep the Galra off of Hunk so that he could get his lion, and he almost messed that up. He almost got Hunk killed. He- no. He tried his best to- but he's not good enough and never will be. One job. That's all he had, and he managed to fuck that up. You really couldn't trust him with anything. How pathetic. What a weakling he is...
Shit! No, no, no, no no no no. He didn't have his medicine. He was stuck in space... And he didn't have his medicine. Oh, God, no. No. No. No. And he couldn't tell the others, of course... they have their own problems. They're stuck in space now too. He'd... he'd be fine... right? He'd been better over the last two years. He could handle it now. Right...
Apparently, in order to form Voltron, the team needs to have a "bond". So now they're doing this mind meld thing while wearing this device that projects their thoughts, and that really sucks because there is so much that Lance hasn't even told Hunk and he really doesn't want any of them to know. Of course, the more he tries not to think about it... the harder it is. Just think of family. Just think of family. Just think of family.
"Focus on your lions, paladins!" Allura calls. That's what the pilots of Voltron are called, supposedly. "Your lion, come on."
And Lance is trying to think about his lion, he really is, but he's so afraid that he'll reveal something the second he stops thinking about his family. But... He has to. He's got this. Three... two... one...
Family. Family. Family. Family. Scars. Shit! Lion. Lion. Lion. Lion. Lion. Lion. Lion. Lion.
"Why aren't you thinking about your lion?" An angry voice rings out. It's Keith, Lance can tell. He opens his eyes and half expects to see everyone staring at him, but instead sees them looking at Pidge. Honestly, it's a relief when a fight breaks out, and Pidge storms out of the room. His relief makes him selfish and terrible, though... doesn't it?
"I suppose we'll stop for the day..." Allura awkwardly suggests, and everyone else nods.
The next few days are hell. The days are full of physical bonding activities which hurt, by the way. Keith is really bad at directing people through mazes. Or maybe Lance is just stupid... yeah, that seems more likely. Lance is getting worse. He's getting so much worse, very, very quickly. He's thinking about things that he thought he had left behind two years ago, but it's so tempting. His mom wouldn't even know... no. He shouldn't. It's been two years. He can't crack now.
Before the end of the week, they still haven't been able to form Voltron, and they have to fight a fucking monster. God, Lance is exhausted. Why now?
By the end of the battle, they figure it how to form Voltron (pretty conveniently, but no questions are asked from Lance), and any place in Lance's body that wasn't hurting from training before, sure does now.
They'd taken some pretty hard hits while they were fighting, most of which had been Lance's fault, probably. Everyone already seemed to be experts on flying their lions, and Lance, despite having had his lion the longest, still had no idea what he was doing.
Once they arrived back in the hangers, Allura ran up to talk to them and gushed about how amazing they were. Pidge's strategy was impeccable. Keith's flying? She'd never seen anything like it. Shiro was an incredible leader, and Hunk was very coordinated. Lance? Lance was forgotten.
"And how did I do, Princess?" Lance asked. He forced a smile and winked at her, hoping to come off as casually flirty instead of desperately needing affirmation.
She flinched a bit. "Uh... well... you were..." God, she couldn't even think of anything. Nothing at all. Was he really that useless? Of course, but...
"You were pretty fucking annoying," Keith mumbled and Pidge held back a laugh.
Lance heard, though. Keith was right. He'd talked way too much during the battle. He just hoped that he still looked like he was smiling so no one would worry. Something was coming, though. Lance could feel it. He faked a yawn and made up some lie about going to take a nap and ran back to the room that Allura had so graciously supplied him. He took off his armor and showered, changing into his long sleeved shirt and jacket that he normally wore. He then sat on his bed and fiddled with his Bayard. Allura had given one to each of them (except for Shiro, but his arm could kill people anyways), explaining that they would take whatever form was most appropriate for its user. Lance's had taken the form of a gun. Odd... but cool. Everyone else got cool weapons too, though, so it didn't really matter.
As Lance sat thinking with his eyes closed, he felt the Bayard transform into another shape. He opened his eyes to see a form that he was all too familiar with. He had no idea that just thinking about it would-
Weak. Worthless. Pathetic. Useless. The only thing he's good at doing is being annoying. So, so annoying and loud. And, God, he's selfish and terrible, so he deserves it.
But... it's been two years...
Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it.
And when Lance looks down at his wrist and feels his heartbeat speed up...
He realizes what he's done.