#some leftovers will be posted tomorrow and if i wake up to some new fanart i'll reblog it too

[purplecyborgnewt]

[ardett]

Dream, Seam

Description: Lance is the blue paladin. The Galra realize this before he does. Or AU where the Galra conquered Earth 10,000 years ago and get to Lance first.

Warnings: brief violence

Inspired by @cosumosu‘s post of Lance making Voltron plushies

And check out this amazing fanart by Mayuluh!

Read it on Ao3 

For Platonic Voltron Week

Day Seven Prompt: Free Day / AU

Lance is nine when he gets his first vision of Voltron. Lance is nine and three days when the Galra take him away.

He remembers sleepily telling his mom about how he’d dreamed of a giant metallic lion who flew in space and fought against the Galra. He’s knows it was a dream because the Galra conquered Earth and the rest of the known universe 10,000 years ago. His class was reading about it in their social studies textbooks yesterday. He remembers his mom telling him to get back to bed, telling him what a silly dream it was. No one stands against the Galra. There’s no one left to stand against the Galra. He remembers hearing his mom on the phone as he walked up the stairs.

Three days later, men (no, not men) came to his house to take him away.

They ask him a lot of questions that first day. He thought they would be hard to answer. Usually his dreams slip away like cotton candy doused in water. For some reason, this one stays like the leftover stickiness on his fingers.

They ask him what the lion looks like. Big, metal. What color is it? Silver? No, there must be some other color. Black, perhaps? No, blue. Were there other lions? No. Was there a metal man? No. And what was the lion doing? It was… am I going to get in trouble? No, we just need the truth. This is a safe space for telling the truth. What was the lion doing? It was attacking Galra spaceships.

The questions get harder.

Were you piloting the blue lion? I… I don’t know. You don’t know? I think I was. I could see the battle happening, but I think I was also flying. Does that make sense?

The men (no, not men) only jot something down and keep questioning him.

Did you hear any names? See any other people? No, it was just me. Does the name Voltron mean anything to you? No. Should it?

They don’t answer him.

They ask him if this is the first time he’s dreamed of the lion, if he’s ever considered fighting against the Galra empire. They ask him where his family is from, if he has Galra blood or if his family ever interacted with other alien species.

He asks when he’s going to be able to go back home. They tell him they need to keep him here for a little while longer.

He tells them he didn’t get to finish his homework yet and he has school tomorrow. They tell him he doesn’t need to go to school anymore. (He’s pretty happy about that but he’s also confused.)

They give him a drink and some snacks. A few hours later, he falls asleep on the couch in the waiting room they left him in.

When he wakes up, he is somewhere else. The room is warm, small with an attached bathroom. There’s a bed and a desk and a chair. But it is not his room. It doesn’t have his stuffed animals, his blanket, his sister, who he shares a room with. The door is locked. He throws open the curtains.

Outside, he can see Earth. The planet Earth, surrounded by the infinite void of space. He is in the infinite void of space.

He is only nine and three days.

He screams.

Someone eventually comes rushing into the room. Another Galra, like the people who had questioned him and then taken him away. This one appears to be a woman, in something flowy and with a bit more curves. She looks nothing like his mom.

She asks if he’s okay. He points out the window, crying something about space and Earth and home. She closes his curtains and tells him maybe he’ll feel better if he takes a nap. After she leaves, the air in his room takes on a sweeter quality. It makes him drowsy.

When he wakes up again, someone comes into the room and asks if he had any dreams. He says no. They leave.

He doesn’t know how much time passes. He didn’t think to keep track. He wishes he had.

He doesn’t leave his room much. They bring his meals here, he sleeps here, he stays here.

They always ask him if he’s had anymore dreams. He tells them about one where he was an eel but somehow he could walk. They’re not very interested in that one. He tells them about dreaming about his mom and his sisters and his bedroom. They tell him this is his bedroom. He asks them again about Voltron and if it was one big robot or five small robots.

They’re very interested in that.

After asking him many things for many hours, they tell him he’s been very good. They tell him if he continues to be good, he might be rewarded. (He doesn’t really understand that. He can’t control what he dreams. He doesn’t know why his dreams are so important.)

He asks if he can go home yet. He thinks it’s been almost a week. One of the Galra says no and they leave him alone again.

Later that night, the other Galra comes to his room, sits down with him on the edge of the bed, and tells him he will not be able to go back home for a very long time. Lance asks how long and the Galra replies that he doesn’t know. Lance is very important now, so he has to stay here. The Galra asks if there is anything else he can get Lance. Lance asks for more blankets. Space is cold.

A few days later, there are three fuzzy new blankets are the end of his bed.

Thace is the one Lance grows closest with.

In general, Lance is kept very comfortable. But only physically. Sometimes he asks for things and they tell him no. Sometimes he asks questions and no one answers him. They only seem concerned with his dreams. Often times, they’ll ask him questions for hours when he has nothing to give. He tells them everything but it never seems like enough.

After particularly rough sessions, Thace will stay with him or give him small gifts. It helps his loneliness, but not enough. He used to live in a loud house, where someone was always talking, always laughing. He’s used to always being hot from not having enough personal space. He’s used to falling asleep to the sound of someone else breathing.

It’s probably the stress but whatever it is, he starts having a hard time sleeping. Less sleeping, less dreaming.

He didn’t have much to give the other Galra before anyway but now he has almost nothing. They get angry with him. They think he’s lying. They tell him he could be somewhere much worse.

Thace comes to his room that night and asks him if something is wrong. Lance asks him what day it on Earth. Thace tells him it is four days from his tenth birthday.

The next morning, Lance throws a fit, screaming that he won’t tell them anything unless they let him see his family. They turn off the lights in his room for two days. They seal his window shut. He is alone in the dark for two days.

When the lights come back on, they ask him if he’s had any dreams. He screams at them that he wants to go back home. The lights go back off.

The next time someone comes for him, it’s Thace. He has a tablet in his hands. He tells Lance that the Galra have agreed to let him communicate with his family through this device. It comes with written and video capabilities. Thace says that this was not an easy compromise and it will be taken away if Lance doesn’t behave. Thace sounds more distant than usual. It doesn’t matter.

Lance spends the rest of the day video chatting with his family.

When they come to check in on him at the end of the day, he tells them about the two dreams he had while locked in the darkness.

When Lance is ten, he dreams of the Blue Lion. He is always it’s pilot but sometimes he is someone else. He is not human. He has pointed ears and funny face paint. They tell him he is an Altean in these dreams. They ask him if he remembers any other names. They tell him to search for one the next time he dreams. He come back with the name King Alfor and they give him a new game to play on his tablet. Sometimes, there’s an impression of something greater than just his Blue Lion, something more, but he has a hard time explaining it.

When Lance is eleven, he dreams of Voltron properly, vagueness lifting away at the corners. It comes together slowly and the Galra guide him to some of the answers. He wonders why they need him if they already seem to know so much. Most of the battles Lance dreams of they say already happened. They ask Lance what Voltron is doing now. The best answer Lance can think of is sleeping. He thought this would please them but they seem uneasy.

When Lance is eleven, his younger sister tells him they had to move his stuff out of his old room to makes more space for his growing siblings. That’s okay, he says, he has his own room now. (Even if he doesn’t want it.)

When Lance is twelve, he dreams of the Yellow Lion. They ask him where it is now and who pilots it. Lance says it is on Altea, piloted by an Altean. They tell him no, that is the past. Think harder, search harder. He tells them it is also sleeping. They ask where. He doesn’t know.

When Lance is twelve, his body does things he doesn’t understand. He has a hard time ignoring it. Thace says that human biology is not an area he has studied, so Lance spends a lot of time in the bathroom alone trying to figure it out himself. He is minorly successful.

When Lance is thirteen, he dreams of the Green Lion. They ask him where it is now and who pilots it. Lance says it is on Altea, piloted by an Altean. They tell him no, that is the past. Think harder, search harder. He tells them it is also sleeping. They ask where. He doesn’t know.

When Lance is thirteen, he shoots up three inches in as many weeks. It takes them a very long time to get him new clothes.

When Lance is fourteen, he dreams of the Red Lion. They ask him where it is now and who pilots it. Lance says it is on Altea, piloted by an Altean. They tell him no, that is the past. Think harder, search harder. He tells them it is also sleeping. They ask where. He doesn’t know.

When Lance is fourteen, he should be going into high school. It’s not the education he misses. They provide that for him. But he thinks he misses the people. But he’s not even sure he knows how to act with other human beings anymore, without a screen and a void between them. He can’t remember if he was always that way or if something in him changed.

When Lance is fifteen, he dreams of the Black Lion. They are very insistent about these dreams. They tell him if he can answer their questions, they will give him a great reward. Lance has stopped wondering if this means he might be able to go back to Earth. They ask him where it is now and who pilots it. He doesn’t know. They tell him to sleep on it.

Lance wakes up screaming.

They ask him what he saw.

He tells them he saw Emperor Zarkon.

They are very pleased with this answer.

When Lance is fifteen, he is trained in royal conduct.

The day Lance turns sixteen, he is taken to meet Emperor Zarkon.

He is terrified but the Emperor tells him not to be nervous. He tells Lance he has been watching his progress. He tells Lance he is very pleased with the results he is showing. He tells Lance he is a valuable asset to the Galra empire. He asks for everyone else to leave the room.

In private, he calls Lance the blue paladin. Lance knows this name from his dreams. It feels right. He says he knows Lance saw him as the black paladin and that this was correct. It means they are connected, the two of them as paladins. That feels less right.

Lance asks if he can see his family on Earth.

Emperor Zarkon says yes.

They give him one day back on Earth with his family but it is more than he has had in seven years and it is enough. He was wrong about needing screens and voids. Human contact comes back to him naturally. Back on the ship, he will sometimes press his hands into his own skin and remember the feeling of warmth. He misses it almost as much as his family.

One month later, Lance feels something shift in his dreams. It feels like he took a gulp of air that stirs in his lungs cold and clear and full of something more. He tells Thace that the Blue Lion is awake.

A few days pass. Thace looks pained as he tells Lance that Emperor Zarkon has requested that Lance be moved to live in his main ship, two galaxies away from the Earth. Thace comes with him. The tablet does not. The connection is too far for it to work anyway.

The Galra on Zarkon’s ship are crueler than the ones near Earth. They ask the same questions but when he says he doesn’t know, they threaten to hurt him, they threaten to hurt his family. He hears Thace tell them that Lance responds better, works better, when he is comfortable and feels safe. They don’t care.

They spend three hours asking him over and over again where the Blue Lion is.

Lance asks Thace to find him some cloth and a needle and thread. That is the last thing Lance says for a long time. Thace pleads with him to give them something, anything, but Lance just shakes his head. Thace says he won’t be able to stop them from hurting him. Lance doesn’t care.

Lance stops talking. Then, he stops sleeping.

He works day in and day out on the stuffed animals.

They demand to know what he thinks he’s doing. Does he understand the consequences of disobeying them? They try to take it away from him but he screams and screams and screams, nothing of the dreams he knows they want to hear. Thace points out that it looks like Lance is sewing together a blue lion. They give him back the cloth and thread.

Lance’s fingertips hurt from being pricked and his eyes ache from lack of sleep, but something in him will not rest until he is done. Something in him needs this. (Because if he doesn’t have this, he will have nothing. He will have no one.)

He asks Thace for yellow cloth. Then green. Then red. Then black. Then white.

Thace asks him what the white is for but Lance can’t speak until he is done. Thace leaves. Lance works.

Lance falls asleep with the finished lions keeping guard over his exhausted body.

When he awakes, he still feels as if he is in a haze. His hands are moving, his mouth is saying something, but he isn’t in control. He is dreaming, but he is awake.

The stuffed black lion says, “We can do this if we work together. Form Voltron!” The other lions fly together, but as they meet, Lance wakes up. The lions fall from his hands, his still aching hands.

Someone rushes into the room, grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him, demanding to know what just happened. Lance says he doesn’t know but this time, he’s lying.

Thace comes in later with only one other Galra in tow. He very softly, very quietly asks Lance what happened with the lions today. Lance whispers into his ear that all the lions are awake and trying to form Voltron. Thace asks, trying? Lance says they haven’t been able to do it yet.

Thace looks sad but the Galra behind him smiles. He nods Thace on. Thace tells Lance Emperor Zarkon will be very pleased with how valuable Lance is proving to be. Lance just hugs the yellow lion to his chest.

They leave him alone for the rest of the day. There are no visions, no dreams, but he plays with the lions. They make him feel less alone. He doesn’t know why but they feel like more than just stuffed animals to him. They are more than just lions. He had thought, when he was making them, that his hands were forming the Blue Lion, the Yellow Lion, Red and Green and Black. But these animals are not the lions. They don’t even look quite like the lions, with their different characteristics. They are much more than that, in a way he can’t explain.

The next day, they ask him about the names he had said while he was playing. He hadn’t even realized. But they are there, right on the tip of his tongue.

He tells them about the stuffed yellow lion, who’s big and cuddly, always warm and welcoming. They ask him for more. He tells them he has dark skin and dark hair and wears an orange headband to keep the longer strands of hair out of his eyes. They look at his stuffed yellow lion and say that is not on his stuffed animal. They ask him who he is talking about. Lance’s brow furrows. He’s not sure. They ask if he’s talking about the pilot of the Yellow Lion. He jumps at the answer. Yes, yes, that exactly who he’s talking about. They ask for the pilot’s name. He tells them the pilot’s name is Hunk.

It is easier after that.

He tells them the Green Lion’s pilot is Pidge, a boy, no, girl, no… he’s not sure. This too eludes him, like the location of the lions. He tells them Pidge is small, younger than he is, brilliant and techy, and wears wide rimmed glasses like the one’s sewn onto his stuffed green lion.

He tells them the Red Lion’s pilot is Keith. Black haired, angry, skilled with a glowing sword and with flight.

They ask why the stuffed black lion, who should be Emperor Zarkon, has a scar over his nose and a tuft of white hair. He tells them that is not Emperor Zarkon. They shift nervously, throwing glances to each other. They don’t ask him anymore questions about the Black Lion.

They ask about the one out-of-place white lion, who has no counterpart in Voltron. Lance tells them he has named this stuffed animal Coran. They ask if he remembers how, in his first dreams, he saw Alteans. One of them leaves and comes back with a picture of an Altean with bright blue markings under his eyes and an orange mustache. They ask if this is Coran. Lance says yes.

They ask about the Blue Lion last. They ask if this stuffed lion is Lance. Lance says yes, but he is wrong. Lance says no, but he is wrong. He says he’s not sure. They ask him to clarify. He says it should be him but it’s not. They ask him who it is instead. He feels like it’s right in his reach, but he can’t quite grasp it. They tell him to sleep on it.

He comes back with the name Princess Allura.

A few days later, Emperor Zarkon comes down to Lance’s room personally. He picks up the stuffed black lion, gripping it so his claws do not pierce the cloth. He asks for the name of this lion. Lance tells him his name is Shiro. Emperor Zarkon gestures to someone outside of Lance’s room. They come back with a hologram of a tall man, well-built, with a streak of white through his black hair and a scar cutting across his nose. Emperor Zarkon asks if this is Shiro. Lance says yes. Emperor Zarkon asks if Shiro is the pilot of the Black Lion. One of his claws punctures the spot where the lion’s heart would be. Lance can’t answer. He can’t speak. Emperor Zarkon leaves.

Thace returns in the Emperor’s place. Lance tells him he has only seen Shiro piloting the Black Lion.

This is the way it is for a few weeks. Lance gives them some more information about the lions, about the pilots. He plays with them in his free time, though he cannot differentiate between when he is merely playing and when he is dreaming of something else, something greater. He talks to them a lot, more than he ever talked to any of the Galra, even Thace. They don’t answer him but he feels as if they know him somehow. Sometimes, when he holds the stuffed blue lion close, he feels a vicious tug in his chest from outside his window.

He tells Thace about it. Thace tells him very quietly that perhaps it would be better if Lance ignored that feeling.

The first time Voltron is formed, Lance wakes up with tears in his eyes and the blue lion clutched in his hand, the other lions sprawled around him. He feels like something that was his has been ripped from him.

They become much more insistent about the Blue Lion’s location after that. Emperor Zarkon visits his room three times in a short span of time and on the third, he gives Lance a bottle of something golden and glowing. He calls it quintessence. He watches Lance drink it. It sits in Lance’s veins, heavy and hazy as Emperor Zarkon traces his temples. Emperor Zarkon whispers that the blue paladin can surely tell the black paladin, the rightful leader of Voltron, where the Blue Lion is.

The blue paladin tells the black paladin that the Blue Lion is three galaxies away, sleeping near a cluster of five stars.

Lance feels the ship warp three minutes after Emperor Zarkon leaves his room.

That night, Thace comes to his room with a frantic look in his eyes. They are alone, but still, Thace hugs Lance tightly until they are just close enough for him to barely, barely whisper, You don’t have to do this, Lance. I know I do not have the right to ask this of you, but you don’t have to do this. Lance says he doesn’t understand. The light goes out of Thace’s eyes.

As things become easier to call up, they teach him more about space warfare. His stuffed lions are nearly always in battle formations, or strategically placed throughout his room in relation to the sprawling galaxies Voltron is travelling through. (He’d rather they not be. He’d rather talk to them, play with them, have them be in his space, but they don’t want him to move the lions unless it’s a vision.) Sometimes Lance can give them the general plan Voltron may attempt to carry out. Sometimes Lance tells them what would work best against Voltron this time. Sometimes Lance predicts where the Blue Lion will be before it’s there. The ship warps often now.

But as things become easier to call up, other things become harder to ignore. When they warp to the Blue Lion’s location, when Lance is close to the Blue Lion, he feels like the longing of it all might kill him. When the Blue Lion’s presence disappears, it feels like his heart has been torn out of his chest. They notice him staring out the window for too long when Voltron is attacking. They start posting a guard in his room when they’re in battle.

He thinks he’s starting to lose himself. He thinks he’s starting to lose his mind.

He is almost never Lance anymore. His hands are always moving the lions, his voice is only their voices saying words that aren’t his. Lance is being smothered. The Galra don’t care. They like him better this way, where they can constantly observe what the other paladins are saying or what Voltron is doing.

When he tries to detach himself from it, they punish him. This is the first time they’ve ever truly punished him. Thace has always stopped them, always told them he will shut down if they start hurting him. Now that he thinks of it, he hasn’t seen Thace in a long time. Besides, they don’t care if he shuts down. They don’t need him anymore, only his conduit. This is war, they tell him, and sometimes weapons need to be sharpened by another blade.

They give him nine scars on his back that don’t close for a week. They don’t damage his hands or his voice. No, his hands don’t shake because they are hurt. (They shake because he is terrified.)

He stays awake for almost ten days before he knocks himself unconscious. They begin giving him quintessence instead of food. He doesn’t need to sleep anymore.

He lives like this for three weeks. Then, the Blue Lion speaks to him.

My paladin… please, my paladin…

He drops the red lion that had been in his hand. He is shaking too hard to keep his hold.

My paladin, why are you doing this? Something great brushes against his mind

The Galra in the room are screaming at him to get back to work. One of them is holding the whip again.

I… I see. You did not know. I did not come for you. The great presence cries and its tears are on Lance’s face. I’m sorry, my paladin, I am sorry.

The whip comes down. Lance screams. The Blue Lion screams with him.

All this time, I have left you alone.

Emperor Zarkon is in the room, ordering them to stop.

I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, my paladin, my dearest paladin, this is the only way.

Emperor Zarkon’s claws are digging into the flesh of Lance’s chin, forcing him to meet his eyes. Lance sees the black paladin. Then, he sees the enemy.

The Blue Lion’s voice is too deep for his vocal cords. It rips them. “You will not use this boy again.”

Lance understands when he feels the bond in him break.

Lance doesn’t let himself remember the month that follows.

In the end, it is Thace who saves Lance. He is there when Lance wakes up in an unfamiliar place, somewhere that is not a cell. Lance’s stuffed lions are at his feet. Thace holds the black lion and says, “We can do this if we work together.” Lance stares back blankly until Thace gives him a sad smile and puts the black lion back with the others.

He leaves Lance with the lions. He leaves the door unlocked.

Lance lives with the Blade of Marmora now, free to roam, free to explore, free even to go back home. He almost does. It is not the idea of a war, of responsibility to a free universe, that keeps him there. Half of his life have been taken from him by this war. What keeps him there is a spark fluttering, flaming in his chest.

He has known this feeling almost all his life.

Thace notices when Lance starts to carry around the stuffed blue lion.

He does not ask, but this time, Lance gives. He tells them where to find Voltron, when to go so Voltron is feeling the least hostile, who to send.

Lance is not there when the Blade of Marmora meets Team Voltron. No, the Blade might regret how much they’ve taken him under their wing, teaching him all they know, because he takes an escape pod to the Castle of Lions. The doors seem to recognize him. They open in response to his presence.

The Blue Lion is waiting when he arrives. As he enters her mouth, he hears her crying, My paladin, my paladin, you are here, you are here. He knows he doesn’t need to answer. They have known each other for years. They are content to sit with each other as their minds whisper all that was missed, all that’s present, all that’s to come.

For the first time in his life, he feels whole.

A spaceship away, Team Voltron holds their lion counterparts, sewn by the hands of a sixteen year old boy, loved by those same hands of that same boy, who spent half of his life isolated, who had even these small things stripped from him and used against him. They hear of how, yes, these are the same things that gave them away so many times, but they are also the same small stuffed animals that were Lance’s only real comfort, who slept with him for the last year, who he talked with and played with and cried with, who were there even after Blue had to sever their bond. These stuffed lions, who were there when the paladins weren’t.

There are tears. There is regret, there is anger, there is guilt. But there is also resolve.

It will not happen again.

The lions still live at the bottom of Lance’s bed. But beyond his room, there is an even greater family.

Author’s Note: So I have this in Platonic VLD Week but I’ve been wanting to write this for a little bit, which is why it’s pretty low on the actual platonic relationships and longer than the other pieces I wrote specifically for this week.