Work Text:
Keith was sweating, slashing his bayard through yet another Triq’en before scanning the battlefield for his teammates.
Pidge and Shiro were to his right, seemingly working together to fight off a hoard of the hostile alien species. Hunk was running towards a group of Triq’ens that looked as though they were protecting a fallen soldier, and Keith would feel bad if they hadn’t been trying to kill the Paladins of Voltron since the moment they touched down on the planets surface, despite the multiple times Shiro had tried to explain they came in peace. Lance had been ordered by Shiro to find high ground and be sniper, and Keith new if it wasn’t for Lance he probably would’ve been hurt (or possibly even killed) at least ten times over since the battle started. He could see Lance on top of a cliff, but only because he knew where to look. He could barely see the faint shape of his rifle and the glint of his armour against the planet’s orange sky.
A rustling noise to his right caught his attention, and immediately he was on the defensive. Stalking closer to the bush, he readied his sword, pausing to be certain where to strike, almost…almost, and now- just as he went to strike, an agonised scream came from right behind him. Startled, he whirled round, only to be met with a Triq’en twice the size of him laying on the floor, dead, a hole blasted straight through his chest. His head snapped up to where Lance was hiding, and pressed his finger to the comm in his ear.
“Lance, was that you?”
“Yeah man, what the hell? You were too busy attacking a bush to check your six!” Damn, he sounded pissed.
“I- oh yeah!” whipping back round to face the offending shrub. “the bush.” He muttered to himself, barely listening when Lance spoke again.
“Dude, are you high or something?”
Suddenly, a Triq’en leapt out of the bush, and Keith barely disposed of it before it could slash his face.
“Huh, well, what do you know?” Lance muttered, after a moment of stunned silence.
“What’s going on?” Pidge asked, sounding amused, and Keith supposed their conversation must’ve sounded weird out of context. Keith opened his mouth to answer, but Lance beat him.
“Keith was attacked by a bush.”
There was a beat of silence before Shiro asked “Keith?” as though he were expecting him to explain whatever that meant.
Smirking, Keith replied. “I was attacked by a bush. But don’t worry, I handled it before it got too dangerous.”
Lance snorted, and Keith grinned, even as Shiro reprimanded them (“Chatter, guys, we need to focus.”), because there was no heat, and it almost sounded like he was trying no to laugh.
Running over to join Shiro and Pidge, he glanced back up to Lance’s hideout, opening his mouth to say thanks for his assist (read: saving his life) earlier, but what came out was very different, and surprised even him.
“Lance! Behind you-” He cut himself off as the giant Triq’en grabbed Lance by the neck from behind, and Lance barely managed to muffle a yelp of surprise.
Keith and the rest of the team watched in mute horror as Lance dropped his bayard in favour of clawing at the strong grip around his neck. The Triq’en was holding him at least 4 feet off the ground so that they were eye to eye, and he spent a couple of seconds studying him, before turning to the others and barking out a laugh.
“This is the so-called ‘warrior’ who has killed over half my army?” He laughed again, turning to face Lance again “At least he shall be easy to dispose of.”
And that at least seemed to break Keith out of his paralysis. “Put him down!” He yelled, trying to cover his fear with anger.
“Who are you?” Shiro yelled, and Keith almost wanted to smack him, because how was that relevant right now to saving Lance, but then he recognised it from training at the Garrison. Distract them to give yourself time. He was trying to think of a plan.
“Who am I? You come to my planet trying to gain our allegiance in one of the biggest battles of the universe, and yet you didn’t bother to find out who the leader of their military was? My, my, and I didn’t believe them when they said Terrans were dumb.” He huffed out another laugh, before seeming to remember he was holding a struggling Lance in his left hand. “Ah, yes, the blue paladin of Voltron,” a grin spread across his face. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but is your role not to support the team? To hold them together. And, apparently, you seem to be quite useful for picking off my soldiers. From a distance, mind you. A coward’s choice for participating in war. But effective none the less. Regardless, I was wondering what the loss of the blue paladin would do to the team, how it would surely make them crumble, it would be like losing their right leg, no? And a valuable asset, what with the whole taking-out-half-of-an-entire-army-from-really-far-away thing. Which would please the Galra very much, I’d imagine.”
“You work with the Galra?” Pidge spat.
“No, but we’d like to, and this will certainly get us in their good graces. So, paladin, any last words?” He seemed unfazed by the fact that Lance physically couldn’t answer. The grip on his neck allowed (somewhat painful, and definitely not easy) breathing, but he couldn’t talk. “No?” He asked anyway, because he was a dick “that’s a shame. Well, say your goodbyes.”
Too late, they seemed to realise that needed to go help not just stand there, but just as they took off running towards him, the Triq’en laughed, and tossed Lance over the edge of the cliff.
He seemed to fall forever, the cliff was extremely tall, but even then it shouldn’t take this long. Keith both wanted it to hurry up and slow down. He knew for a fact no one would get to the cliff in time, and even if they did, what could they do? Its not like they could just catch him, from that height not only would it do nothing to save him, but they would most likely break both their arms too. He debated trying to run closer, but realise with a mixture of horror and relief that Lance was going to land in the sea. A small part of his mind was hopeful, something about water cushioning his fall, but the rest of his brain quickly stomped that down, supplying him with the thought that hitting water from that high would feel like hitting concrete.
“Lance..” he heard Hunk whisper, before he hit the water with an awful slapping noise, and chaos broke loose.
Desperately, they all sprinted as fast as they could towards the water’s edge, and Shiro barely grabbed Hunk’s arm in time to stop him from running into the water.
“Shiro! Let me go! You have to- have to let me-“
“Hunk.” Shiro said gently, pulling him away. Pointing to the sea, he continued, “the floor drops away immediately.”
Keith follows where he’s pointing, frowning when he realises he’s right, the sea bed dropping to give way to a rocky ravine barely a foot off the shore. And with it comes the unwelcome thought that even if Lance had somehow survived that fall, his armour would have weighed him down, and…
He realises the others came to a similar conclusion when Pidge takes a sharp intake of breath, and Hunk makes a strangled noise in the back of his throat.
“Oh my god…” Keith mutters, and feels his eyes fill with tears. “Oh my god.” He says a bit louder, and hated the way his voice sounds like its grating on sandpaper.
He looked to Shiro and caught his gaze. Despite the tear running down his cheek, Shiro still looks absolutely furious. Keith silently asks for permission, and when Shiro nods he takes off towards the cliff, intent on killing that monster. But he only makes it about 10 feet before he’s surrounded by Triq’ens, at least 50, and he can barely call for help before they’re attacking him. He’s acutely aware of the others joining the fight, but they’re still processing the loss, and despite their desire to avenge him, they’re distracted and it’s making them sloppy.
Without Lance, they have to watch their own backs, and they’re failing miserably at it. They’re far too used to not having to, because Lance will take care of it, Lance always takes care of it. Keith didn’t realise how much trust he put in him until he wasn’t there. When a Triq’en tackled him from behind for the fifth time he was almost ready to surrender, until he saw the head of the military himself join the fight, and he attacked again with renewed energy and focus. But no matter how hard he tried, he wasn’t able to constantly watch his back as well as every other direction at the same time, and he wound up forced to his knees, bayard discarded a couple feet away, arms pinned behind his back. Looking around, he saw Hunk and Pidge in similar positions, though Shiro was still fighting. It wasn’t long, however, until he too was given the same treatment.
They were all facing the Triq’en who killed Lance, standing in a horseshoe shape around him. They were silent, until the Triq’en holding Keith spoke.
“What shall we do, Ackala?”
“I say we hold them prisoner, a gift to the Galra, perhaps?” The head of military (Ackala?) replied. He clicked his fingers twice, and the Triq’en scrambled to put Keith’s wrists in metal cuffs. “Good, now let’s take them back to our base. Put the Black paladin at the front, then the Green, then-”
There was a collective moment of confused and startled silence as they watched Ackala fall to the ground, a hole shot straight through his head.
“Is he dead?” A very familiar voice said from behind them after a few seconds passed.
Whipping his head round, Keith would later be embarrassed by the noise he made when he locked eyes with Lance. He was drenched, helmet missing, hair soaked, breathing heavily, gun raised and smoking. He had a wild grin on his face, but no one missed the way his hands shook. Keith took advantage of the Triq’ens distraction and head-butted the one holding him. It was sent reeling, pulling the cuffs off his wrists with it. Swiftly, he knocked them unconscious, before turning and seeing the others had followed suit.
Now though, it was almost like they didn’t know what to do. They stared at Lance in disbelief, and he stared back, seeming almost as lost as them.
“What?” Pidge asked, barely a whisper.
Lance’s face split into a grin, and he started laughing breathlessly. Despite everything, the others found themselves joining in.
“What the hell?” Keith asked as he laughed, but then it caught up with him, and he stopped laughing. “What the hell?” he repeated, but firmer this time. Everyone else stopped laughing as well, Lance included, although he looked confused. “Lance, we thought you died. How are you not dead?” He could tell he was getting hysterical, but he couldn’t seem to stop talking. “You should be dead, at- at the bottom of the ocean right now- you- you can’t be here! Why aren’t you dead?”
He probably would’ve kept going, but Lance cut him off. “Jeez, dude, I- I get it, man.”
Looking at Lance, Keith realised he was at least 3 times paler than he had been minutes ago, and his breathing had picked up again. Immediately he felt guilty.
“Sorry- I’m sorry, that wasn’t fair, I shouldn’t have- what I was trying to say was: are you ok?”
“I mean, all things considered, yeah, but,” he swallowed thickly. “I am definitely gonna pass out.” And true to his word, not two seconds later he dropped to the ground, unconscious. Shiro sprinted over before anyone could react, instantly checking for a pulse.
“Is he ok?” Hunk asked desperately.
“Y-yeah, he was right, he did just pass out.” The others pretended not to notice how shaky Shiro’s voice was, as they let out a collective breath of relief. They stood in silence for a while, trying to process what just happened.
After a couple minutes passed, Pidge spoke up. “I guess I’ll- I’ll get Green.”. The mission was supposed to be a safe, political meeting with the leader of the planet, so they’d only brought one lion, Green.
“Yeah, we should head off before they wake up.” Keith agreed, nodding his head towards the unconscious Triq’en.
Pidge walked off to find Green, and Hunk went to join Shiro at Lance’s side. Despite the fact that Keith wanted to check Lance over for himself, he decided to give them their moment, and instead went to pick up their discarded bayards.
He had just joined Shiro and Hunk when Pidge landed, and Shiro scooped Lance up as they boarded. Laying Lance on the floor, Shiro rested Lance’s head in Hunk’s lap, before sitting down next to him. Keith sat opposite, knocking Shiro’s foot with his own. They engaged in a half-hearted game of footsies, neither one paying attention, more engaged in watching Lance.
About halfway to the castle, Lance stirred, groaning as he opened his eyes. For several seconds he simply stared, a confused look on his face, which eventually morphed into one of annoyance. “Oh my god, I thought that was some horrible dream.” He muttered, startling a laugh out of Keith and Hunk.
Wincing, Lance reached up to rub his forehead. “You got a headache?” Hunk asked, voice quiet.
“Yeah, but it’s fine, it’ll pass.” Despite his claims that it was fine, Lance didn’t stop Hunk from running his hand through his hair, and accepted the water bottle without question.
“So,” Shiro started, trying for casual but missing so horribly it was almost funny. “What happened?”
Lance snorted, opening his eyes slowly. “Wow, no messing around, huh? Straight to business. You know, I’ve always admired that about you, Shiro-”
“Lance, stop deflecting.” Pidge cut in.
Scowling half-heartedly, Lance continued. “Fine. What do you want to know?”
“What do we- Lance, are you serious? We want to know how the hell you survived a fall that high, into water that by all rights you should have drowned in, only to come out of it completely fine!” Keith replied, incredulous.
“Oh,” Lance said weakly, “That.”
“Yes, that.” Hunk deadpanned.
“Well, I- uh. I fell. Into the water, that is. But when I hit it, it didn’t hurt? And, like, I was aware I was sinking, and I was going to drown because I didn’t have my helmet, but I just…wasn’t…scared? And I was holding my breath, but then something just told me I didn’t need to, and so I took a breath, and it was like breathing air.” He looked around and saw their disbelieving faces, and carried on, almost frantic. “No, seriously, I- I was breathing underwater, and it felt weird, natural, even. I swear. And I spent a couple minutes just, like, freaking out because I was – you know – breathing underwater and that’s not normal, and I’m pretty sure I was panicking hard, but then the voice - you know, the one that told me I could breathe? Yeah – it started speaking again, and I realised it was Blue, telling me it was okay, that I was safe, that you needed help. And so I swam to the surface, and, well, yeah.” He finished lamely.
The lion was silent, before Pidge spoke. “You were breathing underwater?” and Keith is sure she doesn’t mean to sound so sceptical, but it’s in her nature to question things. Lance, however, doesn’t consider this.
“I knew you wouldn’t believe me.”
Maybe it’s the way he sounds so defeated, or maybe it’s the fact that Lance thought none of them would believe him despite the fact that they’re a team, or maybe its just because of everything they’ve been through today, but Keith feels the overwhelming urge to just make Lance feel better. So he hugged him. It takes them both by surprise, but after a second of shock, Lance leans into the hug, pressing his face into the crook of Keith’s neck.
“We believe you.” He says firmly, shooting a glare in the direction of the pilot seat, uncaring of whether or not Pidge receives it.
“Thanks. I- I know it sounds crazy.” Lance smiled, although it was small. Keith wanted to say more, but they arrived at the castle before he could.
Lance made as if to get up, but Shiro was having none of it, insisting he let him carry him. “C’mon man, I’m fine, I can walk.” Lance protested weakly.
“Humour me.” Shiro replied, picking Lance up bridal style before he could argue further, effectively putting an end to it. “We’re going straight to the med bay.”
The whole way, Lance claimed he was fine, he just wanted to go to bed, he didn’t need to get checked over, but they ignored him, and once they reached the med bay he gave up.
“Lance, my boy! I’ve been told you took a little leap into the sea?” Coran was waiting for them, pod and examination table prepped and ready.
“Hey Coran.” Lance grinned. “I’m fine, really, I was just hoping you could tell us what happened?”
“You say you were breathing underwater?”
Lance nodded.
“And you could hear Blue?”
He nodded again.
“Princess!” He yelled suddenly, startling them all. Allura came in a couple seconds later, and smiled upon seeing Lance.
“Lance! Pidge told us what happened, how’d you do it?”
“I believe I can answer that!” Coran grinned. “You see, each of the paladins have a bond with their lions, yes?” They nodded in agreement. “And it can be strengthened through practise and discipline. However, it would seem Lance and the blue lion’s bond is naturally very strong, it’s like you were made for each other! I’d expect the bond to be this strong perhaps after about one of your Earth-years, or after months of rigorous training, but it appears you two just get along like an Ulxin and a Sgocsan!”
The paladins exchanged glances, each of them looking equally confused. "I’m assuming that’s…good?” Keith asked eventually.
“Yes! Very. You see, the Ulxin allows the Sgocsan to clean its beak, and in return the Sgocsan gets to eat the stuff it cleans off, much like, I believe, your Earthen animals plover birds and crocodiles.”
“Right, but what does that have to do with Lance surviving a massive fall and breathing underwater.”
“Well, Number 4, with a stronger bond comes…abilities, I suppose. The lion may choose to grant you such abilities in a moment of need. The blue lion, for example, is the lion of water and ice, and as such saw fit to help Lance with his, uhm…predicament.”
“What? I’m still confused.” Hunk shook his head.
Coran opened his mouth to answer, but Lance beat him to it, a wide grin spread on his face. “That asshole tried to drown the paladin of water.”
“Hang on,” Shiro cut in, looking so damn lost Keith wanted to laugh “You’re saying the blue lion knew Lance was in danger and, like, just… gave him the ability to breathe underwater? That goes against all human anatomy? And how come he didn’t get hurt when he hit the water?”
“The lions are a complicated science, Number 1, and I can’t claim to completely understand them, but I do know that they are more advanced than we can imagine, and are advancing everyday. I think some things you just have to accept without understanding. I mean, Lance is here and ok, correct?”
“Wait, wait, wait. The lions give us superpowers?” Hunk yelled before Shiro could reply, looking equal parts excited and horrified.
“I suppose, in a way, yes. But only if they deem you worthy, or the situation demands for it. And they are limited to your lion’s capabilities. For example, Keith wouldn’t be able to breath underwater because his lion is associated with fire.”
“What about the rest of us?” Pidge asked, eyes shining.
“Well, Number 5, the green lion is the guardian spirit of forests, the yellow is that of land, and the black lion is associated with air and the sky.”
“Cool.” Pidge smirked. “So how do we turn it on?”
“Like I said, the lions choose when and where you gain these abilities, and you would need to strengthen your bonds first, as Lance is the only one with a strong enough bond. But, once you achieve the bond, there’s no saying what abilities you could gain. In fact, we do not know the extent of Lance’s abilities yet. Different situations call for different weapons, I suppose.”
There was a beat of silence, before Hunk turned to Pidge, eyes wide.
“Ferb, I know what we’re gonna do today.”