Chapter Text
Chapter One;; Caught Up In a (Hopeless) Dream
Enjoy~
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<~·~>
Lance McClain sighed quietly as he hugged himself, the room dark and the Castle of Lions completely silent, everyone else deep asleep, or deep asleep as far as Lance knew.
It was close to midnight based on the clock-like device he kept near, but Lance knew he wouldn't be able to sleep. He hadn't been able to for the last few days.
Lance shifted his position, instead now hugging his knees to his chest. He wore a jacket, but it wasn't his own. It belonged to Keith Kogane, another paladin- former paladin -of Voltron. Keith had left Voltron a while ago to join the Blade of Marmora, a group of rebel Galra who fought to defeat Zarkon's empire and bring peace to the universe, just like the Paladins of Voltron wanted.
After Keith's departure, life had seemingly plummeted for Lance. The teenager couldn't help but feel like without Keith he was missing something.
(To be honest, he was pretty sure the whole team felt this way)
The worst part of this was, in Lance’s personal opinion, that Keith had reported to them about going on a rather dangerous and long mission recently, and the Paladins had heard nothing since then.
That had been almost a whole two and a half weeks- movements? -ago.
And so, that's why Lance was huddled in a corner of his room, Keith's red and white jacket zipped around his shoulders as he silently prayed for Keith to return, to call, to let them —to let Lance — know that the purple-eyed male was ok. Lance felt a tug at his heart at the thought of Keith, but he pushed it away, sighing as he unzipped the red and white jacket and folded it neatly, then tucking it away out of sight into a drawer that slipped out from the base of his bed.
"Out of sight, out of mind." Lance chided quietly, his hand lingering over the jacket in it's designated drawer before he pulled away and closed the drawer with a light push. He stifled a yawn, his blue eyes shimmering with unacknowledged emotions as he set himself onto his bed, then drifting off to sleep with nightmares awaiting him.
<~·~>
Lance awoke, his joints stiff, at the call from Allura on some type of overhead speaker- thing, his eyes blinking open. He could almost hear Coran's voice shouting out about how important breakfast was from down the hall, but he pushed that amusing thought away as his eyes drifted down to where the drawer was once more.
A whoosh of air left his lips as his shoulders slouched, "Oh Keith... Where are you?" He murmured.
Stretching and popping his back, Lance soon made his way out of his room and down to the dining hall, his sweater zipped halfway and his eyes bright and shimmering, hiding anything and everything when it came to how he was truly feeling at the moment (a bad habit Keith sometimes pointed out before he had left, though Lance couldn’t seem to just stop doing it naturally).
The others were already there, Pidge showing off a nice bed head, Hunk seemingly half asleep still, and even Shiro seemed to be a bit tired. Allura and Coran shared a glance before noticing Lance's arrival. "Good morning Lance!" Allura greeted, sounding out "Lance" as something more similar to " Lonce ", as her accent provided, though the blue-eyed boy didn't mind.
"Morning. What's got everyone all... Down?" He asked, studying Hunk's bleary eyes, Shiro's slightly slouched posture, and Pidge's messy hair.
"I just didn't sleep well. Nightmare about getting attacked by food." Hunk offered, Pidge rolling her eyes slightly as she stated bluntly, "That happened months ago, Hunk."
Hunk only shrugged in response.
"I'm not down, just haven't brushed my hair cause I was starving !" Pidge exclaimed a bit more enthusiastically, spooning a glob of food goo into her mouth and swallowing the lump as if to prove her words true.
Shiro stifled a yawn from where he was settled down with some food goo before him. "I was trying to contact the Blade of Marmora, Kolivan replied and we talked for a while into the night," Shiro explained, surprising Lance a bit for two reasons.
One, he thought he had been the only one awake deep into the night.
Two, Shiro had gotten into contact with the Blade?
"Was there any news on Keith and his whereabouts or how his mission's going?" Pidge cut in immediately, as if reading Lance's thoughts in regard to Shiro's words. Hunk noticeably perked up to properly listen to the news, Allura and Coran pausing in their chewing to turn their attention to Shiro as well.
Shiro's shoulders slumped. "That's... Also why I was up late... Um..." He sighed deeply, before continuing. "Kolivan reported that Keith had gone undercover on a Galra ship filled with valuable information. After roughly eight quintents, all the access to Keith's com connection was lost and no one was able to track or contact him... He's off the grid..." He explained slowly, his voice low and eyes filling with sudden grief. "No one knows if he's still alive or not. He's been filed as MIA."
Each paladin seemed to be frozen, eyes blown wide with shock and mouths agape in matching expressions, staring at the black paladin as if he had just revealed the answer to life itself.
Pidge was the first to recover, Allura following closely. "Hold the phone!" Pidge exclaimed, "What are we doing here?! We should be looking around the sector Keith disappeared in and blast it all the quiznack up until we can find him!" She exclaimed, standing up and leaning against the table with her hands, a determined gaze pointed on Shiro and her breakfast forgotten. Lance —who had already been standing— nodded along, coming up beside his shorter friend. "Pidge is right! Keith is our friend and family, we have to help him!" Hunk stood as well, nodding along with them.
Coran was just about to jump in, ready to support the idea of going to get Keith with a good ol' rescue mission when Allura cut in, voice pained but stern. "Keith's always trained more than us and he's trained in the ways of the Blade of Marmora. Surely he's gone undercover and will escape on his own or he did this act purposely. What if someone was able to find him so he destroyed anything that would lead to backup coming for help? What if he doesn't want to be found?" She insisted, adding, "Or what if he's already gone? Or—"
"Those are all 'what if's!" Lance exclaimed, irritation sparking in his eyes. "I really don't care if Keith doesn't want to be found, I'm going out there to find him and help him. I'm not giving up on him!" He said, a hand clenching into a fist and a fierce determination of his own burning in his blue eyes.
That's when Shiro stood, palms flat against the table as one word escaped his lips, putting a stop to the conversations. "Enough."
The others looked to him, knowing he'd be the one to tip the iceberg. Despite Allura being outnumbered, she and Shiro were the ones who owned the leadership when it came to this team. Shiro sighed, his single lock of white hair dropping to shadow his eyes. "Ok... No . We're going to stay here. I don't think we should go after him. Allura's right, if he doesn't want to be found and we have no way of tracking him, then we can't do anything for now. I will ask Kolivan for more information and for Keith's last known coordinates, then we will make a plan to try and find him. Until then, we do nothing. And, if we do go, there's a high chance none of us will leave. If the place is filled with good information, it’s bound to be filled with soldiers, and if it’s filled with soldiers then how will the whole team of Voltron possibly get past them? And besides, who knows what or who else is on that ship, I couldn’t gather much from Kolivan so we don’t know."
Just as Pidge and Lance we're about to protest, Shiro finished, "We can't. That's the end of it. I don't like it at all, but it's what we have to do. Do any of you really think Keith would want us to give the chance of sacrificing Voltron just to try and save him when he could possibly be dead by now?"
With that, Shiro stood and left the room, leaving the others to go over this and most likely grieve or riot, maybe both. Lance stared after Shiro, his eyes filled with disbelief.
We can't wait! What do we know?! What if one day is the difference between life and death for Keith?! Lance demanded silently, his fists clenching and unclenching at his sides.
His mind whirled before he turned back to Allura. His eyes narrowed just slightly, in a way that went unnoticed by the others, and his fists clenched again. It was then he decided he didn't really like her judgment today. He huffed, the sound filled with a lingering worry (for Keith), before he walked off, breakfast long forgotten. He heard footsteps following and looked over his shoulder, glad to see it was Hunk and Pidge. "Lounge area?" He asked the two nodding before speeding up to walk alongside him.
With merely a single glance at Pidge, he knew something was being plotted in her devious mind.
Things were going to get interesting.
<~·~>
Lance led his friends to the lounge area, sitting down on the circular couch. Hunk stayed standing, wringing his hands together as Pidge sat down across from Lance, lacing her hands together.
"You disagree with Shiro and Allura?" She asked, gaze flicking from Lance to Hunk, who turned his head towards her before he sat down next to her, almost reluctantly. Lance nodded as he stared back at her, crossing his arms and saying quietly, "Of course. Why wait when we can blast in there and use Voltron to free Keith? I'm sure the Blade would help too." He insisted, his gaze flicking to the side and a small scowl forming on his face.
Pidge nodded. "Honestly, agreed. It's not like our team to wait around, especially when someone needs help. I know we need to think of a plan but why wait for more information? It's not like we haven’t fought off Galran soldiers before, and even if there was a whole bunch of ‘em, Voltron would be able to fuck every one of them up." Pidge exclaimed, her hands getting thrown into the air before she also crossed her arms, looking angered. "Keith and I aren't as close as could be, obviously but, like you said, he's our teammate and family! We can't leave him to fend for himself while we get some useless information. He could be tortured for facts on the Blade, and us! And Shiro and Allura are there insisting we wait while he could be dying." She huffed crossly, though shutting her mouth as Hunk intervened.
"Not to be the voice of reason, as always, but you both should see that Allura and Shiro are just trying to keep our heads on our necks. I don't like the thought of Keith being MIA anymore than either of you do, but we can't be rash. But then of course," he added slyly, "it's not like Pidge doesn't already have a plan." With that, he grinned, nodding along to Pidge, who gave the slightest of smirks.
Pidge, at Hunk's sentence, slammed her hands open-palmed onto the cushions at her sides. "Damn right I do!" She cheered, eyes lighting up. Lance shifted to face Pidge more properly as she began scanning over her plan mentally before explaining.
"Alright. Basically, we contact Kolivan, ask for a favor, hack the system on Keith's tracker for his last known location, yeet our Lions outta here and into that system as quickly as possible, scout the ship Keith was reported to be in after finding it, attack, form Voltron if necessary –cause Shiro and Allura will obviously follow after us— and rescue Keith with fireworks trailing after us heroically. Keith will swoon for the heroic Lance, give me a well-deserved bro-hug, compliment Hunk on his once-in-a-lifetime bravery, thank the others for coming after him even though they were reluctant, and then we parade back here and wait for a scolding from Shiro while Keith helps coax Shiro into easing the punishment with a great ass speech. Sound good? Good."
Lance hesitated. " Yesss ?" Pidge asked, drawing out the 's' as she sensed Lance's hesitance. She arched a brow, daring Lance to shoot down her brilliant plan. "I like it, trust me, but how will we get our Lions to that system in time? It could take days or weeks without a wormhole. We have to try and convince Allura to get us to the system he's in. Unless he's close of course." Lance added as an afterthought, none of them having ever been told Keith's location or anywhere near that.
Pidge's brow arched even higher. "That's a no, dude. She'd never agree, even if she was willing to help us in the first place. And besides, surely Druids- if there are any -would sense both a regular approach and the oncoming approach of a wormhole. We have to think of something else... Something... Different ." She said, raising a hand to her chin and humming thoughtfully.
"Well, as the voice of reason here, I say we find his location first, then get to worrying about how to get a wormhole." Hunk pitched in, his own brows furrowed in concentration. "And also, there's always room for a little white lie." He added, his own eyes sparkling. Pidge, taking a moment to not be serious, sniffled, wiping away an imaginary tear, "Oh my gosh, Hunk, you're being devious and sneaky! I'm so proud!" She announced, hugging Hunk dramatically.
Hunk chuckled while looking back to Lance. "Let's call Kolivan, shall we?" He added, Lance nodding along. "To the bridge!" Pidge declared, backing away from Hunk while hopping onto her feet at the same time. "Let's be off!" And with that, she raced off, her feet pounding against the metal floors of the Castle as Lance and Hunk hurried to catch up.
<~·~>
Long story short, the three were able to contact Kolivan (Pidge's doing, her contacting him while Allura was still eating, blabbering away or something like that with Coran and Shiro, probably). He gave them the info they asked for, and then they ended the call.
It was shockingly simple.
Grinning and sharing victorious praise, they placed Keith's last known coordinates into Pidge's laptop, connecting the device to the Castle and bringing up the location on the map. Galaxies and universes appeared before their eyes, but one glowed bright green, Pidge zooming into that galaxy.
"The Win'Shlix Galaxy." Hunk read aloud, nose scrunching in confusion. "Annnd... Where is that, distance-wise, compared to our current location?" He inquired, a hand going to scratch at his head as Pidge began typing something onto her keyboard. The map zoomed out, galaxies and star systems fading until the castle's current location was highlighted in blue, the Win'Shlix Galaxy highlighted in green.
Lance narrowed his eyes in his own confusion at the display, running his thumb over his bottom lip.
"Says here the Win'Shlix Galaxy is... About nineteen doboshes away via a wormhole. With the speed the Lions can go-"
"Well, I'd bet three Alphinian Wartock Snubblers that you three have found number four's location and are now trying to find a way to get there without taking an extremely long period of time? Hm?" Coran's voice shocked all three of the teens, each jumping to attention with varied cries of shock as Pidge shut down her computer and let the map zap out of view within a millisecond, their gazes locking on the orange-haired Altean.
Hunk relaxed, shoulders hunching as he let out a loud sigh of relief, "Oh- It's just you Coran." He said graciously, Coran raising a brow.
Lance and Pidge each sent each other nervous glances as Coran practically danced across the bridge to where they all stood, eyes vaguely amused, though the amusement was subdued by a deeper sadness. "Trust me, paladins, you won't be going anywhere near the Win'Shlix Galaxy, not without a wormhole if you want to reach the location within one quintant." Coran chided, shaking his head, tone light but almost weary to the ears of the paladins. Almost as quickly as Hunk had relaxed just a moment before, Coran was grinning widely to add on to his words, even before the others could pout or frown or argue; "Good thing I know how to work the teladuv!"
Gasping quietly, as if shocked, Pidge asked softly, "You're... Gonna help us?"
At that, Coran paused in all ministrations, eyebrows furrowing. "Why wouldn't I?" He asked quizzically, then, "Keith is family , just as we are, Pidge." Coran murmured, gaze dropping as the man sighed solemnly. "Even if Shiro and Allura don't see it, I agree with you paladins; in order to save Number Four, it's now or never."
With that, Coran was walking to the control panel he usually manned, fingers tapping against buttons expertly, the paladins watching silently for a moment before turning to each other. Pidge looked slightly ashamed, rubbing the back of her neck in a guilty manner. "Yeah, I guess you're right," She mumbled, though if the Altean man heard or not couldn't be determined as the girl didn't receive a reply.
Hunk sat down in his designated seat, the accents highlighting in his signature yellow color as he settled, hands fiddling with the hem of his shirt. Lance merely paced, the rhythmic tap, tap, tap of his shoes' heels meeting the floor the only noise in the relatively silent bridge.
Pidge eventually continued on her laptop, searching for any other information regarding Keith, the clicks adding another melody to the still air.
Soon enough, Hunk was humming loudly, and the tense atmosphere was shattered with the soothing noises of music.
But, sadly, this comfort shattered, giving way to a tenser atmosphere when the doors to the bridge whooshed open.
With a startled yelp, Hunk jumped at least a foot into the air as Coran and Pidge simultaneously panicked and shut down their devices. Lance, eyebrows furrowed and the smallest of frowns on his face didn't startle quite as much as his friends, eyes flickering to see who came in.
Allura had a similar frown to Lance's on her face as she entered, footsteps measured and sure.
"I knew I'd find you three here," She stated flatly as she pointed a finger at Lance, then Pidge, and lastly Hunk. Then, her eyes narrowing, she jabbed the same finger at a sweating Coran, cocked a hip sassily, and added, "Your being here is a bit of a surprise."
Coran gulped, grinning sheepishly before Allura continued. "I know what you four are doing, and I am aware of what I said earlier. But..." She trailed off, sighing, and her head dropped slightly as she shook it. "Shiro will absolutely destroy me when he finds out I helped, but we all know the teladuv won't work without me directing it..." She trailed off again, hands clasped awkwardly before her.
"Alright paladins, listen, I'll tell Shiro we're going to that Galaxy to grab supplies. Find out what planet the Cruiser was most likely last on or near and I'll let you three try to find any other clues to where the ship could be now; I'll take Shiro to a different planet for supplies." Allura's voice was hesitant but left no room for argument. She stood stiffly, a thumb running over the back of the opposite hand.
The three paladins stared at the princess, surprise written clearly across their expressions.
Even Coran seemed shocked by her words, the room shifting to silence as Allura stopped talking.
"You all can't actually believe I'd be fine with sitting around doing nothing, right?" Allura questioned, seemingly going on the defensive and crossing her arms daintily with a slight pout.
Pidge and Lance shared another glance, Hunk shrugging meekly with a guilty look. With his own guilty expression, Coran chimed in, "With all due respect, princess, it's not like you reacted ever so... er, kindly , when Keith's Galra heritage was revealed."
At that, Allura's face flushed in embarrassment and she had enough dignity to keep her head high as she attempted to stammer a reply, before letting it tilt down shamefully. "I... Yes, I suppose you're right." She sighed, before looking up again determinedly, "But, my previous opinions aside, Keith has still worked hard for the Coalition, for us; I'd be a fool not to help in rescuing a warrior such as Keith."
Lance's eyes narrowed, but he said nothing, only crossing his arms over his chest firmly. Pidge and Coran silently turned their respective devices on, continuing to tap away at the screens to locate the former Black Paladin's last known location in the galaxy. Both Hunk and Allura trailed off and the room filled with silence once more.
No one dared break it.
I suppose they were all too caught up in thinking about this whole situation.
Perhaps they were even trying to think of what could have possibly happened to the former paladin.
Speaking of... Why don't I tell you about what's been going on with this captured paladin?
<~·~>
Nothing.
Literally nothing was going on with Keith.
He had been undercover, on a mission.
(On the mission, but that's not the point.)
Keith had been just fine , really!
But then , oh boy, then he wasn't. Keith had been undercover, with a Galran disguise and everything, simply doing as his orders directed: get the important information from the ship's database, escape, turn in the data and then relax until he had another mission.
Obviously , that's not how things went.
The ship Keith had been stationed on had originally been Druid-free, and Keith had been able to nestle a cozy little spot for himself among the high-ranking soldiers under the command of some lady referred to as "Commander Lyz'Wiq", (and no , Keith does not know how to properly pronounce that), but after gathering a large batch of intel, sending it to Blade Headquarters, and then deleting it from the Galran database records, "the mole" had to be found! And how was that going to be done?
Druids. Of all things.
Keith hadn't been very concerned; as one of the more high-ranking soldiers in the ship, he probably should've been able to get away with his work.
Apparently not.
Keith had been sent to the lead Druid, O'Zarg, for interrogation, and despite his preparation for all questions that may have been thrown at him, Keith had not been prepared for the blast of dark magic that had hit him, right smack in the face.
It hadn't been pleasant, getting smacked by magic, but Keith liked to think he was able to keep up a fine facade for a good amount of time, before the Druid had had enough and stripped Keith of his disguise, using more dark magic to completely demolish the spell of some type of magic potion Kolivan had somehow gotten from a witch or something. (Keith didn't ask, Kolivan didn't share.)
(Long story short, whatever had been in that potion had disguised Keith as a pure-blooded Galra and had altered his features to make sure his face couldn't be recognized in any way, but thanks to that dumb Druid, the spell had been forcefully washed off of his... aura, or something like that. Again, Keith didn't ask and Kolivan didn't share.)
And so, that leads us all here, Keith chained up and sitting in a dimly lit prison cell, all his weapons, and helpful devices now absent from where they should be on his person. He still had his armor, which was better than nothing, but besides that Keith was left alone to sit with only his thoughts to keep him company.
Keith wasn't able to keep track of how long he was in the cell, but based on how many times a pair of sentries or soldiers passed by his cell on patrol, Keith could assume it had been a while.
When his stomach gurgled in a show of hunger, Keith knew it had definitely been a long time.
Why they kept him there, without speaking with him or interrogating him for information on Voltron or the Blade, he didn't know, but it didn't take long for the constant buzzing of his handcuffs to begin irritating him. He knew from experience that trying to free himself without some sort of weapon or such would be futile, and even getting a weapon would be difficult with his wrists bound. Still, Keith knew sooner or later he'd have an opportunity, then he would try to free himself.
And hey, maybe if he was lucky, he'd succeed.
<~·~>
Keith was definitely not lucky.
At some point, about a trillion doboshes after Keith had first grown hungry, a soldier had shoved its way past the entrance to his prison cell. Keith could remember sharing a grimace with the soldier as the door squealed loudly, struggling to slide closed after their entrance. The soldier had eyed Keith, one look down to the tip of his toes and then back up to his mess of black hair, before (begrudgingly) trudging closer and dropping a tray at Keith's side. Keith's nose had wrinkled in distaste at the foul smell of what he assumed was a plate of nutrients, and the soldier seemed to want to voice their agreement.
Instead, the Galran kneeled at Keith's side, face extremely bored as they muttered, "Don't try anything, traitor." Then, with a simple click , one of Keith's hands was abruptly released from the cold grip of the cuffs and the buzzing sound lowered slightly. Keith could recall sighing in relief, flexing the muscles of his arm and stretching, blood flowing back through the appendage with pinpricks of pain, before he sent a flat stare to the guard and gestured to his other arm.
"Unless you want to hand-feed me this stuff, you may wanna get that other cuff off." He had grumbled, smirking at the expression of vague disgust that had flashed across the Galran's face.
Keith watched with the same amused (and half coy) smirk as the guard went through their options before they had kneeled again, the other cuff turning off with a second click . Keith would forever assume that Galra did not want to get anywhere near his mouth- Keith would’ve thought the same if faced with the option of getting a hand bitten or just letting the other hand go, to be honest.
The buzzing had gone silent, and the cell had been quiet. Just then, the Galran had seemed anxious, as if they'd known what Keith was going to do all along but hadn't actually expected the punch straight to their unguarded face.
With a literal roar, the guard reared back, large purple hands flying to their face as blue blood began trickling down a dog-like nose. Keith hadn’t spared a moment, thanking every god or goddess known that his ankles hadn’t been bound as he sprang to his feet and had made a mad dash for the door to the prison cell.
It took effort, but Keith was able to somehow make it fairly far from where he had been held, his suit keeping him somewhat disguised in the dimly lit corridors even in his hurried escape.
It took a bit more time than Keith had originally anticipated, but he eventually began hearing the shouts of soldiers searching for the escaped traitor of the Empire. With soldiers in pursuit, Keith was given little choice on where to go, most hallways he tried fleeing to soon overrun with sentries and soldiers, armed and aiming before Keith was able to duck into another corridor and run.
“ Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fu -” Keith chanted under his breath as he fled, eyes flickering around him rapidly as he came upon a fork in his path, one hall leading to a docking bay that would be no doubt filled with soldiers prepared to capture him once more. The other corridor was dark, darker than the rest of the ship Keith could safely assume, and from it, Keith got a bad feeling.
But, in the end, Keith didn’t have many options regarding where he should go.
So, with silent but hurried steps, the man followed the walls of his chosen corridor, holding his breath as he seemingly delved deeper and deeper into the Galran cruiser with every step.
Keith couldn’t have possibly known what awaited him at the end of that hall.
If he had, it was more probable he’d have headed towards the docking bay to see what faced him there, to see if he found himself a better result somehow.
But, if he had… Well, it was also probable Keith would’ve gotten result all the worse.
In the future, if Keith ever looks back on this memory though, I’m sure he would’ve decided to brave the battle in the docking bay than the nightmares of what happened at the end of the second hall.