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puppetmaster55 · 5 years ago

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A Fix-It to Canon

At the interest of @ieshavevo here is my extensive fix-it to vld!

So, uh, wouldn’t change much about seasons 1 and 2, those are actually pretty solid seasons. At best, I would adjust season 1 to be a bit longer, including an episode where they travel to an old colony planet of Alteans to really set in that Allura and Coran are the last of the Alteans. In season 2 I would add an episode later on, mostly revolving around the adjustment of Voltron working with the Blade, to get a sense of the two having a rough start working together.

Also, I’d have a slight change in focus, with more knowledge that Voltron is a myth and nobody really believes in it or has hope in season 1, leading up to the initial assault on the empire’s central command. From there, season 2 is the universe taking notice, word spreading that Voltron is back and is fighting against the empire and Zarkon, and winning.

Then, there would be a little more to season 3, with a slower start that’s time without Shiro and time with only four of the lions. There’d be more people starting to fight back, more planets and systems rebelling against the empire, and word spreading that Zarkon faced off against Voltron and lost. There’d be, as well, time for adjustment after the lion swap. A “Some Assembly Required 2.0” episode.

Speaking of, the Lion Swap wouldn’t be Keith into Black or Lance into Red. I’d put Lance in Black, and Allura in Blue. Honestly there would be discussion about Allura taking up the role, and a little about Keith being Shiro’s pick, but ultimately it would be Lance. Allura taking on the title of Black Paladin would be something permanent instead of temporary, and Keith doesn’t want it and isn’t a good fit.

There would be a name-drop of an Empress Merla in the alternate Altean Empire reality, for later on. Lotor, too, would have more of a plan in motion, and would be the source of the Zaiforge Cannons as a show of his progression of the empire in his rule. There would be more buildup toward Naxzela, as well, with Voltron coming across a planetary particle barrier and an Altean terraforming device. Haggar’s entire plan toward Naxzela would be made more clear when it happens, that this is her revenge for the plan that took down Zarkon. She will take down every single rebel faction, Voltron included, in a massive show of force to ensure that there is no more opposition.

Lotor’s plans will be more about establishing his own foothold as a progressive leader and shift toward a more peaceful rule over the universe. He’ll buy into the Galra Empire’s superiority, but only so far that he can change it into being more sustainable and infinitely less likely to end up consuming itself as more and more planets are killed for their quinessence.

Voltron finds the rebels, learning that former smugglers Rolo, Nyma, and Beezer joined their ranks. Matt is discovered among their numbers, having had to fake his death in a massive battle to avoid having a bounty on his head collected.

As for Operation Kuron… the Shiro that returns to Voltron is the real, original Shiro. He’s got programming in his arm, something that wasn’t there before, that makes me more willing to gather every single rebel in on one huge attack on Naxzela and the surrounding systems.

Something that his clone, Ryou, very nearly succeeded in doing just before the Blue Lion was found. Ryou will be Shiro’s clone, sent into the rebels when they were gathering and a mighty force, with no initial clue that he’s a clone. The “trash nebula” that Pidge crashes into ends up being revealed as the remains of the rebel fleets when Kuron brought Zarkon down upon them. Ryou, in the battle, took damage to the head and to the robot arm, which disabled the mind control and left him realizing everything.

The rebels are scattered, but they’re coming back together, and under Voltron they can do so much more than they could before.

Anyway, Naxzela happens, and Lotor in the process of avoiding Haggar gets pushed into going on the run and negotiating his surrender to Voltron. There’s big blowback on Voltron’s side, with the Coalition not wanting to be so into bargaining with Lotor, the rebels wanting to dispose of him, and Voltron wanting to keep him prisoner. Time passes, and with it Haggar brings back Zarkon to right all the failures of Lotor’s rule.

Lotor and the Generals split, the Generals with Narti (who is comatose following the attempt by Haggar to mind control her), untle the Generals realize that they need Voltron and to return to Lotor. So they pick up a human prisoner that some value to trade for their safety: Keith’s Dad.

What they don’t know, is that Keith’s Dad is also Acxa’s Dad, and it’s revealed that their shared mother is Lotor’s dead sister, Marmora.

Keith, angry at his father for abandoning him, avoids the man.

Lotor gets closer to the Paladins, and with it he reveals more about his life: his time ruling over a planet that Zarkon destroyed, and even that he’s got Sam Holt working for him in a special work camp full of scientists working for Lotor. He’s one of the scientists who worked toward reverse engineering the teludav and that it can reopen the rift on Daibazaal. Sam helps to convince the Paladins that Lotor isn’t all bad and that he can be trusted. Acxa reveals that she had the bounty placed on Matt to return him to the Empire so he could be reunited with his father. Both Sam and Keith’s Dad are sent back to Earth.

Lotor manages to gain their favor in time to call upon a Kral Zera: an honor battle for the throne of the empire. He fights against Zarkon, almost gaining the win until Haggar intervenes, nearly taking full control over Shiro. Somewhere in the time Lotor’s under Voltron’s care, Sendak comes back, and is as honorable Galra as ever. He begins having doubts about Zarkon’s leadership when Haggar intervenes to “force” a win. Haggar, meanwhile, takes Sendak to act as her protector.

Allura looks into her powers, looking and training with Lotor’s aid, to the point that they all go to Oriande. There, they find the Protector of the White Lion, Queen Melenor. Allura learns of the true origin of Voltron, and is given the opportunity to learn the secrets of Alchemy. However, Haggar uses her control over Shiro to learn about Oriande and attacks it, causing Lotor to become suspicious of the Paladins. Melenor is lost in the attack, but passes on her role of Guardian to Allura. Allura trains with her powers, managing to capture a druid and interrogate it about their origins and powers. There, they learn that the druids are actually the research team Honerva led.

The Coalition and rebels are furious about Voltron’s gamble, straining Voltron’s allies into breaking from their alliance. One of the rebels, Romelle, makes an attempt on Lotor, revealing herself as Altean and pushing Lotor into revealing that the planet he was in control over was an Altean colony. She claims that he is behind the death of the planet and all the Alteans on it, with herself as the only surviver, forcing Voltron to follow Allura’s lead and attack Lotor.

Lotor flees with the Generals, all of them going toward the rift gate as the last safe place to lay low and hide until everyone fights each other and then they can emerge from the ashes and rebuild everything better. Unfortunately, Haggar used her connections to Narti and Shiro to learn the location of the rift gate and continued working on it. Haggar begins to activate the rift gate, and to distract Voltron takes full control over Shiro. Shiro comes along to Sendak’s side, and they manage to keep the Paladins distracted. Ultimately, Shiro, with the help of the Paladins, is broken free of Haggar’s control and fights Sendak to a standstill.

Sincline and Voltron fight, with the Paladins thinking that all of this is Lotor’s fault. The two battle, until they both are hit and the Sincline caught in a tractor beam. Through the rift comes a number of ships, all Altean in design.

Empress Merla has arrived, intent on bringing the Altean Peace to this and every other universe. Haggar goes to her side, claiming her old self as Honerva, while Lotor and the Sincline is captured. Merla created her own prototype gate using a teludav built by the Sincline Comet of her own reality, as found on her Oriande. Being obsessed with Honerva’s studies, Merla accepts Haggar to her side. The Generals manage to escape, Sendak flees back to Zarkon’s side to report about the arrival of the Alteans, and Voltron flees.

With no allies and their name sullied by their siding with Lotor, Voltron flies to Earth to hide and recouperate. There, the Paladins nearly separate, returning to their families and reconsidering their duties and resolve. Meanwhile, Merla has taken up the trust and leadership of the Coalition, although there is a deal of mistrust within the rebels. She expands her presence, using the Hoktril to control and silence anyone who would dare dissent. Lotor, in his prison, looks upon Merla and sees everything that he was working toward.

Shiro gets a new arm built. Keith gets quiet reconciliation with his father. Hunk discovers that he’s become so much braver than before. Lance reconnects with his family, and finds he misses space. Allura and Coran get into some lighthearted Earth shenanigans with each of the Paladins, maybe visit a zoo while they’re at it. Lance reaches out to Shiro, and speaks about his time leading Voltron, and also that he has more about his sexuality than he thought. There’s a small confession of feelings, and they decide to enjoy their time together, going on a date.

They all find they miss traveling through space and realize that it is their love of the universe that brought them to fight for it, and that their failures do not define them. Also, they decide, when this is all over and done with they’ll go on a road trip across the universe.

The Galaxy Garrison does their best to run the Paladins around any actual duties, until it’s revealed that the GG is reaching out toward Merla, and building their own Voltron out of fifteen vehicles. The Paladins gather together, fleeing Earth after a brief clash with Vehicle Voltron. The clash leaves doubt in the pilots and various members of the GG about the alliance with Merla.

Voltron is on the run now, reaching out to old allies, finding the Hoktril in place on those planets.

The rebels build their own Gladiator Voltron to protect against Merla after discovering the existence of the Hoktril. They take their team and Gladiator Voltron and flee, going to help others and join back up with Voltron. The Coalition shows unease at Merla’s rule.

Merla clashes with Haggar, who takes the prototype teludav made of the Sincline Comet and is working on something. Haggar takes the upper hand, sending Merla on the defensive and fleeing back to Zarkon, revealing that she’s been playing both sides and that despite her past as Honerva, Haggar is her true self and her ends are her own to achieve.

Lotor escapes, broken out of his prison by his own engenuity and with the help of his Generals. Narti, now awake, joins in as the five flee in the Sincline to find Voltron and warn them.

Zarkon’s own rule over the Empire is crumbling, more and more of his subordinates showing a lack of faith and trust and obedience in him. Haggar proposes her new rift gate, and that they use the rift creatures within to cement Zarkon’s rule.

Everyone is on the move, the forces gathering and reaching out to Voltron. Merla begins sending out combat mechas, ones originally prototyped under Merla and improved by Haggar, to sow fear and attempt to regain control. Sendak defects from Zarkon, finding Voltron and Sincline and fighting Shiro, this time to Shiro’s win. Sendak’s sense of honor is such that Zarkon’s win at the Kral Zera was dishonerable and while he does still hate Voltron, he would rather see someone with true Galra Honor like Lotor seated upon the throne of the Empire instead of Zarkon.

Lotor reaches out to Voltron, and in the process finally tells Acxa, Keith, and the rest of the various allies about Marmora and the circumstances of her death. Marmora had gone to Earth, then returned, and with it Haggar had placed a same kind of mind control as Shiro and Narti were victims to. Through her, Zarkon had learned of the true method Lotor was using to rule over the Altean planet Pollux. Romelle had managed to escape, but what she saw was Lotor watching Pollux burn. In his panic, Lotor had killed his sister, and since then has regretted his actions and worked toward the peace that she had wanted for the Empire.

Lotor has decided that while he will stand up as the new leader of the Galra, the Empire reduced and dismantled down into a small number of systems capable of safely being the new home of the Galra. He will not see the Galra as conquerors, and will not see the Empire continue to exist. Sendak shared what he learned about Zarkon’s plans, while Lotor and the Generals share what knowledge they’ve gained about Merla and, more importantly, Haggar’s plans.

The prep for the final battle begins, with Voltron’s return to the stage by battling Merla’s mechas, and even joining in with the Gladiator Voltron. Vehicle Voltron turns up, Earth and the rest of the Coalition having defected away from Merla. Together, Allura and Lotor discover a means of breaking the Hoktril, and dig deeper into Voltron’s past.

They learn about the rift creatures, beings of Chaos and Void, and of the Defenders that fought against it: the Lions, the Sincline, and the Oriande. Oriande is discovered to be what the White Lion is named, and is the Paladin of Light. Sincline is similar, and its Paladin of Dark. They, along with Voltron, are the Seven Paladins of Creation, the Defenders of the Universe. They learn that the Cosmic Abyss is where the Ancients come from, who began the universe and where Voltron called home. The great calamity that turned it into the Cosmic Abyss is from when the rift creatures touched it, and Voltron and Sincline battled it and ended up as the comets scattered around the universe.

Allura is established as the leader of the Coalition.

Lotor becomes the true Emperor of the Galra Empire.

The Blade makes contact, having managed to gain knowledge of where the final battle will happen.

Haggar enacts her rift gate, letting loose the Void Creatures from the rift. Zarkon takes one of the creatures within himself, transforming into a robeast that battles off Merla’s own attack.

THe heroes arrive, fighting the Void Creatures. Voltron is joined by Sincline, Vehicle Voltron, Gladiator Voltron, the rebels, the Blade, and the Coalition. Allura directs them all from the Castle, until she brings the Castle into the battle. Merla and her remaining mechas join as well, realizing that she’s failed and when this is over she will have to stand for her crimes in both this universe and her own. From inside the rift, more realities join in: the Guns of Gamara, and even other version of Voltron from different realities.

The Castle transforms, Allura realizing that she has passed on the White Lion spirit into the Castle of Lions itself. They join the battle, and gain the upper hand. Voltron fights Zarkon, striking him down as he leads the Void Creatures. Allura and Lotor both fight Haggar, ultimately leading to her defeat. The Void Creatures are defeated, and the rift gate, now the void gate, is destroyed.

The universe is saved.

The various other Voltrons are returned to their universes, and Merla is taken into custody by the Guns of Gamara. With the universe moving toward peace, the Paladins go and kidnap Allura and Coran, promising to return the president of the Coalition once their road trip across the universe is done. In the meantime, Vehicle Voltron prepares to go out and ensure that there continues to be peace within the Coalition and no pirates or factions of the Empire try to rise up. Gladiator Voltron prepares for a long journey around the universe, fighting for justice wherever it is needed.

And the Paladins? They finally get that road trip.

#voltron #shance #MY FIX-IT #BC THERE'S A LIL BIT OF IT IN THERE I'M TAGGING THE SHIP #my word this got longer than intended. over 2.7K #puppet writes

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tiny-opal-essence · 5 years ago

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Pocket Paladin Chpt 17

Whatever can go wrong will go wrong

Previously...

Team Voltron has discovered that the person they rescued from Lotor was not Shiro, but a clone with Shiro's memories. While initially unsure of how to proceed, they are fully supportive of the renamed Ryo.

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Lance blearily opened his eyes. It was still dark in the room.

How long until breakfast?

He shoved Keith’s bandana off and got out of his bed. He walked over to the edge of the dollhouse floor to check the clock on Keith’s wall.

Still a few varga. Yay.

Lance had been having some trouble sleeping through the night lately. Even though the doll bed was a huge improvement from the improvised cotton balls and Kleenex, it still wasn’t designed for someone to actually sleep in comfortably. He didn’t think it was really that important to mention to anyone. There are more important things than one person’s comfort.

He looked over and saw Keith was still asleep in his bed.

At least one of us is comfortable. Glad I didn’t wake him up.

Keith’s face was relaxed for once.

He looks so soft. Huh. Never thought “soft” would be a word associated with Keith.

Lance sat down on the edge of the floor, kicking his legs slightly.

I’m glad he and Ryo were able to talk things out yesterday. It would kind of suck for Voltron if the black and red paladins weren’t speaking to each other. We don’t really have anyone who can sub. At least, not until I’m back to normal. And who knows when that’s going to be.

Lance leaned back on the floor keeping his ankles dangling off the edge.

Even if I do get back to normal, would Blue want me back? Allura’s done such a great job with her.

‘The team does work better without you. You’d hate to ruin all of their progress, right?’

Yeah.

‘They’re better off without you.’

Before Lance could dwell more on those thoughts, he heard a soft *groan*. He sat up and looked over.

Keith’s face that had been relaxed just a moment ago was now scrunched up in discomfort. He started shifting around in his bed while mumbling out something unintelligible.

He’s having a nightmare! I have to help him.

“Keith! Wake up!” Lance called out, but Keith did not wake up.

Maybe I’m too far away. I need to get closer.

Lance stood up and looked off the edge of the dollhouse floor.

Yeah, nothing there to break my fall if I jump. Guess the quickest route is the stairs.

He ran across the room and opened the door to the hallway. He nearly tripped down the stairs in his haste. He stepped down onto the nightstand and saw that Keith was now laying on his back.

“Yo, Mullet!” Keith showed no signs that he heard him.

Quiznak. Still not close enough. Okay. There’s only a couple inches between the nightstand and the pillow. That’s not too far, right?

‘It might as well be the grand canyon at your height.’

Well, if I get a running start, I should make it. I was always good at long jump in gym class.

‘But in class you didn’t have to worry about falling to your death.’

Ok, that’s enough from you, stupid voice. I’m going to make it. Just you watch.

Lance hurried over to the far side of the nightstand and took a deep breath.

Ok, here goes nothing.

He ran back towards Keith and leaped off the edge.

Yes! I made it!

He had landed on the edge of the pillow that was hanging off the bed.

Phew. Wait, no no no no no!

He started sliding down towards the chasm between the bed and nightstand but managed to grab ahold of the pillowcase. He could feel the pillow shifting somewhat beneath him.

Oh yeah, the pillow would shake because Keith’s twitching in his sleep.

Lance began climbing up the pillow making sure to keep a good grip on it in case Keith really started moving around. He could see the beads of sweat on Keith’s forehead.

He looks hot. And not in the good looking kind of way. Ok, maybe partly in the good looking way, but now’s really not the time to focus on my stupid crush on him.

Lance continued climbing along the pillow until he reached the indent caused by Keith’s head. He slid down the incline and came to a stop in front of his cheek. As Lance tried to stand up on the soft pillow, Keith let out another *groan* and moved his head slightly, causing Lance to fall back against his face.

“Really, Keith? I try to help you out and this is the thanks I get? *sigh* You’re lucky you’re cute.” Lance said in good humor as he tried to stand again, this time bracing himself against Keith who had become still once more.

That means he probably didn’t hear me call him cute. Good. Don’t know what he’d think if he found out I like him.

Lance was now standing in front of Keith’s ear.

Let’s hope he can hear me now.

“Keith! Buddy, pal, my dude! Despierta!”

Keith shot awake, causing the pillow to rise up and Lance to fall down on his butt yet again, but he wasn’t too concerned about that since it was a soft landing.

Keith looked around the room as he got his breathing under control. Once his breathing sounded normal, Lance called up to him.

“Glad you finally heard me.”

“Of course I heard you,” Keith said as he turned to sit facing Lance. “You were yelling right in my ear.”

“Heh heh, sorry. You didn’t seem to hear me until I got closer. Did you hear anything else I said?”

Please don’t have heard me say you’re cute, please don’t have heard me say you’re cute.

“No.” Keith lied. “Why?”

“No reason.”

Phew. He didn’t hear that.

But Keith had heard. He had heard Lance say that he was lucky he was cute. He had also heard the sarcasm in the lines before that and assumed the last line was also meant sarcastically. It was a common saying after all.

“Wait a minute, why are you here?”

“Why are any of us here?”

“Lance, you know I mean why are you here sitting on my pillow? And how did you get there?”

“I jumped.”

“What?” Keith said with a blank look on his face as his brain tried to piece things together.

“Well, you were having a nightmare and couldn’t hear me from my bed, so I came over to help you wake up from it.”

“And you jumped down from your room!?”

“No. I would have broken a leg or something if I jumped down from there. I jumped from the nightstand to your pillow.”

Keith looked over and saw the gap between those two objects. He realized just how far of a jump and how long of a fall that would be for Lance at his height.

“What the hell, Lance? Do you realize how dangerous that was for you!?”

“I’ve always been good at long jump. I knew I would make it, and besides. You needed help. Your nightmare seemed pretty bad.”

Keith was too tired to argue with Lance about the dangers of parkour at his height, so he decided to move the conversation in a different direction.

“It wasn’t a nightmare. It was a memory.”

“Oh.” Lance paused for a moment. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Maybe…I don’t know.”

“Don’t worry, Keith. If you want to talk, I’m here. If you want to just go back to sleep, that’s fine.”

Keith let out a small *yawn*.

“Maybe you should lie down.”

Don’t want you literally falling asleep on me.

“I should move you back to the nightstand first.”

“Dude, I don’t take up that much room. Here, I’ll even scoot over.” Lance did just that. “Now you’ve got plenty of space.” Lance patted the pillow next to him to emphasize his point.

“But-”

“Lie down, Keith. As long as you go slow it shouldn’t be too shaky for me.”

Keith hesitatingly lied back down on his side. As his head sunk into the pillow, he was only able to keep one eye on Lance as the other one’s vision was blocked by the pillow itself.

Once Keith was still, Lance lied down on his side facing him.

“Draw me like one of your French girls,” Lance said with dramatic flair as he struck the pose.

This earned him a *snicker* from Keith.

“Ha! I got you to laugh!”

“That wasn’t a laugh.”

“It’s close enough!”

Keith rolled his eyes while Lance let out a *snicker* of his own.

“All seriousness though, are you ok, Keith?”

“Yeah. Or mostly, I guess. A lot happened yesterday and it brought up some memories.”

“I can understand that. We were all pretty shocked with Ryo’s reveal.”

“It’s more than that. It just…it feels like everyone who cares about me winds up leaving in the end, willing or not. My mom, my dad, Shiro, twice.”

“Keith-”

“And I know why my mom left. I understand. But that doesn’t change the fact that she left. And I haven’t heard anything from her since finding the Blade of Marmora.”

“Keith, Kolivan told us how much danger she would be put in if any attempts were made to contact her. Remember what happened to his sister, Keerthana?” Lance gently mentioned.

Keith *sighed* “Yeah, I know. It might blow her cover because of how high up in the chain of command she is. But I don’t even know her name! My dad never got the chance to tell me before he died. And Kolivan thinks that if I knew her name I would get Pidge to find her in the Galra Empire’s database.”

“Well, would you?”

“Yes. I wouldn’t contact her though. I know how important her mission is. And I don’t even know what I’d say. It’s just…what if we’re fighting the empire and just happen to kill her before realizing who she is?”

Lance could tell how worried Keith was about that happening.

“Have you told Kolivan why you want to know?”

“No. It’s a stupid thing to worry about.”

“It’s not stupid to worry about your family, Keith.”

Lord knows I worry about mine all the time.

“Easy for you to say. You and your family are close. My mom’s the only family I have and I don’t know her. All I ever got from her was a lockbox with a self-storage key in it. That’s where I found the hoverbike, Marmora sword, and a letter saying that since I was old enough then, my dad would explain everything. Too bad my dad had died 8 years before that.”

“Do you still have the letter?”

“I tore it up after I read it. I was angry.”

“*dramatic gasp* Keith? Angry?” Lance said while trying to hide a smile.

“I was 16, I had anger issues.”

“Newsflash, you still have anger issues.” Lance teasingly responded.

“I’ve gotten better.”

“And we are all proud of you for that.”

There was a bit of comfortable silence between them.

“So…your dad died when you were…8?” Lance did the math in his head.

“Yeah.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t. I got so sick of people saying that to me at his funeral. Everyone said that if I needed anything all I had to do was ask. What I needed was my dad. It had always been just the two of us. He didn’t talk about my mom much, but when he did, you could see how much he missed her. There was always this hidden sad look on his face. I hated that she was making my dad feel upset by not being there. He said that mom was working and would come back to us someday. I thought she might come to his funeral, but that didn’t happen. Now I know why. He always said she was out of this world. I never realized how literal he was being.”

“Not to interrupt, but props to your dad for one of the best dad jokes ever with the whole ‘out of this world’ cause your mom’s an alien thing.”

“Yeah. He’d’ve liked you.”

Lance perked up slightly at hearing that.

My crush’s dad would have liked me!?

“You both have terrible jokes,” Keith said.

“Hey, my jokes aren’t terrible!” Lance sat up indignantly.

“Okay, they’re not terrible.”

Lance saw the amusement in Keith’s eyes.

“Darn right!” Lance said as he lied back down. He let out a *yawn* a moment later.

“Do you need me to give you a hand back to your bed?” Keith asked.

“Keith, was that a pun?"

“Not an answer.”

“Ok, maybe eventually, but I can stay up a bit longer. I’m comfy.”

“If you say so.”

There was more comfortable silence before Keith spoke up again.

“Sorry for talking so much.”

“Dude, it’s fine. I’m glad you trust me enough to open up more about what you’re going through.”

“You’re not going to tell anyone else, are you?” Keith asked.

“Of course not. This is your tragic backstory. I’m not going to force you to tell the others. That would be rude.” Lance paused for a moment. “I am a bit curious about one thing. How did your dad die? Please don’t feel like you have to answer. I totally understand if you don’t want to talk about it.”

“It’s ok.” Keith *sighed*. “That’s actually what I was remembering in my dream. He died in a fire. Some sort of freak accident. He barely managed to push me out the door before the house collapsed on him. The only part that didn’t burn down was the shack.”

“Wait, the shack in the desert?”

“*mhmm* I lived there after being kicked out of the Garrison.”

“But you said earlier you grew up in the system. Why didn’t you go to your foster family?”

“I had already aged out of the system by then. I went through a few different foster homes. The last one was nice, but their house never felt like home. It’s ok though. I spent most of my free time at the shack with my hoverbike anyways. Living there just made more sense. My dad had already paid for the land and left it all to me in his will, so I didn’t have to worry about rent.”

“That’s nice.”

“Yeah.” Keith paused for a moment. “You know what’s ironic? My dad was a firefighter and he died in a fire in his own home. And now I’m the red paladin, the paladin of fire.”

“The universe has a twisted sense of humor sometimes.”

“*mhmm*” Keith agreed. “I can still remember so many details from that day. It had been a dry summer. The house lit up like kindling. I was so scared I couldn’t move. I could hardly hear my dad over the roaring of the fire. He gave me his bandana and told me to put it over my mouth and close my eyes while he grabbed me and ran for the door. That was the last time I saw him alive.”

“Keith, are you ok?” Lance sat up as he saw Keith’s eyes starting to tear up.

“…No.”

“I’m going to hug you now. Is that ok?”

“Yeah.”

Lance moved closer to hug Keith’s face, albeit awkwardly due to the unique surface of the pillow.

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry you’ve had to go through all that. And I hope that you know none of us would ever leave you by choice. You’re stuck with us whether you like it or not!”

“*heh* Thanks.” Keith sniffled out.

“Anytime.”

Lance tried to make it seem natural, but after several minutes of comforting Keith, even he had to admit

“This is a weird kind of angle for a hug, isn’t it?” Lance felt the air blow past him as Keith *sighed* through his nose.

“-s fine.”

“Yeah, but are you fine?”

“I will be.” Keith’s eyes were clearer now.

“Do you want me to stay with you? In case the nightmare memory comes back?”

Keith had to stop himself from blurting out ‘Yes’. He was surprised how quickly he wanted to respond ‘Yes’ to Lance. He wanted Lance to stay. But that might not be the safest place for Lance to be.

“Aren’t you already technically staying with me since you’re rooming here?”

“Good point, but I wasn’t able to wake you up yelling from the dollhouse. I had to get closer, so it would make sense for me to stay closer to you in case the dream happens again, but I would only do that if you’re ok with it. Do you want me to stay?”

“That might not be the safest idea. What if I roll over in my sleep and hurt you?”

“You’re a pretty sound sleeper. You don’t move around at all. Well, except for nightmares. And as soon as I feel the pillow move, I would know what’s happening and help wake you up from it. It would be fine, long as you’re ok with it.”

“*sigh* Ok. You can stay. Just for tonight.”

“Deal.”

Keith knew he rarely moved in his sleep, yet he was still worried about accidentally hurting Lance. But he trusted that Lance understood the risks. He sat up slowly and reached over towards the dollhouse, grabbed the bandana, and handed it over to Lance before lying back down.

“Thanks, Keith.”

“No problem.”

“Wait, is this the bandana from the fire?”

“Yes?”

“Dude, this is like the only thing you have left of your dad’s. I shouldn’t be using this!” Lance pushed the bandana away from himself.

“It’s fine.”

“But this is probably really special and significant to you.” Lance paused as he realized something. “Oh my God. I’ve been drooling all over the last thing your dad ever gave you!”

“It’s ok. It does mean a lot to me, but you need it more than I do. Besides, your drooling’s not really that noticeable at your height.”

“Yeah, but-“

“I said it’s fine, so it’s fine.”

“If you say so.”

Lance grabbed the bandana and pulled it up to his chin. A part of him still felt a bit guilty about using something that meant so much to Keith, but Keith had said it was fine.

“*heh* Usually I’m the one telling you it’s fine.”

“*heh* Yeah, I guess you are,” Keith responded with a small smile.

Lance could feel his eyelids growing heavy.

Keith *yawned* a moment later and looked over at the clock on the wall. “It’s getting late.”

“Or is it getting early?” Lance joked while trying to stifle a *yawn* of his own.

“Either way, it’s probably time for us to get some sleep.” He paused for a moment. “Thanks for listening.”

“No worries, Keith. If you ever want to talk about that stuff again, my door is always open. Or I guess my wall is always open since the wall of the dollhouse is open.”

“Does everything have to be a pun with you?”

“You know you love it.”

-me. But that’s just wishful thinking.

Keith rolled his eyes with a smile. “Goodnight, Lance.”

“Night, Keith.”

It was quiet for a minute.

“You’re staring again,” Lance said teasingly before he opened his eyes.

“Oh, uh, sorry. I’ll just turn around and-”

“Don’t worry about it, it’s fine. I’ve gotten used to it. Besides, I know how hard it is to take your eyes off all of this.”

“Oh my God, Lance, just go to sleep.” Keith *groaned* out into his pillow to hide his smile.

“Ok, fine. Buenas Noches, Keith.”

“G’night, Lance.”

This time, they both closed their eyes and fell asleep once more.

It was the best sleep Lance had had in a long time.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lance had lost track of how long they had been walking. Well, how long everyone but him had been walking given that he was riding in Keith’s utility belt pocket. He would have preferred a jacket pocket, but since the savanna-like planet of Gefahr was so warm, Allura thought it best that everyone wear their armor as it regulated temperature. There was no need for added layers.

Lance had tried to argue for riding on someone’s shoulder since the planet was uninhabited, but was quickly shot down by Hunk pointing out that just cause there are no people on the planet doesn’t mean there aren’t other creatures who might mean Lance harm. So Lance was stuck in the utility belt pocket.

Hunk had finally gotten around to fixing his own utility belt pockets so Lance had assumed he would go with him, but was surprised when Keith had volunteered to be the one to bring him along. Lance had jokingly said that he ‘could do with a change of scenery’, but once you’ve ridden in one utility belt pocket, you’ve ridden in them all. There was only the slightest of differences in material.

He kept watching the tall blue grass go by through the partially open zipper.

I’d ask how much longer it’s going to be, but I’d just get the same answer as all the other times.

‘You don’t want to bother them, right? Though you’ll find another way to bother them regardless.’

I don’t remember asking for your opinion.

Lance worked to ignore those thoughts and relax with the slight swaying of the pocket he was in. He could tell Keith and the rest of the group were moving slower than usual, most likely so it was a less bumpy ride for him. He was grateful but wanted to get out of the pocket sooner rather than later. It was starting to get a bit claustrophobic, but Lance didn’t want anyone else to know that. He didn’t want them to see him as weak.

Ok, it can’t be that much longer, right? Hunk was so excited to find a planet with new types of food to work with in the kitchen. Allura would have parked the castleship closer if we could, but apparently, the ground is too soft for the castleship to land without damaging it. She wouldn’t make us walk farther than we had to. Actually, no. She might consider it part of training, like pulling your weight.

‘You’re certainly not pulling your own weight.’

Hey, I have less weight to pull, so I don’t have to do as much.

‘And a good thing too. There’s not much you actually can do.’

I can do things!

‘Like what?’

Stuff…things…umm…

Lance was shaken from his thoughts as he felt the pocket stop swaying.

Finally.

“Can I come out yet?” Lance asked through the comms.

“Not yet. Pidge still has to do a scan of the nearby area to make sure there’s no animals that might be a threat to you.” Ryo answered.

“Don’t worry, it won’t take more than a few tics,” Hunk added on.

Lance heard the wrist scanner boot up and make a few sounds.

“Looks like we’re all clear. You’re good, Lance.” Pidge stated.

Thank God.

The zipper was opened all the way and Lance climbed onto Keith’s offered hand.

Keith brought him up to his shoulder.

“I’ll keep the scanner running so if something does get too close we’ll get a heads up since the castleships scanners are down while Coran works on them,” Pidge stated as she pushed a few buttons on said scanner.

“An excellent idea, Pidge. This way we can ensure Lance’s safety.” Allura commented.

“So this is the schakalberry tree?” Lance asked as everyone looked at the tree in front of them.

“Yep,” Hunk responded.

“That is one tall tree,” Ryo commented as he looked up towards the top of the tree.

“It’s huge!” Pidge exclaimed.

“I feel like an ant,” Keith added on.

“Think about how I feel,” Lance said from his shoulder.

I feel like an ant around the rest of the team. If they feel like ants with this tree, what does that mean I feel like? An ant to an ant? Is there a better way to phrase that?

‘Of course there is, but you aren’t about to think of it.’

“What exactly is an ant?” Allura asked.

“They’re a type of bug on earth,” Hunk responded. “They’re pretty little, like yea big.” Hunk pressed his pointer finger and thumb closer together but kept them from touching to show Allura how small ants are.

‘And that’s exactly what you are. A little bug, a pest. And what do we do with bugs?’

Nope, not thinking about that nightmare. Never thinking about that again. They would never actually do that.

‘Not intentionally, but well, accidents do happen.’

Lance could almost hear the smirk in the voice.

“Looks like there are some low hanging branches. Keith, why don’t you and Lance work on those while the rest of us pick some from the higher branches?” Allura suggested.

“That’s where the sweetest berries are according to the Falleans.” Hunk commented.

“Sounds good,” Keith responded.

“Here’s a bucket for you two.” Pidge handed one of the 5 buckets to Keith.

“Don’t I get my own bucket?”

“You aren’t really in the position to carry a bucket right now, Lance.” Hunk said gently.

“Even if we did have a bucket in your size, it would only hold a few berries. It just makes more sense for you and Keith to share.” Pidge pointed out.

“Ok, fair point,” Lance responded from Keith’s shoulder.

Pidge gave everyone else a bucket and they used their jetpacks to fly up towards the uppermost branches of the schakalberry tree.

Lance felt a little upset that he was, in essence, grounded even though his jetpack worked just fine. He understood the others’ worries about him falling, but the jetpack would stop him from falling. Or slow his falling enough for one of them to grab him. It wouldn’t be that big a deal. He knew they wouldn’t let him fall.

Keith was now standing in front of one of the low hanging branches. He put his hand out for Lance to climb on.

“Relax, Mullet. I got a jetpack too.”

“Are you ever going to stop calling me that?”

“Are you ever going to not have a mullet?” Lance stood up on Keith’s shoulder.

“No.”

“There’s your answer.”

With that Lance used his jetpack to fly over to the nearest branch. He almost didn’t notice Keith’s hands below him ready to catch him if he fell. Key word almost.

Does Keith think that I can’t do this too?

‘Of course he does. He’s stuck babysitting you while the others are actually doing something productive.’

Keith put the bucket down on the ground underneath the branch Lance was now standing on before walking over to another low hanging branch and starting to pick berries. Lance did the same.

The berries were the size of basketballs to him. He grabbed the closest one and started pulling on it. He could feel the resistance of the berry.

Ok, this is harder than I thought.

He looked over and saw Keith having no trouble with his branch.

Ok, maybe it’s just me. How to do this? Aha! Got it!

Lance grabbed the berry once more. This time as he pulled, he also used his jetpack for an extra boost. The berry resisted for a moment before coming free.

“Oof.” Lance landed on his back on the branch.

“Are you ok?” Lance saw the concerned look on Keith’s face.

“I’m good. Just needed a little boost strength-wise.”

“You don’t have to do this if it’s hard.”

“It’s fine, Keith.” Lance dropped the berry into the bucket below. “I want to help the team as much as I can while I’m like this. This is something I can do.”

Not well, but I can still do it.

Lance couldn’t help but feel inadequate when Keith walked over and dropped a handful of berries into the bucket.

Is this even worth the effort? At the rate I’m going, I’m only going to pick like 10 before Keith manages to fill the bucket. Every little bit counts, but my little bit is hardly a drop in the bucket. Or would it be berry in the bucket? Lance thought with a small smile.

‘You’re not funny.’

Yeah, I know.

It wasn’t too long before Keith was back with yet another handful of berries.

Lance grabbed another berry and started to pull with the help of his jetpack.

“Um, Lance?” Keith said.

“Yeah?” Lance responded after dropping the second berry into the bucket.

“I wanted to apologize for last night. The whole waking you up and-“

“You didn’t wake me up, Keith. I was awake for a bit before your nightmare memory thingee.”

“You were?”

“Yeah. The doll bed’s not really designed for actual use, so I’ve woken up in the middle of the night a few times. Last night was probably some of the best sleep I got since the whole getting shrunk thing.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Pillows are like clouds at this height.” Lance paused for a moment. “Thanks again for grabbing the bandana blanket for me.”

“No problem. Sorry about grabbing you in my sleep.”

“Grabbing’s a bit of a strong word, Keith. If anything, you draped your hand over me. Wait, is that the right word? Anyways, it’s more like your hand was a heated blanket of some kind. You didn’t smush me down into the pillow if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“But what if I had?”

“You wouldn’t, Keith. I know you wouldn’t hurt me. I’m fine, you’re fine,” very fine, “And everything is fine.”

That is the exact moment that things went wrong.

“Guys, something just popped up on the scanner. Make that several somethings.” Pidge warned through the comms.

“What direction are they coming from?” Keith looked around to see if he could figure it out himself.

“Overhead.” Pidge and the others landed in front of Keith and Lance.

Keith held out his hand for Lance to climb onto.

“What are they?” Ryo asked.

“Not sure. We designed the scanner to warn us of things that would be a threat. It doesn’t necessarily tell us what they are.” Hunk explained. “Bit of a design flaw on our part.”

“Well whatever it is, we should get ready,” Lance said.

“Coran, do you see anything on the ship’s scanners?” Allura asked through the comms.

“I haven’t finished updating them yet, so they’re not active. Why?”

“We have a lot of movement near us. We may need to make a quick exit. How soon can you get the castleship ready to leave?”

“Give me 15 dobashes and she’ll be ready to go.”

“You might want to hurry with that, Coran. We’ve got company.” Ryo said as an all too familiar ship came into view overhead flanked by two battle cruisers.

“How did Lotor find us here? The Falleans said that this was a safe planet!” Lance exclaimed.

“*Hmm* It has been a while since we’ve heard from the Falleans,” Keith commented mostly to himself.

“Lotor probably figured we were on their tail and would be looking to resupply somewhere,” Allura responded.

“What if there’s something you missed in my head? What if I’m the reason they found us?” Ryo worried out loud.

“We went over the data multiple times. If they had put anything in your mind we would have found it.” Pidge answered.

“Is there a chance they don’t know we’re here?” Hunk asked hopefully.

The ship started shooting at them.

“Well, that answers that question,” Keith said as he transferred Lance to one hand and activated his shield with the other.

“Coran, how much longer till the castleship’s ready to go?” Ryo asked.

“We’re working as fast as we can. It shouldn’t be more than another 13 dobashes. Do you want me to send the lions to meet you?”

“No, the planet drains their power somehow. We can’t risk them being grounded here.” Pidge responded.

“That means we can’t form Voltron. What do we do?” Hunk asked.

“We hold out until Coran can get the ship to us,” Ryo stated. “Keith, hide Lance. We don’t need Lotor to know he’s here with us.”

Keith slid Lance back into his utility belt pocket and zipped it most of the way shut.

“Everyone, protect Keith. We know he’s the intended target.” Allura reminded the group.

Lance remembered exactly what Lotor had said back then, all the way back when Lance took the hit for Keith. How it was ‘high time someone cut him down to size.’ They were lucky that Lotor hadn’t managed to hit his intended target. Lance wouldn’t want anyone else to have to go through what he’s going through.

I wonder why they’re targeting Keith anyways. Maybe because he’s half Galra? Or is it racist to assume that? Uggh. I hate not being able to see what’s going on.

“I don’t need protection,” Keith stated.

“True, but Lance does,” Allura commented. “Lotor finding us here is an unforeseen risk. We can’t afford anything happening to either of you.”

Nice to know they care, but I can protect myself.

‘Really now? Then, what would you call all the other times? You were almost stepped on, nearly crushed under a fist, trapped in a jewelry box, and let’s not forget all but dropped to your death, I could go on.’

Please don’t. That was before I knew how to handle myself at this height.

‘But that last time was only a few days ago.’

Lance ignored the voice as much as he could and tried to focus on the voices around him. He could hear Lotor speaking.

“You have something of mine, paladins.”

“Yeah? Well, you’ve got something of ours. Where’s Shiro?” Pidge demanded an answer.

“Ah, so you’ve discovered our little ruse.”

“Answer the question,” Keith growled out.

“Even if I did know his location I would not share it.”

“We will find him.” Allura declared.

“Do you hear that? They actually think they can find him.” Ezor mocked while the rest of the generals laughed.

Guess all of team Lotor is here too. Yay.

“We found Ryo.” Hunk pointed out.

“Oh, is that what the project’s calling itself these days?” Zethrid asked out loud.

“You only found this clone because we let you.” Lotor declared. “We left you a trail of breadcrumbs and you didn’t suspect a thing. True, we were hoping that it would be longer before you figured it out. We believed that with what’s happened to your most important paladin your team would fall apart, but you are still going strong. Credit where credit’s due.”

“Uh, thank you?”

“Hunk!”

“What? I’m just being polite.”

“Tell us what you’ve done with Shiro,” Ryo demanded.

“I haven’t done anything with him.”

“LIAR!"

Lance could feel how agitated Keith was. His shaking in anger was causing the utility belt pocket to shake as well.

“Believe what you will, but I was not involved in that aspect of the project.”

“Then why were you there guarding him?” Allura gestured to Ryo.

“I owed someone a favor.”

“Who?” Pidge glared at Lotor.

A look of realization came across Ryo’s face.

“The witch. Haggar.”

“I guess they did give you a brain after all.”

“Hey! Leave him alone!” Lance had managed to unzip the pocket enough for him to stick his upper body out.

The rest of his team turned and glared at him and Lance swore he could hear them all going “Boiiiii!” in their minds.

“It seems you have a little stowaway,” Lotor smirked down at Lance.

Oh, yeah, that’s scary. That is very scary.

“Good to know the spell worked.”

“What do you want, Lotor?” Allura asked while Keith put a protective hand in front of Lance to shield him from view.

“I already told you, you have something of mine. I am simply here to retrieve him.”

Lance figured Lotor had gestured towards Keith based on how the others reacted.

“We will not allow you to take him,” Allura stated.

“Yeah! Keith’s our friend!” Hunk declared.

“And teammate!” Pidge added.

“If you want him, you’re going to have to go through us,” Ryo said.

“So be it.”

Lance was glad that Keith had managed to zip him back in the pocket while everyone else was talking because things started moving quickly, causing him to fall down.

Ok, I’m a little sick of that happening.

He felt something press against the pocket. Whatever it was stopped and stayed in place once it felt him through the material.

“That you, Keith?” He hoped it was Keith. He couldn’t see much in the pocket with just the lights from his armor, not that there was much to see anyways.

“*mhmm*” Keith responded in the comms.

He must be using his shield to protect me. But what about him?

Lance could hear the clashing of metal around him.

There has to be something I can do.

Lance felt his surrounding shift as something hit the shield.

What was that?

Keith’s hand moved slightly but still managed to keep Lance from being shaken around in the pocket.

This kind of feels like being on that one flying saucer looking ride at the fair. The one where it spins really fast and you’re pushed against the wall and can’t move. What was that called again?

There was another sharp lurch in a different direction. Then yet another direction.

Or maybe this is more like bumper cars. With a blindfold on. Would it be better if I could see what’s happening?

Lance barely stopped himself from puking as there was a sudden drop.

Yeah, don’t think seeing would help.

The force pressing against him disappeared and he fell on his hands and knees as the pocket was jerked once more.

“I got him!” Lance heard Zethrid say.

“Good. Get him to the ship.” Axha responded as the pocket started shaking.

Keith must be trying to get away.

Lance heard a zipping sound and saw that more light was coming in.

Why would Keith be opening-? That’s not Keith!

Lance had learned to recognize his teammates’ hands from his new perspective. He was pretty sure none of them had claws or red skin.

“And he even brought his little friend along for the trip.” Ezor taunted as her hand approached Lance.

Lance backed up into a corner of the pocket in an attempt to get away. Seeing one of his friends’ hands reaching for him was intimidating enough at this height. Seeing an enemy’s hand reaching for him was downright terrifying.

“Get away from him!” Keith was still trying to break free from Zethrid’s grip causing the pocket to shake and making it harder for Ezor to grab at Lance.

Lance managed to avoid the first few attempts, but Ezor eventually snatched him up and start lifting him out of the pocket. Lance’s fight or flight instinct kicked in and he bit Ezor’s finger.

“Ow!” Ezor dropped Lance back into the pocket and yanked her hand out of it.

“Babe, are you ok?” Zethrid’s grip loosened slightly at her girlfriend’s exclamation allowing Keith to break out of it and quickly re-zip his pocket shut.

“He bit me.” Ezor shot an offended look at Keith and Lance.

“That’s it. No more Mr. nice guy.” Zethrid said.

That was her being nice?! Lance thought as he worked to get his heart to stop racing.

Zethrid and Ezor started charging towards Keith but were suddenly blasted back by a flash of pink energy.

“I believe we said we would not let you take him.”

Keith looked over and saw Allura standing nearby, a small hint of a pink glow still around her outstretched hand.

“Besides,” Pidge joined Allura, “2 against 1 isn’t really fair.”

What about me? Don’t I count for something?

‘No, you don’t.’

Hey, I can fight too!

‘Yeah, cause biting someone’s finger and then cowering in a corner is a real asset to the team.’

“You ok, Lance?” Keith asked as he put his hand back protectively over the pocket and reactivated his shield.

“Yeah, you?” Lance put his hand against Keith’s through the fabric of the pocket to let him know he was alright.

“Just a scratch. No big deal.”

“You can’t keep him from us forever,” Axha commented as she fought against Ryo.

“I can do this all day.”

“And they can do this for much longer,” Lotor stated before multiple transports full of robot sentries dropped down into the fray.

“Why does every villain have an army of robots?” Hunk asked as he avoided a hit from Narti, who had Kova perched on her shoulder. “Nice kitty. I don’t want to hurt you-”

*HISS!!!*

“-But you clearly want to hurt me! Coran, what’s the ETA?”

“It’ll be at least another 4 doboshes until she’s up and running.”

More sentries dropped from the sky surrounding the group.

“That’s not going to be enough time,” Allura stated as she blasted 3 of the sentries to bits before more took their place.

“We need a new plan,” Ryo added as he sliced one up.

“Wait, Lance,” Keith said while blocking a strike from another sentry. “What about pharaohs?”

“Pharaohs? What do dead Egyptian dudes have to do with anything?”

“No, pharaohs! What we talked about yesterday."

“Wait, do you mean Feroz?”

“That’s what I said.”

That was hardly close at all.

“Why not just say ‘Red’?” Lance was honestly curious as to why Keith was trying to be cryptic.

“Think, Lance.” Keith was forced back by yet another sentry.

“Oh! Because Lotor and crew can hear what you’re saying, but not so much what I’m saying. That way they don’t know the plan!”

“Good.” Lance could hear the smile in Keith’s voice.

“I think I’m thinking what you’re thinking. Coran, would you be able to open Red’s hangar door?”

“Yes, but that would just drain her energy.”

“True, but Red’s the fastest out of the lions. She could make it to us and bring us to the ship in time for liftoff before being drained completely.”

“It’s risky,” Allura commented.

“But it might be our only chance,” Ryo added.

“It seems doable. Pidge, do you think it would work?” Hunk asked.

“Yes. It will work. Do it, Coran.”

“Red’s on her way. I’ll have Black on stand-by in case she doesn’t make it all the way back.”

“She’ll make it back” Lance stated. “She’s Feroz.”

“Whatever you and your paladins are thinking of doing, it won’t work,” Ezor stated.

“We have you surrounded and outnumbered,” Axha said from the opposite side of the group.

“You’re not getting away this time.” Zethrid threatened from another side with Kova *meowing* in agreement on Narti’s shoulders opposite her.

The sentries closed in more on team Voltron. All members of team Voltron found themselves turning between facing each of the 5 members of team Lotor, not sure which of them might strike first.

Keith was the only one to notice Axha aiming a shot at the back of Ryo’s head. He ran over and reached his arm and shield out and blocked the shot.

Ezor aimed her gun as well.

*pa-choo*

Suddenly there was a hole right through the utility belt pocket only an inch above Lance’s head from his perspective.

“¡Ah Dios!”

“Lance!” Keith quickly put his shield back in front of Lance.

“As we said before, there will be no escape for you this day.” Lotor proclaimed.

*ROAR*

All eyes turned towards the sound to see Red racing towards team Voltron.

“That’s what you think, suckers!” Pidge exclaimed as Red grabbed everyone in her tractor beam and activated her shield. Once in the cockpit, Keith grabbed the controls and Red started heading back to the castleship.

Team Lotor continued to fire until they could no longer see Red in the sky.

“What are your orders?” Axha looked over to Lotor.

“Let them leave. We’ve accomplished our goal here.”

“No way they’re letting him on any more missions after that stunt,” Zethrid commented.

“Is that really going to stop him though?” Ezor added with a smile.

“We’ll have to see what the cameras show us on their ship,” Axha answered.

“Is your finger alright, Ezor?” Zethrid let a bit of worry show on her face as she cradled her girlfriend’s hands in her own.

“It’s fine, babe. He can’t bite that hard at that height anyway. He just surprised me. Why? You gonna kiss it better?”

“Of course. Now, was it this finger?” *kiss*

“Nope.”

“Was it this one?” *kiss*

“No.” *giggle*

“How about this one?” *kiss*

*giggle*

Kova *meowed* on Narti’s shoulder.

“You’re right, Narti. It is interesting that the green paladin didn’t try to hack the sentries. And after all the trouble you went through to take down their firewalls and make it so they would self-destruct once hacked.” Lotor lamented.

“Voltron seems to still believe that the red paladin is our target,” Axha observed.

“Good. They won’t realize our true target until it’s too late. You three can head back to the ship now. I have something to discuss with Ezor.”

The other three generals headed towards one of the transports, but not before Zethrid kissed Ezor on the back of her hands and gave them a reassuring squeeze.

Once the transport took off, Lotor turned to Ezor.

“When I chose each of you as my generals, I asked for one thing in return: Loyalty. To me and the cause. You were told to target only the red paladin. Why did you deliberately go against my orders?”

“I saw an opportunity to take the blue paladin without having to deal with the more complicated parts of the plan.” Ezor tried not to show how nervous she was.

“And what did that get you?”

“My finger got bit and he got away.” She looked down in shame.

“Exactly. You gained nothing from your actions. By targeting the blue paladin directly, you nearly alerted his team to the truth. If Voltron found out that he was our true target this early it would be disastrous. Not only that, when you were told to aim near the top of the pocket, you aimed for the middle.”

“I thought that it would be more effective if the ‘close call’ shot was closer to him. It would convince them even more that he shouldn’t be out in the field.”

“And in doing so you risked everything. If he had been sitting up any more in the pocket, your shot would have killed him. Need I remind you we need the blue paladin alive for the plan to work?”

“I understand, Lotor.”

“I’m not so sure you do.” Lotor brought a hand to the hilt of his sword.

Ezor *gulped*. She watched as Lotor seemed to debate something in his head while tightening his grip.

Lotor *sighed* to himself before letting go of the hilt and letting his hand fall back down to his side.

“You are young and naïve. There is much you do not know. Consider this a learning experience and see that it does not happen again. Fate may not be so kind to you in the future.”

“Yes, Lotor.” Ezor’s voice shook slightly from nervousness as she avoided looking him in the eyes.

“*sigh* You know I care about you.” Lotor put the hand that had grabbed his sword on Ezor’s shoulder and noticed her slight flinch. “I still hate to think about what might have happened all those years ago if I hadn’t intervened. They were hurting you. And all because you are only ¼ Galra.” Lotor used his other hand to tilt Ezor’s head up so she was looking at him. “You are Galra. That should be enough for them. I know it is enough for me. Us part Galra have to stick together. We’re family, after all.”

“I know.”

“I realize I have been unfair to you and the others. I have been keeping many details of the plan under wraps for fear of anyone beyond us learning of them. I am deeply sorry for that.”

“You don’t have to apologize, it’s ok. We all understand. If we needed to know you would let us know.”

“While on the subject, I have an important task for you and Narti tomorrow. I’ve already explained Narti’s role to her, but you are the key to this portion of the plan. Everything depends on you doing exactly as I tell you.”

“I won’t let you down again.”

“I know you won’t. Now pay attention. This is important."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Are you sure you’re ok, Lance?”

“Yes, Hunk. I’m fine.” Lance tried to push away Hunk’s worried hands that had been hovering around him since he came out of the healing pod. “I mean, yeah, I’m a bit shaken, but not stirred!” Lance smiled at the reference he made.

“I’m going to assume that’s another earth phrase?” Coran said.

“Something along those lines,” Keith responded.

“*ahem* If we could get back on topic, please,” Allura interjected. “Given recent events, we have a few things to discuss as a team. Coran, have you had any success in contacting the Falleans?”

“Not yet, Princess. All I’m getting is static. I’ll keep adjusting the frequency and see if I can get through.”

“We need to let them know that Gefahr is no longer safe. What could have happened that would affect the signal?” Allura wondered out loud.

“It is possible their communicator was damaged,” Pidge suggested.

“The Galra could have something to do with it.” Ryo pointed out.

“Either way, we should continue trying to contact them.” Allura declared.

“Why not just teleduv over there and see what’s going on?” Lance suggested.

“Because we can’t form Voltron right now,” Pidge answered.

“Red was barely able to make it back to the castleship before being completely power drained,” Hunk added on.

“We don’t know what’s on the other side of the wormhole,” Coran mentioned.

“If it is the Galra, as Ryo suspects, it would be best to be able to form Voltron,” Allura explained.

“True, true,” Lance commented.

“Plus, if the Galra are involved we don’t want to walk into a trap,” Ryo responded.

“When does Red say she’ll be ready?” Lance asked.

“Red says she should be ready by tomorrow morning,” Keith answered after asking Red herself through their mental link.

“*sigh* Good.” Allura switched back to her serious face. “We also need to work on our protection formations.”

“I thought we did a good job today. They didn’t get Keith.” Pidge commented.

“They almost did,” Allura responded. “It was sheer dumb luck that Keith got away. We need to be better next time.”

“I don’t need protection,” Keith said.

“Until we can figure out what Lotor wants with you, you do. And in the future, we might have to protect someone less capable of protecting themselves. It is a good idea to do some more training.” Ryo pointed out.

“Fine.” Keith accepted.

“And finally, Lance. Are you quite sure you’re alright?” Allura asked.

“Yeah, it was just a few cuts and bruises. Nothing too serious."

“Nothing too serious?! You almost died!” Hunk exclaimed.

“But I didn’t! I’m fine.”

“You got lucky this time,” Pidge interjected. “If that shot had been a millimeter lower, you wouldn’t be here now.”

“And now we know Lotor and his team are not above targeting you in the field.” Ryo pointed out.

“It is for all these reasons and more that certain precautions must be made. Pidge, would you be able to bring up the rules list?” Allura asked.

“Give me just a sec.” Pidge typed on her laptop. “Got it.”

“From now on, Lance is not to go on any mission regardless of the risk involved.” Allura declared.

“What?” Lance said softly. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“No missions. Period.” Pidge simplified as she edited the rules list.

“We discussed it while you were in the pod and agreed that the risk is just too great.” Ryo apologetically said to Lance.

“But…but the other missions I’ve gone on like this went ok. We didn’t know that Lotor would show up!”

“Exactly,” Allura stated. “We do not always know what we will face in the field. This last mission was proof of that.”

“That was probably just a fluke or something!”

“A fluke that almost cost you your life,” Keith responded, worry showing in his voice. “You didn’t even try to stay hidden when Lotor showed up. You let them know where you were as soon as they landed.”

“Well, next time I’ll stay quiet and if Lotor and crew show up, they won’t even know I’m there.”

“Even if you could manage to be quiet that long, Lotor’s team would assume you’re tagging along on every mission now.” Pidge pointed out. “The best thing for you to do is stay on the castleship where you’re safe.”

“But I want to help!”

“You can help Coran on the bridge,” Ryo mentioned gently.

But that’s not the same.

“Please, Lance. We just want to make sure you’re safe.” Hunk said upon seeing Lance’s dejected face.

“We’re paladins of Voltron. We risk our lives every day.” Lance said while wondering

Why is it different for me?

“And we can’t risk something happening to you,” Coran responded. “You are the most vulnerable of us right now.”

‘See? Even Coran doesn’t think you can do anything. Vulnerable, weak, useless.’

“The Galra almost took you,” Keith said.

“If they had taken you, who knows what they would do?” Hunk worried out loud.

“Lotor would use you against us. He could force us to hand over Keith.” Allura stated.

‘See who she actually cares about? Surprise, surprise, it’s not you.’

“For everyone’s safety and peace of mind, yours especially, you need to stay where it’s safe, ok?” Ryo said.

“*sigh* I’ll stay where it’s safe.” Lance agreed.

“Good.”

But I never agreed that that was the castleship.

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Realities without Lance: 137 (+11)

Previous Next Masterpost

#pocket paladin #voltron #klance #g/t klance #g/t #VLD #g/t writing #keith #Lance #Giant/tiny #Shrinking #shrunk #writing #stories

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janestrider · 6 years ago

Text

Things that should have happened in s6 that did not happen

Because I’m apparently forever salty as hell over what happened to Kuron and feel like venting some more.

Someone checking up on “Shiro” after Omega Shield

*insert Keith saying “are we even friends??”* ‘Geez whatever! he was only screaming in agony and seeing weird visions. Why would we even ask what any of that was about? Not like it could be important or anything.’ But really, where was the comfort?? Where was the Comfort!?

The other paladins trying to get through to mind controlled “Shiro”

Again *insert Keith saying “are we even friends??”* Why did no one try to do this? They were all just “what’s wrong?” and then “shiro’s lost it!!” like they all just immediately wrote him off as evil and that was that.

Some focus on how the whole being mind controlled thing was painful and horrific for Kuron

Aside from the beginning where he’s clutching his head in agony, there really isn’t any focus on how much of a violation this is. The galra already took so much from Shiro, and now they’ve taken his free will and made him turn on the only “family” he has. Hell, his entire identity is revealed to be fabricated by the Galra. Yet all we really get to see is how much this hurts Keith. Look, Keith is so sad that Shiro isn’t listening to him. He’s so sad that Shiro’s saying all these hurtful things. Shiro literally got his arm sliced off LOOK HOW SAD KEITH IS ABOUT IT. All we got was two seconds of clarity and a shaky “Keith..” out of him before he passes out dies and it’s never brought up again.

More moments where Keith actually got through to Shiro/Shiro fighting back

All we got was a split second of hesitation at the “I love you.” Any other thing I’ve seen where a character is mind controlled, they usually break through a couple times, fight back, hesitate or something! I was waiting for Kuron to tell Keith to kill him, because he couldn’t hold back forever or something to that extent. Just some indication that he was resisting. Instead we had thousands of words of meta written by fans desperately trying to prescribe some form of agency to Kuron because the show couldn’t bother to do it. Saying things like he took Keith to the facility on purpose to destroy it, or he looked really scared for a second before firing his laser, or he fought Keith with a sword most of the time because he knows Keith is really good with swords and it gave him a better chance. But this is all just speculation. The fact is, no one cared enough about Kuron to give him any agency any more than they cared about giving him emotional stakes.

Self-sacrifice

Another thing I tend to see in this trope. I expected Keith to refuse to kill Shiro, because they’re friends and he knows he’s a good person and it’s not his fault. I expected him to go so far as to lower his weapon, because he trusts Shiro would never really hurt him. Then Kuron manages to stop himself at the critical moment where he’s about to strike the final blow. And instead of hurting Keith, he somehow turns the blow on himself. Like he cuts off his own arm with the bayard or something. Is this cliche as hell? Maybe, but I don’t care. I love seeing people saved by the power of love ok?

What did we get instead? Kuron is never able to stop himself. Keith, rather than refusing to hurt him, cuts his arm off in a moment of galra strength rage that basically kills him.

Communication, forgiveness, affirmation

I was waiting, ok? Waiting! When Keith and Kuron were hanging off the edge, for Kuron to tell Keith to let him go, and Keith to tell him he’s not giving up on him. And then for Kuron to tell him he’s not the real Shiro. He’s like those clones falling down. Keith should let him fall too. He already destroyed their friends and he doesn’t want Keith to die as well. And he tries to let go, but Keith won’t let him. Because even if he is a clone, Keith still made a promise, “As many times as it takes, remember?” And they’re both crying and they both fall. And that’s when the Black Lion saves them both.

I waited for this to happen and it didn’t. It’s why TBP ep is so upsetting to me and I can’t understand why so many people like it. They basically took everything good and redeeming that I love about the mind control trope and stripped it all away, leaving nothing but a flashy, well animated action scene with a disturbing message.

Mourning/Resolution

And of course, I’ve talked this into the ground but, if they really needed him to die, it would have been nice to not have his body taken without his consent. Would have been nice for him to have some agency in this. Would have been nice for the others to give a f**k about him and like mourn him for like two seconds. *insert Keith saying “are we even friends??”* Would have been nice for there to be verbal and/or visual confirmation of a “merge,” and it would have been super nice for the real Shiro to show some compassion and not call him a “thing” or “evil.” Would have been super cool really. Probably would have cried good sad tears for a while, instead of horribly depressed tears.

But you know I would have preferred for Kuron to live, for Allura to use her magic bullshit to just fabricate a new body for Shiro (because it’s magic bullshit so why the f**k not) and have Shiro and Kuron adopt each other. Seriously would have been the best thing ever. Probably wouldn’t have hated s7 so much. Might have even given s8 a chance. Of course, if they were good enough to write the above story for s6, s7 and 8 probably would have been a little better too. Who knows?

#coley blogs voltron #i wanted to make a comic of the scene where they're both hanging and have that little exchange #but i just don't have the motivation for it anymore #salt and rage can only motivate me to create so much #the best i can muster is a meta/essay at this point #i'm reaching my limit #i need a new hyperfixation but i'm afraid to love again #because something like voltron s6-8 was allowed to exist how can i ever trust another show to not only be disappointing #but also horrifyingly depressing #salt #voltron critical #voltron meta #kuron deserved better #justice for kuron

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sideofwritingsandramblings · 6 years ago

Text

Day 3: Cannibalism: the (almost) bsd au

For @sheithmonth prev / on ao3 / next July 3rd - 24 Hours

Allura stood before them with a clipboard held tightly to her chest and Keith felt his stomach drop as he took in her grim expression, eyes downcast and mouth set in a thin line. Coran stood to her left and slightly behind her, and he was uncharacteristically quiet. Shiro stood close beside Keith, his human hand reaching for Keith’s own.

“It’s some kind of… virus,” Allura started, holding her clipboard out to them which Shiro took quickly, “A virus that in 24 hours will kill the both of you, unless we can find an antidote.”

“And what if we can’t find an antidote?” Shiro asked, “Is there anything else we can do?”

Allura and Coran shared a look, obviously keeping something from them. Keith could only assume it was even worse news.

“There is another way,” Coran started but seemed to struggle to find the words, “But-you see... it is a last resort. Under no circumstances will either of you consider this until the very last moment, do you understand?”

Keith could feel Shiro’s eyes on him but he stared ahead to Coran, dreading the words that would come next. They nodded and Keith felt Shiro squeeze his hand tightly.

“The virus has connected the two of you together. Your life forces anyway,” Coran continued, “If we can’t find a way to reverse it in time you both will die, unless… one of you dies first. If the connection is broken between the hosts, the virus will be destroyed with it.”

Keith closed his eyes, suddenly feeling the weight of both his own life and Shiro’s on his shoulders. It had only taken a split second and he already knew what he had to do. Shiro had already died once, and Keith was not going to let that happen again.

“Keith, look at me,” Shiro grabbed his shoulders to turn him and Keith slowly met his eyes, “We’ll figure this out.”

“I know Shiro,” Keith replied softly.

22 Hours Remain

When the paladins had first arrived on this small, seemingly harmless planet, they were simply answer a ship’s distress call that had crashed on its surface. They could have never expected the sinister virus that had spread itself across the planet. The Black Paladins had been the only two to go down to the planet’s surface, and they had unfortunately not taken the proper precautions. The moment they stepped off the ship they had been alerted by their suits that there was oxygen. Yet the suits didn’t account for what else was in the air.

The moment Shiro and Keith took a breath of the crisp air a strange sigil had appeared between them before disappearing just as quickly. But the damage had already been done and they were overcome with symptoms. Coughing, intense pain, and dizziness that had them both falling to their knees. They hardly got themselves back into the Black Lion and Keith struggled to pilot them back to the Atlas. Now they knew the crew of the crashed vessel had been killed by the virus long before Shiro and Keith had arrived on the scene.

And unfortunately, Allura’s diagnosis was incomplete. She knew what the virus would do to them but had no data on its origin or how to stop it. For now she could only give them pain meds to fight the symptoms.

Keith knocked his head back against the headrest of the Black Lion’s pilot chair. Shiro stood, an ever constant presence, behind him with his hand resting on Keith’s shoulder.

They had spent the past two hours in the lion scouring the surface of the small unnamed planet for any sign of intelligent life. Life that perhaps knew how to combat the virus. But no such luck. Sickeningly, they could only find empty ruins and sometimes alien remains, including those of the crew that had the unfortunate luck to crash on this hellish planet.

The other paladins were currently doing their part to rescue their infected comrades. Pidge was contacting every single ally they had to see if any information was known about the virus. Lance and Hunk had gone down to the surface in reinforced suits to collect samples of the fauna that might have produced the virus. And Allura and Coran took those samples to study.

Allura was convinced that the virus had started as a natural illness but dark magic had been used to enhance its effects, thus explaining the magic sigil Shiro and Keith had seen. However, that would imply there was a caster and perhaps if they could find them, they could reverse the spell.

“But why would someone make a virus like that worse?” Lance had asked, annoyed.

“I can only assume that it was used as some kind of biological warfare,” Allura replied, “If you can affect multiple enemies they would either die or be forced to kill one another to survive.”

“That’s so fucked up!” Pidge cried, "But we can stop it, right?"

"I… I don't know," Allura replied sadly, "But we have to try everything we can."

Keith heard a groan of pain from behind him, pulling him out of his thoughts. He reached his hand back to cover Shiro’s but kept his eyes on the planet below. Keith also felt a stab of pain in his stomach, one of the many symptoms of the virus, and could only imagine how much worse it might get as they get closer to the end.

They searched for hours but came up empty.

There was no avoiding the heavy exhaustion that overcame the Black Paladins as time wore on. They only had just over half a day remaining, but they were forced to retreat back to the Atlas, both almost asleep on their feet.

The symptoms were taking a lot out of them and the pain was just getting worse.

Shiro pulled Keith by the hand into their room and down onto the bed. Keith snuggled as close as he could, hugging Shiro tightly to his chest. They would only sleep for an hour, it was decided, and despite their dire situation Keith drifted off quickly.

12 Hours Remain

Keith awoke, feeling a little bit better, and reached out to pull Shiro closer.

But the space beside him was empty.

He shot upright from the bed, already in panic, but was immediately calmed when he saw Shiro sitting on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands. Keith edged quietly towards him, wrapping his arms around Shiro’s shaking frame.

“I was going to leave,” Shiro admitted quietly.

“I know. I’ve thought about it too.”

Shiro turned to look at him and Keith could see the pain and grief in Shiro’s gaze, “Keith, I can’t let you die. You have to let me go.”

Keith shook his head, arms tightening, “I’ve already mourned you twice. You can’t do this to me again Shiro. I can’t do it again. We… we’ll just have to go together.”

Shiro let out a shuddering breath, twisting on the bed to hug Keith back. Keith moved his hands to instead cradle Shiro’s face and then leaned forward to press a kiss to Shiro’s forehead. And then to the scar across his nose and his cheeks, until he finally gave in and kissed him properly.

There was a desperation in this kiss that Keith had never experienced. Sure they’ve had adrenaline fueled kisses before and after missions, but this? This was Shiro pushing Keith down into the mattress and practically devouring him. It was like they couldn’t get close enough.

How could they possibly get close enough when they had so little time left? Keith felt dizzy and he no longer knew if it was a symptom of the virus or their breathless kisses.

They moved against one another, and Keith took his time exploring Shiro’s body, committing every moan and breathless sigh Shiro made to memory. And as they lay panting after they found release, Keith knew he had no regrets. If this was where his life would end, he had been so lucky to meet and have Shiro. That was enough.

6 Hours Remain

Pidge slammed their hands down on the table, “There has to be something else we can do!”

The rest of the table remained silent, and it started to sink in just how hopeless their situation had become. Shiro and Keith were both bedridden, the full effects of the virus taking hold.

Allura and Coran had successfully replicated the antidote to the natural virus but, due to the nature of the dark magic, the antidote alone couldn’t reverse the damage. Pidge had also had no luck discovering any information from their allies either. No one had seen or heard of this planet or its virus before. Their only chance was to find the original caster. However, between Keith and Shiro’s visual search and the Atlas’ own scans for life, they all came up completely empty. It was possible the caster wasn't even on the planet anymore.

“Wh-What if we could find another one of those clone bodies of Shiro?” Hunk started, “I mean maybe if his soul was transferred to a new body… wouldn’t that be enough to break the spell?”

“Perhaps,” Allura replied, “But we’re not even sure if any of the clone bodies survived Keith and Kuron’s fight. And, even if we could find one in time, I’m honestly not sure that Shiro will survive yet another body transfer.”

Pidge sat for a few more minutes listening to the conversation but could tell it was going nowhere. They couldn’t just waste all their time here talking. They had to do something now.

Pidge stood from the table and walked away without looking back.

2 Hours Remain

Shiro had been passed out for a while now and it was easy enough for Keith to sneak out of bed and slip out of the room without anyone noticing. The pain had spread from his stomach to his lungs and throat and, honestly, everywhere just ached. He knew there wasn’t much time left. And he’d already made up his mind. He’d wait, like Coran said, for the very last moment. But when that moment came, he’d be ready to make the sacrifice.

He was not going to let Shiro die.

Keith stumbled his way into the hanger, bypassing the Black Lion to instead jump into a small fighter jet that had been assembled and brought from Earth. He entered the various launch codes and prepared himself. For a moment he hesitated. He wanted so badly to go back to their room, press himself close to his lover, and spend his last moments alive in Shiro’s arms. But then they would both die.

Taking a deep breath Keith started up the engine and resolved himself. However, just as he began to lift off, the sigil from before reappeared in front of him, burned brightly for a moment, and then burst in front of his eyes.

2 Hours Remain (but somewhere else)

Pidge coughed into their hand, ignoring the blood that collected on their glove. It had been four hours since Pidge first touched down on the virus’ planet and 2 hours since they’d taken off their helmet. Just as suspected, however, since they were the only living creature on the planet, only the natural virus was taking effect and the sigil hadn’t yet appeared.

Pidge stopped in front of another large scattering of ruins and placed their hand on the side of one of the broken walls that was covered in vines. They closed their eyes. The Olkari had taught them everything they needed to know about connecting with nature, and yet another scene appeared before them.

Pidge saw a memory of a group of druids running into what once had been a large cathedral-looking building and disappearing underneath the ground. Pidge opened their eyes and ran to the spot on the ground where they’d vanished, finding it covered with rotten wooden boards. It took a little while to cut through and move them aside, but below them was a stairwell leading underground.

Pidge followed, finding an old, dusty hallway that eventually led out into a large open room. In the center was a dark orb of quintessence and behind that, with its hands pressed against the orb, was a single druid.

Immediately drawing their bayard, Pidge readied to go on the attack, but the druid didn’t appear to notice them.

“Hey!” Pidge yelled at it, but still the druid did not move, “If you’re the one controlling the virus, I’m going to need you to stop!”

Pidge threw out their bayard and it connected with the druid’s mask, ripping it off, and Pidge froze in shock when they realized the druid was dead. The figure was still hunched over the orb, somehow generating energy, but all that was left of the druid itself were bones covered in its tattered robe.

“Okay, that’s horrifying,” Pidge said, pulling back their bayard and taking aim for a second shot.

Lining it up, they threw it again but this time connected directly with the orb, knocking it out of the druid’s hands and onto the floor. The glass container cracked and dark energy began to spill out.

“That can’t be good.”

The druid’s skeletal face snapped up to look at Pidge with glowing red eye sockets.

“Oh shit!”

Pidge didn’t wait to watch what would happen next, running out of the room before the druid could figure out how to move its skeletal legs. P idge ran down the hallway, up the stairs, and tore out of the ruins. They called out to their Lion the whole time and luckily the Green Lion was ready and waiting when they burst outside. Without even hesitating the Green Lion shot from her tail behind Pidge, where the druid had been catching up. Pidge turned back in time to see the druid get knocked back and a large sigil appear in front of it before exploding in a burst of light.

The druid collapsed and Pidge decided to get the fuck out of there.

When Pidge returned to the hanger, Keith was waiting for them.

“You actually did it,” he said with a tired smile.

“Sure. Yeah. No problem, but why are you not in bed!” Pidge scolded, helping Keith stand up and pulling him back towards their rooms by his hand, “Allura still needs to treat the virus with the antidote now that the spell is broken. You could still die if you’re not careful!”

“It looks like you need the antidote too,” Keith shot back, elbowing Pidge in the side.

“Yeah yeah, I’ll be fine,” Pidge replied, and Keith could swear he saw tears in their eyes.

“You okay? You didn’t get hurt down there?”

“I’m fine, it’s just… We almost didn’t make it. If it wasn’t for what I learned from the Olkari, I never would have found the source of the magic in time. You and Shiro would have both died and we would have just had to sit there and watch.”

Keith didn’t speak for a moment, letting himself get pulled down the hallways of the Atlas. He didn’t tell Pidge that Shiro would have been fine in the end. But if he could guess from the looks they were giving him, Pidge already knew why Keith had been in the hanger.

“You’re not allowed to die either, okay?”

Keith smiled, still unused to having so many people who cared about him, “Okay.”

2 Hours Later

With the antidote distributed to the three paladins, Shiro, Keith, and Pidge were already on their way to a full recovery.

The moment Pidge and Keith had walked through the bedroom door Shiro had pulled them both into a tight hug. Keith knew that Shiro was going to chew him out later for leaving in the first place, but for now they simply took the time to appreciate being alive.

Pidge had gone back to their own room to rest and Allura went about preparing the Atlas for launch so that Shiro didn’t have to. The rest of the team was working on alerting all of their allies about the planet and its virus.

Now that a couple of hours have passed the symptoms have mostly abated, and Shiro and Keith were finishing off some delicious food goo prepared by Hunk.

“I’m sorry for leaving,” Keith said softly, avoiding Shiro’s eyes as they cuddled close on their couch.

“I know how stubborn you can be. Honestly I should have handcuffed us together,” Shiro teased, pressing a kiss to the side of Keith’s head, “You really scared me when I woke up and you weren’t there. When the sigil was destroyed I was sure you were-”

Shiro cut off, unable to say it out loud.

“I’m just... glad you’re back,” Shiro said instead.

Keith finally met Shiro’s eyes again, “It’s good to be back.”

#sheithmonth #sheithmonth2019 #sheith #fanfic #voltron #my fics #if you were wondering about the title i explain it better on ao3

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bosstoaster · 6 years ago

Note

One, I am surprised you were not lost during the purge. Two, I appreciate your dedication and spite. Three, Shiro and Keith, domestic evenings (or whatever qualifies as an evening when you're traversing the universe and time has no real meaning)

Yeah, I honestly came out of it pretty cleanly, but it helps that most of my original stuff is text-based, which the site doesn’t screw over quite so horribly. So I’m still here. Hi!

Anyway, spite fluff time:

The door to Shiro's quarters opened in reaction to hispresence, rather than at the press of his hand. Which was good, because Shiro's hands were busy, already unbuttoning thecollar and first flap of his uniform. Itgaped open, revealing the plain white tank top underneath. The door closed behind him, and Shiro took adeep breath. The air was no differenthere than in any other part of the ship. But he still felt like it was lighter, easier to take in.

There was one difference between his quarters and the restof Atlas, though. And he was currentlysprawled out on the couch, not even looking up from his book.

Shiro unbuttoned the rest of his top as he made his wayover, then sat down on the far end of the couch. When Keith still didn't payattention, he climbed over long legs to flop himself over him, head resting onhis chest.

Keith still didn't look up, but he shifted his grip on hisbook so he could hold it in one hand. The other found Shiro's head, petting through his hair. "Bad meeting?"

Grunting, Shiro closed his eyes. "It went fine. It was just long. Really, letting Pidge be in charge of the MFEupgrades was the worst idea anyone ever had. She and Nadia are a match made in hell. If I find out one more time that they made a secret modification to herplane, I'm going to lock them out of the hangers for a month."

Keith chuckled, still slowly petting. The hand went away for a moment and there wasthe sound of a page turning, but then it returned. "No, you won't."

It was true, but Shiro still made a disagreeing noise. He finally opened his eyes, taking in Keith'srelaxed expression. Between Atlas andBlade relief missions, they both worked odd and unpredictable hours. As frustrating as it could be, Shiro foundhimself glad. They were both doing what they loved, and it made it impossibleto take the quiet moments for granted. He'd been guilty of that before, in previous relationships. Shiro never wanted to do that to Keith. They'd survive, they'd talk it out, but itwould hurt them in between.

That in mind, Shiro took advantage of Keith's loose loungeclothes. His natural fingers snuck upunder the hem, tracing tiny swirls and patterns against Keith's stomach. It earned him a twitch and a hint of a smile,but Keith narrowed his eyes and forced himself to keep reading.

Heh.

"Good book?" Shiro asked. "What are youreading?"

Keith paused, then snapped the book closed. He held it up so the cover was facing Shiro,one brow up.

Squinting, Shiro frowned at the cover. The letters blurred at the edge, bleedinginto each other.

Before he could make out the words, the book suddenly tiltedforward, until the edge rested on Shiro's forehead. "Did you talk with Doctor Fraiser?"

This again. Shiroscowled and pushed the book off his head so he could meet Keith's eyes. "There's no need. Besides, you know how busy I am. I don't have time."

"No need. Whichis why you know the title of my story, right? If you asked the crew to make space for you to see a doctor, you knowthey'd do it for you." Keithdropped the book on the coffee table, still frowning at Shiro. "Why don't you want to do this?"

"Because I don't have to." But when Keith just stared, he sighed. "It's ridiculous. Why should I need eye correction? I've been fine, and this body is still only afew years old."

Keith shrugged. "Who can say, Shiro? Maybeeyes were a little complicated for the cloning process. Or maybe youreyes were going to start to have problems anyway. Either way, you needhelp. I get headaches just watching you squint, and your paperwork istaking so much longer. It's only a matter of time before you misread animportant word, and I don't want to see how much that'll hurt you."

That was the very thought Shiro had been trying toavoid. He sighed and dropped his face into Keith's chest. "Iknow."

Sighing, Keith rested both his hands on Shiro's back, like avery loose hug. "If you make an appointment in the next couple ofdays, I can go with you."

Shiro stilled. "You don't have to do that. I'm a big boy, I can go to the doctor all by myself." Despite that,he curled his hand around Keith's hip, clinging just a little. "ButI appreciate it. Besides, I don't want to use up your free time."

"If it helps? It's worth it." Keithpushed Shiro's bangs up off his face, smiling at him. "I want youcomfortable, Shiro."

"I know." Shiro reached up and wrapped hishand around Keith's, lacing their fingers together. "How aboutthis? I'll go to the appointment as soon as I can get one, and we'll tryto plan the procedure for a time when you're around. If we can plan aheadthat well."

"That's-" Keith paused, brow comingtogether. "That could work. But what do you mean by'procedure?'"

What else could Shiro mean? "The eyecorrection. I remember Matt needed a day after to recover properly. I'd prefer you be there for that then just an eye exam."

There was a pause, and then Keith let his head flopback. "You're thinking of surgery. No wonder you'vebeen putting it off." Before Shiro could object to the wording,Keith pushed on. "Shiro, you can just get glasses."

Shiro opened his mouth, then paused. Closed hismouth. "I'm a pilot," he finally said.

"Not the kind you used to be. You can wearglasses and be Captain of the Atlas." Keith shook his head andsmiled at him, though it was sad. "I assumed you just still didn'tlike doctors. I didn't even think about laser eye correction."

Shiro shrugged. It was still wrong of him to avoid thedoctor because he didn't like being knocked out on a table. Not when hisability to read and process information was a critical part of his job. But there was another problem. Shiro crinkled his nose and sighed. "Glasses? I'm going to look even older."

"You're going to look great with them." Keith scratched over the back of Shiro's neck, his finger rasping through theshorter hairs there. "Want me to help pick them out?"

Shiro wrinkled his nose as he thought about it. "Maybe Allura too."

"Hey!"

"I want you to like them, but I also want someone withactual taste." Shiro grinned and shrugged. "That's notreally either of us."

Keith tried to scowl, but it quickly fell apart. "Maybe that's a good idea." He poked Shiro in the middle of hisback. "Scoot up."

Pushing himself up on his forearms, Shiro belly-crawled hisway up Keith, hovering over him. He lowered himself down to give Keith agentle peck. "How was your day?"

"Good," Keith replied. He pulled his arms incloser, so Shiro could rest more comfortably. "It's weird havingnothing to do again. Are we still on for lunch tomorrow?"

"Unless I need to do the eye exam then,yes." Shiro pressed their foreheads together, smiling. "Allura wanted to come and bring Lance, if that's okay. She wantedto catch up. Did you want it to be just us?"

Keith's brows rose. "Last time we tried to havelunch with those two, you and Allura got a new idea about applying Allura'smagic to Atlas and ran off, and left me and Lance alone."

"Yes, well, you two get along fine, now. It's notlike the early days of the Castle of Lions." Shiro's bottom lipstuck out. "Is that a no?"

"It's not a no," Keith replied. He leaned upto kiss Shiro's pout away. "I don't mind. I'm just pointingout that you and Allura have a tendency to egg each other on, just like Pidgeand Hunk do. It's why she's your best friend."

"You're my best friend."

"The best friend that isn't your husband."

Shiro grinned and shrugged. "Yeah, maybe." He gave Keith another slow kiss, then laced his right hand with Keith'sleft. He brought the knuckles to his mouth and gave the ring a slow, warmkiss. "I never mean to ignore you."

Keith watched, eyes smoldering. "Iknow." He pulled his hand back, and instead used it to yank Shirodown into a firmer kiss. "We'll do a double date. Don't thinkI can't see through your wording."

Laughing, Shiro nipped Keith's bottom lip. "Yes,yes, I am transparent. I know." He pressed their foreheadstogether, noses brush and breath mixing between them. "I loveyou."

"I love you too."

Their lips touched again, softly at first, but then withmore pressure. Shiro opened his mouth invitingly, groaning as Keith tookimmediate advantage.

But when Keith's hands slid purposefully under his shirt,Shiro pulled back. "Wait," he breathed out, heartpounding.

Keith stilled immediately, eyes wide. "Why?"

"We haven't had dinner yet."

A groan ripped out of Keith. "That'swhy?" He kissed Shiro again, just as eagerly as before. "Alright, yeah. Fine. Dinner first."

"I mean, there are things I could put in my mouth, butthey aren't exactly filling." Shiro grinned at him and raised hisbrows pointedly.

Keith stared, then nabbed the pillow under him and pushed itinto Shiro's face. "Yeah, definitely dinner time. Way to killthe mood."

Laughing, Shiro pulled the pillow away and climbed up soKeith could move. "Come on, Hunk made me a few frozen meals beforehe left for his conference. Apparently I would starve without him,because the mess doesn't exist. We can do that."

Grunting his agreement, Keith slotted himself againstShiro's back and wrapped his arms around his waist. "Alright."

Shiro rested his hands on top of Keith's, tracing the padsof his fingers over the band. His own fit snugly on his left hand. "Hey, Keith?"

"Hm."

"Thank you. For everything."

Warm lips pressed against the back of Shiro's neck. "Of course. After everything, a double date and going to a doctor'sappointment aren't a lot to ask."

"Maybe, but I still appreciate it." Shiro turnedin Keith's arms, gently cupping his jaw to pull him into a kiss. "Iappreciate you."

Keith smiled into the kiss. "You'd do the samefor me."

"As many times as it takes."

#Sheith #Voltron #BT Writes #Sheith Spite Fluff #mc-emcee

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ursae-minoris-world · 6 years ago

Text

The lost Jedi

G, 2,605 words, chapters : 1/1, AU: Star Wars setting; basically a rewrite of the pilot episode in a Star Wars setting from Keith’s point of view (with some liberties, of course!); so some scenes and dialogues will be familiar!

This was written for @sheithauweek,day 3: ships and stars!

Read it here on AO3, and find it here on twitter!

As the big geek that I am, I also made an animated intro like in the movies, that you can play here. (if this doesn’t work, there are screncaps on the twitter link)

---

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... The Rebellion is struggling against the Forces of the Empire. The Planet of Altea has been destroyed by the Empire after it joined the Rebellion. One of the rare survivors because she was off planet, Princess Allura is now an important leader of the Rebellion. A group of Jedi on a diplomatic mission on planet Kerberos has been missing, and are reported to have been killed by the Empire. However, Keith Kogane, a young Jedi apprentice, is still looking for his friend Takashi Shirogane, who was part of the mission.

---

"Transferring prisoner 117-9875 for further investigation"

"That is Takashi Shirogane. A Jedi master. We need appropriate security protocol"

"We'll be following protocol AX-711. And he will be sedated."

Keith's world collapsed on him when his father's old radio transmitted this coded message from an Empire fleet to the local Empire base. For a moment, the walls of his tiny shack had seemed to close on him, and he felt like he was being buried alive. Everything became black and suffocating.

He slowly regained control of himself again, trying hard to breathe, his fingers white from the tight grip he had on the desk he had been sitting at. He was panting and drenched in cold sweat. And angry at himself for overreacting like that. It just confirmed his suspicions, after all. He had never really believed in Shiro's death. He knew, because if Shiro had been killed in that mission like the Jedi Order had told him, he would have felt it in the Force, and he hadn't.

He had kept telling them Shiro was alive, had kept pushing for a rescue, but no one listened to him. They told him to get hold of himself, that his behavior was dangerous for a Jedi, that he shouldn't give in to anger or he would fall to the Dark Side. He had kept falling apart, and when Master Iverson accused Shiro of being responsible of the failure of the mission, Keith stopped thinking. He punched him. This is how he was exiled from the Jedi Order. He returned to Tatooine, his home planet. To his dad's shack, empty since his childhood; since Empire soldiers had come and killed his father for being part of the Rebellion. After settling here, Keith had tried to survive how he could, but mostly he had been searching for Shiro.

"Patience yields focus", he muttered under his breath, repeating the mantra his former mentor had taught him when he needed to calm down. That helped him getting his head clear. If he wanted to save Shiro, he needed to hurry.

He knew the coordinates of the Empire base; he just needed a plan.

----

The distraction had worked, and while troops were being sent away to inspect the explosion, Keith managed to enter the base. It was still guarded, but he used the Force on the clone troopers, so that they didn't pay attention to him.

From listening to their communications, he had gathered that Shiro was being brought to the lab section first, rather than to the cells. What that meant, Keith didn't know, but a knot of anxiety was festering in his stomach.

He managed to keep hidden while exploring the base, and, even if he somehow got lost on the way, he finally found the medical area. The first few rooms he looked into were empty, but he did find a lab that was guarded. He tried to use the Force to get in, but that didn't work.

There were soldiers and medics inside, and they all surged at him when he entered. It was too late to try and curb their will wit the Force, so he just used his fists. When they were all knocked out, he sped to free Shiro, who was strapped to a table. He almost tripped over one of the medics laying on the ground in his haste.

He gasped when he got a better view of Shiro. He was unconscious, and seemed to have aged much more than the two years they had been apart; his right arm had been replaced with a mechanical prosthetic, a scar was barring his nose, and the hair from his bangs had turned white. Keith felt tears well up in his eyes as he muttered his friend's name, wondering what he had been through. But he didn't have time to linger on his emotions.

He took out the lightsaber he had inherited from his mother, and cut the straps that were holding Shiro prisoner. Gently, he tried to lift the big man from the table. The motion caused Shiro to wake up; he panicked and tried to free himself from Keith's hold. Keith didn't restrain him.

"Shiro, it's me!"

"Keith?" Shiro's voice was hoarse and his eyes unfocused. He was obviously still under the effect of some kind of anesthetic. Reassured, he let himself fall against Keith again with a sigh. Keith wrapped Shiro's left arm around his shoulders, and tried a few steps, but Shiro could barely stand. Keith hadn't expected that. Getting out of the base without being caught was about to get more complicated than anticipated.

While he was hesitating, three people barged in. It was obvious they didn't belong there, and were infiltrating the base just like him. A little Mark IV sentry droid was with them, but to Keith's relief, it didn't attack; from the way it was flying alongside them, it seemed re-purposed to be at their service.

Before Keith could even react, a lanky guy strode toward him, waggling his finger disapprovingly: "No no no no, no! No, you don’t! I'm saving Shiro!". He took Shiro's other arm, helping Keith carrying him. His long face, tan skin, blue eyes and pointy chin were somewhat familiar.

"Who are you?" asked Keith, confused.

"Who am I? Uh, the name’s Lance?” He seemed to expect Keith to react, but that didn’t ring any bell. “We were in the same flight school? We were like rivals! You know, Lance and Keith, neck to neck..."

Oh, right, the flight school Keith had been part of.. before he stole Shiro's landspeeder for a ride, and Shiro insisted on bringing him to the Jedi temple. He hadn't paid much attention to the other cadets at the flight school, but after thinking about it harder, Lance had been difficult to ignore. Loud, cocky, and always trying to confront Keith for some reason. Keith still didn’t get what he meant about being rivals. Wasn't Lance a cargo pilot?

"Oh, yeah, I remember you." grunted Keith. "What are you doing here."

"Saving Shiro!" repeated Lance. "Don't try to one-up me on that!"

That left Keith confused. He was just trying to help his best friend. He didn't even know they were coming. Why would Lance believe...?

"I'm Pidge. We're from the Rebel Alliance" stated the shortest, and apparently youngest, member of the group. They examined Keith sharply through their round glasses. "What about you?"

"Keith. Former Jedi apprentice," mumbled Keith.

"What?! Former? Did they kick you out?" There was some underlying excitement in Lance's tone that had Keith's hackles rise.

"Sorry to interrupt", said the big guy nervously, "but I think we should go. My sensor is signaling droids coming this way. And the troops are going to come back to the base soon!"

Pidge nodded. "Let's go. Rover, you go as a scoot!". The sentry droid took the lead.

They followed the less crowded paths according to the sensor, with Pidge going first after Rover, then Lance and Keith carrying Shiro, and the last one, who introduced himself as Hunk, covering their tail with his blaster rifle.

---

Once they escaped, Keith brought them to where he had hidden his hoverbike. Their ship was bigger, and further away to avoid it being discovered by the Empire troops.

Said troops were back from inspecting the explosion Keith had caused as a decoy. They hoped to go unnoticed, but shots in their direction proved them otherwise. Keith pulled the throttle. The troops started chasing them.

Keith's heart was in his throat. Alone, he would have shaken them off them easily, but with everyone on board, they were overloaded. The hoverbike was slow and unresponsive. The tanks, land troops and battle droids weren't much of an issue, but the droideka were catching up. Thankfully, fire wasn't much nourished, maybe because they wanted Shiro alive.

Still, Rover, who was firing back at the enemy, got shot and exploded. Pidge let out a long wail when they saw that, and fired back desperately. Lance caught Shiro, who was still dazed and almost fell down as Pidge let go of him. Hunk leaned forwards to comfort the young rebel; it caused the whole hovercraft to nose down. That gave Keith an idea.

"Hunk, lean left!" Hunk did, and the hoverbike did too; Keith used it to gain speed. Going on with this trick, he managed to keep distance between them and their pursuers. Adrenaline was flooding his veins. He shouldn't have fun doing this.

"Guys, i-is that a cliff overhead?!" Hunk's voice was tight with fear. It was.

They were all yelling at him to stop. As if it was an option. He pulled the throttle. The rush of blood was chanting in his ears, the wind from the acceleration tossing his hair and adding to his elation.

This was a trick Shiro had taught him. Everyone kept screaming, but Keith let out a laugh. He managed to stick the landing. Unable to come down, the Empire troops had abandoned pursuit.

Lance, who had a good sense of direction, guided him towards their ship.

"That's Blue!", he claimed proudly. "Isn't she beautiful?"

Keith lifted a skeptical brow. The ship was older than themselves, and looked like a wreck. It was indeed painted blue, to be less conspicuous while flying in the atmosphere, maybe?

Hunk grinned, patting the metallic carcass: "She doesn't look like much, but believe me, she can fly! Pidge and I make sure of that."

---

They managed to take off from the planet without trouble. Lance had improved his piloting a lot since flight school, but Keith still had to fight back an urge to push him off the pilot seat and to take the commands.

They were headed towards a Rebellion base on Arus, where they would join Princess Allura. Lance said they hoped Shiro could share some of what he had learned in his mission and during his captivity. Shiro nodded, but Keith noticed how tense he had gotten.

Even with light speed, the trip would last at least a few days, which was good, because Shiro obviously needed some rest.

----

After catching up some sleep, Keith noticed Shiro's bunk was empty. He finally found him gazing through one of the ship's viewing bays. Shiro was lost in the contemplation of the stars, but as Keith was approaching him, his focus shifted to his prosthetic arm. Keith's chest tightened; they still hadn't spoken about what had happened to Shiro.

Gently, he put his hand on his friend's shoulder, a gesture that Shiro had used so often to comfort him in the past. "It's good to have you back."

Shiro turned towards him, a wistful smile on his lips. "It's good to be back".

Keith hesitated. "So, what happened out there?"

Shiro let out a distressed sight. "I wish I remembered. My head’s still pretty scrambled. It’s all a blur..." Keith felt worry grow in his heart. He wasn't the most informed, but between this and Shiro's nightmares that night, it wasn't hard to see symptoms of trauma. Shiro continued: "How did you know to come to save me?"

Keith shifted uneasily. "I... heard stuff. Coded communications from the Empire. On my dad's radio."

Shiro was now looking at him with a concerned expression: "But... what were you doing, alone on Tatooine?"

Keith hesitated, and there was a short silence while Shiro held his gaze. Keith bit his lip, folding his arms and looking away. "They said you died. I didn't believe them. I would have felt it. In the Force."

"I... I understand. Sometimes... I remember... sometimes, I felt you try to reach out to me."

Keith felt his heart stop. He had thought of Shiro, often, missed him terribly. He had no idea Shiro would be able to feel that. "I... missed you." Shiro was still looking at him perplexedly, and he realized he hadn't answered Shiro's question. "After being booted from the Jedi Temple..." he heard Shiro's intake of breath, "I was kinda... lost, and felt myself drawn out to this place." His voice was breaking.

"You went home."

"Yeah."

Shiro knew about Keith's past on Tatooine. About his mother disappearing when he was a baby, about his father being killed by the Empire. Shiro was the one who had found him there at the flight school. He had seen him flying, and had insisted that Keith was force sensitive, and that he used it without knowing for piloting. Keith had been reticent at first, but Shiro had managed to convince him to try becoming a Jedi. He brought him back to the Jedi Temple. They had begrudgingly accepted him, despite his sixteen years- much older than the usual recruits. Shiro was the one who helped him finding his footing living with the Jedi. Who taught him how to manage his emotions better. Keith had hoped becoming his padawan when he was deemed ready. It was the closest bond to him that he could wish for - Jedi were not supposed to love, after all.

As Shiro didn't answer, he added: "I kept looking for you..." He found himself incapable of speaking more. Emotions were overflowing him and he could barely keep himself together.

"You found me", Shiro said softly. He reached out a hand, tentatively. Keith knew that signal. He took Shiro's hand and they hugged, a long time. It felt nostalgic, and it felt different and new too. Keith hadn't even realized how much he'd missed this. When they separated, they were both a bit awkward and flushed.

"You grew", commented Shiro; he sounded shaken.

"Eh. It's been two years." He hadn't even paid attention to his growth. His pants were a bit short, now, but it didn't matter when he was wearing boots. He knew his work as a farmhand had developed his muscles, but he had never reflected on how changed his figure.

Shiro had changed too. He too had gained muscles. His embrace was still as warm and welcoming as before, but there was metal now mixed with his familiar scent. He was however clearly not ready to talk about it, so Keith changed subject.

"Are you going to contact the Jedi Order?"

Shiro took a moment to consider the question. "I...I don't know. Let's meet that Princess first. We can see from there."

Keith let out a relieved sight. Now that he wasn't part of the Jedi Order anymore, he was worried of being separated from Shiro again if he went back to the Temple. And after they had abandoned Shiro to his fate, Keith didn't trust the Jedi anymore. He wanted Shiro safe. And close to him, if possible.

"What about you?" asked Shiro.

Keith shrugged. "The Jedi won't take me back, so. I guess I could join the Rebellion... Like you said. Let's meet the Princess."

---

A few days later, Blue landed on planet of Arus. Lance, Hunk and Pidge brought them in front of the Princess.

She was in a conference room, discussing strategy with a group of commanders. Her white hair was in a bun, and the pointy ears and cheek marks revealing her altean origins. She was wearing simple flight clothes, despite her rank. When she saw them, she left the holographic map they were examination and walked towards them.

"Hello, I am Princess Allura, from Altea. You are in a Rebel Base. Master Shirogane, as a survivor from the Kerberos mission, we believe you may have valuable information about Lord Zarkon and the Empire. Would you accept to share them with us?"

"It is an honor. This is my friend Keith. We are at your service, Princess."

#sheithauweek2019 #sheithauweek #sheith #voltron #shiro #keith #pidge #hunk #lance #allura #rover #garrison trio #star wars au #fanfiction #my fics #my stuff

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kurara-black-blog · 6 years ago

Text

[Third Player] Chapter Four: Not Lance

Date: 06/01/19

Words: 1953

Warnings: Langst, Kangst, Klangst, half Galra Keith finding about his Galra heritage, Keith being a gay disaster.

Tag: @moonsworllld ; @xarphay ; @skydisneylover ; @fangirlinguntildawn ; @mutantgurls ; @spooky-the-owl ; @hauntedfreakdeputyhero ; @goldengaytime404

A/N: I’ll tag you on future chapters if you ask! If you ask!

Previous: Clones

Next: SOON?

THIS FIC HAS A ROLEPLAY BLOG!! Go talk with 3P!Lance!

For a lone wolf, Keith hated loneliness. With a passion.

He learned how to deal with it, yes, he spent quite a long time in exile that he forced himself into. Didn’t mean he had to like it.

News flash: He didn’t.

Not one bit.

News flash: He also had no idea how to solve that.

Childhood? He had no idea how to be social.

Teenager years? He had no idea how to be social.

There was a time he truly believed he would have no idea how to be social in adulthood too.

And he had been okay with that. He was fine with being, as Adam used to say, a “social-weirdo”. He could deal with the loneliness. He had Shiro and Shiro’s weird ass friend and Shiro’s cool fiancée. Keith could deal with it all. He was fine, truly.

Then a boy with blue eyes, loud voice and louder personality appeared. And suddenly Keith wanted to be social.

Only with the boy, but still.

Keith wanted to be social.

(Let that sink in.)

Adam had laughed enough for an entire year the day Keith told him that.

The he gave Keith the very helpful advice of “Take your time, but don’t wait too much. I know that boy; he won’t disregard someone trying to be friendly”, which Keith was glad because he really didn’t want to hear the “just tell him” bullshit he was sure he would’ve gotten with Shiro… Or Shiro’s weird ass friend.

Keith could take his time just fine. The problem was the “not too much” part.

The problem was the glow the blue-eyed boy emitted.

The problem was the shine of his bluest blue eyes.

The problem was the brightness of his smile.

The boy was made of light.

And Keith was a “shadow gremlin”, as Shiro’s weird ass friend used to call him.

Light made him run.

And run he did.

Until they met again. Until the boy—Lance, his name was Lance—shone brightly in front of him once more. And he brought with him the chance of belonging.

Belonging somewhere.

Having a family to call his.

And Keith would be forever grateful for that, no matter how much he would deny if someone asked. He would be forever grateful for Lance.

Falling in love with Lance only made that feeling ten times stronger.

If before he wanted to be social, after he fell—hard, I might add—, he wanted to be a constant in Lance’s life.

And, yes, that maybe sounded a tad creepy, but he couldn’t help himself.

He wanted to be part of Lance’s life just as much as he wanted Lance to be part of his life.

Then Adam’s advice came to bit his butt. “Take your time, but not too much”. He took too long, go figure, and when he was finally ready to confess to Lance those feelings of his, Lance was taken away.

Now, Keith wasn’t a religious person.

(If God existed, Keith wasn’t sure They liked him very much, and the feeling was mutual.)

But if that was how Hell felt like, he could understand why people ran from it their entire lives.

That was something he wished to no one… Other than Haggar. And Zarkon too, but mostly Haggar.

When they found Lance, he was happy, more than happy, he was ecstatic!

Except something screamed at him, something deep within him. And it was screaming “wrong, wrong, wrong” at max volume.

And that something didn’t stop, no, it stayed and it screamed and he was going crazy. It seemed to have a particular dislike for Lance, which was weird… Unless something really was wrong with Lance, which wasn’t the case for Lance had been acting like himself. Sometimes he got that pained look in his eyes, talked aloud with himself, or would lose himself inside his mind for hours to no end, but, hey, you try to survive being kidnapped and experimented on by Haggar and come back without at least some weird mannerisms.

Thankfully, and maybe a bit creepily, Coran noticed how bothered Keith was.

Coran had been acting weirdly around Lance. Still treated him with kindness, but he seemed to keep some distance. It was very, very odd, as Coran saw Lance as his son—there was a debate if Coran saw every one of them as his children and, in Keith’s opinion, Coran saw them more as nieces and nephews than his own kids like he did with Lance and Allura—and would usually be the first to jump in an opportunity to get Lance alone so they could clean the Castle—again—and talk. After they rescued Lance, Coran was hesitant in approaching the boy. And the oddest part is that Lance looked alright with it?

Like he expected and respected Coran’s uneasiness?

Nonetheless, Coran gave Keith help in the form of a book. A book about Galra biology.

Keith had the feeling the man was trying to tell him something.

News flesh: He was right.

Coran gave him a book with a marked page. A marked page about senses and mating.

To say Keith took some time to muster enough courage to read that page is an understatement.

(You can’t just give a book like that to a disaster child, Coran, the quiznack?)

Keith would never admit it, but the book was of great help. Closing it, the Red Paladin sighed. Thinking back to everything that happened, Coran’s question after they told him how they rescued Lance.

“Is that so?” The uneasiness in the man’s voice was subtle, but there. Coran was staring at the Blue Paladin sandwiched between Pidge and Hunk with a faraway look in his face, one hand nervously fidgeting with his mustache.

Keith left the book on his bed, finally understanding that subtlety was not his forte and if he wanted some answers, he would have to ask. With determined steps, he left his room, doing a beeline to Lance’s room. Pieces of the book echoing inside his mind.

“Once a Galra finds a suitable mate, they will develop a sensitivity towards said mate. Their senses will attune with the mate, so the Galra can provide the chosen one with whatever is needed. While it is more common for that to happen to only one or two of their senses, it is not impossible for all five of them to suffer the change. Some Galra have reported some sort of sixth sense, the ability of feeling the energy of their mate, but it’s unclear if it’s something on its own or a result of the mating bond, as it is a mental connection.”

He didn’t need to be a Pidge to understand what that meant. He had recognized Lance as a suitable mate—another thing he wouldn’t admit any time soon—and his senses had attuned with Lance. All five of them, by what he could understand. That said, for his senses to respond to Lance that way, he could think of only two possibilities. One was that there was something very wrong with Lance, wrong enough to bother Keith’s senses and distance Coran. The other was… That Lance, the Lance they had with them, wasn’t their Lance.

Keith didn’t knew which one was scarier. Each brought their own set of problems and their own headache.

With a deep intake of air, Keith knocked on the Blue Paladin’s door.

“Come in.”

Time for the truth.

“Keith?”

“Who are you and where is Lance?”

Okay, maybe he could’ve said something—anything—else, preferably something that didn’t make him sound like a suspicious lunatic, but Keith was well aware of his non-existent people skills, as discussed before. Usually he would let Lance do the talking, seeing as the Cuban boy could easily control a conversation and had a better understanding of people, emotions and social cues.

Anyways, Keith already expected Lance to react strongly to his curiosity, even more after how he worded it, but he didn’t expect for the boy to sigh silently and close his eyes.

Wait, did it mean he was right and that boy wasn’t his Lance?

“Galra senses, he did alert me about them.” Lance looked at him with hollow eyes. “Shit down, Keith—”he gestured to the bed he’d been sitting on even before the Red Paladin came in—“I’ll explain everything.”

“So, you’re a clone made by Haggar from Lance’s hand that she cut off?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re connected to him because of that?”

“Somewhat.”

“Lance is with Haggar, who thinks he’s her son and is training him to be a weapon for the Empire?”

“Yes, well. She used the whole “son” thing to make Lance loyal to her, but by what he told me, she’s being swallowed by her own lie.”

“He’s planning on bringing the Empire down from the inside by gaining Haggar’s loyalty, killing Zarkon and taking his place so there won’t be a lack of power that could bring someone just as bad?”

“Yes.”

“And he told you to stay here with us?”

“Yes. I was supposed to be programmed by Haggar to destroy Voltron, but the danger of making a perfect clone is that it will act the way the original would.”

“You’re not acting like Lance.”

“I am not Lance.”

Silence, heavy and deafening.

“I will understand if you feel the need to beat me, Keith. In fact, please, go ahead.”

Keith choked on the air going to his lungs. How could that boy—that thing ask that?! Didn’t it have instincts or something? Was it out of its mind?

“It’s hard, you know. Because I’m not him, and you guys love me as if I was and I want the love, I truly do, but… But I’m not him. I want the be loved for me. I want the laughs and the smiles and the affection to be directed at me, not at Lance.”

Tears were running on its cheeks. Keith’s heart clenched. No matter what it was, that face was still Lance’s and wasn’t suited for anything that wasn’t satisfaction and happiness. Don’t get him wrong, it was still beautiful with the trails left by the salty water and the dark blue of bluest blue, but it didn’t feel right. It didn’t feel right.

It wasn’t right.

“But Lance promised me, he promised me I would be free to be. To be whoever and whatever I wanted. And I’ll do anything for that to happen. So please, Keith, please don’t tell them!” Begging, it was begging. “Please, let Lance work his plans! Please let me keep this hope!”

The clone startled when Keith’s fist hit the mattress near it.

Damn it, Keith wanted to punch something.

Getting up hastily, the Red Paladin hurried to leave the room, but stopped at the entrance. If the situation was different, if things were different, he would’ve stayed and dried the tears, hugged the fears, soothed the pain. He would’ve done everything and then some more for his Lance, but that wasn’t his Lance.

“I won’t tell them yet because I trust Lance and his plans.” In and out, slow calming breaths. “But if you do anything that I don’t like, I won’t hesitate to throw you into an airlock.”

“Understood.” Too soft, its—his voice was too soft. Too damn soft.

But it wasn’t his Lance’s voice. It didn’t make his heart go crazy or a whole zoo run a marathon inside his chest.

“You’re not the one I’m going to beat up.”

With that he left, promising himself to punch Lance—his Lance, the real Lance, the one his heart adored—as soon as possible.

And maybe kiss the Cuban while he was at it.

#voltron #langst #Third Player #clara writes #vld lance #voltron lance #vld keith #lance's harem #charles tp #clone!Lance #klance #klangst

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headspacedad · 6 years ago

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luciferspit

reblogged

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voltron: Post a picture wearing a Merch By...

Please explain in what way you think they treated Shiro badly in season 7.

well, its late and I’m not going to be at my peak for answering. If you’re honestly curious, there are people that have stated it all much better than I could and you can check my ‘seven salt’ tag for their very excellent points as well as my own when I am more awake (and Shiro wasn’t the only one whose story was poorly treated in season seven). But let me try to summarize my points as best I can and I am only doing the points that apply directly to my comment about Shiro being a PTSD amputee war vet and will not even cover the other representations he stands for and how those were misused and mistreated as well. Also I am including the clone in this summary because while he was not Shiro he too was a PTSD amputee war vet in all the ways that mattered and his experiences, while different, also reflect on the invasive message the show has regarding that.

where to start? Because the treatment didn’t start in season seven. It just culminated there. Should we start where the writers killed Shiro without any explanation despite the fact Zarkon took a flaming sword to the chest in the same battle and lived? Should we point out the way the clone of him was treated - through multiple cries for help that included: vulnerably confiding in Lance and also writhing and screaming in incredible pain in front of Pidge on a mission - that were never addressed or brought up by the team members that could have tried to find out what was wrong or help him? Should we point out the way the team immediately turned on the clone before they even realized he was the clone, going so far as having the writers make Hunk of all people ask if they should even go after him ‘since he wasn’t Shiro anymore’ even though no one knew what was wrong and the clone had been a supportive and consistent team member up to that point and they all knew what the Galra had done to him the last time they’d had him? Should we count the way the team was willing to violate the clone’s unconscious body and push another soul into it without even questioning the morality of it? Maybe we’ll skip right ahead to season seven where the loss of his arm seems to be the only canon difference (dying technically shouldn’t matter since canon showed us that Zarkon also died and was brought back to life while retaining his bond with Black and it was by something a great deal less benevolent than Allura) in the Shiro of season one and two, black paladin of Voltron, and season seven where he’s suddenly not only not flying the Black Lion but its never mentioned as if its not important at all (because? the viewers aren’t supposed to care why he’s not Black Paladin anymore? Is he so unimportant to the writers that they can’t even include an answer to what should be an obvious audience question?). Should we point out how he was constantly left aside in the writing for the first half of the series, to the point that a handcuff attached to his belt was enough to keep the same man that threw himself at Sendak with both hands chained behind his back in place while a fifteen year old was threatened with torture? How Keith left Lance in charge of the team despite Shiro being right there? Can we point out he didn’t make the game show that was supposed to only be for ‘people with great destinies? How about how - when they finally get to Earth - for some reason he actually flat-lines while they’re hooking him up to a new arm? Because dying for the second (or fourth) time in the show is really the route to go with someone that’s spent a year of his life tortured and fighting for survival to the point he lost a body part over it. Let’s skip ahead to the fight with Sendak, someone he’d fought to a stand still previously with what, one would hope, was a less advanced arm and in a body that was wracked by whatever muscle disease canon had given him and still, despite the new positives of a new arm and a healed body to his account, had his self-agency taken away from him and failed to even complete the basic story arc of a victim being able to win the fight against their oppressor. Maybe we can end it on the fact that, while the entire team wakes up surrounded by family and friends, Shiro is shown alone surrounded by lions he can’t connect with anymore, giving encouragement to others instead of having any for himself? The fact that he is shown to have one relationship that ended badly (when the person it was with told him to choose between them and his career choices, which I’m sure, I say in a completely dry and sarcastic voice, no soldier in a military relationship has ever heard before) and even that person wasn’t left for him to see again when he came back to Earth? The fact Shiro isn’t shown with any family at all and isn’t even shown with his team at the end?

Even if you can come up with answers that are suitable to you for all of these things, it doesn’t change the fact that you had to come up with reasoning for them in the first place. You had to fill in blanks to make these things ‘not bad’ because the writers didn’t even bother.

At what point did Shiro’s story have a fulfilling arc past season two? You can see Atlas as a positive, and the writers certainly want you to, but that doesn’t change all the other ways he was punished, pushed aside or written out of things without any story explanation (and the executive producers throwing out headcanon afterward to try to cover the holes in their story doesn’t matter if the majority of their viewers are never going to hear that.) To anyone watching, and judging the story by the story alone, the message is very clear

that an amputee without a prosthetic is ‘useless’ (Hunk can fly a lion while asleep, but the one armed man can’t?).

That a war vet isn’t allowed to form bonds with a group of friends or have a family,

that the ‘friends’ of someone dealing with PTSD will always be expecting him to turn on them for no reason and will abandon him when he does.

Keith is great but no one person should be the entire lifeline to someone else, that’s not healthy. At the end of season seven we see the war vet isolated from everyone he cares about, pep talking others. I can’t condone that kind of message and I won’t encourage other people to watch a show that preaches it by giving them free advertising on social media wearing a product I would have paid them money to own in the first place.

As said, those aren’t the only issues with his treatment in season seven. But I’ll let other people that he represented or who felt that their own experiences connected in other ways I haven’t talked about have their turn. I am also going to reply to you this way. I stated my stand on things once on @voltron‘s post in direct response to them asking me to promo their product. That was feedback. Filling up their promo/advertisement post with a barrage of tag and reply posts would be harassment however and that’s not how consumers upset with a product should react. Which is why I’m replying this way instead of directly to your reblog.

#luciferspit #seven salt #and now I"m going to sleep

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himecchi · 6 years ago

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I’m glad you’re here, Lance.

Summary: Focuses primarily on Keith and Lance (mostly platonic, but a little bit on the romantic side during some parts), with some serious Shiro moments at the beginning and some fluff at the end. Takes place between the season 6 finale and goes into episode 1 of season 7. Keith is absolutely exhausted after fighting Shiro and saving the universe, and isn’t feeling too hot because of it. This was supposed to be a drabble but it turned into 4k+ words. Also, please note, I haven’t had time to proofread this yet, but I’ll come back tomorrow and fix any grammar/spelling errors then (edit: I just went through and fixed a few things, hopefully it’s all good now). Anyways, I hope you enjoy! :)

He was so happy to have Shiro back. That was all he wanted and, seeing Shiro regain consciousness, Keith felt so relieved. What Keith didn’t realize, however, is that he’d been running on empty since their battle. The only thing sustaining him had been adrenaline and, now that everything had calmed down and Shiro was safe, exhaustion and pain hit him like a truck. The brutal beating he’d taken earlier caught up to him and his entire body ached - his face, where Shiro had punched him, his cheek, where he’d been burned, his back which had been slammed against metal scaffolding… everything just hurt. As if his battle with Shiro hadn’t already taken a heavy toll on him, the fight with Lotor had really taken every last ounce of energy out of him - Keith really was running on empty. He had no strength left in his aching body. He wanted nothing more than to rest, but at the same time, he was still so worried about Shiro. “I can’t rest now,” he thought, “Shiro needs me.” Even so, he found it difficult to ignore the heaviness of his eyelids as they threatened to close at any moment. “Maybe… I can rest for… just a… moment…” Keith’s thoughts trailed off as he felt himself slipping away into dreamland, but before he’d had a chance to close his eyes for more than two seconds, he was jolted awake again by Allura’s voice, “Oh no,” she said, concern heavy in her voice, “Shiro?! Shiro?!” Registering Allura’s urgent tone, Keith immediately snapped back into consciousness. “What is it?!” Keith demanded, “What’s wrong with him?” he asked, eyes wide with worry. “I… I don’t know…” Allura cried, “This body… it appears to be rejecting Shiro’s consciousness.” “Rejecting… Shiro’s consciousness…?” Keith repeated the words in his head as he stood there in complete shock trying to process the situation. “What… what do you mean?” Keith asked, a hollow look glazing over his eyes. “What do you mean ‘rejecting his consciousness’?! What does that mean?!” Keith yelled out, expression changing to anger.

By now, Pidge, Hunk, Lance, Kroila, Romelle, and Coran had surrounded Shiro, Keith, and Allura as they took in the situation. “What do we do, Allura? How do we fix it?! You can fix it, right? Please!” Keith was starting to panic, and he couldn’t contain the desperation in his voice as he spoke. “Hey, man,” Lance placed a hand on Keith’s shoulder, “Calm down, okay? We’ll figure this out, but you need to calm down.” After several moments, the tension in Keith’s body began to relax and he took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment to compose himself. “You’re right. S-sorry about that.” Keith mumbled. “Don’t worry about it, man,” Lance reassured him, then turned to face Allura, “What do we need to do?” Allura paused for a moment, thinking, then spoke, “The cryopod. Put him in the cryopod then move him into the black lion. We can run more tests from there.” Without any hesitation, the team got to work, carefully easing Shiro back into the cryopod and gently moving him into the black lion as Allura had asked. Meanwhile, Keith was still trying to process everything. He’d just fought Shiro - thought he might have to kill Shiro, only to find out that Shiro had been dead since their fight with Zarkon. Now, he’d just gotten Shiro back, only to find out that he might lose him all over again… it was too much. Keith couldn’t keep up. It was all happening too fast. Keith began walking towards the black lion in a daze, still struggling to process everything happening around him.

As Keith entered the black lion, the world just seemed like a chaotic blur. He saw flashes of blue light flickering across Shiro’s pale face as Allura gave out orders, but it all felt fuzzy to him, as if everything were happening in slow motion. Still, his mind was struggling to keep up. Then, as if on cue, a comforting hand on his shoulder suddenly brought him out of his haze as he registered Lance’s voice, “Hey, you okay?” “What?” Keith answered, startled, “Y-yeah. Fine….. How’s Shiro?” He turned to look at Allura, “Is he going to be okay?” The pain in Keith’s voice was palpable and Allura couldn’t bring herself to meet his gaze. She averted her eyes, looking down at the floor and responded quietly, “I… I don’t know. Only time will tell.” “What?” Keith asked breathily, eyes widening in shock, “N-no… no. He’s okay. He’s going to be okay. He has to be okay!” Keith exclaimed in a combination of fear and desperation as he ran towards Shiro’s pod. “Shiro, you have to fight, okay? Fight! Please,” Keith cried out, hands pressed up against the glass. “I’m not giving up on you!” Keith yelled. He then heard Lance’s voice beside him, “I’m sorry, Keith. I know this must be hard for you.” Suddenly, it was all too much. Everything. All of it. It was just way too much, and Keith couldn’t take it anymore. “Hard?!” He snapped at Lance, “How could you possibly know? How could you possibly understand what this feels like? Have you ever lost a loved one? Been abandoned? How could you possibly know?!” Keith yelled, voice beginning to crack. “Hey now, there’s no need to-” Allura began to speak, but Lance cut her off with a shushing gesture. Lance then pulled Keith into a comforting embrace. “You’re right,” Lance soothed, “I don’t know. I’m sorry. I just want to help.” After several moments, Keith spoke in a soft voice, “S-sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you like that.” “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it,” Lance replied deepening the hug as he noticed Keith beginning to shake. “Try to calm down, Keith. I know you’re going through a lot right now, but getting yourself all worked up will do you more harm than good,” Lance spoke gently to Keith, “Come on, try to breathe. Just take some deep breaths.” Keith did as he was told, inhaling sharply and exhaling slow. Eventually, after several deep breaths, his breathing evened out. “There you go,” Lance soothed, “That’s better.” Once Lance was certain Keith was calm, he finally broke the hug. Keith turned back towards Shiro, eyebrows furrowing with concern. “Please, Shiro,” Keith whispered, “Fight.” Seeing how torn up Keith was, Lance placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, letting him know that he wasn’t alone. Though Keith didn’t say anything, he was grateful for the comforting contact.

Moment after moment passed by, and nothing changed. Shiro wasn’t getting any better, and Keith could feel the panic beginning to rise once more. He swallowed it down, forcing it out of his system. “Stay calm,” he told himself. “You have to… stay… calm…” Suddenly, Keith’s surroundings looked strangely blurry, and before he could register what was happening, he felt himself falling over. Luckily, due to his quick reflexes, he managed to catch himself, steadying his footing before he actually fell to the ground. “Whoa! Hey,” Lance cried out as he rushed to Keith’s side, “Are you okay? What happened?” “S’nothing,” Keith slurred, “Just felt a little dizzy. That’s all.” “Hey, man,” Lance said, concerned, “You’re lookin’ pretty pale. Maybe you should rest for a bit. We’ll let you know if anything changes with Shir-” “No!” Keith cut him off, “I can’t leave him! He never gave up on me, so I won’t ever give up on him. I’m staying right here until he wakes up.” Lance’s only response was an uncertain look of worry. “I’m fine, okay? Don’t worry about me,” Keith tried to reassure him. “Well… okay,” Lance responded, “If you say so…” He could see the exhaustion in Keith’s features - dark circles punctuating his eyes, droopy eyelids, and a general look of weariness, but he couldn’t bring himself to go against Keith’s wishes. He was genuinely worried about him, but he could also see just how important it was for Keith to stay by Shiro’s side, so he let it slide.

Ticks turned into doboshes, then doboshes into vargas, and Shiro still hadn’t woken up. It was agonizing. Then, without warning, the cryopod suddenly lit up, displaying several different images and stats. “Wh-what’s happening?” Keith asked, concerned. Allura squeezed her eyes shut, a sad look spreading across her face, “I’m afraid… the clone body really is rejecting Shiro’s consciousness.” Keith’s eyes widened, “No,” he breathed out. “Shiro, please!” Keith cried out, slamming his fist against the cryopod, “Fight! You can’t do this to me again!” several ticks passed by as Keith silently pleaded with the universe not to take Shiro away from him. Then, suddenly, the images on the cryopod changed color and the pod opened up. “Shiro,” Keith cried out, disbelief punctuating his voice. “Keith,” Shiro spoke softly, “I was dreaming… Keith, you saved me.” A warm smile spreading across his face, Keith leaned forwards to embrace Shiro, “We saved each other,” he whispered. “Get some rest now, okay?” Keith said, smiling down at Shiro. “Yeah, thanks.” Shiro replied, drifting back to sleep with a peaceful expression.

Now that Shiro was in the clear and all the worry and anxiety and adrenaline had once again faded, Keith realized how awful he actually felt. He’d really pushed himself way past his limit. His head pounded, his body ached, his legs felt shaky, ready to collapse at any moment. Not wanting to cause any alarm, he excused himself, walking through the sliding doors into the corridor. Despite his attempts at being subtle however, the shakiness in Keith’s voice did not go unnoticed by Lance, who got up to follow him.

As soon as Lance was through the sliding doors, he noticed Keith’s unsteady form pressed up against the side of the wall as he trembled violently, barely able to stay upright. “Keith!” Lance called out as he ran towards him, hooking Keith’s arm around his shoulders in order to steady him. “Hey, man. Talk to me! Are you okay?!” Dazed violet orbs gazed up at Lance, and it was clear that Keith was pretty out of it. “L-Lance?” Keith questioned, “..... I think… m’gonna… pass out….” he slurred as his head lobbed to the side and his body went limp in Lance’s arms. “Keith?! Keith?! Hey!” Lance cried out. “Dammit,” he thought, “Not good.” Slowly, he eased Keith down to the floor, cradling his shoulders with one arm and pressing his other hand against Keith’s sweaty forehead. A fever. Definitely not good. “Don’t worry, Keith. I’m gonna take care of you,” Lance whispered, a deeper concern spreading across his face at the sound of Keith’s ragged breathing. Gently, he scooped Keith up in his arms, cradling his head against his chest, and began walking towards Keith’s room.

Carefully, Lance placed Keith down in bed, then removed his paladin armor. After that, he grabbed a cool washcloth, placing it gently across Keith’s burning forehead. “You’re gonna be okay, buddy. Don’t worry. Ol’ Lance will take care of ya,” he says, running a hand through Keith’s sweaty hair. “Dammit,” Lance thought, “Why does he always push himself so hard? Doesn’t he realize that he’s important too?”

After several moments, Keith’s eyes flutter open and dart around the room as he takes in his surroundings. “L-Lance?... Where are we? … What… happened?” Keith asks, struggling to sit up. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Keith! Take it easy, man!” Lance reprimands as he gently eases Keith back down to his bed. “Don’t push yourself too hard, okay? You passed out. Got a real bad fever too.” “Wh… what…?” Keith asks, confused. “You need to rest, okay?” Lance says. “But… Shiro….” Keith pants. “Is fine,” Lance assures him, “You, on the other hand…” he trails off. “Look, I know you’re still worried, but right now you’re running on empty, okay? Give yourself a break. You’re always so busy worrying about everyone else… how about you worry about yourself for a change?” Lance says, giving Keith a slight smile. Keith looks up at him, a mixture of shock and confusion spreading across his face. He looks as if he’s contemplating everything Lance has just said to him. Damn. He really does feel awful. Maybe it would be better to rest for a bit. After all, he can barely keep his eyes open. “Well… I guess… maybe you’re right,” Keith grumbles, looking away. A confused expression flickers across Lance’s face. Did Keith just… agree with him? “Uh… y-yeah,” Lance clears his throat, “Yeah. Of course I am. Now get back to sleep, mullet,” he says in a playfully boastful tone, briefly looking in the other direction. When his eyes fall back on Keith, he’s already sound asleep.

Several hours pass and Lance doesn’t leave Keith’s side. He stays with him, changing out the cool washcloth on his forehead every so often and brushing his sweat-soaked bangs away from his face. Keith’s breathing is still ragged, but he seems to be sleeping peacefully for the most part, so Lance feels mostly relieved… that is until Keith suddenly jerks awake, sitting bolt upright, gasping for air. Lance is so startled he nearly falls out of his chair, but quickly regains composure and is immediately at Keith’s side. “Keith, hey. What’s wrong? Are you okay?” Keith’s eyes are rapidly darting around the room, searching for something - for someone. “Sh-Shiro… where’s…?” he pants. “He’s delirious,” Lance notes, eyebrows furrowing together. “Keith, Shiro is okay, remember? He’s fine. He’s just resting.” Lance reassures him, grabbing his hand and rubbing soothing circles into it with his thumb. “Shiro… is… fine…?” Keith says, as if struggling to process what those words mean. “Yes, he is. He’s fine. I promise. Try to calm down now, okay? Take some deep breaths.” Lance begins taking some deep breaths, hoping to encourage Keith to do the same. Eventually, Keith follows suit and, between the deep breaths and Lance’s comforting motions against his hand, Keith begins to calm down and regain his senses.

With the adrenaline gone, Keith’s body suddenly feels unbearably heavy, and he slumps sideways against Lance’s chest. Lance catches him and holds him up, now rubbing his shoulder for comfort. “Lance… I… Sorry about that… just now…” Keith stutters. “Nothing to apologize for, buddy,” Lance reassures him, “How are you feeling?” “Sleepy,” Keith answers honestly. “Alright, get some more rest then.” Lance soothes. “Oh, but first, drink some water, okay? I’m sure you’re probably pretty dehydrated,” Lance says encouragingly. “Here,” Lance reaches down for a water pouch he’d brought earlier. Continuing to support Keith, he opens the pouch and brings it to Keith’s mouth. Keith takes a few sips, savoring the way the cool water slides down his dry throat, soothing his aching body. Within a few minutes, Keith manages to drink the whole thing. “You want some more?” Lance asks him. Keith pauses for a moment, thinking. “No, I’m good. Just... wanna... rest… now...” Keith slurs, eyes already beginning to flutter shut. “Okay, buddy,” Lance smiles, “You do that,” he says as he eases him back into bed. Lance gently tucks Keith in, brushing his bangs aside, and replacing the cool washcloth on his forehead. Lance then strokes Keith’s cheek reassuringly to let him know he’s there. Keith mumbles a bit in response, then leans into the touch, “Feels nice,” he slurs. Lance’s smile deepens and he continues to let Keith rest his cheek against his cool hand.

Keith slept soundly for the rest of the day, waking up around dinner time to find Lance still at his side. “Hey sleepyhead,” Lance greeted, smiling down at him, “How ya feeling?” Although he felt a little better, Keith’s body still felt heavy, drained, weak. He noticed the drowsiness still present in his eyelids and the feverishness of his skin. “Little better,” he replied, forcing a smile. Lance saw right through him. “Come on, Keith! Don’t lie to me. You still look awful,” Lance scolded. Keith groaned, draping a hand across his eyes, “Okay, okay. Sorry. Not so loud,” Keith whined, “You’re right. Still feel pretty weak,” he admitted. Lance gave him a sympathetic look. “You wanna try eating something maybe? Might give you a little strength back,” Lance encouraged, “I’m sure Hunk would be happy to make you something.” At Lance’s words, a light bulb went off in Keith’s brain: he hadn’t even realized how hungry he was. The past few days had been so stressful that he’d completely forgotten to eat. Concern, fear, and adrenaline had all but consumed him and, by the time everything had calmed down, he’d been so physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted that food was the furthest thing from his mind... but now that Lance mentioned it, Keith was starving. “Y-Yeah… actually, that’d be great,” he smiled slightly. At this, Lance’s face seemed to light up. “O-Okay!” he stuttered, almost as if he hadn’t been expecting Keith to take him up on the offer, “I-I’ll go tell Hunk to make you something then! Hang tight!” he called as he darted out of Keith’s room and into the hallway. Keith smiled to himself, thankful to have Lance here to take care of him, then let his eyes rest while he waited for the food.

Suddenly, a slender hand was gently shaking him awake. “Keith, hey buddy. Wake up. Food’s ready,” Lance called out to him softly. Keith’s eyes fluttered open as his foggy mind began to adjust to being awake again. “Hey,” Lance smiled, “Can you sit up?” he asked. “Y-Yeah…” Keith stammered, unsure if he actually could. His body honestly just felt completely drained. Slowly, Keith brought his arms back to stabilize himself as he moved to sit up. As he began to push his body forwards, Lance noticed Keith arms shaking considerably and moved forwards to catch him just as Keith’s right arm gave out. “Ease, mullet. You can ask for help, you know? Don’t push yourself too hard.” Lance said reassuringly. Keith looked away for a moment, then paused and looked back at Lance, “Thanks,” he said with a slightly awkward look on his face. “You think you’re up to eating with the others?” Lance asked, “They’re all worried about you.” “Mmm,” Keith hummed, closing his eyes for a moment, “Yeah, that sounds nice.” “Alright,” Lance smiled, “Hold onto me, okay?” “Mhhmmm,” Keith mumbled as Lance helped Keith onto his back and brought him out into the paladins’ common area.

“Hey, Keith’s here,” Pidge said, smiling. “Oh my,” Allura chimed in, “He doesn’t look like he’s doing too well, though.” “Don’t worry!” Hunk encouraged, “He’ll be fine once he gets some of this space lasagna I made for him.” Hunk paused for a moment, “At least I think this is lasagna… we didn’t exactly have lasagna noodles so I kinda just used these circle-y noodle things… yeah, I don’t know... but hey, it still tastes awesome!” he said, giving his signature wide smile. “I’m sure it’s great, Hunk,” Keith said softly, still exhausted and not having enough energy to speak at his usual volume. Keith then smiled to himself as he closed his eyes. Listening to his fellow paladins - his friends - as they spoke around him was somehow soothing. “Wow,” Hunk said, eyes narrowing, “Sick Keith is oddly very kind…” “He’s always kind,” Shiro chuckled, “He just doesn’t know how to show it.” Shiro. That was Shiro’s voice. Keith hadn’t even registered that Shiro was among the other paladins in the room. Keith had assumed he’d still be resting. At the sound of Shiro’s warm, familiar voice, Keith felt himself instantly perk up. “Sh-Shiro?” he asked from Lance’s back. “Hey, Keith,” Shiro smiled affectionately, “How you doing?” It was all too much. A strong mixture of happiness and relief washed over Keith in that moment and he felt tears slipping past his eyes. He buried his face into Lance’s back and, in response, Lance glanced over his shoulder and gave a soft chuckle. “See?” Lance whispered to Keith, “Shiro’s really alright. You saved him, Keith. You did it.” Keith gave a silent nod of thanks as the tears continued to soak into the back of Lance’s shirt. Lance shifted slightly to hide Keith from view and, thankfully for Keith, no one else seemed to notice his tears.

After a few moments, Keith lifted his head again, letting Lance know that he was okay now - and just in time, as Coran called out, “I don’t mean to be rude, but are you two going to join us or is standing in that formation some type of Earth tradition I’m unfamiliar with?” “Nothing like that,” Lance chuckled out, “We’re coming.” Carefully, Shiro helped Lance ease Keith onto the couch. He sat between Lance and Shiro, leaning against Shiro’s arm. It was warm and comforting - Shiro’s presence. He’d been so scared - so unbearably afraid - that he would lose him, so leaning against his arm was soothing. It reassured him that Shiro was actually here. Keith could feel him. He was real and, as long as he continued to rest his head on Shiro’s arm, he could be sure that Shiro wasn’t going anywhere. Shiro’s warm, familiar presence to his right and Lance’s comforting presence to his left, Keith felt completely at ease.

Several moments passed and Shiro suddenly became aware of a quivering against his arm. It was Keith. “Keith?” Shiro questioned softly, “Are you cold?” Keith mumbled incoherently, then gave a small nod. Shiro looked as if he was about to stand up, then Lance chimed in, “I’ll go get a blanket,” he offered, “Don’t move him,” he told Shiro with a smile, “He look comfortable.” “Sure,” Shiro smiled back, “Thanks.”

A few minutes later, Lance returned with a large, fluffy blanket in hand. He gently draped it around Keith’s shoulders. Keith, who’d had his eyes closed, opened them slightly as the comforting warmth made contact with his shivering body. “Thanks,” he said, smiling up at Lance. “Anything for you, bud,” Lance replied. Keith gave a small, happy sounding noise, then closed his eyes again.

A few more minutes went by, and finally, the lasagna was ready. Shiro and Lance helped Keith sit upright, and Keith managed to steady himself enough to eat on his own. Thankfully, Hunk had been considerate enough to cut Keith’s piece up into smaller bites so he wouldn’t have to worry about using a fork and knife. Keith managed to eat the entire thing, and he was grateful to find that a bit of his strength had returned to him. In spite of this however, he was in massive sleep debt and his entire being was still extremely exhausted, so he let himself lean back up against Shiro and closed his eyes as the lively, bustling common space slowly turned to a dull roar, and then to silence.

“He really is tired, huh?” Pidge stated, quizzically. “Of course he is,” Shiro replied softly, “After all, he saved me, then had to go save an entire universe right after that… not to mention he stayed by my side the entire time until I woke up. He’s barely gotten any rest at all,” Shiro hummed, running a hand through Keith’s hair. “You did well, buddy,” Lance said, patting Keith’s sleeping form on the shoulder. In response, Keith breathed in deeply, then let out a contented sigh. Shiro suddenly made a face, “He still feels a bit feverish, though. Should we take him back to his room?” Seeing how at ease Keith looked tucked against Shiro’s chest, Lance realized how important Shiro’s presence was for Keith, especially right now after everything he’d been through. “Nah,” Lance replied, “He looks happy. Let’s just let him sleep. I’ll go get a fresh washcloth for him. That should be enough to help with the fever.” With that, Lance jogged off.

All the clean washcloths appeared to be dirty, and it took Lance a few doboshes to find a usable one. Eventually he made his way back to the commonspace, but by the time he got back, it appeared all the other paladins had turned in for the night. It was just him, Shiro, and Keith. Lance walked over to where Shiro and Keith sat on the couch - Keith’s sleeping form curled up against Shiro’s warmth, head resting in his lap - and placed the washcloth gently on Keith’s forehead, careful not to wake him. Shiro appeared to be sleeping too, so Lance turned to leave, but stopped in his tracks at the sound of Shiro’s voice. “Hey, why don’t you stay for a bit?” he whispered. “Oh… uhhh… guess I didn’t want to, you know… ruin the moment?” Lance said awkwardly. “Nonsense,” Shiro smiled, gesturing towards the couch. Lance paused for a moment, unsure what to do, but eventually made his way over to the couch, sitting down quite a distance away, then awkwardly scooting closer to the two. Shiro gave Lance a reassuring smile, then let his eyes close as he fell back asleep. “Somehow… this feels awkward,” Lance thought to himself as he slid down to the floor. His head was now even with Keith’s head, which was still resting in Shiro’s lap. He moved in closer to adjust the washcloth on Keith’s forehead in order to prevent it from falling off. “There we go,” he whispered. He looked around the dark, empty room and began to fiddle with his thumbs. “Maybe I really should leave,” he thought. Just as he was about to stand up, he heard Keith stir. “L-Lance?” Keith mumbled sleepily. “Oh… hey, bud. How’re you doing? Feel a little better?” Lance asked softly. “Hmmm? Yeah, a little,” Keith said in a tired daze, “I didn’t realize you were here,” he mused. “Oh… uh… yeah, sorry. I’ll get go-” Lance began, but Keith’s sleepy voice cut him off, “M’glad you’re here, Lance,” Keith slurred with a small content smile on his face as his tired hand reached out to grab Lance’s. “Thanks,” Keith murmured, “For everything.” Lance’s eyes widened with a mixture of shock and joy. “Anything for you, mullet,” Lance replied, gently touching his head affectionately to Keith’s, “Feel better.” Keith had already fallen asleep, but managed to respond with a contented sigh. After a few more ticks had passed, Lance fell asleep too, right by Keith’s side.

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kaptainkoalaoshiz · 7 years ago

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To hear your voice is enough - but I wish there was more...

Shiro

“lance?”

His breath caught in his throat as he looked down at the fizzling black screen. His mind had a hard time getting back on track due to his nightmare and subsequent panic attack so he tried to shake it off.

“Hey Shiro,” thank god his voice didn't waver or crack. “Couldn't sleep?”

“I slept maybe, two hours but it feels so… I don't know… not wrong, maybe weird?”

Lance hummed at that. It must have been really tough for Shiro to find himself being dead and to have to deal with the knowledge your team basically adopted a clone of yourself. But how could they have known? Kuron sounded so genuine. He probably had been, before Haggar took control.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Lance asked, cursing the fact he dropped his tablet weeks ago and forgot to ask Hunk to repair it. It resulted in the screen and the camera not working, often an hassle when he got contacted.

“Yes, if that doesn't bother you. But can we go outside to do it? Keith and Krolia are sleeping, I wouldn't want to wake them up. And… It is making me nervous not to be able to see and touch the person I talk to.”

“That's no problem, dude. I think the 'rain’ stopped so I'll join you outside in a minute.”

“Sounds good. Thank you, Lance.”

The communication cut and Lance groaned outwardly, hiding his face in hands. It wasn’t as if he didn’t want to talk to Shiro or being near him but he still felt the guilt lingering in the back of his head. The thought of being so useless in noticing that the Shiro they had hadn’t been their Shiro, but a creation so alike they still would have been fooled if it weren’t for Keith, ran deep. Keith and his stupid superpowers that apparently included “save the goddamn day, every damn time he did something as simple as entering a room.

Lance should have known something was wrong with Shiro after ‘stepping’ out of the mindscape and hearing him call after him, only for the man to be dismissive about it when Lance asked a bit later. He should have known when ‘Shiro’ had been losing his temper more and more often but the genuine way he felt guilty and apologized afterward reminded Lance that he had been trying to stay afloat, to stay ‘himself’. Lance could only think fondly of the M&M game they had played together and how the clone had been so intent on being a Paladin.

Being a paladin. That was all he wanted. To live. To laugh, to be as nerdy as possible. Yet it all came to a stop because he hadn’t been their Shiro, just a creation of the horrible witch Haggar.

And that body now hosted the mind and soul of the ‘original’ Shiro. Lance knew he wasn’t the only one who had some difficulties adjusting to the news and Lance was pretty sure he wasn’t the only one who felt guilty not to have seen it sooner. But this wasn’t time to dwell upon the past; Shiro, his friend, needed him in the present and not focused somewhere else.

Lance needed to shove his mourning and guilt aside to concentrate on Shiro here and now. Shiro who was still weak from his resurrection, missing an arm and probably horribly stressed from the whole ordeal. Shiro who was still his friend even though he had missed several months of it. Perhaps Black let him get informations from time to time? This was definitely something to ask.

Groaning again at how complicated the situation was, Lance placed the tablet on his bed, careful not to drop it again. He didn’t need any more reasons for Hunk to berate at him to take more care of his belongings.

Pulling on his shoes, he patted the interior of Red’s mouth as he slowly walked down the stairs, looking around for Shiro. He was there, just as he said, using his left hand to pet Kaltenecker who was appreciating the attention. The cow was just so chill with anything, it was kind of hard to get her something she disliked. Apparently not being with Lance was one of these things. Who could have guessed that a cow would appreciate his presence so much.

“Ahw you don't match anymore.” Lance said with good humour, crossing his arms over his torso because he unfortunately didn’t have any pockets. Shiro lift his head towards him, a small smile etching on his face. It was temptative and a bit shaky but it was there. Good. Being somber didn’t suit him that well.

“Thank you for agreeing to talk, Lance.”

“Dude, I wouldn’t be able to call myself your friend if I didn’t like spending time with you.”

“Everyone is just so hesitant with me, I can honestly say it’s making me crazy. I’ve even thought you were avoiding me.”

Uh oh, abort mission, abort mission! That was too close to the truth for Lance to be comfortable because he had been avoiding Shiro. But for his defense, the man had been sleeping 24/7 since he had been brought back to the world by Allura. It had been easy not to go to him to talk or anything else. and on the rare moments where he would go outside and walk, Lance always made sure he was busy doing something, far away from him.

Man, what guilt can make you do.

“Nah, Keith just told me to go easy on you, since I can exhaust anyone with my sparkling personality. Your body took quite a shock in such a short timeframe, it’s just normal we’re going easy on you.”

There was that soft smile on his face again as he kept looking at Lance, his now pure white hair sparkling, dyed a soft red on the edges from Red’s barrier. It was there a short moment before disappearing again, replaced by a more concerned expression.

“Lance… you seem, distant. Not just with me but with everyone else. Did something happen?”

Going for the kill much, eh? But that was normal for someone as observant as Shiro, even as weakened as he was.

“I just…” There was no way he was going to spring it on Shiro, not after everything he had endured. Poor man had it way worse than just a two minute cardiac arrest. “I’m just bummed out we had to sacrifice the Castle. We could have gone home so much rapidly with a wormhole. But at the same time I’m kind of glad because that’s more time to prepare myself for the earful my mom is going to give me.”

He leaned toward Shiro with mischievousness in his eyes.

“She’s so scary when she’s angry, scarier than Allura, I can tell you.”

This elicited a laugh from the man and Lance sighed with relief internally. If Shiro was able to laugh and relax, then he was recovering well.

There was a lapse of silence and Lance took advantage of it for observing Shiro a bit more. Apart from the white hair and the missing arm, Shiro had dark bags under his eyes and he was still paler than habitual. His movements were hesitant and often with a delay as if he wasn't synced with his body just yet.

A high pitched whistle cut his reflection short as the heavy rain starts again, shooting down rocks from outer space. Apparently having two moons meant asteroids would be launched toward the ground at pretty irregular intervals. Good thing they were with their Lions. It was dangerous yet as he watched it inside the protection of the barrier, Lance appreciated the show it made.

Up until some of those rocks began to drop directly on their protections, muffled noises making his hair stand on the back of his neck. It would have been fine on its own if the matter those rocks were made of didn’t fizzle and spark against the particle barrier, making the whole protected zone buzz around them. Lance felt his throat closes up as his attention was enraptured by the noise, cold sweat making his whole body shivers. His gaze who had been previously turned toward the sky was becoming vacant as the noise become louder and louder.

“Guess I'm not going back to Black just yet.” Joked Shiro before turning toward Lance with a concerned expression when the later doesn't come up with a quick retort but Lance was too busy trying to regulate his breathing, trying to ground himself to something that wasn’t his mind twirling and shifting. His muscles spasmed without his consent even as his arms were tightly crossed around his lithe frame, making his shivers more pronounced and painful. His face was flaming yet his whole body was freezing cold.

“Lance?”

Shiro’s voice seemed muffled like Lance was drowning, the water rushing and roaring in his ears as the buzz was the only constant thing he could hear. He couldn’t breath, he couldn’t breath, he can’t-

A hand entered his field of vision and like breaking a spell Lance lurched forward, hunching over himself as sweat rolled from his forehead and his jaw hurt from gritting his teeth. There was still a thunder in his ears but now with Shiro in front of him, looking extremely worried, Lance could focus. He realized Shiro’s hand was pointed toward him in a placating way while Lance couldn’t quite make out what Shiro was saying, he automatically nodded.

Shiro carefully pulling him into a hug and making the both of them sit on the floor wasn’t what Lance thought would happen but it did make him feel a bit better. The weight of Shiro’s arm on his back and the warmth of it made him relax and with that, his breathing got more regular. Shiro’s hand was rubbing his sweat drenched back but for the moment, Lance didn’t care. He felt safe.

He didn’t really know when he began to cry or when he stopped, cocooned by Shiro’s larger body. There was a blank and a headache, muscles hurting and feeling gross all over. He felt spend, both emotionally and physically and if it weren’t for Shiro tethering him with his touches, he would probably have floated about a lot more.

“Hey buddy, feeling better?” Shiro’s voice was soft, right next to his ear and Lance nodded slowly, sniffling. He felt like shit but it was definitely better than the high strung state his panic attack had left him in.

“Can you try and talk? I won’t push you but this, this is not something I can ignore, Lance.”

Lance wiggled his fingers from where they were gripping Shiro’s shirt, trying to get feelings back into them. It felt like having tiny branches on his hands, difficult to move. It even felt like they weren’t really attached to his body. Just like his legs but that was going to have to wait a little. Shiro’s arm was deceptively comfortable.

“Lance, you have to tell me. Bottling it up will only hurt you.”

“Did.”oh god, was that really his voice? Cracked and small. “- did it hurt when you died? Is it… ok to still be scared?”

“Lance, wha-”

“I don’t want to be s-scared, but I am! and it’s so awful because it wasn’t even that important, I just did what I thought was best but it had,” he couldn’t look at Shiro, couldn’t even talk louder than a fearful whisper because of the anvil on his ribs “,hurt, it had hurt so badly. But Allura was here and it was like, everything is alright, there’s nothing to worry about which is obviously crap but there was somewhere else to go and I felt fine! I was fine, maybe a bit jittery but we were all under duress and you - wel the other you - was under so much more stress. It seemed all unimportant and I thought I was fine.

“I had been fine for a few weeks. There was just a lot to, a lot to be concerned about like Lotor or your clone, the Galras and all so we couldn’t just take a pause - well except for the M&M game we did which had been fun - and think through it. And now, now? There’s nothing to do but think and my sleep who had been pretty bad is just going worse and I can’t hear this stupid-” his breath hitched just thinking of it, could swear he could hear it “- stupid crackling sound without going full tilt into panic but I can’t complain! I can’t complain! You died and was replaced by a clone whom had us all fooled but also he was so genuine?

“I can’t go to anyone else because they’ll just think I want to be dramatic or bother them because obviously it wasn't’t that bad but...” His breath caught on a sob as he fought really hard not to cry again. “but now I’m just pouring it all on you and that’s just unfair because you were dead for months and there was someone else in your spot and me? Nothing apart a lion swap and… “He forced his hands to stop cramping so hard, gasped on a breath that was more of a hiccup than anything, “and feeling my muscles spasming and my heart stopping but I told you, Allura was there so it’s nothing to be worried about. So why am I still scared about it?”

There was silence, a shocked, muted thing that hangs between them as Lance fought to keep his breathing under control yet again, fought not to cry even more than he already did as Shiro was looking at him with extreme concern.

“You died?” Shiro’s voice was so soft as if not to scare Lance more and the boy could only be grateful for it. he was sure that if Shiro had been a bit less in control of his reactions, that would have set off a chain of reaction none of them would have liked to endure.

Lance nodded and choked back more tears.

“I’m sorry to make it all about me, you’ve got it so much worse and I told you, it was just for not even two minutes. And now,” his laugh was clipped and rough “now I’m just whining because I had a small heart attack.”

“Lance…” Shiro’s voice was still soft but there was this edge that was making it impossible to ignore and Lance lifted his gaze to look at Shiro, tears rolling down his cheeks. "How could you do that to yourself?"

Lance frowned, not really understanding where Shiro was going.

“How can you believe for one moment you dying is ’fine’?” Shiro’s voice, albeit still low was now laced with something akin to anger but way more worried. “How can you negate your own experiences just because someone ‘had it worse’?”

“But… that’s…” Lance was cut off by Shiro, who used his hand to lift Lance’s chin so they would be eye to eye.

“You died. This isn’t nothing. This is something traumatic that happened to you. Dying is not something one is prepared to endure, whatever the cause. Coming back… it’s even harder to know. Some will, some won’t; we’re the ones that lived on and that should be something you need to focus on. Not whether or not you are entitled to a ‘tough luck buddy’ by someone who experienced the same.

“Is this why you are so withdrawn currently? Because you think you are undeserving of comfort?”

Lance sniffled, shaking his head. His head, while clearer was still all over the place but he felt calmer.

“I’m sorry, Shiro… I thought… the longer I acted like I was fine, the quicker I would be.”

“That’s not how it works.”

“I know that, now.” Lance laughed, a sharp sound he quickly put a stop to, cheeks growing hot.

“We’re your friends, Lance. We are here to help you. I am here to help you. You just have to ask.”

Lance nodded as he placed his head back on Shiro’s shoulder. He missed this, his missed the physical contact and the reassuring presence of their friend and leader during these few days were the clone had been into cryostasis. Lance knew this conversation wasn’t going to fix everything immediately but it was a start. Tomorrow he’ll go talk to the others, tomorrow he will start walking down the path of recovery.

“Shiro? I need help.”

#voltron fanfic #shance #voltron #voltron s6 spoilers #langst #this is my favorite one so far #I love how calming Shiro is #also he is not matching Kaltenecker anymore :(#enjoy people

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ptw30 · 6 years ago

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VLD Season 7 Reactions: Part 2

Hi, @dreamworksanimation and @voltron! Hope you had a great holiday weekend. I received more asks since the last time I sent you a post. Please give these a read, as these are the reviews sent to me from the fandom. Best - ptw30

Anonymous said: Voltron is all build up and no follow up. They teased us with a very cool premise and then slowly went away from it till they finally went to "nope don't remember didn't happen". And the EPs even seem proud of that. I wonder if they ever watched the show :(

The EPs lack the ability to bring a resolution or closure. We never find out Haggar’s motivation or reasoning about Operation Kuron. We never find out who the “other one” was in the pilot. We never find out Shiro’s bayard form. Lance’s insecurities are never resolved. We never find out the limitations of Allura’s powers - she can transfer souls but can’t find the Black Lion galaxies away? There’s just so much left out of the story.

Anonymous said: Sometimes I think about all of voltron’s loose threads and how this next season is the last and am then transported back to my high school days of putting off projects until the last second, throwing something together, aiming for at least a passing grade.

The EPs failed a long time ago, if that’s the case. When they decided to kill off one of the main characters without allowing the team to grieve, forced the most popular paladin off the team, demoted the leader of the team to a soldier, and abandoned its own lore, including breaking the strongest paladin-lion bond without any explanation - they failed to give the viewers any satisfying conclusion to this story. No matter what the next 13 episodes include, it won’t make up for the middle 39 episodes that literally brought tragedy after tragedy, especially to the team’s only LGBTQ+, multiple-minority character.

@sweet-rabbit said: You know, if the EPs wanted us to not like, nay, LOVE AND ADORE Shiro as much as we do, it was probably a huge misstep on their or whoever's part that they hired a man who voiced a freakin' DISNEY RENAISSANCE CHARACTER to voice Shiro. The blasted fools, the lot of them!

Josh Keaton is a consummate professional, and no doubt, Andrea Romano nailed it when working with him and the team. If there is one thing that is absolutely, without a doubt, above reproach with this show - it’s the voice acting. It is outstanding.

@safeautistickeith said: Damsel Shiro aaaaalways felt Suspect ™ for me. Like. Keith can say, ”we saved each other” (whoever wrote that bless them) But, lbr Shiro’s sidelining was a slowburn that started from his damsel-dom. S1: S and K each got a Big Save. K saved S when he came back to Earth. S saved K when K went after Zarkon (Shiro voice: I’ve got you, buddy) S2: K saved S in Across the Universe. S saved K in Marmora. Equals? Yes. Truly. Then s3 comes along and it’s not longer this beautiful, mutual thing, but Shiro becomes a Damsel in Distress. Which Yikes ™ Asian man demoted to damsel? Unfortunate implications. He’s arc has been about leading up until then? Unfortunate implications. He’s a gay male( the reveal planned in s2??) un for tu nate implications. There’s a line between, ”you can be masc and also need help” and just making him a damsel. Big Yikes.

Voltron originally broke tropes, which was awesome. Allura wasn’t a princess locked away in a castle-ship but a knock-out, drag-out warrior who wasn’t afraid to get into the fray. Shiro, the strong-willed leader, wasn’t afraid to accept help. Keith, the loner, felt perhaps the most for his team. “Loverboy” Lance was actually the heart of the team, rather than a female character playing that part. Hunk, too, was strong but scared, and Pidge was not the stereotypical girl figure.

In Season 3, the story began to fall into the traps of the tropes it had broken, and it’s been a demoralizing and disappointing journey ever since.

@melissa18999 said:The lack of characters being challenged emotionally is why everything after season 2 bothers me. Kuron’s arc didn’t test the characters on an emotional level given how after the arc is over everyone just moves on. It’s there only to write actual shiro out of the show for a bit rather than seriously affect the cast. Same thing with Keith’s [crap] and every other character. Nothing tests them emotionally. (Maybe Allura with Lotor)

VLD misses a lot of emotional beats. One of the biggest failures was not showing when the team learned about Keith’s Galran heritage. Then we never see the emotional fallout with the clone, other than the team referring to him as “evil.” The clone fought alongside with the team, perhaps longer than Shiro, and the team never mourned him. Sendak and Shiro’s fight? Shiro never says a word, and then Keith kills Sendak, taking away Shiro’s right to fight back against his one-time captors.

Lotor had Pidge’s dad and didn’t even try to make her a traitor to Team Voltron? Narti could control minds and not one of the paladins was ever brainwashed by her? Haggar did it to a clone, not even Shiro.

Even Allura and Lotor’s relationship - Allura’s anger was the stereotypical “woman scorned.”

So much potential, and it’s just wasted.

Anonymous said: An ask or two doesn't have enough room to describe how much Shiro means to me, how much strength I draw from him, how many dark places he's helped me out of. But s6's treatment of kuron/shiro left me in tears and nearly dissociating for hours, and it's the only season I haven't rewatched. And here's the kicker: Everything I've read about s7 has made the thought of watching it feel identical to an urge to self harm. I want the EPs to think about that. I want them to think hard about people like me, because I doubt I'm the only one who's been affected like this. And I want them to really, really consider if this is the story they wanted to tell. If this is the effect they wanted their story to have.

Shiro is important to many people in terms of representation, and I’ve read many posts about people who identify with him. I’m glad he’s had an impact upon your life, and I hope you can still take comfort in the earlier seasons. Please take care.

Anonymous said: I think I'd be okay with the "Shiro had a degenerative disease" if that was it alone. Like, it's a really good explanation of why everyone so readily accepted the pilot error thing despite Shiro being an absolute legend of a pilot. But it was tied together with his gay reveal and then the story he was shoved into and... I cannot like it, or accept it.

Shiro was revealed to be LGBTQ+, have a degenerative disease, and lose his place in Voltron - all in one season. The juxtaposition of the reveals is reprehensible, and it sends a horrible message to people who have mental and physical struggles, are LGBTQ+, and minorities.

Anonymous said: So, here's why the "it's a show abt war so you have to suffer watching, bc there's only tragedy" excuse is weak: It’s a show about space robots, a space robot called voltron. It's not a show about drama, about people dying and it never was. It was supposed to be a show about teamwork (supposed bc that premise has left the building a long time ago) with war comes death? Yes, absolutely, but its not an excuse to kill all of the lgbt characters

That’s the issue - it’s not an excuse to kill all the LGBTQ+ characters. A show about war that has death and handles appropriately is one thing. Mourning the clone, mourning Shiro, mourning Narti - all those things should have happened, and they didn’t. (These characters were also all with physical and mental disabilities, DreamWorks.)

Showing children closure, helping them to understand death - is a good lesson to learn. But excluding Shiro from his only family, killing his one-time SO in a “fringe” move, and then killing the other LGBTQ+ couple in the show - not to mention killing Shiro four times - that’s a message DreamWorks should not be sending children.

Anonymous said: The one thing I wanted from Voltron Season 7: Shiro getting to reunite with the team, and work with them again as a part of the team - also, the one thing the Voltron EPs refuse to allow.

Not to be technical - but that’s actually two things. Shiro did reunite with the team, but unfortunately, he wasn’t a part of the team. In fact, he was excluded to the point of no longer even being called a paladin, according to “The Journey Within,” and I agree. I wanted that in Season 7 as well.

Anonymous said: I'm still lowkey [mad] that Sincline, made of the same material as Voltron, was not sentient, but the MFE fighters and Atlas, which are reverse-engineered galtean tech and run off... idk what they run off, magic low-charge batteries maybe... are implied sentient.

I’m not sure, but I can say - I am sad that didn’t pan out, either. I wanted to see what Lotor and his generals could do in Sincline. I’m sad that Atlas, clearly built for Allura, didn’t talk to Allura first. Instead, she will always be Blue’s second choice, Lance Red’s second choice, and Keith left to Black because Shiro...didn’t not to fly Black anymore? I’m not quite sure why. The story never tells us.

Rounding back - Sincline had so much more potential than was realized.

Anonymous said: In not committing to a specific black paladin, or even a specific direction and endgame, the story failed to stay together. It fell apart in the same manner a soft cheese does when pressed to a fine-hole cheese grater.

There are a lot of things that failed to keep the story together. The first and foremost was - you need to keep the team together, or at the very least, not lose two of your main characters in one 26-episode batch, one character for 24 episodes, another for 12.

Anonymous said: If the EP's have treated Shiro as an equal instead of a 'problem' they had to put up with, would VLD have not have gone downhill? It does feel like their dislike for one character and their stubbornness to stick to their original plan is what dragged the show down. It really does feel like what happened behind the scenes has become a cautionary tale on what you shouldn't do when writing a story and its characters.

I can’t say for sure, but what I can say is - the moment the EPs saw Shiro not as a character but as a plot device, is the moment the story began to unravel.

cc: @netflix

#voltron #voltron critical #shiro #vld season 7 #dreamworks #anon #answered #melissa18999 #sweet-rabbit #safeautistickeith:

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