Voltron Legendary Defender - Shining Like the Stars [94] [Shklance]

[scriveyner]

Title: shining like the stars [94]
Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender
AU: slts
Characters/Pairing: Shiro/Keith/Lance
Rating: M
Length: 1905
Summary: The Yellow Lion stood out among the dark trees and craggy terrain like a beacon in the night. Even powered down and with the running lights as dim as possible the Lion was clearly visible for miles. "Well," Hunk said, arms folded as he sat in the pilot's chair. "I'm out of ideas."



The Yellow Lion stood out among the dark trees and craggy terrain like a beacon in the night. Even powered down and with the running lights as dim as possible the Lion was clearly visible for miles. "Well," Hunk said, arms folded as he sat in the pilot's chair. "I'm out of ideas."

It hadn't taken him very long to get Yellow both upright and operational again, but when Hunk opened the sensors the comm links came back filled with an ungodly volume of static. "Still being jammed," he said, looking at an expanded enemy map. All of the Galra ships were still in system, although it looked like most of the surviving drone starfighters had been recalled by the battleships. There were a few small wings of drones but according to the display none were low enough in orbit to get a visual read on the Yellow Lion. Hunk wiggled his feet, and then pulled up the IF/F transponder and made certain it was off. There was no point in broadcasting a location, it didn't look like the Castle of Lions was anywhere in-system, and the interference from the jammers was preventing the long-range sensors on the Yellow Lion from picking up the Castleship.

Hunk climbed out of the cockpit and hopped down the side of the Yellow Lion with the aid of his jetpack. There was a small, cozy fire lit between the paws of the great beast, and the overhang of its head covered most of the light of the fire from aerial view. Illianya was lying against one of the Yellow Lion's paws, and when Hunk landed a little rough her head turned in his direction. "Hunk?"

"Illianya? You awake?" Hunk scrambled over to her and she straightened up slowly, clearly in pain. "Are you okay? How are you feeling? Your flightsuit is vacuum resistant, but not 'being blown up' resistant, though when I scanned it there didn't seem to be any loss in its integrity..."

"You scanned me?" Illianya said with a small smile, and Hunk stopped and blinked.

"Well, yeah," he said, and tapped the forearm plate of his armor. "I had to make sure that your flightsuit wasn't breached, there could have been all sorts of complications, up to and including," he raised his hand to start counting off issues on his fingers but Illianya held up both her hands and managed to interrupt him before he could really get going.

"My flightsuit is intact," she said. "No amputations necessary here." She rubbed her shoulder and winced, and then sat forward properly. "What's going on, where are the others?"

"I don't know," Hunk said. "We're back on Eaphus's moon, it seemed like the best idea at the time since we know the Galra have issues with the atmosphere; I mean the other option was trying to deep-dive in the outer atmosphere of Eaphus itself but I didn't want to risk it with you still in Yellow's mouth."

"It was foolish of you to come after me," Illianya said. "You've put Voltron in great danger. If the Galra find the Yellow Lion here they will be able to take it without much difficulty."

"Hey," Hunk said, insulted.

Illianya paused, then shifted herself so she was seated more or less upright. Hunk hovered for a moment, clearly concerned, but she gave him an icy look and he backed off, seating himself not quite opposite her on the other side of the fire. Illianya stretched her torso, rubbing her neck and winced, and then massaged her shoulder again. "The restraints in the ejector seat," Hunk said, and Illianya looked up at him. "That's why your shoulder hurts, right? I'm sure the acceleration against the restraints wasn't pleasant. Your flightsuit is made of softer stuff than my armor." He knocked on the chest plate of his Paladin armor, but Illianya didn't say anything. Hunk sighed and picked up a stick, poking at the fire with the tip of it.

"I wasn't gonna leave you," he said. "I couldn't."

"Thank you," Illianya said softly, and Hunk looked up at her, startled. He had expected another reprimand but instead Illianya shifted herself forward again and pulled at the back of her head, freeing her braid from where it was pinned up against her scalp. She pulled the hair free of its braiding, combing her fingers through it and sighing slightly in relief. Hunk had never seen her hair down, and in the firelight it sparkled like spun gold. "I was certain I was dead," she said, still combing her fingers slowly through her hair and working out the tangles as best she could. "I am very glad to be wrong."

"Yeah," Hunk said, and poked at the fire again. "Me too."

#

Lance slowly opened his eyes and realized groggily that he was once again inside a cryopod. He really needed for this to stop being a thing. Lance exhaled slowly in the chilly air as the electronics beeped and buzzed, and when the pod finally opened and he staggered blearily out he was surprised to be caught in strong, familiar arms. Lance squinted at the expanse of chest in front of him, and when he recognized the scent he buried his face against Shiro's chest, sighing happily.

Shiro's hand rubbed Lance's back carefully. "Glad to have you back with us, Lance," Shiro said, and there was something a bit off about his voice that Lance couldn't quite put together. "How are you feeling?"

"Like a frozen dinner," Lance groaned, and pushed himself off Shiro's chest, straightening to his full height in Shiro's arms. "The pod even beeps before it opens, like a freaking microwave oven or something." Shiro looked utterly exhausted, and Lance glanced around the room, surprised that Shiro was alone here. "What's going on? Where is everybody? What happened to me, where's-" sun on purple fur, golden eyes glowing, teeth bared "-Keith."

There was a moment of absolute panic in which Lance was back in the memory core, and he choked on his breath. Shiro's arms tightened around him, he could sense Lance's distress and Lance swallowed hard and shook his head sharply because that wasn't real. It wasn't, he was here and alive and ... Keith wasn't here to face him. "What happened?" Lance asked again, his tone quieter.

"A lot," Shiro said truthfully. "Are you okay?" One hand crept up Lance's back and settled on the back of Lance's neck, thumb rubbing gently against the base of his skull. "I mean it, Lance, if you need more rest-"

"I need to talk to Keith," Lance said. "What do you mean, a lot happened? What's a lot? Where is everyone?" He looked around again, and this time saw the second cryopod behind him. Shiro's hand tightened on the back of his neck for a second but Lance shrugged him free with effort and went to the cryopod, staring down at Pidge inside it. "Pidge," Lance said, his voice strangled.

"She's okay," Shiro said, and put his arm over Lance's shoulder. "She'll be out of the pod by the morning."

"She's not okay, she's in the fucking cryopod, Shiro!" Lance's voice rose frantically. "What happened?"

"Pidge was injured leaving the Galra prison ship," Allura's voice came from the door, and Lance turned furiously, once again shrugging off Shiro's arm. "She'll be fine, Lance." As Allura walked into the room Keith skulked in behind her and glanced at Lance very hurriedly, but then looked away. The doors closed behind him.

It was weird, the way the panic settled in his chest, almost suffocating him. "Where's Hunk," Lance asked, expecting Allura to say something like 'oh, he's putting together dinner, he'll be down in a moment,' except that this was Hunk, and every other time he'd been in the cryopod when he woke up his best friend had been present. Lance looked at Shiro, who was watching him with the same concerned, tired expression; the exhaustion of a leader having been pushed too long evident in his features. Lance looked to Allura, whose concerned look was softer, padded, and finally to Keith; who did not raise his face to meet Lance's gaze.

"Where is Hunk," Lance asked again.

"Lance, I'm sorry," Allura said, and Lance turned to face her. She had her hands clasped in front of her and Lance felt light-headed, dizzy. This wasn't happening. "The Yellow Lion - and her Paladin - were left behind when we fled the system."

"You left him?" Lance said, stunned.

"We didn't have a choice," Shiro's hand was heavy on his shoulder, and Lance almost crumbled under its weight. "We were outnumbered and outgunned, plus they were using a jamming array that we couldn't get through. He was cut off."

"If the Galra fleet disables the jammer we'll be able to scan for the Yellow Lion," Keith's arms were folded and his shoulders were slumped, he still wasn't looking at Lance directly. "If they haven't found him it'll be easy enough to go in and retrieve him."

"If he doesn't make it back to us first," Allura added. "Hunk is quite capable. I'm sure he's just lying low until the heat is off." She smiled at Lance, and Shiro squeezed Lance's shoulder encouragingly. "Things aren't as dire as they appear."

Somehow, that didn't make Lance feel any better.

#

Matt sat in a crouch on the training deck floor, leaned against his staff as he watched Rian practice with his twin daggers. Rian must have come straight from the bridge to the training deck, because he had been well into his training workout by the time Matt arrived to join him. "I can't believe you got to pilot a Lion before I did," Rian muttered, mostly under his breath but certainly still loud enough for Matt to hear.

"It wasn't exactly the best circumstances," Matt said. "My sister got shot. Anyway, I'm not exactly the ideal candidate anyway. You remember how that went."

Rian said nothing, and continued through his kata without hesitation. Matt sighed and tapped his fingers along the staff but didn't rise out of his crouch. "Did they see anything in the memory core?"

Rian said nothing for another few moments finishing out the detailed moves of his kata before straightening, letting his arms drop to his sides. "They saw Ysander," he said, and made an obscene Altean gesture in the direction of the memory core.

"Clearly that went well," Matt muttered.

"They also saw the arena," Rian added. "And the inside of the brig. And probably half the capital, easy, they were running around in ridiculous cloaks that smelled like piss." Rian flipped one dagger in his hand, catching it by the grip expertly.

"What are we gonna do?"

Rian shrugged. "Doesn't matter, does it? The Council is keeping everyone on New Altea."

"For now," Matt pushed himself into a standing position, staff held tight to his body. "Seriously, though - just Ysander?"

"Stop worrying so much," Rian said. He pointed at Matt with one of his daggers. "Are you just going to stand there and stress about your sister, or were you actually going to put your stick to use today?"

"It's not a stick," Matt said, but kicked off his shoes as he stepped onto the mat, squaring up to spar.

Neither of them noticed that the training doors had opened and closed once.