Chapter Text
“I’m just saying, if you pulled back like this your turns would be smoother-”
“And I’m just saying that if you don’t back off, I’ll drop you into the abyss of space and leave you there,” Lance bites out between her teeth, nails digging into the handles.
They were approaching hour three of flying aimlessly in space looking for the Green Lion and Lance was ready to strangle Keith with her bare hands, epic destinies be damned.
He hasn’t stopped trying to backseat-pilot her since they all clamored back into a freshly cleaned Blue Lion. He’d take breaks whenever Shiro told him to knock it off, but then Lance would do something that irked him, and he’d be right back to it a few minutes later.
She’d barely done anything more than fly in a straight line for god's sake! What a joke.
It was driving her more insane than the simulator.
Keith crosses his arms, squinting down at her, “I doubt that. You’re arrogant but you aren’t heartless .”
“I don’t think you know me well enough to say what I am and am not capable of doing.” Lance glares at him through her bangs.
“Keith, would you just knock it off?” Pidge snaps from where he’s curled under the control panel with his computer, tapping away at something. Lance isn’t really sure what he’s doing considering he doesn’t have Wi-Fi, but at this point? She knows better than to ask. “You’re being a helicopter parent.”
Hunk nods vigorously from where he’s sat crossed legged next to Lance’s chair between her and Pidge. He’d been bouncing back and forth between the two in conversations as he fiddles with the improved Geiger Counter Coran helped him build before Keith started on his latest annoyance.
Lance shoots him a smug look that has Keith bristling. “I’m just trying to help.”
“No, you’re trying to pilot,” Lance corrects, tilting her head towards him disdainfully. “A skill, by the way, that I am perfectly capable of doing myself.”
“Forgive me for doubting that when you’ve apparently crashed every simulator you’ve stepped foot in.”
“She’s not that bad,” Hunk defends, and Lance gently presses her shin further into his side as a thank you.
“Yeah, the simulators barely count anyway. They’re completely different from a real plane,” she waves her hand as if to wave away Keith’s opinion.
If only it were that easy.
“Completely different-” Keith starts before scoffing, “Have you ever even been in a real plane?”
“Of course, I have! I grew up flying them, asshole!” Lance shouts and, apparently, swearing is Shiro’s breaking point because he stops rubbing his temples and physically gets in between the two of them.
“Both of you, knock it off!” Lance opens her mouth to protest but Shiro silences her with a glare. She turns away angrily. “Keith, come on. You and I are going to have a talk.” He then all but drags Keith off towards the small storage room in Blue’s chest, presumably.
The second the door closes behind them Lance shoves herself to her feet, letting Blue take control so she can punch the back of her chair with a strangled yell.
Hunk and Pidge jumped at the sudden movement and her apparent anger while Blue chitters anxiously in her mind.
Lance ignores all three of them as she paces the small space in the cockpit, feeling not unlike a caged animal.
“¿Cuál es su problema? It’s not good enough he was better than me at the Garrison so now he has to shove it down my throat here? In my own damn Lion? ¡Qué mierda! ¿Quién se cree que es?”
Lance would punch a wall if it wouldn’t break her hand.
“I’m sure that’s not what he meant,” Hunk tries placating her and it might’ve worked had she not been getting every button she has, pressed since they left the castle.
“It doesn’t matter if he meant it or not! What right does he have to tell me what to do? I’m the one with the Lion! I’m the only one fully bonded yet! And he acts like I’m beneath him and I’m sick of it! God,” Lance stops in the middle of the room, hugging herself, hands gripping tightly at the fake leather of her jacket. “It’d be better if he went back to not knowing who the hell I was.”
Pidge stares at her with unreadable eyes. “Why do you let him get to you so much?”
“I don’t!” Lance snaps. Pidge gives her a blank look and Lance tugs the ends of her hair. “Okay, so maybe I do. Un poco. He just-” Lance waves her hands in a way that could mean anything before making a gesture not unlike strangling someone accompanied by a low growling sound.
Pidge shakes his head at her before returning to his computer. “Just ignore him. He’s not worth it.”
Hunk’s looking between the two of them, a thoughtful expression on his face that makes Lance curious as to what he’s thinking.
Lance lets out a breath, shoulders drooping. She walks over to Hunk and falls into his lap. He moves his counter out of the way just before she lands on it and tuts at her. “I can’t just ignore him. He’s so stupid I have to correct him or it’ll bug me, ya know?” She looks at Pidge upside down, her head resting on Hunk’s thigh.
Pidge gives her a wry look. “Oh, I know the feeling.”
“Hey!” Lance whines, swatting at the small boy. “You’re supposed to be on my side!”
“Oh? Is that so?” he asks disinterested but Lance answers him anyway.
“Of course, you’re supposed to be on my side! I was your friend first.” Pidge pauses in his typing to look at her, something like surprise on his face. It’s gone a second later so Lance continues as if nothing happened. “And the like, third rule of the bro code is that senior bro-ship reigns supreme. You have to take a bro’s side over a hoe’s.”
Hunk peers down at her, a smile fighting its way onto his face. “Does that make Keith the hoe?”
“¿En serio? Of course, it does,” Lance says in a tone that conveys exactly how obvious it was. Which is very.
The smile Hunk was holding breaks out over his face and Pidge starts laughing, Lance joining in a second later. The three are still laughing when Shiro and Keith come back into the cockpit, though Lance has moved on to making fun of his mullet and fashion sense along with Pidge while Hunk makes honestly atrocious puns.
Lance is red in the face and still sprawled across Hunks lap, but now Pidge is leaning against her shoulder in order to stay upright. Shiro looks at them in surprise that quickly shifts to happiness while Keith narrows his eyes. He’s doing the face Pidge had made fun of not two minutes ago and it sends the pair howling again.
She’s still smiling when she sits back in the pilot’s seat, leaning over her armrest to continue talking to Hunk and Pidge, with the occasional comment from Shiro. The rest of the trip is smoother after that, the air more relaxed.
It’s not much, but it’s the first bit of hope that Lance finds to prove they might be able to be an actual team.
***
Katie didn’t really interact with people much. Didn’t really like them, either. There were too many variables for them. People were too unpredictable, too cruel, for her tastes.
When Katie had first met Lance and Hunk, she never expected to actually like them.
And to be perfectly honest, when she first met them, she thought Lance was nothing but a vain, self-obsessed, hotshot pilot who thought herself better than others and that Hunk was too nice for his own good. First impressions told her that the both of them were idiots just like the rest of the population and she hadn’t bothered looking closer.
To be fair, Katie was a prodigy. A genius born into a family of them, everyone was an idiot compared to her. She built an engine by herself at age five, built her first circuit board at six and coded a fully functioning AI by seven. She thinks she can be forgiven for taking most people at face value.
(It's technology that’s interesting anyway.)
But as she sat in the Blue Lion, laughing along with the two of them, joking and fooling around as they flew through space, she was faced with the conclusion that she was very, very wrong about them.
She’d gotten hints about it at the Garrison—how Lance was obnoxiously friendly to everyone and Hunk consistently showed up in all her advanced classes, cheerfully sat at her side. But it only really started to click up on the rooftop, when Lance listened and trusted her and went along with her schemes and theories, HUnk not a step behind.
And then, in the Bridge, they were both the first to pledge themselves to this war. Seemingly for little more reason than they wanted to help and stay together.
Even Katie had a more selfish reason than that.
It’s a strange feeling, being so wrong about something.
When Lance declared them friends like it was common knowledge, like it was obvious, it startled Katie. Unexpected… but not unwelcome.
She didn’t have a lot of friends—or any really. She’s always been too smart for the other kids, too fast for them to keep up with. It’d been like that since she could talk, practically skipping the learning phase of speech and heading straight for complex sentences.
She really only had Matt growing up.
And now he’s missing…
Katie shoves the thought away violently. She’s going to find him. Both of them. She knows they’re out here now. It doesn’t matter how long it will take to find them because she will.
She’s a genius, she’ll find a way.
She always does.
***
“Lance, wait!” Hunk interrupts her retelling of The Bubble Bath Incident involving Sabre, Mace, and a public fountain. The story has Pidge making the funniest faces while Shiro looks on vaguely disapproving.
Hunk’s tone makes her pause, and she lightly pulls Blue to a stop.
“What is it, sugar pop?” Lance asks cheerfully, putting her feet back on the floor from where they had been tucked underneath her. Pidge rolls his eyes at her so Lance sticks her tongue out.
Hunk is staring down at the counter in his hand, “I think we’re getting close.” Pidge sits up straighter in response.
Lance nods at her friend and coaxes Blue into a slow turn, scanning the space around them for anywhere the Lion could be hiding. A little green planet fills the monitor and Lance stops.
Pidge leans over the console as if getting closer to the screen will help him see better. Lance looks at him in amusement. “Think you could pull a zoom and enhance on that one, Blue?” Lance asks as she flies towards the planet. A second later a screen pops up in front of Pidge’s face. The younger paladin eagerly scrolls through the screen but doesn't thank her. Not that Lance expected him to, anyway.
“Thanks, Blue!” Lance calls cheerfully before a thought occurs to her and she’s wide-eyed. “Actually, you know what? I never even asked your name. Like, that is so rude of me, I can’t believe myself.”
Lance waits patiently for her Lion to speak. Introductions are way overdue and god she feels horrible now. What would her mamá say?
“I have no name,” her Lion says confused, “I am simply the Blue Lion.”
The sentence pulls Lance up short.
“What do you mean you don’t have a name?” she demands.
“I have never been formally named. My paladins have given me many over the years, but I never kept them after they passed. For now, I remain Nameless.”
Lance thinks that’s very sad and wonders how many names she’d been given then lost. She wonders how many Paladins she’s chosen then lost.
“You have given me many names so far. Will you choose one eventually?”
“Hmm?” Lance hums in confusion. “Oh, those aren’t names. They’re nicknames! Fun names you give to your friends or people you like. We need to give you a real name.”
Lance taps her chin thoughtfully as they descend through the atmosphere.
Something that makes sense for her Lion. She cycles through a few in her head but none of them feel right.
Ariel isn’t regal enough, Marina’s too human, Siren is just- No. Just no.
“Hunk!” she exclaims and watches him jump. “What do you think we should name, Blue?”
“‘We’?” Hunk asks, expression confused.
“Duh, ‘we.’ We’ll be like her parents!” Lance tells him matter-of-factly. To his credit Hunk only looks mildly concerned at being appointed father of a cat-shaped warship.
Lance ignores Blue when she reminds her that she’s, in fact, thousands of years older than her. Lance is still wrapping her head around that particular tidbit.
“What kind of name are you looking for?”
“Something that relates to water or blue.”
He tilts his head back to look at the ceiling. “Uh, what about… Cleo, like Cleopatra. Queen of the Nile?” Lance thinks about it but shakes her head. “Or, Sapphire, the gem. Cascade, Ophelia, Lana.” More headshakes. None of them sound right. “Um… Azura? That’s French I think.”
That one makes Lance pause.
“Azura,” she tries the name on her tongue.
She likes that one. It reminds her of Francisca. Her Lion reminded her of Francisca actually.
“Yeah. Hey, what do you think about Azura?” she asks.
Lance gets the impression that Blue is tilting her head. “It is one of the nicer names I have received. And it sounds regal. I like it.”
Lance beams. “She loves it. Thanks, Hunk!”
“Oh. You’re welcome, I guess.”
***
The planet reminds Katie of pictures of the Amazon rainforest. Tall trees and giant flowers and everything covered in a thousand shades of green. Giant butterflies fly around them, and she can hear the sound of animals scurrying in the undergrowth.
It’s pretty. In a natural sort of way, she supposes. But too humid. And hot. And bright. And-
“So, Pidgeon,” Lance says when they exit the newly dubbed Azura, hands on the curve of her hips. “Which way to your Lion?
Katie looks up at the Cuban to her right, nose scrunched up in displeasure. The taller is standing right in front of the sun, forcing her to squint. “How am I supposed to know? Hunk has the Giger Counter.”
Lance tilts her head to the side, chestnut hair gleaming in the midday light as it lights up behind her like a halo. Her brows furrow in confusion. “Can’t you feel her? Azura says we should be close enough.”
“Excuse me?” The younger girl responds flatly.
The taller heaves a full-body sigh and mumbles something in Spanish Katie doesn’t really catch. “You should feel a pull. Mine was right here,” Lance taps right over her heart. “Azura says yours will probably be somewhere else because of symbolism or something. But it feels like something tugging you somewhere or calling out to you.”
Katie looks up at her, expression flat. “That is so vague. What the hell am I supposed to do with that?”
‘Feel a pull’? What the hell is that? Give her something concrete to work with, Lance.
Lance looks down at her disapprovingly, lips pursed like her mom does sometimes. “Can you just try first?”
Katie groans and closes her eyes pointedly, trying to find the sensation that Lance had described. She stands there for a moment and is about to open her eyes and tell Lance she’s insane when a tugging at the base of her skull catches her attention.
Her hand flies up to the spot, thinking maybe Lance had tugged at her hair there to tease her, but the only thing under her hand is her skull. Her eyes snap open in surprise and still, the tugging sensation continues, more insistent now.
As if it knows she noticed it.
She looks up at Lance who’s wearing a smug expression.
“Shut up,” Katie snaps, petulantly as she stalks off in a direction she knows will lead to her Lion, but not sure how she knows. It drives her crazy.
“I didn’t even say anything, Pidgeon!” Lance calls, voice too light to be truly offended. She can hear Hunk chuckling, probably at Lance.
***
The team finds itself cramped together in a canoe, merrily floating down a stream with an alien sloth creature slowly paddling them closer towards the Green Lion.
Katie’s squished between Hunk and Lance, the latter leaning so far over the edge of the boat, Hunk’s arm is wrapped behind Katie to hold onto the back of her shirt so she doesn’t fall in. Lance is splashing and playing in the water, occasionally flicking it at Keith’s back and then pretending to be innocent when he whips around to glare at her.
Katie started chewing on her nails five minutes ago and has pulled her knees up to her chest in the last two. She feels nervous and jittery, so she’s been reciting the table of elements in her head to calm down. She must’ve started muttering out loud at some point because Shiro turns around to look at her in concern.
“Are you okay?” he asks.
Lance stops splashing in the water and then everyone’s staring at her. It makes her feel small and she hates it. Katie curls further towards her knees.
“I just-” Katie takes a deep breath before spilling everything she’s worrying about. Well, not everything, but the safe stuff to tell at least. “I know Allura said this was supposed to be my Lion but what if she’s wrong? I mean, she probably isn’t wrong, but what if I’m not actually meant to be the Green Paladin? What if I find her and she doesn’t like me? What if she realizes I’m not what she wanted? Like, I’m not even a pilot! I’m a scientist, a scholar. I’m not supposed to be in the field! And how am I supposed to fly her? The Blue Lion doesn’t even have pedals so Green probably doesn’t either! And-”
“Pidge!” Surprisingly it’s who Keith cuts through her rambling. His eyebrows are drawn together in worry, and his mouth is pulling down at the corners. “You need to breathe.”
Lance places a hand on her back, rubbing in soothing circles. “You’re rambling,” she points out the obvious.
Katie shrugs non committedly and the team lulls into silence, unsure how to comfort her.
“'If you get too worried about what could go wrong, you might miss a chance to do something great,'” Shiro says out of nowhere.
Katie’s head shoots up to look at him but he’s staring off over her shoulder. Those are her father’s words. Is this… Does he… does Shiro recognize her? It’s been years since she’s seen him, and she’s changed a lot.
“A wise man used to say that. A good man.”
The canoe stops, beaching itself on the sand before anyone can say anything else.
Katie’s gaze is pulled towards the Temple standing before her. It’s huge and reminds her of the old Inca ruins, only this one is covered in giant vines, breaking the stone steps and overtaking the structure completely.
She looks back at the four people around her, each one is giving her encouraging grins. Besides Keith, at least. It’s hard to read him, but he’s giving off a supportive vibe. She thinks.
“Go, be great,” Shiro urges, a smile lighting up his face.
“Yeah, knock ‘em dead, Pidgeon,” Lance adds in, knocking their shoulders together lightly.
“You’ll be fine,” Hunk assures.
Keith doesn’t say anything, but he does tilt his head towards the temple in silent encouragement. It’s enough.
Katie feels a small smile spread across her face and stands. “Okay. Yeah.” With one last glance at them, she runs towards the temple’s top, following the pull at the base of her skull. Following the pull of her destiny, of what led her here.
She’s going to be great.
***
Lance watches with bated breath as Pidge climbs the temple steps, jumping over vines nimbly and ducking under others. When he reaches the top Lance feels her breath stop, Pidge stands there, turning in circles as if waiting for something.
Then he looks down and the temple erupts into a brilliant green glow.
Lance feels Azura’s anticipation like her own. The excitement so thick it’s almost tangible in the air around her.
She watches as Pidge jumps down between a few vines, disappearing from sight and giving her and the others a heart attack. Shiro is ready to storm up the steps when Lance grabs his arm. The galra one, she realizes distantly.
A tentative feeling at the edge of her senses catches her attention. It reminds her of the feeling of a word on the tip of your tongue, of a memory tickling at the back of her mind.
Her face is scrunched up in thought as she tries to figure out what it is but then it suddenly bursts outwards in her mind.
She’s stunned by the force of it, bright and green and overflowing with so much curiosity and hunger and something uniquely Pidge, it knocks the breath out of her. It ties itself to her, anchors itself right in her chest next to Azura and pulls taught like a wire. It hums, vibrating so quickly Lance is almost scared it will snap just after it formed.
It’s filled with so much energy and excitement and joy that Lance can’t help the laugh bubbling up her throat. She knows, deep in her bones, that the action was mirrored by Pidge, where the girl had found her Lion.
And isn’t that a twist, Lance thinks, that Pidge has been a girl the whole time.
“Pidge is fine,” Lance tells them when the trio looks at her worriedly, probably concerned at how she’d laughed for no reason. It doesn’t concern Lance, they’ll learn soon enough how it feels to be connected like this. It’s exhilarating.
The four of them watch as the Green Lion explodes from the temple, twirling in the air as if playing. Lance swears she can hear Pidge’s laughter echoing in her ears.
The pair don’t stop smiling until they get to the Castle.
***
“Excellent!” Allura exclaims, sweeping in through the hangar doors, her long silver dress trailing behind her like starlight. “You found her! We are that much closer to forming Voltron.” She folds her hands in front of her, smiling wide. “I’m very proud of you all.”
Lance beams at her, Pidge tucked under her arm.
“Have you had any luck with the Castle or the other Lions?” Shiro asks, ever so practical and prompt.
“Coran and I have narrowed down the planet the Yellow Lion is located on,” Allura confirms but her expression changes into something frustrated and angry and Lance’s expression falls with it. “Unfortunately, the planet is a Galra mining colony. Despite my hope to assemble Voltron as quickly as possible, Coran believes it would be unwise to send you five to the planet’s surface without prior experience in battling in the Lions. We’ll be conducting a training regimen for you as soon as Coran gets more of the Castles secondary systems working again.”
Allura brightens at the last statement and a pit of dread fills Lance’s stomach.
“Why do I get the feeling we aren’t going to like training at all?” Lance asks Pidge quietly.
“Probably because we both understand that Allura’s probably insane,” she responds flatly.
Lance hums in response and opens her mouth to ask Allura something when the lights start flashing red and alarms blare. It startles Lance and she grips Pidge’s shoulders a hair too tight, the younger girl swatting at her in protest even as she burrows further into her side.
“What is that?” Hunk asks over the din.
Allura looks up sharply, “CORINN, what’s happening?”
“Castle sensors indicate a Galra warship nearing the perimeter, Princess. Set to enter the atmosphere in twenty dobashes,” CORINN responds sounding slightly concerned.
“What the hell is a dobash?” Lance hears Pidge mutter next to her and if Lance wasn’t terrified, she’d laugh.
“How did they find us?” Allura asks in her shock.
“I bet it’s Keith’s fault,” Lance blurts into the thickening silence because what else would she say?
The Paladin in question shoots her a glare. “Say whatever you need to make yourself feel better,” he snaps back.
“Okay! Let’s not panic alright?”
Hunk, who was bouncing from foot to foot stills and stares at Shiro incredulously. “Not panic? There’s a warship heading for us and we have three lions!”
“Two working Lions, actually,” Pidge points out, stepping forward.
Hunk pushes her back into Lance by the face much to the Green Paladin’s annoyance. “Yes, thank you, Pidge,” he tells her, voice tight. “Two working Lions and a ten-thousand-year-old Castle. I think, right now, is a perfect time to panic, don’t you Lance?”
Lance looks at him with something akin to pity and she grabs his shaking hand. She keeps her voice purposefully light when she talks, “Sweetheart, you need to calm down.”
“Lance,” he asks, voice slightly strangled. “Why aren’t you more concerned by this? This is bad.” He lowers his voice. “We should go. Now, while we still can.”
“You know I can’t do that, buddy.”
Hunk’s shoulders slump, other hand coming to grasp her hands in his own. “I was afraid you’d say that.”
She turns her head to focus on the others in the room. “Is it possible to book it through a Wormhole? We could just evade them until we’re ready,” she suggests.
“We might never be ready,” Keith argues. “We have to fight now.”
“Says the guy without a Lion,” Lance snarks. “You have nothing to lose.”
“We can’t just leave Arus. They’re people here! Staying is our only option.”
“Here’s an option, ¡cállate la pinche boca!”
“How the hell am I supposed to know what that means?”
“Context clues, pendejo.”
“Maybe if we run, the Galra will leave the planet alone, like with Earth?” Hunk interjects. He’s resumed his foot hopping much to the annoyance of Pidge. “I mean, we’re what they want right?”
Keith glares at Hunk, voice harsh and seething. “Or they could destroy the planet anyway. We can’t just run away like cowards.”
Quick as a flash, Lance is standing between the two of them, face screwed up in a snarl. “You don’t get to talk to him like that.”
“Yeah? Or what?” he taunts, not backing down.
Lance lunges for him, arms outstretched when Pidge grabs her shoulder and Hunk wraps an arm around her waist, stopping her movement. Shiro steps up between them as well, fast enough that he probably would’ve gotten between them before Lance reached Keith anyway.
He looks disappointed and it does nothing to soothe her anger. She just continues to glare over his shoulder at Keith, who returns the look tenfold.
“Princess?” He asks Allura, voice kind. Lance finally turns to look at her and realizes how stricken she looks. As if one wrong move will send her crumbling to the ground. “You know the Lions and Galra better than us. What do you suggest?”
Allura seems conflicted, her eyes darting back and forth. She wrings her hands and deliberates as everyone looks to her for judgment. Eventually, she comes to a conclusion, nodding to herself. “We are here for a reason, in this I must believe. The Goddess wants us to fight to free the universe and so we will. We are the universe’s only hope and we will not let them down again.”
“We’re with you,” Shiro confirms and it has Allura standing taller.
***
Allura leads them into a brightly lit, hexagonal room with high ceilings. Display cases are embedded into the walls, but the lights are dim enough that she can’t see inside them. Weapons of varying styles and makes line every available surface. Lance recognizes a few shapes and designs, but most are foreign to her. Which makes sense. Because, you know. Aliens.
She notices a display of different arrow types and her fingers itch to try an archery range again. She hasn’t been shooting since the school year started and she misses her Papi’s firing range.
She misses her Papi in general.
“This is the armoury,” Allura announces, and with a wave of her hand, the displays light up revealing different types of armour. Ceremonial, stealth, some made for cold climates, others bulky and made for taking beatings.
The Paladins ‘ooh’ and ‘ah’ at all the equipment. Keith takes a particular interest in the far wall which contains an assortment of blades and Pidge is flying around the room mumbling about similarities to Earth battle weapons.
What really caught Lance’s attention though, is that one of the armour displays was empty.
Allura walks straight towards the blank display, ignoring the rest of the equipment in the room, and places her hand on the wall next to it. It lights up where she touches—a previously invisible scanner panel. Pidge zeros in on it with the single-minded train of thought of a scientist who needs to know how it works now.
With a soft swish, the display opens, and the black backing of the display splits open to reveal a new room hidden behind.
“This is so cool!” Lance whispers excitedly, practically prancing inside after Allura.
The hidden room is smaller than the armoury and less lavish, simply designed and with less hanging on the walls. It’s dimmer too, the only light being the small futuristic chandelier above them.
Allura walks over to the far right wall and beckons Lance over. Curious she follows.
“Place your hand here,” she instructs, and Lance does as asked. The wall lights up a soft blue beneath her hand and a pod-like shape emerges from the lightened wall. Lance scrambles back in surprise only to stop and gaze at it in awe when the pod lights up and the glass slides open.
Inside is a sleek suit of armour, done in soft grays and almost blacks and a blue that matches Azura exactly. It didn’t look like it could take many hits, built more for stealth or evasive fighting styles, but it was breathtaking.
The under armour was built like a skin-tight bodysuit, it’s color a shade off of black made to blend with shadows. Leaning in closer, she can’t tell what material it’s made of, but it’s more heavily padded in all the vulnerable places not covered by the actual armour. Stomach, hips, inside joints, neck, all places that need to stay protected but also need to retain maneuverability.
The armour itself was a soft grey accented with Azura’s blue, and covered the chest, arms and legs in a strange hybrid of modern body armour and knights plating. It was smooth to the touch, but Lance could see an interlocking pattern in the metal, almost like scales or chainmail. She wonders idly how stiff the metal is to wear.
As a whole, it’s brilliantly designed and far above anything the Garrison forces the cadets to wear. It’s futuristic, but holds something almost knight-like. Noble, like the things her parents authenticate for the museum.
Lance traces the blue, stylized ‘V’ on the breastplate in wonder.
“This is your armour,” Allura explains, “The panel recognizes your bond with the Blue Lion so only you can access your armour when it’s in this room.”
Allura gently grabs Lances hand and uses her finger to tap a gem embedded in the suit’s gauntlets.
The suit starts disintegrating before her eyes and Lance jumps back, watching as fabric and metal just… melts away. Her mouth is already open around an ‘I didn’t do it!’ when she realizes a half-bracer is left on the mannequin, dark-colored and innocuous-looking. The gem’s firmly planted on the back of the wrist only now, instead of glowing blue, it’s dim and black.
Allura takes it off and wraps it firmly around Lance’s wrist. “Tap it again,” she tells her and with a wary look, Lance does.
Fabric materializes from nowhere, crawling up her arm and washing over her body like a wave. She jumps at the sensation, an odd prickling over her skin but before she can freak out about it too much it’s over.
She stands there, not in her jeans and jacket, but wrapped snugly in the suit of armour.
“Holy shit,” Pidge says, and Lance can’t help but agree with her. “You have a goddamn Black Panther suit of armour! Oh my god.”
Allura looks at the smaller paladin confused. “I’m unfamiliar with that animal. We had meant to fashion the armour after the Lions.”
“No, it’s like a superhero on our planet,” Pidge explains quickly, staring Lance down in a way that makes her feel like her newest test subject. “He has this vibranium armour that basically does that-” Pidge waves a hand and Lance, “-and it’s super strong.”
“Oh! You’re familiar with the metal then?” Allura claps her hands together excitedly.
The team looks at her with varying levels of incredulity. “You- That isn’t- That cannot actually be vibranium,” Pidge tells her, voice soft and looking like she’s trying very hard not to scream.
Lance looks down at her hands with her eyes wide. Inside her head is just a steady stream of ‘Holy shit. Holy shit. I’m wearing vibranium armour. Holy fuck this is the coolest thing ever.’
Allura furrows her brows. “But it is? Is it a rare element on your planet?” she gasps, “Does it not occur naturally on your world?” She looks at them pityingly.
Lance looks at the other humans in the room, all of them look various levels of freaked out. Hunk has his head in his hands and he’s muttering something about overly advanced aliens and fictional metals and what that means for comic books and does that mean Marvel actually knew about aliens and-
Lance stops listening to him because she really doesn’t need that kind of mindfuck right then, thank you very much. She’s had enough.
“Okay. I’m wearing superhero armour. Cool, cool cool cool cool,” Lance says, her voice only slightly higher than normal. “Does that mean I can gather the kinetic energy and repurpose it later?” she tries joking.
Allura gives her a look that says nothing nice about what she thinks of her intellect. “Don’t be ridiculous. That kind of technology is still years off.”
Pidge emits a high-pitched whine where she’s standing, looking like all her dreams are coming true and that she has no idea how to handle it.
Allura pauses, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “Though, it has been over ten thousand decapheobes. Perhaps the Olkari have had a breakthrough.”
Pidge’s whine gets higher if possible and Lance looks at her with sympathy. The poor dear is going to have an aneurysm at this rate.
“Besides the magic act, what else can this baby do?” Lance redirects the conversation, hopefully preventing Pidge’s death via excitement induced heart attack. “Any cool tricks? Features I should know about? Secret pockets for space-snacks?”
Allura looks at her confused but like she doesn’t want to admit she’s confused. “Of course. Pidge? Your suit’s on the other wall. Perhaps you should-”
Pidge shoots off like a rocket before she can even finish. Allura either expected that or just chose to ignore it because she continues on undeterred.
“You already know of its storage feature. The gems control the function and, depending on what you want them to do, they’ll either activate or deactivate the suit or materialize your Bayard, the traditional Paladin weapon which will take a combative form most suited to you and your skillset.
“If you tap right here-” Allura leans down and touches her hand right underneath Lance’s right ear. It causes her to shiver, not expecting the feather-light touch. “-the helmet will deploy. As a safety measure, it will also do so automatically if an energy blast occurs close enough to your head. There’s public and private channels as well as external speakers you can turn on and off. Your visor has transparent and mirrored modes.
“Eventually you’ll be able to deploy your Bayard and helmet with your mind as your suit becomes more accustomed to your thoughts.”
“Oh my god, is the suit psychic too?” Lance asks.
“I suppose you could call it that,” Allura hums while Lance is having a mini break down. What the fuck has Earth been doing? Aliens were so advanced it made Lance physically pained. She can’t imagine how Pidge or Hunk feels right now.
“There’s a stealth mode, jetpacks on your back and stabilizers in your soles and palms.” She taps her chin in thought. “I believe that is all. Oh! As the suit grows more accustomed to how you fight and move, it will begin to calibrate itself to your needs. It might add more armour here or there or prioritize flexibility over defensive power. It’s quite fascinating! Though Coran explains it much better than I could.”
Lance looks over to Pidge to see how she’s faring with this and sees the other Paladin in a suit much like her own but it’s Green and more… compact? If that’s the word for it.
Pidge was staring down at her wrists in concentration and tapping at the gem on her left wrist. A second later the gem flashes a bright light and in her hand is a small, glowing, triangle-shaped knife. The grip she has on it reminds Lance of a katar, though the blade is too wide to be completely like the traditional weapon.
Pidge looks at it appraisingly. Turning it over in her hand.
Lance leans over her shoulder to get a closer look at the weapon and can’t help herself. “What do you have?”
Pidge doesn’t miss a beat. “A knife!”
“No!” Lance says in fake distress. She can hear Hunk echo it behind her and grins. “It’s kinda small? Though I did figure you as a dagger person I suppose.”
Pidge presses a button on the hilt with her thumb and electricity crackles along the blade. Lance jumps back and Pidge grins evilly. “Oh, yes. I like this very much.”
Lance looks at her warily and summons her own Bayard.
Her wrist flashes with light and in her hands is a rifle. She twists it around, testing the weight of it and finds it’s really light, almost too light in her opinion. It looks like no gun she’s ever held and reminds her of a bit of the Pulse Rifle from Aliens— which, ironic as hell—but smoother. More round and smaller than the movie.
She doesn’t see anywhere to load ammunition which is confusing, but maybe it’s just different in space. She raises the gun and looks down the sights at the far wall. A small screen opens in front of her, light blue and transparent, like a digital scope.
Lance whistles appreciatively. “This is what I call weaponry.”
The lights flash red, and CORINN’s voice sounds from above. “Estimated time of Galra warship is ten dobashes.”
The smile falls from Lance’s face as she looks at Pidge, the reminder of the danger they’re in destroying all humor in the room. The younger Paladin looks scared and Lance wants to hug her but knows it wouldn’t be appreciated.
Allura looks to each of them solemnly, before stepping forward and grasping each by the shoulder. “I believe in you, Paladins,” she tells them seriously, her eyes like steel. “You are meant to be great. Your stories do not end here.”
The two paladins nod and leave for the hangars, the other three humans on their heels.
Lance turns back around to see Allura with her hands clasped and eyes closed. She almost looks like she’s praying.
It doesn’t fill her with confidence.
***
Hunk stops Lance just as she’s about to board Azura after Shiro gives them one last ‘good luck’ pep talk. He grabs her hand, his larger palms dwarfing her own nimble fingers.
She stops and looks back at him, immediately regretting the decision because it looks like Hunk is about to cry. Her own eyes become glassy almost immediately.
She throws her arms around him without him needing to ask. He squeezes her tightly to his chest, almost crushing her but she doesn’t care. She returns it as ferociously, gloved hands balled into the back of his shirt.
“E mālama pono. E 'oluʻolu. Please. Come back safe because I don’t know what I’d do without you okay? And I don’t want to find out,” Hunk babbles into the top of her head where he’s pressed his mouth.
“Hoʻohiki,” she says. “Promise.”
Hunk gives her one more squeeze and then he steps back. She can see in the stiffness of his shoulders it’s the last thing he wants to do.
She remembers him telling her how whenever she went on her adventures or stepped in front of some bully, he’d want to pull her away. Wanted to wrap her in a blanket and never let her leave so she couldn’t be hurt.
Now, when all of her adventures and dangerous decisions pale in the face of what she’s about to do, the desire must be unbearable.
But he doesn’t move. Because he won’t control her and she won’t stay.
Because they aren’t those kind of people.
He understands and if he can’t stop her then he’ll wait and help her pick up the pieces. And in return, she’ll come back. She will always come back.
Lance smiles at him, big and bright and too wide, and blows him a kiss as she disappears inside of Azura. The last thing she sees before the lock closes is him cradling it to his chest.
***
A booming voice echoes across to the two hovering Lions from the warship. “Attention Paladins. This is Commander Sendak of the Galra Empire. I come on behalf of Emperor Zarkon, Lord of the Known Universe. I am here to confiscate the Lions. Turn them over to me, or I will destroy this planet."
The pair share a smile that’s closer to a snarl than any display of happiness.
Then they attack.
***
Katie’s brain spins faster than anyone else she knows. Calculations burn through her mind at the speed of light and sometimes it hurts so much she feels like screaming because she thinks it might make it go away. Might make her too fast mind just slow down if only for a second.
Her head has always been a swirling mass of angles and ideas and analysis and that doesn’t change even as fire rains from the sky or as Green growls in the back of her mind and guides her along the unfamiliar controls.
It’s still too much information and a hundred calculations but it seems to go smooth in the heat of the moment. As Green growls and roars in the back of her mind, her head miraculously stops screaming at her and instead begins working with her.
The scattered bits of her mind all come together and start analyzing the battlefield and how Lance moves in her Lion and counts how many Galra fighters rain down on them and where they come from and a thousand other variables and calculations that spin through her mind. It all files itself in neat little rows for her own perusal as she focuses on staying alive.
The two take to the skies and the fight like they were always meant to be here. Katie’s always been a fast learner and within minutes, she and her Lion are snapping at fighters and avoiding laser beams with the same grace Lance and Azura have.
It’s hard and they take too many hits in the beginning, but they adapt and plan and scheme over the comms.
Katie is all calculations and angles, but Lance knows how battle plans work, can work out strategies as easy as breathing. Katie remembers tactics and war games being one of her best subjects and it shows.
The pair shout encouragement and watch each other backs as they slowly make their way to the warship. Halfway through, the Castle joins the fray. It’s more of a bug to the warship than anything, but it’s a good enough distraction for Lance as she darts in and flings knife after knife from her Lion’s tail. Embedding themselves deep into the hull and causing massive damage.
Katie covers her as she rips the ion cannon straight off of the ship. It causes an explosion so big it rocks her through the cockpit and sends both Lions flying. Her ears are still ringing when she rights herself again and looks over the damage they’ve done.
She can hear the team yelling encouragement through the comms and it makes her feel powerful, makes her risk more than she should. She feels the well of anger at these people who stole her family bubble up, fed by the threat they made towards this planet and the screams of her teammates.
Katie feels almost feral in her rage as she dives in without giving Lance enough warning to cover her and digs her claws into the ship's engines and tears them apart like paper. She does the damage she wanted but galra fighters are hitting her too hard and she’s falling through the sky along with the Galra warship.
Lance swoops down and grabs her Lion by the scruff at the last second, pulling them out of the blast radius as the ship explodes in a ball of flame.
Katie grins, even as she can feel bruises form on her chest from slamming into the console and Lance screams in her ear about warning her when she’s going to be suicidal.
She feels a sick sense of satisfaction at the destruction she’s made, and she doesn’t care enough to be concerned or sorry about it.
***
Lance drops the Green Lion as gently as she can in front of the Castle, but Azura is pretty beat up too and she’s limping at best. The two Lions collapse in the courtyard and Lance stumbles out as quickly as she can, staggering to the Green Lion.
She feels suddenly tired. A bone-deep ache where she can barely keep her eyes open. Azura’s voice is strangely quiet in her mind. Or maybe Azura was just loud during the battle?
Pidge emerges from her Lion and Lance sweeps her into a hug as tight as she dares, spinning the pair in circles.
She needs to feel the smaller girl in her arms, needs to know she’s okay. She won’t say it but seeing Pidge dart towards the ship had caused Lance’s heart to stop. It terrified her in a way normally only reserved for when her family did something particularly reckless and stupid.
“We did it! We did it!” she cheers, causing Pidge to laugh lightly and swat at her shoulder.
The Castle doors open and Lance spins around to see the other’s running out towards them, Hunk leading the charge. He doesn’t slow down until he has Lance in his arms. He just slams into her and picks up both her and Pidge with ease, spinning them both around in a bone-crushing hug.
Lance laughs even as it hurts her ribs and jars where her shoulders had slammed into the seat one too many times. Hunk is babbling about how cool that was and that Pidge should never do that again and how he’s so glad they’re both okay.
It fills Lance with joy. That she can still count on Hunk being Hunk even as she takes down a galra warship. It makes her feel unbearably fond for her best friend.
“You both did wonderfully,” Allura praises, beaming at them.
Hunk stops spinning them enough for her and Pidge to look at the princess and Lance shoots her a devilish grin. “Well, it was just the thought of your beautiful face that kept me going, darling.”
Pidge groans and shoves Lance’s face away but not before she sees Allura roll her eyes and fight to keep a smile off her face. It makes Lance’s chest warm.
Hunk finally sets them down, after one last squeeze that has the pair of them wheezing. Shiro steps up to them, pride shining through every part of his face and every movement he makes. He’s beaming with it as he stares down at the two girls and it feels like she’s done something incredible.
“You did it and I never doubted you for a second. You were amazing out there.”
“Thanks, Shiro,” Pidge says, a smile overtaking her small features.
Lance wants to bask in that moment forever. The thrill of winning, of thinking they can actually do this, that everything will be okay, and they’ll win this war without anything going wrong.
She knows that’s not the case. That it’s dangerous to think that way, to get a big head after one lucky shot. But she can’t help it. She so desperately needs hope that she’ll latch onto anything she can. You use what you can to keep your head above the churning waters of the mind.
Lance’s stomach grumbling interrupts her—admittedly kinda dark—train of thought. The sound startles her and then her expression turns sheepish, her hand coming up to cover her stomach.
“I believe a celebratory feast is in order,” Coran exclaims, raising his hands in the air excitedly. “In honor of our two heroes! Hurrah!”
The other’s echo the cheer around her and Lance beams. “Oh good, I’m starving. Think we can make quesadillas? ”
“What is a… ‘quesadillas’?” Allura asks and Lance looks at her in horror.
“Oh, you poor thing,” she coos, face twisted in pity. She whips around to look at her best friend, visibly distressed. “Hunk, we need to educate them immediately. They’ve been deprived of the most amazing food their whole lives!”
“A travesty,” he deadpans, but Lance can see he looks a little sympathetic underneath it. He’s just teasing her which she takes offense to. He’s supposed to be on her side!
“Hey! Don’t you take that tone with me,” Lance scolds, fighting the smile twitching at the corner of her lips. “I’m a hero,” she sniffs.
“You’re something alright,” Hunk laughs. “Come on, let’s go eat.” He swings an arm over her shoulders all but dragging her to the doors. Lance laughs as her hair falls into her face at the movement.
“What about the Lions?” she hears Pidge ask curiously, and Lance looks back at them, sprawled across the courtyard as they are.
Worry overtakes her mind as she looks back at Azura. Her Lion really was too quiet, almost silent in the back of her mind. It felt wrong, just having herself in her head now. It was a completely insane thought, but it was too quiet in her head and her head has never been too quiet in her life.
It set her teeth on edge and she was about to walk back to her Lion when she reared up in her mind again. Soothing and tired.
She assures Lance she’ll be fine, that she only needs to rest a bit. Lance nods, trusting her thousands year old warship can take care of herself.
Lance hums in acknowledgment as Coran repeats the same thing in so many words and the seven of them all walk back to the Castle. A steady stream of noise and laughter fill her ears right up until she just gets so tired, she falls asleep on Hunk’s shoulder at the kitchen table.
They don’t have quesadillas but it’s nice anyway.
The lull of people speaking around her feels familiar and settles in her chest contentedly.
Her eyelids droop further and further. Eventually, it gets to be too much work to keep them open and so she leans on Hunk and let’s sleep take her, confident that Hunk will either wake her up or put her somewhere she can rest comfortably.
She’s been awake for… at least thirty-six hours straight and as far as she’s concerned, she deserves to sleep for a week.