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Part 2 of Rambling Headcanon Fics
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Published:
2018-09-01
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2018-09-11
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Colliding on a Backdrop of Blue

Summary:

Voltron au where there has been more than one previous paladin and where the souls of the previous paladins reside in their lions after death.

Usually the Paladin has to go through things before they see the previous paladins, has to prove to each of the other souls in the lions body that they are worthy of their lions. But the Blue Paladins are about love and affection, about loyalty and trust, about being open and caring, so Lance sees Blaytz as soon as he’s in Blue.

Notes:

This is a story wrapped up in a headcanon for an au so it's not really like a story in template? But people didn't seem to mind that with my Griffance headcanon and I'm hoping people won't mind it with this? It's all very stream of conscious.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1: the boy in blue

Chapter Text

Voltron au where there has been more than one previous paladin - lets say there have been seven for our purposes - and where the souls of the previous paladins reside in their lions after death. 

Usually the Paladin has to go through things before they see the previous paladins, has to prove to each of the other souls in the lions body that they are worthy of their lions. As they prove themselves, the other Paladins will reveal themselves in reverse order - the most recent Paladin first and then one by one until the first Paladin deems their new Paladin worthy.

But the Blue Paladins are about love and affection, about loyalty and trust, about being open and caring, and so Lance sees Blaytz as soon as he’s in Blue. It’s part of why he flies so badly that first time - because he doesn’t understand Blue’s controls and because there’s suddenly a large blue man in the cockpit with the rest of them. And that man is loud - whooping and cheering right in Lance's ear and talking about how great it feels to be flying in "his girl" again. 

Ezra, the sixth Paladin, shows up when Lance and Keith are plummeting towards the ground in the one training exercise. One minute Lance is alone, pushing the controls and grinding his teeth, the next there’s a pink woman - the same species that Ezor is a galran-half breed with -  leaning over him, hands wrapped around his on the controls, and a large excited grin on her face as she murmurs how this is her favorite exercise. 

Pellagia, a mer, comes to him first when he’s in the  healing pod. She runs her hands through his hair, holds him close, murmurs how good he is for protecting Coran and assures him that he will be okay, that he will wake up. There's a softness about her, a kindness in her words, but she holds herself in a way that reminds Lance fiercely of his mother and he knows, instinctively, that she is stronger than she lets on. 

Lance doesn't realize that it's strange for him to have proved himself to three of his Paladins so early on in their journey, not until he mentions Pellagia to Hunk on the Frozen planet. It's there that he discovers that Gyrgan didn't reveal himself to Hunk until after their time on Balmera. It's after they all meet again that he finds out that Pidge didn't see Trigel until after she told them she was a girl, until after she had proven she belonged in her lion and made her choice to stay. It's after they all meet again that he finds out that Alfor revealed himself to Keith right away, but that Alfor has also told Keith it will be a long time before Keith sees any of the Red Lion's other Paladins. It's after they all meet again that Lance learns that Shiro hadn't seen any of the former Black Paladins until their separation, though they all chalk that up to Shiro having to impress the man who came before Zarkon rather than the most recent Paladin. 

 

 

For a long, the three of them are the only ones Lance sees and Lance isn't really upset about that because he enjoys their company.

They come to Lance in and out of his Lion, but Lance takes to spending time in his Lion because it is where their presence is the strongest.

He enjoys the stories Blaytz tells about the lovers he had in his life when they’re sitting in Blues cockpit, enjoys the way that Blaytz seems to follow him when they visit new planets and gives Lance tips on flirting with people on this planet, enjoys the way that Blaytz takes so much joy in being around the people on every planet.

He enjoys the stories that Ezra tells about her Red Paladin - someone who she had a rivalry with as strong as Lance’s with Keith and who she grew to love deeply, enjoys the way that she’s constantly shifting and dancing and bending because sitting still feels as wrong to her as it does to him, enjoys the way she lights up with excitement and hovers over his shoulder every time he does something daring - be it while flying or walking around a Galran base.

He enjoys Pellagia’s reassuring voice, enjoys the way she mothers him and praises him, enjoys her hugs and the soft kisses she presses against his hair when he’s done something dangerous and she’s happy he’s safe, happy he’s not joining in them in the afterlife. He enjoys the moments when she sits with him in Blue's cockpit and tells him about her home planet, stories that always remind Lance of Cuba and Varadero Beach. 

They are all so different, but they are also so similar.

Allura may not have ever gotten to finish her speech about the Lions and their Paladins, but Lance does not need her to because he is surrounded by Blue’s Paladins and he knows what brings them together. They are passionate and excited, they are loyal and friendly, they are open and charismatic and emotional. They don’t fear getting close to new people or giving people chances to prove themselves. They create bonds with people and consider those bonds to be a gift, a treasure. 

The Blue Paladin is the heart of Voltron.

And Lance sits in the Blue Lion with the other Blue Paladins, knowing that he was always meant to be the eighth. 

Chapter 2: blue is ours, ours is blue

Chapter Text

They defeat Zarkon, but they lose Shiro. 

Lance tries to keep everyone’s spirits up, but Keith misses his brother and it makes him angry and snappish. Lance tries to keep everyone’s spirits up, but Pidge feels like she’s lost a second brother and she throws herself into trying to get Matt and her father back with a single-minded determinedness. Lance tries to keep everyone’s spirits up, but Allura is cracking under the pressure of leading them without Shiro by her side to help. Lance tries to keep everyone’s spirits up, but everyone else is falling apart and it’s making Hunk anxious and unhappy and nauseous. 

Trying to keep his team together is difficult, but Lance is the Blue Paladin, the heart of Voltron, and he will not let them fall apart.

Lance spars with Keith when he’s not out trying to find Shiro, lets Keith take his anger out on him so that he doesn’t take it out on one of the others. He drags Pidge out of her work spirals, ignores the harsh words that she spits out in response, and locks her in her room without her laptop so she’ll get some sleep. He ignores the looks Allura gives him for bothering her in favor of forcing her to sit down, to let him run soft fingers through her hair and braid it until her shoulders have loosened and the knots in her spine have faded. He ignores how unhappy Hunk is when someone watches him fall apart in favor of hovering so that he can remind Hunk how amazing he is and how much he loves him. 

It’s hard work and sometimes what they say to him hurts, but Lance does his best to brush it off. It helps that when it all feels like too much he can go to Blue and spend time with the other Blue Paladins. It helps that when Keith’s left him bruised and bleeding, Pellagia is there to run ghostly fingers against his wounds and cluck his tongue and force him to use his first aid kit instead of letting them sit. It helps that when Pidge has snapped at him too harshly or Hunk shies away from his touch, Ezra is there are his shoulder to remind him that they are only upset and that he is their best friend and that he is doing all of this to help them and one day they’ll appreciate it even if they don’t appreciate it now. It helps that when Allura’s glares have been especially deadly and she’s been especially rude in declining his friendly touches, Blaytz is there to smooth his palms over Lance’s shoulders and rest his chin on Lance’s head and press affectionate kisses against his face as he reminds Lance that there is nothing wrong with being physically affectionate and reminds him that Allura doesn’t find him repulsive or disgusting, she’s just touch-starved from ten thousand years in a cyropod and too stressed out to enjoy Lance dragging her from her work for relaxation. 

Lance keeps his team from falling apart. 

The previous Blue Paladins keep Lance from falling apart. 

 

 

Voltron becomes necessary which means they have to swap Lions. 

Maybe in some universe, Lance would sit down in the Black Lion and want it. In this universe, Lance sits in the Black Lion and knows that he can not have it. 

Voltron’s heart and head can not be the same person. It’s not bad to think with your heart, but Voltron’s mission is deadly and sometimes one has to remove feelings from the equation and Lance knows that he can not do that. A Blue Paladin is a good right hand, but they can never be Voltron’s leader. 

Lance knowing that he can’t have it, Lance being comfortable in his role and place in Voltron, doesn’t mean that Shiro, trapped in his Lion and floating with the souls of her previous Paladins knows it. 

And Shiro feels something spark inside of him when Lance sits in that chair. He feels Lance’s dedication and his loyalty and his warmth. Shiro might have said Keith should take control, but feeling the way Lance is makes him second guess himself.

Shiro reaches out for him, wishing for Black to light up, but before his hand can touch Lance, Black’s first Paladin is reaching for him and pulling him back. 

Not the Blue one, Imsy tells him. Black’s first Paladin is a tiny thing, comes only to Shiro’s waist, but there’s a strength in her shoulders and responsibility in the lines of her face.  The Blue Paladins is our heart. They have been our best friends, our confidants, our siblings, and our lovers. But they can not be our replacement. A Blue Paladin in our Lion would break under their decisions. 

Shiro does not agree, but Imsy has spent a millennia with Black - either as her pilot or as a guide for the others - and Shiro knows not to argue. He quiets. 

And when Keith steps into Black and the others murmur their agreement to Black, accepting Shiro’s first choice, Shiro finds himself unsure if he agrees with them. 

He finds himself unsure if Keith can do this, if Keith is really the best choice. 

His existence is wrapped so deeply in Black that Shiro wouldn’t be able to reveal himself to Keith anyway, but he finds himself thinking that even if he could he wouldn’t. 

 

 

Blue’s Paladins hear their Lion whispering to Red. And for most of the conversation they aren’t quite sure what’s going on. 

When they do figure it out though, anger erupts inside all three of them. 

Lance is theirs. They will not give him to the Red Lion, they will not allow Blue to give him up. 

Lance won’t know it, but as Blaytz, Pellagia, and Ezra argue with their host the fourth Paladin appears beside them. Ys’ea’s voice joins their chorus. Their people are musical in their nature and when they argue their voice sounds like the pounding of war drums and violins that have struck a wrong note. They have not met Lance them self, but they have been watching as the boy held it together for his team and they know that this boy is worthy of them. They know that this boy is all of theirs and they will not let their Lion tear Lance from them so easily. 

Still, the Paladins are subject to the will of their Lion and Blue chooses to ignore them. They can do nothing as she raises her barrier, as she refuses to let him in. 

Oephips, the third Paladin, appears as Lance rests his hands and forehead against the barrier and asks why Blue is rejecting him with a broken voice. His skin tone shifts with his mood and now his skin is a mesh of angry orange-red and sad blue-purple. He kneels on the inside of the barrier, presses his forehead against the space where Lance’s rests and his three fingers against the space where Lance’s fists rest. He is angry that Blue would take this boy who embodies all that they are mean to be and give him to another Lion. He is sad that Blue, his lovely lovely Blue who had shown Oephips an entire world outside of his tiny planet, would make this boy feel so unhappy and unwanted. 

Blue does not lower the barrier. 

The Red Lion roars and roars until Lance finally pulls away, until he does what a good Blue Paladin does and buries his own feelings in favor of the choice that will help the team, that will keep his fellow Paladins safe.

 

 

The Blue Paladins are about love and affection, about being open and caring. But they are also about trust and loyalty.

Blue has broken their trust by locking them out, by locking Lance out, and their loyalty is to the boy that Blue has taken away from them. 

Every single one of them refuses to appear for Allura. 

Chapter 3: watching waves

Chapter Text

When the boy comes into his lion, Alfor prepares himself to greet him immediately. This boy has been a Paladin for months now, for one of the humans years, and while he might not have proved himself a Red Paladin, he had proved himself a Paladin and he deserves to see Alfor. 

It comes as a surprise when he can’t manifest. 

He tries a few times, pushing himself against the barrier that separates the present from the spirit world where the Red Paladins reside, then Red whispers to him, voice a quiet rumble. 

Mine, she says. Mine, not yours. Never yours. 

It’s enough for Alfor to give up his attempts, but he didn’t understand what she meant.

He figures it out a few days after the switch, a few days after watching this boy in the cockpit of Red and spying on him through the lingering traces of his bond with Keith. 

Lance is Red’s pilot, is the Paladin of the Red Lion, but he is not a Red Paladin. He could be. Oh, he could he be. He’s passionate and fierce, a force to be reckoned with. He’s smart and strategic. He thinks at times and he acts at others. 

He is all the things that Keith is, that Alfor and the rest of the Paladins are, but in a way different than Keith. In the same way that Alfor differs from Keith and the way Alfor himself differs from his predecessor. They are all the same, but they are all also different. There is no comparison between them, no one that is better than the other only one that fits this time more than the last. 

But Lance, Alfor realizes, does not want to be one of them. Alfor can not show himself to Lance because Lance does not want Alfor to show himself, because Lance is piloting Red but he is drenched in Blue. He treasures what makes him a Blue Paladin, treasures the bonds he made with the souls that reside in the ice Lion. 

He could be one of them, but Lance is a Blue Paladin and his loyalty is a fierce unbreakable thing. 

Sometimes Alfor watches him and feels close to mourning that. Because Keith is special to him, special to all of them, but Lance would be such a good Red Paladin if only he would choose to be. 

 

 

Allura spends a great deal of time in the Blue Lion. Nowhere near enough as Lance had, but enough time that she begins to feel upset when  her bond with the Lion grows and her previous Paladins never show themselves to her. She knows that despite Keith’s initial struggle with taking the Black Lion, the Paladin who came before Zarkon had appeared to him. She knows that Lance hasn’t seen any of the Red Paladins, but Lance clearly isn’t trying to see them and clearly doesn’t care that he can’t. 

She does not understand why she isn’t good enough for them. 

Not until the day when Lance dies. 

Because that day Allura screams and there are six voices screaming with her. 

She does not know it then, but this is the moment when Blue’s second Paladin appears for Lance. This is the moment when Vlimsea, who comes from a race of shape-shifters and whose body and voice was as fluid as the sea itself, decides they have had enough. Vlimsea appears and they scream, because this boy is theirs. He is one of them, drenched in Blue. The Blue Lion has already torn this boy from them, they will not let death take him further from them. 

Allura feels a clicker of surprise and joy when she realizes she is not the only one in her Lion, when she realizes that after all of her attempts she has finally unlocked the ability to see the ones who came before her. She feels pride when she spots them, when she realizes that six of the previous Paladins are there. 

Then she sees that they are not looking at her, they are looking through the blue Lions eyes and focusing on the Red Lion. They are not concerned with her, but completely absorbed in the boy that they can not see. 

Allura hurries, knowing that she must unbuckle herself and make her way to the Red Lion quickly if she wants to save her friend, but she can not help the disappointment that consumes her being. 

She has spent her entire life wanting to follow in her father’s footsteps, has spent her entire life wanting to be a Paladin. She was a little disappointed when Blue responded to her instead of Red, but it had still been one of the best days of her lives, had still been a dream come true. 

Now she knows better. 

Now she knows that while she pilots Blue and while Blue has accepted her as her Paladin, Allura will never be a Paladin the way the others are. Allura is Blue’s Paladin, but she is not a Blue Paladin. 

Chapter 4: blue heart

Chapter Text

The current Paladins are floating in dead space. The previous Paladins are in their Lions, hearing the current Paladins call for them. The calls aren’t necessarily a conscious request, so much as a quiet hidden thing that comes with loving their lions, with trusting their lions to save them. They do not know the power they have, do not know that their voices echo through empty cockpits, but they know that their Lions love them and it is enough for their subconscious to call to them. 

The Blue Paladins hear two voices echo through their spiritual plane. There is Allura’s voice, a quiet intrusion to their world. She calls for Blue directly, resigned to her place in their history. 

Lance’s voice is louder, clearer. It is not an intrusion as Lance is part of this world as much as any of the previous Paladins, as there is already a part of Lance’s spirit which resides with the rest of them. He calls for Blue and Red in equal measure, but his calls for Blue are the ones that ring true. His calls for Red are a second thought, a measure taken only because there’s a doubt in his soul that Blue would come for him, a doubt that Blue still loves him or that he can trust her the way he used to. He calls for the three of Blue Paladins that he had a change to bond with, asking for them to safe him by name. He calls for the three that he had only glimpsed, though in a less direct way. There is no bond tying them together, but there is part of Lance that had seen them throw themselves against their Lion and knows they will come for him, knows that all three of them have accepted him as one of them just as the three he knows have. 

 

 

Blue will come from her Paladins, but she can not fly herself. 

Pellagia slips into the cockpit. They will not doom Allura to a death in space just because she isn’t one of them, but Pellagia is the only one of them who can stomach the idea of saving her over Lance. 

She flies unimpeded for most of the journey. Her hands, transparent as they are, are gentle on Blue’s controls in the same way that Pellagia is gentle, soft in everything she does. As they grow closer, though, she feels a flicker of something. Another presence hovering over her own. There is someone else sitting in the seat with her and holding the controls, someone whose presence is heavy and overbearing, someone strong enough to overpower her even here in her home. 

As the presence grows and takes over, a voice echoes through the cockpit. 

Lance, it whispers insistently. The controls shift, Blue heads towards Lance instead of Allura. Lance, Lance, Lance. 

Then Red darts past Blue, roaring at the current Paladins and Blue all at once as she dives for Lance. Blue roars internally, anger directed at her previous Paladins. The presence fades under the sound, Blue forcing them to retreat. 

Blue and Paladins pick up Allura. 

Red picks up Lance. 

 

 

Blue’s Paladins sit in her cockpit, worry filling them all. The Lions - and their previous Paladins along with them - have been left on some planet in the current Paladins’ solar system while they return to their own planet. 

Blue’s Paladins do not like the situation. They’ve already been torn from Lance. Now they’re so far away that they can’t use Allura to watch over him. They do not like being this far from him. It does not sit well with them. 

When the Paladins call for their lions a second time, their calls louder as they’re aware of their power and wielding it consciously now, tension skyrockets in the Blue Lion. 

There is a moment of uncertainty among the Blue Paladins, a moment where every one of them is consumed by worry for Lance and the knowledge that it is not Lance they will be going to help. 

It is in this moment of hesitation that the presence from before fills the room. 

For a moment it’s suffocating, so powerful it’s all encompassing. 

When it fades there is a spirit sitting in Blue’s pilot seat. 

Soest looks more like Lance than any of the rest of them, humanoid in nature, though he’s built slimmer in the hips and shoulders and shorter in body, not quite as broad as the current Blue Paladin. He’s paler too, skin so translucent that in the light of Blue’s cockpit one can see the pale blue fluid that shifts in his body. His eyes are a shade of Blue that is so light that it’s unnatural in humans, icy and cold. His hair is a shade somewhere between black and navy blue, light showing off it’s color, and he wears a headband to keep it pushed back, much the way that the current yellow Paladin does. 

Soest embodies their Lion more than any of the rest of them because it is Soest and his power, the magic his people carry, that has stamped itself all over their Lion. It is Soest’s ideals and heart that have given the Blue Paladins their role.

No, Soest says, voice rushing over all the previous Paladins and Blue herself like waves crashing against cliffs. In their plane, when it is just them, he sounds more like Lance, a little lower pitched and words a little smoother, but now he is truly angry and his power crashes through them all. Lance is ours, Blue, and we will go to him. We are loyal to him. I will not ignore him in favor of some little girl.

There’s a feeling of mild anger and discontent rolling through the cockpit, but Soest growls, the sound so much like the grumble of an ocean in a deep storm, and Blue lights up for him, gives way to his wishes. 

Blue has a mind of her own, but is Soest who gave her that mind. Soest is her first Paladin and he rests in every crevice of her. She will not argue with him when he stands firm like this. 

 

 

Blue takes off, darting towards her Paladin. 

It’s not until they near Earth and need to head in different directions that the other Lions catch on to whats going on. 

Their understanding is signified by a roaring from Red, the Lion speeding up as she tries to dart past Blue. 

But Soest is at Blue’s controls and he’s not afraid to roar back, his power and hers twining together. The Blue Paladins do not know who is flying Red, but it’s certainly not one of Soest’s comrades as the Lion slips back under the command, listening to Soest and Blue in a way that the Red Lion never would if piloted by someone more powerful. 

Blue darts past. 

She lands in front of Lance, letting out a loud roar to catch his attention. She may have abandoned him before, and she may have accepted Allura, and it may have taken Soest’s intervention for her to realize her error, but the pleasure and happiness in her roar is enough for her previous Paladins to waver in their anger. 

Blue may have given Lance up, but it was never because she stopped loving him. He is hers, just like the rest of them were before. 

And he stares at her for a long time, disbelief in his eyes, before a smile overcomes his features. 

When Blue scoops him up and Lance enters the cockpit, he finds all seven of the previous Paladins waiting for him. Soest has lifted out of the pilot’s seat, opening it for Lance.

He stands in front of the others, smiling at Lance and gesturing to the pilot’s seat. 

“Well, come on,” Soest beckons Lance, voice falling back to it’s normal tone now that he’s done commanding their Lion. “You have things to do, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Lance answers, nodding. He pushes past his surprise, moving into the chair as indicated. There’s a moment where he stops, enjoying the feeling of being in the proper Lion for the first time in so long. Then he takes a deep breath and sets his hands on Blue’s controls as he calls out to his team, “Blue Lion checking in!”

There’s a roar over the comms as the other Paladins react, surprised to hear Lance’s voice, and as they try to figure things out because with Blue haven taken Lance, Red has taken the chance to reclaim Keith and Black seems to be heading towards Shiro which means Black will be lagging behind the rest, but none of the Paladins in Blue can bring themselves to care for the chaos. 

They are Blue Paladins. 

They are loyal and trusting, passionate and affectionate, loving and warm. 

They are Voltron’s heart and, for the first time in ages, Voltron’s heart is whole. 

Notes:

I have lots of ideas for this au but I'm kinda unsure if anyone would even want me to write more of this, so feedback appreciated!!

Series this work belongs to: