Voltron Legendary Defender - Shining Like the Stars [92] [Shklance]

[scriveyner]

Title: shining like the stars [92]
Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender
AU: slts
Characters/Pairing: Shiro/Keith/Lance, Team Voltron
Rating: M
Length: 3460
Summary: It was the distant cry of circling gulls that made Lance finally open his eyes.




It was the distant cry of circling gulls that made Lance finally open his eyes. He squinted, expecting the bright expanse of a blue summer sky as felt the board rock with the waves. Instead of a summer sky though, the expanse above him was midnight blue and black, with a paintbrush spray of stars that seemed neverending. It was vast and unfathomable and all at once made Lance feel very, very small.

He sat up and discovered to his surprise that he wasn't laid out on a surfboard like he had imagine, rocked gently by unseen waves. The canvas of the universe had expanded around him, past a horizon line until it felt like he was floating motionless in the emptiness of deep space. It was profoundly disorienting, and Lance flailed his hand back until it hit something strong and solid. He flattened his hand, feeling warmth and sturdiness beneath it. Lance put both of his hands back and leaned his weight on them, legs sticking out straight and relaxed, letting go of the fear that had seized him as he looked up at the endless stretch of sky.

“Am I dead?” Lance asked aloud, mostly rhetorically since he didn't expect an answer. If he was, he was going to be really pissed. He felt the Blue Lion rumble a bit and when he shifted to look at the Blue Lion's eyes they were lit gold. “It's not a stupid question,” he said defensively. “If I'm not dead, where the heck am I?”

There was no response to that, just the same gentle rumble of the Blue Lion's systems being active. Lance sighed, and then drew one leg up, draping his arm over it. His shirt stuck to him with the motion, tacky with blood, and he pulled at it. There was no wound underneath, and he traced his fingers over the spot where the blade – Keith's blade – had cut into him. Lance shuddered and leaned forward, squeezing his eyes shut and folding his arms, trying to curl in on himself and forget about what he had seen.

That wasn't Keith.

But it was, and the knowledge curdled in Lance's belly like old milk. He wanted to yell and scream and cry but instead sat there, still tilted forward, and shook. He took a deep, gasping breath, and then another, and when he opened his eyes he realized that he was no longer alone.

Seated, perched on the very edge of the Blue Lion's nose, was an Altean. Lance scrambled to his knees but hesitated, realizing that he didn't feel threatened by this presence. “...Blue…?” he asked, and the Blue Lion rumbled something that he didn't quite understand.

“Hey,” Lance said again, and the Altean cocked their head but didn't turn around. “This is a private Lion, buddy.” He stood up finally, and the Altean stood too. “I don't know what you're doing here – or where here even is, to be honest –“ Lance didn't take a step back when the Altean turned, and with one hand lowered the hood that covered their hair.

Lance didn't know what he was expecting. He had seen a hundred Alteans in the memory core, he knew Allura and Coran and Illianya and Rian. He didn't know this Altean. Their hair was the color of ice water frozen to glaciers, their eyes and markings a deep blue. Lance furrowed his brow as the Altean smiled at him, almost sadly. “Blue…?” he said again, suspicious, but the Blue Lion rumbled at him indignantly. “Okay, okay, jeez.”

The Altean didn't speak. “So, um,” Lance said. “I'm Lance,” he pointed to himself. “And you are…?” When the Altean still did not speak, he folded his arms and sighed. “This is supposed to be some sort of great revelatory dream, right? I'm dead or I'm dying or--” another rumble from the Blue Lion “or I'm apparently in a healing pod, thank you, Blue, so that just leaves the question: who the holy swiss cheese are you?”

Still no response. Lance took a step closer and the Altean did not shrink away. Instead, they put their hands out, cupped together, like they were holding something. “What, is this the key to the universe or something?” Lance asked. “The secret to defeating Zarkon? The Colonel's eleven herbs and spices?” He wasn't getting any response so Lance instead put out his hands, because the Altean was clearly waiting on him to do so. “You know, I'm not the one in charge of this operation,” he said. “You should be leaving the hinky mystical shit in Shiro's dreams.”

Lance looked down when he realized there was something in his open hands. It was a tiny, perfect facsimile of a hawk, cast in shades of violet. Lance stared at it, and then the hawk moved and he almost dropped it. “What the heck is this supposed to mean?” he asked, looking up, but the sadly smiling Altean was, predictably, gone. Lance looked back at the hawk in his cupped hands; and after a moment of preening its feathers it spread two tiny wings and took flight. Lance watched the tiny hawk flitter past, no larger than a hummingbird; it circled him before rising higher, disappearing quickly against the backdrop of endless night. “What the heck,” Lance breathed again, and then glanced back at the Blue Lion to see that her eyes had gone dim.

He inhaled slowly and lifted his gaze to the sky once more, feeling the tug of darkness at the edges of his consciousness. He closed his eyes, and slipped under.

#

“Do we know which ship is jamming us?” Keith asked, the Red Lion keeping pace alongside the Black Lion. There was a load of static in the transmission, because even flying in tight formation there was plenty of interference.

“No clue.” Shiro's voice was shot through with something other than static, and Keith stared out the forward viewscreen, his hands curled tight on the controls. The question burned in his throat but Allura was with Shiro, even if he wasn't all right he would maintain in front of her, at least.

“One of the battleships,” Allura said, and Keith managed not to snort because battleship was now plural. The space between Eaphus and its moon – and the waystation – was a veritable swarm of Galra fleet now; their large purple battleships enough to overwhelm the Lions separately. Nevermind the smaller craft launching to sortie, in the hope that the pilots would be fatigued by the waves of drone fighters they had battled through previously.

Their flight was taking them around the far edge of the skirmish, and most of the smaller craft were orienting toward them to intercept. The Red Lion rumbled threateningly around him, resenting being reined in to keep pace with the Black Lion, but Keith didn't feel up to placating the craft, looking instead to the HUD for the other Lions.

With their comms scrambled it was a bit of a surprise that the IF/F system was still online, but he could track both the Green and the Yellow Lions on the small display, as well as through the forward viewscreen, their Lions impossible to see with the naked eye but with tiny arrows indicating their trajectory. Keith glanced back to the Black Lion and wished that the visual comm was online, just so he could check in on Shiro. “Head back to the Castleship without me,” he said. “I'll make sure Hunk and Pidge get back safe.”

“Keith,” Shiro said, aggravated, but Keith had already let down one of his mates today, he wasn't about to let the other one suffer. He kicked the Red Lion's thrusters to full and it outpaced the Black Lion in seconds, purring happily at the open throttle as Keith looped back and headed straight into the midst of the sortie. He was out of low-baud comm range in seconds, the comm going straight to static and a quick glance at the HUD showed the Black Lion still on its flight path back to the Castleship. Keith exhaled in relief, and then focused forward, on the ships coming straight for him. No turning back now.

#

Shiro watched the Red Lion shrink to nothing but an arrow point on the forward viewscreen in the time it took to blink. There was a line of explosions along the Red Lion's flight path, and he trusted in Keith and his ability, but his team was out there scattered and it was such a helpless feeling that he couldn't quite swallow it down. And where was Lance?

Allura's hand on his shoulder startled him and Shiro didn't realize that he had cut the thrust until she did so. “Shiro,” Allura said. “We must head back; Coran will be preparing the teludav for our warp.” The Castleship couldn't warp without the Princess on board to channel the energy of the teludav drive; and they needed that tiny bit of prep time before they could go anywhere. The others would be fine, he trusted Keith to bring everyone back safely.

“You're absolutely right, Princess,” Shiro said, kicking the Black Lion's engines to full. He could still feel the faintest tug on the edge of his mind, those purple tendrils that had enveloped him and the strange way that it made his head throb. He winced, one hand touching the side of his helmet reflexively. When he lifted his hand he realized that Allura was staring at him with concern. “I'm all right,” Shiro said, his favorite lie to tell, and put his hand back on the flight control as the white marker for the Castleship popped up in the center of their screen. They were still too far out to properly raise its communications array, but Shiro was glad to see that the Castleship had reverted to flight mode, having already left the barren landscape of one of Eaphus' smaller moons. It would make their retreat all the easier.

“I'll drop you in the flight bay,” Shiro said, and Allura shook her head sharply.

“No. If you go back out--” she bit her lip and wouldn't meet his eye, and that throb in his head grew a little sharper. “Find out where Lance is,” she suggested, and that created another knotted ball of stress in his chest, because he had been avoiding very hard the black mass of reasons as to why Keith would launch and Lance wouldn't. Allura leaned forward and placed her hand on the holographic console, bringing up the comm unit and they were close enough now that static interference was all but gone. “Coran, we're incoming on the Black Lion,” she said. “The battleships are blocking our comm frequencies, Keith is bringing the others home.”

“Copy that, Princess,” Coran's voice jumped out of the comm, but there was an edge to it that Shiro could almost taste. “Rian and I have the teludav up and running, we're just waiting on you. And the others, of course.”

“Of course,” Allura said, and Shiro silently looked to the rear sensors, watching red dots vanish along the path of the Red Lion. Don't be long.

#

Pidge was trying to find the Yellow Lion on the sensor array, because trying to keep a bead on it when Matt couldn't fly her fucking Lion in a straight line for a solid ten seconds was making her extremely dizzy. It was much different being a passenger than the pilot. “For fuck's sake,” Pidge snapped, and was incredibly thankful that she had the foresight to keep the internal compensator dialed up because otherwise with all the barrel rolls he was pulling she would have been knocked around the inside of the cockpit like a pinball. “If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to show off for Allura.”

“Katie, I'm giving you one last chance to shut the fuck up,” Matt said.

“You weren't even in the pilot program at the Garrison, you used to get sick in the simulators! Can you fucking cool it with the barrel rolls!!!” Just for that, Matt juked the Green Lion extra hard, faking out one of the drones that had swarmed after them. It blew past and clipped another drone, sending both of the Galra craft reeling in opposite directions.

Matt crowed at the maneuver, and then glanced over his shoulder at his sister. “I didn't get sick in the simulators,” he said.

“Shiro said you did,” Pidge took the moment of straight flight to try to ping Hunk's location again.

“He's a dirty liar,” Matt retorted. “And I do not have a thing for the Princess.”

“I didn't say you had a thing, I said you were trying to show off. Can I trust you not turn us upside down for thirty seconds to see if I can maximize our broadcast range to attempt to raise Hunk?” When Matt didn't maneuver the Green Lion violently Pidge leaned against the console, her injured arm cradled against her chest as she typed one-handed. The static through the comms spiked as she tried to reach through the interference to Hunk.

A drone broadsided the Green Lion hard enough to temporarily scramble the sensors as the Lion went tail over teakettle. The suicide run from the drone didn't do significant damage to the hull but several sensors along the left side of the display had gone red and flashing. “Shit shit shit!”

“It's no good,” Matt said. “Have you got the Yellow Lion on visual at least?”

“Do you see him on the screen?” Pidge snapped angrily. She swung her head around to the sensor array but it was just red dots. “Where is he?”

“I don't know.” Matt yanked back on the Green Lion's controls, not letting her slow up on speed and watching the circling drones more than anything. “What do you want to do, Katie? We lost him.”

A red arrow cut through the line of red dots on the sensor array and suddenly the Red Lion flashed by outside the viewscreen. It looped the Green Lion and drew up beside it, and Pidge's hand flew over the console, bringing up a low-baud transmission line. “Pidge!” Keith's voice was fairly clear. “Where's Hunk?”

“I don't know,” Pidge said, her voice tight. “We lost him off the sensors and the battleship is between us and him.”

There was a short silence and she was afraid that she'd lost Keith on the comm. “Get back to the Castleship,” Keith said. “The battleships are launching more fighters, we'll be overwhelmed for sure.”

“Not without Hunk!”

“I'll find him,” Keith said. “Red is faster than all the other Lions, we can outrun anything that the Galra throw at us. Get back to the Castleship.”

“Copy that,” Matt said, and Pidge slammed her hand into the console.

“No we don't--” she started to say, but Keith had already looped the Red Lion away, headed straight for the battleship. “Matt, don't you dare listen to him.”

“Katie, you're hurt,” Matt said, and didn't turn to look at her. “Keith will get Hunk.”

“Green!” Pidge said, but the Green Lion didn't respond to her as Matt piloted the Lion away from the conflict, and back toward the Castleship.

#

Keith gritted his teeth, both hands tight on the flight controls. The Red Lion was a fearsome machine but even it could be quickly overwhelmed by the turbolaser batteries on the battleship, and coupled with the drone fighters it meant that getting around the thing was nearly impossible.

Shiro would be back to the Castleship by now with Allura, and Matt and Pidge were headed back that way. That only left Hunk and Illianya unaccounted for; and even as the Red Lion's sensors scanned at max capacity it wasn't pulling any information on the Yellow Lion. There were so many ships on his sensors that some parts of it were almost solid in color, and with their comms being jammed there was no point in even attempting a broadcast.

He was out of options.

#

“The Red Lion is incoming,” Coran reported, his hands flying over the consoles at the forefront of the bridge. Allura had hit the bridge at a run, practically flinging herself onto the control dais and bringing up the teludav operation. Shiro was only a few steps behind her. “The Green Paladin and her brother are both aboard now, in the Green Lion's launch bay.”

“Where's Hunk?” Shiro said, his eyes scanning the forward viewscreen and the overlapping data points that Coran had up. “Is the Yellow Lion already on board?”

“That is a negative,” Coran said. “I can't seem to raise him.”

Allura's hands froze above the teludav controls. “Coran, hail Keith. He should be in range of the Castleship by now.”

The video comm channel opened, and Keith's portrait appeared on the forward viewscreen. He was hunched forward, his hands on the controls and face tilted away. “Keith, what's going on?” Allura asked. “Where's the Yellow Lion?”

“I don't know,” Keith said, still not looking up. “He's not pinging on any of the sensor arrays, and I can't seem to get past the battleship. It's suicide.” He looked up finally at the comm, lost. “What do we do?”

Allura said, “we cannot leave him behind.”

“if we stay, we risk the Castleship being captures,” Rian said, and Shiro registered his presence finally, seated at one of the Paladin consoles. Lance's.

“Where's Lance?” Shiro said suddenly, but then the lift from the Lion launch bays open, and Pidge flung herself out of the elevator, followed closely by Matt.

“Are Hunk and Keith on board?” Pidge shouted. Allura looked over to Shiro, and Shiro rubbed a hand over his face, his heart pounding.

“Particle barrier up,” Coran said sharply, and Rian's hands flew over the holographic console in front of him. Before anyone really had a chance to brace the entire Castleship shuddered as a turbolaser blast sprayed and dispersed in a scatter of light thanks to the shielding system.

“The battleship is firing on us,” Rian reported unnecessarily. “The particle barrier is holding for now.”

Pidge threw herself in her seat, bringing up the holographic console and spotting the incoming Red Lion as the ship's information began to appear on her display. “Keith, where's Hunk?” she said, and Keith looked away from the video comm. “Where is he!?”

“If the Yellow Lion was destroyed I would know,” Allura said softly, hands still held out over the teludav console. “He's still out there somewhere.”

Shiro looked to Allura, but she wasn't looking at him, looking down at her hands still held out. He took a deep breath, then squared his shoulders and looked to the screen. “Keith, bring the Red Lion in,” he said. “We need to get out of here.”

“No!” Pidge yelled. “We have to find Hunk! He's out there!” She slammed her hand through the holographic console in front of her, scattering the light.

“Roger that,” Keith said, his voice a strange monotone as his image vanished from the forward viewscreen. Shiro took a deep breath before looking back to Allura, frozen in place. “Princess, we need to warp.”

“The Red Lion is safely on board,” Coran said. “Dropping the particle barrier to engage the teludav. Princess.”

“Understood,” Allura said, her voice and her concentrating finding their focus in the operation of the teludav. “Opening wormhole now.”