Chapter Text
Lance really didn't sign up for this. Sure, he was the one who forced Hunk to follow Pidge to that rickety shack in the middle of the night. Somehow Hunk figured something out with his science mumbo-jumbo and now they’re out here in SPACE!
That cave somehow housed a sentient robot lion and basically he was living in a mecha anime.
Pidge and Keith got some cool motivation like finding their brothers but him and Hunk? They’re just here for the ride— well until, the Balmera anyways. After that, Hunk also had that spark. Lance could never find it within himself to have that spark of motivation beside the whole protecting the Earth and saving people stuff.
Man, what is his reason?
His thing?
The comms crinkled before it sparked to life. The recon mission, righttt.
“Lance? Lance?? Stop messing around! We need you on the third floor! Lance!” Keith growled. Jeez, who pissed in his cereal??
“Yeah, got the message, Mullet.” Lance groaned.
Great. He needed to crawl back to the third floor. He does not enjoy crawling through the vents, thank you very much. Lance as much whined to his teammates.
Hunk responded with exasperated sympathy, because he's the only one who loves him in this family, with his big heart and all.
Pidge just snapped at him for even opening his mouth like the evil demon she is.
Keith started to growl at him again, like outright, dog-bark at him, and not in that sexy way.
Okay, now, he was getting annoyed. He crawled faster, making sure there were no sentries left.
Being a sniper rocks, no crazy fist-to-fist battles. Lance always sucked at PE except when it came to running. Lance always gets his ass handed to him in every hand-to-hand combat training with Keith. Pidge(even though she’s so tiny!) can actually hold her own in a fight with Keith, growling and smashing her bayard against his, it was quite a show but Lance never wanted to be at the other end of either of them. He’s not suicidal!
Lance finally made it to the third floor and opened the vent gently. His brain working a mile a minute, trying to find the best route that requires the least energy and violence.
He was solo on this whole floor and if they somehow caught him off-guard, he’s toast!
The room he found was essentially empty with fliers and papers strewn about. No light though, all the bulbs in the room were busted.
“Guys, theres this creepy ass room. It’s empty, I think??” Lance informed (helpfully!), he could feel jitters of unease crawl through his skin. If he dies here, it’ll all be on him, he should’ve paid more attention to those horror movies.
Keith groaned and snarled at the same time.
“More info would be great.” Pidge pipes up, her voice on edge.
“Papers, a lot of em’” Lance dragged his hand all over the table, the flashlight from his helmet gave him enough to at least look at it.
It was a poster??
Uh, what the cheese.
There was a picture of a big purple building, bones littered around it. Talk about nightmare fuel! It looked too white to be actual bones but who the hell decorates a building like that outside of Halloween anyways? Wait, did the Galrans even celebrate Halloween? Probably not.
“uhh, Lance, buddy?? What did you find??” Hunk’s nervous voice snapped him out of it.
“I can’t read what it says… it's in galra gibberish or something!” Lance groaned in frustration. Keith told him to leave it and the other two didn’t say a word. He was being ignored, great!
Lance huffed, stuffing the poster into his armor’s huge pockets.
Lance surveyed the room one more time. Man, it just looks like a normal abandoned workstation. Whatever, he’s out of here.
Back in their lions, the four paladins went back to the castleship.
Allura and Coran greeted them, Lance tried another pick up line only to get ignored again!
Before leaving the hangars, Lance chanced another glance behind him at the Black Lion, tall, proud and…well, unmanned.
Lance furrowed his brows before shrugging it off, making his way to his room. He really needed some moisturizer and maybe brew himself some relaxing Altean tea.
—-
Lance didn’t mean to isolate himself when he’s feeling homesick. He knows Hunk will understand, he knows Hunk will do anything for him. Lance could feel his gut rolling in guilt.
I dragged him here. Lance swallowed, tears pricking at the corner of his eyes.
He curled up at the observation deck, staring at nothing in particular.
I have no reason to stay.
I just want to go home.
Pidge sat beside him and if she saw his tears, she said nothing. She types away on her computer, lost in her own world.
“Y’know, Pidge-podge, I still don't know why you were friends with Mullet-brain over there.” Lance sighed, genuinely pitying the gremlin beside him.
“Mullet-brain? Seriously? You know, for someone who hates this guy, you sure is obsessed with his hair.” Pidge stage-whispered.
Lance’s ears reddened. “Am not!”
“Me and Keith… we started working together after he got expelled and I got banned from the Garrison, he understood. This feeling I got, deep down, I know they're out there somewhere…” Pidge huffed as she realized she was opening up to Lance of all people and excuse you, he’s a great listener!
“I know, mom’s probably worried sick…and she's probably lonely, but I need to find dad and Matt.”
Lance mull over it for a second. Some of the greatest and the brightest, snuffed out just like that. No trace of a crash or even an emergency transmission.
Lance repositioned them so that Pidge was laying her head on his shoulder.
“Jeez, ever heard of a beauty sleep? Go take a nap, gremlin.”
Pidge grumbled and lazily jabbed two fingers on the side of his stomach. Earning a yelp from the blue paladin.
“Not cool, Pidge!”
—-
The next mission is INSANE! They were ditching their armor right in Galra territory.
“No way, man! No, no, nope! We’re not ditching our armors!” Hunk yelped, eyes wide and uneasy.
Pidge fixed her glasses, clear tension on her shoulders. Keith crossed his arms and huffed angrily, his stupid mullet was as messy as ever. Lance tried to look as supportive as he could but he was a tad bit excited to finally go back to civilian life.
Allura looked sympathetic but she was resolute in her decision.
“I assure you, you will blend nicely on this planet, Rindeon, is known for their markets and their loose morals—” she gestured to the stack of clothes on the floor. Mismatched blends of browns and dark reds.“These costumes Coran provided are more than enough, you’ll just look like ruffians or slimy merchants and the Galrans in particular, do not care about those types.”
“So, like, we can go to the markets and the parks and stuff?” Lance asked, trying to hide the excitement in his voice. Anything is better than the creepy castleship and dangerous Galra cruisers.
Coran cleared his throat, twirling his moustache.
“Well, yes and no, my boy! You’ll need to stick with the plan, we need information on the stadium. There were talks of gladiator rings on other planets in the same system! Some seem to be a part of the Coalition and they wanted more info to see if they can stage an intervention without triggering the wrath of the Galra.”
“Are…these gladiator rings so bad though? I mean! Maybe its like the WWE or something, y’know?” Lance spoke before he could think about it.
Pidge raised a brow, annoyed.
“Do you even know what the word Gladiator means, Lance?” Pidge asked.
“Of course, I know! It’s like those Roman guys they taught us about at school!” Lance squawked, huffing afterwards. Hunk put a hand on his shoulder.
“Buddy, no, gladiators were like slaves and stuff and they needed to fight lions. Maybe even each other, just for like, the entertainment of the people, man. Shit’s fucked up.” Hunk explained patiently, cause’ he’s just nice like that.
“Wh— hold on, SLAVES!? The Galrans have slaves fight each other!?” Lance blabbered, shocked.
“Obviously! They're the bad guys, here!” Keith snapped, prompting the conversation to end.
“So, we’ll blend in as travelers, get to the stadium and get more info about these inhumane gladiator shows?” Keith asked for clarification and the princess nodded aptly. He always has this super serious attitude and tries to be all hero-like, but with that attitude problem? Lance doubt he can be a poster boy for the paladins.
“But, wait, why do the Coalition care so much anyways?” Pidge asked what they're all thinking.
“Yeah! Like, can we just agree, it’s bad and try to stop it the normal Voltron way?” Hunk tried, keyword: tried.
Allura shook her head.
“Unless we find someone who can pilot the black lion, freeing whole planets would be nigh impossible.” Geez, did the princess need to say that so harshly? The mood in the room drops significantly.
Without a black paladin, they were struggling like crazy every time they encountered someone crazy like Sendak. Lance remembered fighting the Galra cruiser and getting the shit knocked out of him multiple times. Why couldn't the princess be the black paladin? She could communicate with all the lions! Plus she’s ultra leader-y anyways, she kinda reminded him of Iverson, but hot.
Alas, no bueno, the black lion was still as stubborn as ever and remained pilotless.
—
Lance just remembered something, stadium, show… that's it! Holy crow, that's what that was?
He dug around for his armor, unclasped the thingies, get into the undersuit, pocket, pocket, c’mon. Ah-ha!
The poster was a little crumpled.
He was quick to show it the rest and they agreed that that's what they're looking for. Coran ran some translators into it.
Excerpt from the poster:
Come one, come all!
Blood, guts and glory!
Betting booths are open at all vargas!
Witness the Champion kill these worthless scum. The Champion Marathon will be held at the prison colony, Sura.
“C-Champion?? Oh, man, that doesn’t sound good at all…” Hunk swallowed, suddenly nervous.
“You think he’s like a ten feet tall godzilla monster or something?? I mean for the Galrans to call this dude…eh, dudette? Well, I’m rolling with dude right now. For them to call this guy the Champion must mean something!”
Pidge raised a brow. “And what makes you think the Champion’s a dude?”
“Oh man! Can you imagine if the Champion’s a girl? I can make her join us save the galaxy and stuff, using my irresistible charms and all.” Lance said smirking and winking, his veneers shining. Everyone groaned but Lance could tell they were having fun.
Hunk stared at the poster and realized something.
“Wait, if this is held in a prison colony, does that mean people come to this Sura place or whatever, just to watch the Gladiator ring?” Hunk voiced out loud, the rest was silent for a bit.
“Hunk, you big gassy genius!” Lance cheered, he sent Lance a grateful smile in return.
Keith crossed his arms as he started thinking, furrowed brows, closed eyes and mouth in a thin line. Lance could imagine whirring gear noises from that Mullet-head of his, he thinks too loud.
“Maybe, but holy crow! This poster was from a recon mission ages ago, how do we know he’s still going to be in Sura? And the coalition wants us to investigate Rindeon’s arena instead…” Lance sighed.
Allura cleared her throat, smiling slightly.
“I’m still here, y’know…” she announced cheekily.
The rest turned to look at her.
“So, what do you suggest, Princess? Do you think we should find out more about this Champion guy or stick with the coalition’s request?” Pidge asked, raising a brow.
“Actually, why not both?” Allura had that mischievous twinkle in her eye. Uh-oh.
“Pidge, Hunk. You two will go to Rindeon and collect intel on why a gladiator arena is set up there. Lance, you and Keith will go to Sura and watch this Champion killing marathon. And please, spare me the details.” after that plan, she left without much fanfare.
Lance wanted to smash his head against the wall. With Mullet-man? Seriously? Oh, this blows.
“Stop that.” Keith almost snarled.
“Stop what?”
“THAT! I’m not the worst teammate you could've got.” Keith scoffed, almost sounding… hurt? And pretty much stomped his way out like an overgrown toddler.
Oh, dios, he’s beyond toast.