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It started as every other mission. That was the first lie.
The team sat together on the bridge while Coran enthusiastically gestured, giving a presentation about the molecular structure of the material the castle ship needed for it to use lightspeed.
"Hexa... hexamethyl something something..." Lance muttered softly; his brain was undermining him, hindering his concentration.
There was a soft sound echoing under his teammates' voices.
A distant rythym.
Like a heartbeat underwater.
But after a blink, it's suddenly quiet.
What isn't quiet is Allura, happily exclaiming she found it, the planet with the material. The only planet that has it in the ship's relative proximity. She pushed a few buttons and an image materialised in front of them. It looked like Earth, lots of vegetation, lots of mountains and probably a third of the planet covered in one giant ocean. Totally ordinary. Natural. Safe. There was nothing about it that Lance found eerie.
Looking at its picture still made a cold sensation slide down his spine, like wet fingers. The planet slowly rotated around in the picture, clouds drifting lazily. No unusual energy fluctuations. No galran signatures. Calm, empty. Lance didn't like it.
"We will split up," Shiro announced, changing into his leader mode "This planet is on the bigger side. Keith and Hunk will go to the mountain ranges. Pidge, you're with me in the forest regions. And Lance -"
"Wait, wait, wait!" Lance cut him off with a yelp and jumped out of his seat. "Why am I the only one who is going alone? Isn't it dangerous? Why the ocean? That thing isn't even supposed to be in the water!" He look at Shiro then back at the planet, uttering softly. "I don't like this planet."
Keith rolls his eyes. Pidge pulls up every know data of the big rock in question with rapid, impatient clicks of her keyboard.
"The planet is uninhabited. Minimal wildlife is registered to live on the surface. Nothing is in the waters except some algae and plants. Zero hostile signatures, no macro-organisms. This planet is as blank a page as it could get. Totally safe." They drone on, eyes locked on their screen.
Shiro nodded. "And only the Blue Lion can withstand deep-sea level pressure and salinity for the time needed in a search like this. We will be on the comms the whole time, everything is going to be okay Lance." He smiles reassuringly and Lance couldn't do anything but nod and sit back, staring at the image still before them. The ocean looked too still, too dark. It felt sinister to him.
But he couldn't argue with statistics. He couldn't argue with it being safe. He doesn't need any more reason for them to think him incompetent.
He swallows as he feels eyes on him. The ocean looks like it is just waiting to swallow him.
"...Yeah.' he forces an easy grin on his face. "Yeah, okay. Baby Blue and I got this."
The surface barely rippled when Blue sipped in. No waves, no wind. No life to be seen in the endless waters.
He chatters softly to Blue, pointing out an interesting rock or a super weird algae that looks like a tentacle.
His voice sounds too loud in the stillness.
The light fades faster than it should as they descend.
At 300 meters, the blackness surrounds them.
At 500, his comms crackled, his teammates' voices coming through with noticeable breaks.
At 800, there was only static.
Lance laughed nervously. "It's okay, it's just the water, some weird alien water that blocks radio signals. I will reach the bottom soon, and after a quick look around, we can rocket up, right Baby Blue?" The ocean is his home, even a too dark, too still, too empty ocean is home. Blue's lights cut through the darkness in a pale beam. The ocean floor should appear soon. Everything is okay.
Everything. Is. Okay.
1000.
1001.
1002.
"That's not possible." Lance whispers, dread sitting in his stomach. There shouldn't be trenches this deep.
Still, the depth counter keeps climbing.
Soon, a quiet drumming starts up. Low, steady. He would swear he could feel it vibrating the cockpit around him. It grows with the counter, not coming from outside, but still calling him downwards.
The counter stops at 2187 meters.
There's finally something on the scanner, so he goes to investigate.
But it's not natural. Everything he can see is carved. Stone pillars climbing up, disappearing in the darkness. Massive staircases spiralling along structures too enormous to comprehend. Everything defies geometry - lines bending wrong, corners intersecting in impossible ways.
Then something shifts, and Lance can see that it is a temple. An ancient temple submerged in a dead planet, humming with power. The drums louder now, and Lance can feel their song in his bones.
But when Lance wants to go in, the Blue Lion hesitates. But Lance can't turn back now; he knows he needs to go inside.
"Come on," he whispers, gently caressing her dashboard. "It's fine. It's just some old ruins." The entrance in the stone wall is so massive that Voltron could easily walk in, but she refuses. Her lights flickering with her emotions, it's she who feels wary now.
"Blueberry," Lance murmured, feeling the pressure increase. "If you don't go, I will swim myself."
Not an empty treat, and she knows it. After a long, reluctant pause -
Blue swims inside.
The inside of the temple is even more breathtaking than the outside. The structure almost seems to warp reality. The walls lean in every direction. Tentacle-like spirals etched into pillars, and Lance would swear they are moving, but his eyes hurt when he stares too long.
So he doesn't; his eyes instead run along weird glyphs carved into the walls. Even now clearly visible and in good condition against time and water.
And in the centre of it, an enormous slab of stone, ringed by interlocking circular glyphs. Still carved, but simmering, something metallic filling them.
The song becomes louder and layered as he nears. Whispers thread between the drums, a language even his altean translator doesn't know.
Blue's lights start to flicker. The cockpit's temperature dropped. "Blue?" Lance asked, almost inaudible.
Then his world tilts on its axis, the slab cracks. Not violently, just a single vertical line running through it.
And Lance is lost in the beautiful song of the deep and red luminescent eyes. Infinite, as the song of the deep fills his head, and everything goes black.
When hours later he reached the surface, he reported to have found the mineral needed, and everyone retreated to the castle. He didn't remember finding it or mining it, but he still had a big chunk of it in Blue with him.
Lance is the last to reach the hangar. He walked out of Blue, pulling a crate of the Xeno thingy behind him and smiled easily at the others when they greeted him.
"And McLain for the win once again." He laughs as the others groan.
"It wasn't a race, Lance." Shiro smiles and gently pats his shoulder. "But I'm glad everything was alright, nothing bad happened, right?" He asks gently.
"Nope, everything's peachy, Blue and I spent a great afternoon together, tho the ocean was deeper than we thought and I couldn't always hear you guys. But it all worked out." He smiled, turning his head to suggest to Pidge to update the notes on the planet.
"Lance... are you bleeding?" Shiro gently grabs his chin and turns his head to see the sides of his face more clearly. Two thin streams of red ran from his ears.
He casually touched one of his ears "Nah, I'm all good." He didn't feel pain, didn't really feel anything at all.
"But you are bleeding, Lance!" Hunk exclaimed.
"No, really big man, I can go to the med bay if you want, but I'm sure it was just the pressure. You were right that I needed to go alone, even Blue had a hard time at the bottom, the other Lions would be metal balls by now." He says easily and follows Hunk and Pidge to the medical bay for a quick check-up.
At first, nothing was amiss. Missions, coalition meetings, downtime. Just the same routine as always.
But Lance gradually began to accept more solo missions. Volunteered for more solo infrintations. Not a noticeable change, and Shiro and Allura were happy that he seemed to do better at being a Paladin. More efficient, more precise. Nothing to look too deeply into.
Soft drumming echoes through the corridors of a minor galran outpost. Purple emergency lighting pulsated, blood painting the walls, some wrapping from a power too old to recognise.
Screams echoing, wet squelching, low murmured words in a long forgotten language.
A lone figure walking around without hurry. Bodies left behind with their chest torn open with surgical precision, the hearts removed. Sometimes, the eyes are gone too. No wounds from fighting. Expressions frozen on their faces.
Communication systems failed, electronics dying, doors not opening, ships malfunctioning.
Trapped.
An explosion, precise and controlled, erasing everything.
Objective completed.
It was Hunk who noticed them first. Of course, he did. The most caring soul around. The black gloves never came off anymore. Not at the dinner table, not while Lance slept, not while they played video games.
He asked about them while cleaning up after dinner. Lance had stayed to help. Now he shrugs, smiles softly and shakes his head a little ruefully.
"I think my body misses the Sun. I feel cold all the time, but the gloves help. They keep my warmth inside. I love the material our under layers are made out of." He says, hugging Hunk back when the Yellow Paladin grabbed him, and the force of his hug lifted him from the ground.
"I will make more food that helps with blood circulation." Hunk promises, always taking care of his friend.
"That would be great, hermano. And maybe some garlic bread?" He laughs happily and pats his friend's shoulder.
Supposedly, the stress starts to get to everyone. Nightmares spread.
Even the mice aren't saved. Allura and Coran already went through the castle five times to find the animal, which supposedly makes some very disturbing noises at night, scaring the mice. They found nothing but some dark stains on the white walls.
And without noticing, nobody goes to the castle's swimming pool anymore. Nobody except Lance, that is.
He goes late at night, the door closing after him, not turning on the lights; he doesn't need to. The pool glows on its own, sometimes red, sometimes green or violet, painting the walls in colourful patterns. Lance strips down entirely, removing every layer of cloth.
Pitch-black feet tapping softly on the surface, reaching the water. And with hands that turned black, reaching the elbows, he slips into the water.
He floats on the surface, closing his eyes, listening as the drums and chanting rise around him. The water slowly bleeds red. Tentacles reaching around him, pulling him, anchoring him. Pulling him under. Glyphs carve themselves into his back. They glow on his hands.
Hours later, Lance climbs out of the water. Heart beating slowly, sharp claws turning back into pitch-black nails. The red water cascading down his body, leaving him stronger, faster, and removing any injury he had before. Runes on his skin fade away into nothing, only his blackened limbs left as proof of something otherworldly.
Voltron attends festivals, celebrations, feasts and meetings with the coalition and their allies. Lance laughs, dances, flirts and hunts. No one noticed how his gaze lingered, how his carefully cheerful dances moved him around strategically.
Keith watches with annoyance, Pidge jokes and pokes, and Shiro admonishes Lance's habit of one-night stands. A partner a celebration, two or three if they stay longer in one place. Nobody notices how the carefully chosen partners never turn up again.
Nobody ever sees the shadows moving, eyes like whirlpools pulling in the unfortunate soul. The bodies left behind bleeding from the eyes, nose and ears.
Nobody sees them standing up again without their hearts
minds
souls
The song never disappears. When they form Voltron, it's a heavy pulse deep in their connection.
The massacres are never traced back to Lance. He wears his loud personality as a shield and nobody notices the quiet and precise work he does in its shadow. Spreading chaos and his offerings strengthen the song of the deep.
He works faithfully. Dances through his roles as easily as breathing. He takes care not to act too cold with his friends, acts devastated for weeks after Kalternecker disappears.
He sometimes sings under the stars. Following the rhythm of the drums.
His eyes are still blue, still light and full of life. But if someone holds his gaze too long-
The colour shifts, stars start to shine in his eyes, his pupil widens, and a spiral starts to turn. Slow and endless, a whirlpool looked at from above, pulling everything not smart enough to look away, down into the endless abyss.