Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

What happened? Why was he in this much pain? It feels like he got stabbed through the chest with a GIANT fucking sword. Oh, wait. Now that he thinks about it, that’s exactly what happened. He was with his husband and wife, on Zarkon’s ship and served himself up on a big nice silver platter for Zarkon to stab. The last thing he wants to remember right now is his husband and wife’s face. His back twitched, sending unpleasant jolts down his spine and pain to every corner of his body. He let out a breath, and suddenly he realized that someone was staring at him. He twitched as he felt eyes boring into him. He knew he was in the cryopod but he never thought that he’d feel a stare like this coming from his husband or wife… it felt almost malicious.

"How is he here?!" and uncharastically hostile version of his best friends voice sliced into his brain. Forming an unpleasant theory.

"I don't know," A deep voice, most likely mimicking Matt's, commented as he knocked with his knuckles on the cryopod a couple of times before he commented: "I mean, you killed him, right?"

Wait… WHAT?!

"We could just turn off the pod and kill him again, right?" someone else questioned

"It might benefit us if we just keep him, prisoner, the new Emperor would give up his entire empire to see him again." a mockery of Keith's voice cut through rough and course, “The Empress did base a lot of her power within him.”

"Matthew, get back, he's almost at 100%." Hunk's voice demanded in sharp and unrelenting syllables, "Get ready, we don't know if this was planned."

The particles moved and fully awoke Lance. He always hated how his mind and ears woke up before his eyes, but then again, sometimes it was a blessing to hear Takashi worry about him. Lance moved his hand to his head, which throbbed, and he took one step out of the pod. He looked to the three standing in front of him, normal swords and a gun all drawn and ready to attack.

It took every ounce of effort to concentrate on just what the fuck he’s looking at…

Hunk was older? Thicker in muscles and fat nonexistent, his face scarred and his hazelnut eyes warring at even looking at Lance the chestnut hair gray with some patches. Lance looked to Matt who twitched upon connecting eyes, his left eye blind with a thick blade mark through it and his right eye damning Lance to hell. His body thickly built and no wear near appearing fragile. Lance put his hand down and looked to Keith, who looked the calmest of them all, somehow. Keith's sword wasn't as much at the ready as Matt's appeared and his hair so long that he had it up in a bun on the top of his head.

"Uhh...." Lance looked to all of them, his hand twitching every time he made eye contact with the barrel of the gun that Hunk was so easily pointing at him.

"Why are you here?" Matt snarled

"I... don't know... can... can my friends no be pointing weapons at me, it's making me uncomfortable how easily--?"

"Friends?" Hunk spat back, "You dropped that when you joined The Empire."

"What are you talking about?" Lance tried to stay still as to not alarm them.

"You think we’re going to fall for your tricks? Not after Katie got killed.” Matt angrily spewed

“Katie is dead?”

“What’s it matter to you?” Hunk stepped forward, slamming his boot on the floor of the castle.

Suddenly, Lance had a flash of memory. He was with a small version of his team. They were fighting, laughing, and even bonding. But, when they went to go get Slav he got wounded… man, he just can't catch a break?

“FUCK!!” Lance screamed. “Damn it, did this really happen again?” Lance looked to the ceiling as if calling onto a higher power, “It was a bruised rib and maybe a half of a bullet wound!”

“Looks like the Emperor really made him officially lose it this time,” Matt commented off-handedly, seemingly almost happy at Lance’s absence of mind.

“Well, shit. I really can’t this time… I’m not okay.” Lance looked at this version of Keith. This version of his best friend who he’s seen in two different realities already, and now he gets to see him with an aged, tired, worn out, war-ridden face. Worse than he ever thought they could get. “Keith,” Lance, again, didn’t move, “What’s my name?”

"What?"

"Please, what is my full name?"

"You're joking right?!" Matt screamed

"Lance James Fuentes." Keith answered in hesitation

Lance paused. Confirmation. “Again? This AGAIN?!” He screamed at the castle more than anyone else. “I’m going to kill this bitch!” Lance balled up his fists, “Keith, I’m not your Lance.”

“We’re not that stupid,” Hunk laughed, “How many times do you think that will work on us? We’re not going to let you keep manipulating this family to do your masters bidding and then kill another one of us.”

"You’re not stupid, Hunk. I never thought you were.” Lance meekly smiled to his best friend who still hadn't lowered his gun an inch. “But, my name is Lance Carlos Rodriguez Fuentes Shirogane, I'm married to Takashi Shirogane and Allura Shirogane." Lance cursed, "Fuck! It happened again and I'm not okay," he mumbled to himself

"You think we are going to believe that bull shit!" Matt screamed

"Listen, I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around this too, but it looks like I'm traveling through realities. Honestly, I believe that you all wanted me dead with the looks you're giving me. But I'm not your Lance."

"How dare--"

"Matt," Keith warned then moving slightly closer to Lance, even sheathing his sword to show reluctant belief, "If you say you aren't our Lance, that alone will not be sufficient," Keith spoke very formally as if warning that being “buddy-buddy” wasn't going to be enough.

"What if I tell you about my past? Tell you about Takashi?” Lance rambled off things that came right to mind of how to prove himself, but then he realized that verbal proof wasn’t actual proof. “What if I show you my scars?"

"What?!" Hunk snarled, even laughed "You're too perfect to have scars, The Empire has druids who heal every cell and keep your skin flawless."

"Perfect," Lance smiled, "I'm going to take off my shirt, don't... shoot me." Lance slowly took off his shirt revealing his disgusting chest scar from Zarkon and turned to show them his entire back covered in an explosion of grotesque cuts, bruises, and incorrectly healed scars because the mission wasn't over yet and he didn't want to go to the cryopod. "See, I'm not your Lance. I know what it means to have scars, to--"

"How..." Hunk choked back, seeming to simmer down in anger, "How... how did you get them?"

"The ones on the back, almost, all happened at once. I was with my Keith and the castle was down, so we went out of the castle and started shooting at the ships from outside. Zarkon had sent out a bomber drone and it blew up too close. We have matching back scars, well mostly. Then the others are from the arena in Zarkon’s main fleet, when I was trying to--"

“Woah, back up.” Hunk’s anger reappeared

"He couldn’t have done that! Right?" Matt panicked looking to the corner where something--someone--moved. The team was silent as a gasp formed. Out of the shadows, appearing to lurk walked out a tall, and somehow sane version of Zarkon.

"I would do no such thing." Zarkon appeared young, and his eyes simplistic and kind, almost. Not shining an evil dim of Purple. Not at Lance’s throat, not on the screen threatening his family, not...evil. His back stood straight, no labor of 10,000 years of ruling an entire system of planets, no damning presence and downward looking making Lance feel as if he were worth no more than the dirt he walked on. This really wasn’t his reality.

"Uhhhhh" Lance was stuck for words, staring at a practically innocent version of the warlord, "W-W-Well," He coughed, "Where I'm from (and the last one I was just in) you are--not on our side. Anyway, the front.... is actually..." Lance paused and looked down to the ground, "also from Zarkon..." Lance fanned out his fingers on his chest, his other hand holding his shirt in a death grip. He wasn’t sure if this was really happening or a giant fever dream. Lance looked to Zarkon who was shifting through emotions trying to connect words and he realized on the slight chance that his flipping through realities was real he needed to respect these people like they were--are--his family. “It’s not big--”.

"How did I do such a thing? How could I--to you?" Zarkon sympathetically said as he walked to Keith and placed a hand on his shoulder trying to hold himself back from comforting Lance.

"Well," Lance rubbed the back of his head, fumbling through his words. It felt like such a weird dream to try to be nice to Zarkon, the face of the man that’s been hunting them from the start. But, in order for this team, and this Zarkon to like him, he had to do something, so he decided to just move his mouth and not think about it. , "You want--ed. Wanted . All the Altean's dead after Alfor betrayed you, and I married one and had kids. You wanted Allura to suffer so you tried killing me in the process." Lance shrugged

"I am sorry," Zarkon said meaningfully, "But here it's the Altean's that want us all dead. Their empire has become a plague. The new Emperor killed the Empress and made the whole Altean government even more corrupt than it already was."

Lance knew he was going to regret asking, but he swallowed his worries and looked at Keith. "Who's the new--" Lance paused, realizing that it could be…. "Please, tell me it's not Takashi."

"Oh, hell no." Keith spat, "He died a long time ago.”

“He died because of that fucking asshole wanted to turn him against us! I’ll never forgive him.” Hunk spat, his hands shaking, “Damn him to hell, I’ll kill him when I have the chance.”

“Who is it?” Lance repeated, shaking.

“Coran Hieronymus Wimbleton Smythe”.

Chapter Text

"Coran?" Lance repeated putting his shirt back on in a rush, "Coran is a tyrant? The Emperor ?"

"You worked with him," Hunk said his gun still very much in his hand and at the ready, but no longer pointed directly at him, more off to the side.

"Am I, like, evil-evil?" Lance asked, "Because I know I always joked about being evil, but... is it true?"

"You were more, turned against your will than evil," Zarkon said calmly, his presence giving Lance a never-ending Panic attack.

"Okay, okay okay, pause. What is the story of the team? Why is Zarkon on our side? What about Allura? Altea? I have so many questions!" Lance was stressing as he pulled at his hair and rubbed his face

"Why don't we feed you something and we'll answer then,"

"Don't coddle him, Zarkon," Hunk said through his teeth.

“Hunk, stand down.” Keith ordered as if he were the commanding officer in this setting.

“What?” Hunk turned facing Keith, “You’re going to coddle him too?”

“You saw the scars, Hunk.” Keith crossed his arms in front of his chest, “He’s not Lance. He seems genuinely concerned about us pointing weapons at him. I’m going to get answers before damning him to the same fate we damned Lance to. We will get to the bottom of this look-a-like.”

Lance wasn’t sure how comfortable he was here. The castle was hardly light enough to see, rather like Allura hadn't set foot inside her own home for decofeebs.... not just Allura, any Altean. There was dust in every corner of the castle; Coran always loved skating around dusting off everything with the mice scurrying right after him. Every room he passed seemed to be unused or so rarely used that cobwebs started forming in the 90-degree angle that met at the threshold of the door. He walked surrounded by this new team. This hostile version of his family, and the family before. He never expected this to be a reality, but everyone makes choices in their lives that lead them to certain things.

Lance’s pace stuttered as he looked to his right. Engraved on the door was his name and Katies.

Lance & Katie Fuentes-Holt

His heart broke. They were married... and, according to Hunk, she was dead. Lance tried to shake it off and regain his momentum, afraid Hunk or Matt, behind him, would slap his back and shove him forward like he was some prisoner. So, he tried to find something to focus on. He ended up staring directly into Zarkon’s back. The strong and sturdy back that had broken too many bones, broke his family, tortured his husband, and threatens his wife on the daily. The back that laughed at Keith bleeding on the floor protecting his son when Lotor betrayed them and let him into their home, and mocked Hunk for being too weak to not protect them as he gave Hunk a deep scar that made everyone wish Zarkon dead a thousand times over. The back that ripped Katie from her lion, literally, and threw her into space with a heart shattering shrill. The back that had all the strength to kill him, and had tried so many times. The back that thrust the sword deep into his chest forcing him in this predicament in the first place. 

The creaking swoosh of the doors in front of them snapped Lance out. They had made it to a run down version of the dining room. It was almost as if they refuged here instead of lived here. Lance decided to file that in the back of his mind for now as he sat down on one of the only clean chairs.

“Sorry it’s such a mess,” Keith apologized as he sat down across from him. “Shiro liked doing the cleaning and none of us have really picked it up.” he shrugged his shoulders. Zarkon sat right beside Lance, startling him a little but he brushed it off as fascination in seeing someone who should be evil beyond hope, recklessly emotional. Matt brought a simple plate with a cold, refrigerated, sandwich, placed it in front of Lance and then sat himself beside Keith.

Lance took a bite out of the sandwich as he looked to Keith, hoping his eyes were saying everything he was wondering, and as Keith began to speak he guessed that Keith knew that he wanted answers.

"We were all in the Garrison when Zarkon and Honerva showed up to Earth," Keith started sitting across from Lance

"Honerva?"

"My late wife," Zarkon said in a hushed tone, Lance nodded as if he understood, even though he didn’t.

"They came to warn us that the Altean's were going to come and kill all of us because we were the closest species to them," Keith continued. "Shiro, Katie, Hunk, Matt, James, Ryan, Adam, you--Lance--and I all got onto his ship. You really didn’t want to go, especially without saying goodbye to everyone, but Katie forced you to get on the ship and leave Earth behind, and honestly, you did anything for her. Zarkon saved all of us, we didn't get out of the system before we watched the main fleet attack Earth. We didn’t have any time to mourn at that time.

“Zarkon brought us to a castle he knew his old friend, the old King of Altea, had set up on Arus just in case something happened. The lot of us got close to Zarkon and Honerva and we lived in peace for a while. However, Allura, the old Princess and self-proclaimed Empress of Altea, came to us and attacked. Honerva flew the ship and we were on the run from Allura for years. Shiro and Zarkon devised a plan to trap Allura and overthrow Altea, however, that's when Shiro got kidnapped and decided to kill himself rather than let Allura use him as leverage against us." Lance choked on his sandwich and looked at Keith's sorrowed look.

"So you two were together here..."

"Engaged." Keith nodded his head showing his ring under his glove, " I understand why he did it, so I don't hold it against him, but I do miss him. After Shiro died Allura, somehow, imprinted on you. You started acting weird and even went to Zarkon telling him that you were afraid. You wanted a bloodbath. You wanted to hurt us. You begged to be locked up but Katie refused to lock you up because she trusted you and she wanted you to fight it. She believed you could fight it... then, one night you forgot everything and went ballistic. You were screaming at someone to leave you alone." Keith shivered, “When we got there we saw that--”

"She was dead and you had killed her!" Matt stood and slammed his fist on the table shaking everything. Lance gasped, choking on his sandwich and, shivering. He dropped the sandwich and looked to everyone’s faces. Matt cursed and sat back down.

"You two were married. You had wanted to have the wedding after the war, but everything started to become life or death with Allura after us, so you two got married.” Keith frowned “During one night you ended up killing her. That's what changed you. That's when you totally went 180 on us. You and Zarkon fought but you escaped and somehow got to Allura. She healed you every time you came to try to kill us, your skin flawless and your movements unaged. You turned into her little pet , against your own will in the beginning but you embraced it once Katie died because you could only see yourself as evil." Keith explained, "Then--" Keith looked away as he let Hunk interrupt him

"Then you went fucking nuts. Coran, Allura's right-hand man, started calling the shots making you more and more violent. You had limb enhancers, weapons that were way out of our technology range, and who knows what else. You took Matt’s eye as a trophy..." Hunk moved closer and moved his long sleeves and glove from his left arm... his left robotic arm? "And you took my arm from me. You laughed and joked and toyed with us as you saw fit. You felt no remorse and you didn't care if you lost a finger or if you lost a whole arm because you had the druids who just healed you up after that. Coming back at 100% no matter what..." Hunk put his glove back on and pulled his sleeve down meekly. He wasn’t looking at Lance, but rather the distance behind him. “You killed Adam, Ryan, and James… you killed Katie…”

"You betrayed us with such ease as if Katie's murder did nothing to us," Matt tried to say calmly but more sounded demeaning

"However," Zarkon cut in, reaching his arm out as if to stop the others from talking. He placed a firm hand on Lance’s shoulder and sent a kind smile towards him, "We all realize that you are not our Lance. You have scars, and you have his eyes before Allura turned him into a pink-eyed demon and before Coran allowed you off your 'leash'." Lance felt a weird movement in his chest, seeing Zarkon in this light made Lance wonder if his Zarkon was ever this kind and if so just how much had Alfor destroyed him to turn him into the tyrant he fears?

"What..." Lance paused to think, there were so many questions floating around his mind, "What happened to Honerva, did I kill her too?"

The room went silent.

"No. She died protecting me," Zarkon said, "Allura was fighting ruthlessly, as usual, her strength insane and we always seem to undermine her ability. I miscalculated and Honerva saw through it. Allura killed her right in front of me."

"..." Lance cried, he had nothing to say. He gripped his chest and wept. "I'm... I'm so sorry..." He said between sobs over and over again.

"Lance, it is not for you to say sorry."

"But it is!" Lance slammed his free fist on the table "I'm evil here! I KILLED KATIE! How can you guys even look at me?! I've done terrible things--"

"It was not actually you." Zarkon tried to keep him calm, knowing that this wasn't their Lance

"I feel responsible though…” Lance looked around the table, wiping the tears from his eyes, “Wow, you guys are way more accepting of the 'alternate reality' thing than the last reality."

"You mentioned that earlier," Keith said leaning forward resting his head on his folded hands, "What do you mean by that? Like we understand the words, but do you mind elaborating?"

"Well, I was fine in my own 'reality' about--who knows how long ago at this point. I got really injured and my team put me into the cryopods, where I was to be healed. Then I woke up in another place where the team was all young and innocent. Voltron was this amazing force that was created from some sort of comet and Zarkon was way timider than in my universe."

"What is Voltron?" Matt questioned

"Voltron." Lance repeated shaking his shoulders, "You know, five giant lions who combine and create this giant guy that is literally the most powerful thing in the world!"

"I do not think that exists here," Zarkon said confused

"Huh..."

"Tell us about your universe, you said you were married to Allura?" Keith asked

"Yeah, where I'm from Zarkon is the 'big bad'. His one objective is to kill every last Altean after Alfor betrayed him and their big scheme to get every race to obey their every command with an injection. We were alerted that a princess in space needed help because she was being attacked so my team went up to save her. We were 10,000 years too late and found her and Coran in a cryostasis freezing their bodies in time. Allura and I got off on the wrong foot, she was rude and didn't like change. A lot happened, and before we knew it everyone we trusted outside of the castle was turning on us. Lotor, Sendak, Elliot…” Lance let out a quiet whimper “Then Zarkon kidnapped Takashi--that's what my team calls Shiro because I was already married to him by that time."

"So you married Shiro and Allura?"

"Yes, and they married each other, it's all mutual."

"Shiro would get a kick out of that." Keith laughed a little

"The other Shiro did too." Lance smiled, "But that's the gist. We got Takashi back, and are still running from Zarkon, I got sent somewhere and now I’m here and Allura and Takashi are going to kill me when I get back home."

"It is weird to think of me as a tyrant," Zarkon commented as he held his chin in his hand

"It's weird to think I did this much damage to the team..." Lance said with a sigh, "I mean, I killed Katie for heaven's sake..." Lance then looked to Keith, avoiding Hunk's murderous glare, "What do I do now? I know that no one trusts me because I'm a carbon copy, but I'm just trying to get back home…”

“I don’t know what to tell you, Lance.” Keith shrugged, “We’re going to have to accommodate you being here and avoid Coran at the same time. For the time being, you can sleep in your own room, maybe learn a few things from your logs and Katie’s logs--”

“NO!” Matt protested, “None of us have even gone in there since he killed her.”

“How long has it been?” Lance meekly asked

“Shiro has been gone 12, and Katie died about 7 years ago.”

“I tormented you guys for 7 years?” The room went silent again. “I’m so sorry. I know it may mean nothing, but I will do my best to find out what happened. I can fight too, and talk to other races, I know over 50 alien dialects so I can help if you guys need it.” Hunk stood first and began walking out, he was followed by Matt and Keith. “I’ll do what I can,”

“For now,” Zarkon turned to him, “tread lightly. We have not had you as a friend on this ship for a long time. It will take getting used to. If you find anything, let Keith know before anyone, he is the leader.” Lance nodded his head as he watched Zarkon get up and leave as well. Now this, was a reality he was going to have a really fucking hard time getting comfortable in...

Chapter Text

It was a lie to tell himself that this wasn’t shocking. He knew how to get back to his room, but he’d rather roam the castle and look at everything, paint a picture to what happened and see if he didn’t remember anything that Matt and Slav had taught him. He could at least get the cleaning bots that Coran had gossiped about running. He knows better than anyone that this castle needs to be cleaned, and he may even try to locate a Balmera to get a new spaceship class crystal. But the last thing that he wants is to dive into this Lance’s insanity spike, he could only imagine the diary entries. His alone were dark enough, let alone a version of him that actually turned.

Lance shivered, the castle strangely cold still, and he was only sporting his t-shirt and jeans. He saw ghosts of his husband and wife, Ronney running down the halls with Ama in his hands leading him to mystery and who knows what. Before he knew it he landed in front of a door that read ‘sweepers’. He blessed Allura for forcing Altean down their throat, otherwise he’d been scouring this place for decades looking in every door. Lance swept his hand across the door scan, hoping that it would accept his request.

The door opened about an inch before it stopped. Lance had to force it open by shoving himself inside ever so gracefully, shoulder first. Almost like a fawn running right after it’s born. Inside the closet was exactly what his Coran had once talked about, before they had their falling out. They were small, almost mocking pre school children, dust and cobwebs up the wazoo and every type of cleaning equipment in their hands. He found the panel to turn them on, but he hesitated. This may be a really bad idea, maybe they like the castle this dirty, maybe they don’t want it clean. Lance shook his head, that’s how Takashi talked when he was depressed and it always helped to clean. Lance set the sweepers to only clean dust and cobwebs, so that he didn’t accidentally get rid of papers that were needed or anything. In a flash of light, blue eye light up, moving very roughly, scraping metal on metal as if they hadn’t even been able to take care of themselves for a while. Then, in the same sporadic upbringing they shut down. On the panel in front of him it reported that the main power had been shut off and that there wasn’t enough charge for them.

Well, that enlisted more sleuthing, didn’t it? The main power grid, to his memory, was in the center of the castle, but he didn’t want to jump his luck that much, so he probably had to find Keith and ask if what he was doing was even acceptable, let alone allowed.

So, thus started the search for the leader of this version of a resistance. Now that Lance was thinking hard, what did they even call themselves here? If they weren’t Voltron, were they the mock Blade? That would have to be a question for Keith, or maybe Zarkon, but later. Right now he wanted to help.

The training room, which was right where it was in his reality, was not where Keith was, strangely. Instead he found Hunk. They made eye contact and nothing more. Lance decided to move on and see if Keith wasn’t in his famous second spot. Nope, the common room was about as barren as everyone’s hope in this reality. Lance tried the old fashion way of finding people by calling out their name until they answered. But, clearly not Keith answered his call immediately.

“Lance?”

Lance felt like he hit the room with his jump. He will not get used to hearing his voice so familiarly towards him, “Hey, Zarkon, I’m looking for Keith.”

“I understood by you screaming for him like you were his long lost lover,” Zarkon smiled and chuckled. Was he trying to joke with Lance? Weird. Lance just smiled and pursed his lips together thinking how he should respond, “Oh, don’t worry. Keith is probably in the War room.” Zarkon motioned for Lance to follow

“Why would he be in the war room? What even is the war room?”

“Keith likes to be ahead of Coran, so he’s been trying to get the war room up and running for a while. Honnerva had it running a while back, she was able to locate Coran because they were the same species and she could lock on his DNA code. I can’t really explain the logistics of it all, she knew better than me.”

“She sounds amazing.” Lance tried to compliment

“She was. You two were pretty close too, she found you very… what’s the word? Ethereal.” Zarkon smiled again.

“I’m honored.” Lance painfully smiled. What did this version of him do?

Zarkon stopped in his tracks and knocked on the wall calling after Keith, “Keith, may we enter?”

“I don’t need your help fixing this Zarkon. I’m--oh Lance.” Keith slid from under the table and sat up. “Find anything?”

“Cleaning robots and a lack of energy to power them.”

“Cleaning what?” Keith stood, “I didn’t know we had those.” He shrugged, “But we don’t have a lack of power.”

“Oh, yeah, Samurai? Why can’t you’re little war projector work? Also, when was the last time you guys let the castle go into night mode? It seems very dim.”

“Lance, you’re talking gibberish.” Keith turned around, almost refusing to look at him. “The castle doesn’t need to sleep, and what’s a Samurai?”

“The castle needs to rest, like we all do, unless you’re a Kivallian space worm which I’m pretty sure that your not.” Lance sighed, “I was just wondering if you wouldn’t mind showing me the main power grid-thing and allowing me to turn on the cleaning bots?”

“Zarkon or Hunk can show you, I haven’t been down to the grid since the beginning of this hell. They know it better than anyone I know. On the idea of cleaning robots, I wouldn’t object to it, but I don’t think it’s necessary to have robots clean our home.”

“Are you going to clean it? You made it clear that Takashi liked cleaning, and I’m assuming that it wasn’t always this dusty.” Lance fought the urge to collect dust on his fingers to prove a point, “But this is your home and your castle, I just want to help.”

“I can take him down to the grid, no worries. Hunk is in the training room, so he’s taken right now.” Zarkon smiled in Keith’s direction, hoping that Keith would respond positively.

“Fine, do what you wish. Just don’t anger Hunk he’s already on thin ice as it is.”

Lance nodded, even though he knew Keith couldn’t see him. He turned with Zarkon and left the room.

--

Down the hall was nostalgic. Heavy set boots stomping beside him, constant breathing trying to reassure him that they weren’t hostile, a laugh once in a while while his mouth didn’t stop moving. Zarkon was filling Lance in on his life. About Dibazol, how Allura went insane and sought to destroy Zarkon and all Galra. That she wanted blood. Zarkon didn’t speak terribly of her, seeming to tread on eggshells when he was about to damn her, or about to slander her. Lance appreciated it, but he also wished that everyone would be as blunt as Hunk and tell him how it is. Like earlier when he got the truth and they lectured it into him what he did. So, why isn’t Zarkon doing the same for Allura? That would have to be answered another day.

The door to the grid opened, lard swirls of electric energy graced the sides of the walkway, like a mock, and more deadly, electric fence. He knew it was not going to be a good time if he ended up touching one of those. Forward was a large black orb, small sparks of electricity undulating across the surface to disappear, almost like a hand held sun.

“Well, it’s not supposed to be that dim,” Zarkon commented picking up his pace and walking to the podium in front of the orb. Lance followed and watched as Zarkon slowly took apart the panel. Altean pipes were marked, two of them being completely offline. “That is not good.” Zarkon rolled his neck in annoyance

“Why? What does it mean?”

“It means that we’re going to have to go into battle and get more quintessence. Matt will need more anyway to get you home, but I didn’t think we were going to need to get in contact with him so soon.”

“With who?”

“The most terrifying being in any reality. He can see into your soul, tell when your lying, and kill you with one swipe of his fingers, he can jump realities by himself but can never bring anyone with him unless they wish to lose their mind. I am not looking forward to being in his debt again.”

“That type of person exists here?”

“Oh, of course! Slav is not to be trifled with.”

“Slav? Slav? Like, Slav-Slav?”

“Please stop saying his name…” Zarkon looked around, almost paranoid

“He can move through… well that make so much more sense now!” Lance laughed, “We have to go see him? No worries, we’ve got this. Slav isn’t too bad.”

“Are you joking me?” Zarkon asked, flabbergasted

“Slav and I are, like, best friends in my reality. I’m sure I’ll be fine. But how does he know where the quintessence is? Why would getting it help? Can’t we just find a balmera and harvest a crystal and fix all of this?”

“It’s not that easy, sadly. It’s either him, or Coran.”

“Why coran?”

“He controls the balmera… we’re still not sure how he got them to willingly listen to him, but they do.” Zarkon shrugged his shoulders

“So our options are Slav or Coran?”

Chapter Text

Lance had left Zarkon to fidget with the panel and contact everyone he needed to get to Slav. Lance decided he had enough of this day and wanted to sleep, but for some reason, standing here in front of a room with his name on it… a shared name with the wife that he killed, was not settling well with him. Every time he tried to put his hand to the scanner he had another worry jostle in his mind. Another question. Another thought. He didn’t want to impose, even if Keith said it was fine, even though they all seemed to silently expect this of him.

He heard a sigh to his left and footsteps reversing. He knew it was Hunk, he knew that Hunk was going to have a hard time looking at him. What even was their relationship?

“Hunk,” Lance called but Hunk did not stop, “Was there something between us? Other than me doing all of this… was there something before?” Hunk stopped in his tracks, his hands into fists and his breath heavy.

“You don’t know the things we’ve had to go through because you’ve only sought out for yourself.” Hunk refused to look at him, his shoulders shaking. “I don’t need this!” Hunk sprinted away. Leaving Lance with way more questions than answers, and an empty hallway echoing his best friends name.

Lance closed his eyes and took a breath. He needed to calm down, who knows how long he had and he was going to do what he always did: clean up after himself. He was going to fix this as much as he could, even though he knew he wasn’t the one that needed to fix it. Without thinking, he turned and walked into his alternate shelves bedroom. He had to stop not even a full foot in.

The room felt eerie. But Lance didn't know whether it was the scratches on the wall, the proof of a small struggle, or all the wedding pictures and the over personalization. A large bed for the two of them laid on the wall to his left. A pillow with their childhood assumption of what an Alien looked like on the cover of the pillow and the other plain blue and well used. A large painting of a sunset stood as their headboard. Above the bed hung a blanket of stars, hand sewn, and crocheted. It was gentle and loving. To his right was a desk adorned with books and pictures and graphs. But the messiest of it all was the floor. Just how Katie kept her room at home, everything she worked on was laying on the floor waiting for her to tinker with it. There was so much in this room. A story was already being told.

Lance closed his eyes and took in a breath. The hand shaped scratch right in front of him was probably himself fighting against Allura’s control, against killing Katie... or it could be part of him attacking her. Lance was going to find out what happened, he felt an awakening need to give this team a sense of security that their Lance didn’t do everything willingly, that he didn’t want everyone dead, that this was all just a misunderstanding. That he was actually good. Lance knows how he can get trying to do the right thing, and maybe this version of him took it too far.

The door closed behind him when he walked in. Lights flickered on as he started to glance through things. He didn’t exactly want to move everything just in case, so he just looked over everything, opening drawers and making sure whatever he moved he put right back in place. There were two data pads, neither personalized nor colored so he had a safe assumption that they belonged to the same person. He pressed his hand to the pad and unlocked it. This one must be his if he was allowed to unlock it. An array of documents and videoes appeared, so he started with the first video, might as well start from the beginning right?

The screen flashed, a hand was shown fixing the position of the screen and then Katie appeared. She was smiling wide, on her was her normal romper that she loved wearing around the castle when she tinkered.

“Hey! James and Ryan are forcing us to start to do video diaries and I guess this is mine. This is just in case the Human race is forgotten. Just in case our children aren’t sure where they come from…” Katie put her hand on her stomach “I’m the only woman of my kind left…” There was a noise beside her and she perked up, “Hey, babe. I thought you were making your video?” Lance watched as this version of him walking on screen and kiss Katie. He was wearing his father’s clothes and fit into them nicely. His form was still long, but he was also quite muscular. No chiseled jaw yet, maybe the next reality.

“I was,” Lance heard his own voice, inconsistent and staticky “But then I thought that--”

The video then cut out. Static as if this were some sort of VHS and not a digital copy. Lance backed out of the video and scrambled to find the next video. He had to flip through a few that didn’t work until he landed on a sex tape and then quickly moved on to another. Of course, he’d make a sex tape with this type of thing at his disposal. He felt himself roll his eyes at this realities version of him. He began collecting data, the next few videos started with Katie opening up, Lance berating her, and then a fight ensuing with Katie in tears and Lance leaving the room. There had been about 20 videos before this, and it hadn’t been exactly a daily occurrence making videos.

He figured it had already been a month since James and Ryan had told them to make a video. Lance had to shake off feeling bad for Katie like it still sunk in, but he was a detective in this case. An outsider. He had to come at this from a certain angle or this team’s trust, and this Lance’s justice will be down the drain. In another there was an offhand comment about Takashi being captured, but nothing about his death. Katie looked more worried for the Empresses sake than for Shiro’s.

Then Lance played one of the last videos, now knowing that this had to be Katie’s. The date was much farther spaced out than the others, a couple years passed since she offhandedly commented about Shiro being kidnapped. Katie was on the screen crying, sobbing, into her hands. She tried to hold herself but she couldn’t. She looked towards the ground as she spoke.

“My name isn’t important anymore. Shiro’s been dead for five years already, and it feels like a joke to say it’s already been five. Time doesn’t exactly move the same out here as it did on Earth.” Katie paused her hands shaking. “I’m needed to keep the human race from extinction. My husband, Lance, refuses to see me in this light, he doesn’t think that’s all I am…. But he’s been having nightmares lately, and he talks in his sleep, and I know that his heart lies elsewhere. He called for another girl, cried for someone to save him… he called everyone’s name except mine. When I woke him up and asked him if he was alright he stormed out of the room telling me that he was fine. But I know he’s not. He’s acting different, more distant.” She curled more into herself, she seemed so small on the screen “I know he misses home, we all do. But I forced him to leave, and I think he’d rather be dead with his family than alive with me. I think he’s going to resent me for the rest of my life…. I don’t even have the gall to tell him that I’m--.”

The video suddenly ended and Lance fumbled to the next video-- the last video. This one halted him. This made his stomach turn:

GOODBYE

Lance was not ready. This was uncharted territory…. but he had to. He had to do this Lance justice. He pressed his finger to the video and Katie popped up, well her shaking hands and about half of her body. She was sobbing again and talking to herself. What she was saying wasn’t coherent and she began pacing around the room. Something was obviously bothering her and she didn’t seem like she could tell anyone.

“This… this is going to be my last video,” Her voice was shaking almost as bad as she was, “I’m… I’m going to kill myself tonight.” She nodded her head as if to confirm to herself that it was the plan.

Lance paused the video and stared. He couldn’t watch this alone, in ANY universe he wouldn’t be able to watch this alone. But this version of his family wasn’t as… emotional as either of the other’s that he’s been to.  He had to find Hunk… he was always the best to go to when he needed someone there, even if he wasn’t listening to what he was just Hunk’s presence and if he needed a hug. Lance closed his eyes, he wasn’t going to get any of that from this version of Hunk. He had to just go forward. Lance sat on the bed and hugged Katie’s pillow as he pressed play again.

“I’m going to kill myself. I know that sounds really weird, and now that I’m saying it out loud I probably should go talk to Ryan or Adam--they love it when we go to them to talk about this type of stuff--but anyway, Lance has been acting weird and he had a really weird episode earlier tonight.” She turned towards the bed, “He’s out like a light right now, and I don’t think he knows that he had an episode. But… I don’t want to live this life anymore. My father is dead, my brother is closed off, my husband is distant and something is controlling him...I’m a coward for wanting to run away, I know I am… but this will be the best thing for me right now. Lance doesn’t know that I’m pregnant, no one does. And I’m just, not happy.” The bed moved behind her, Lance sat up and hugged her. “Lance?!”

“I love you, you know that right?”

“Of course! Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because…” He paused, letting her go, and turning her around. His eyes were a gentle pink hue “He’s not in control anymore.”

Lance watched himself kill Katie. He didn’t want to, he kept telling himself to stop, tell himself to pause and scream, to go show the team that she was depressed, and then he watched as the pink hue left the eyes and his body go limp.

“OH. GOD. KATIE?!” He heard himself scream for Katie. Wail, really. He watched himself fight more, scream for something to leave him alone. He slapped the wall, talons forming on his hand and he then left the trademark scratch on his wall before falling to his knees at Katie’s side, semi-out of camera focus. “I told you no more! It was just--I killed her--but I wanted a family--she wanted this--but I didn’t!--but you should’ve thought about that before giving me full control.” He was fighting with himself as he held his wife's corpse. In a flash, the camera stopped. The screen darkened and he saw himself crying. He placed the tablet down and tried to breathe.

He did kill her and he also killed their unborn child. He killed a woman that wanted to be killed, that was about to kill herself. That’s why Lance turned so hard. He destroyed the only hope of having a family again, and Lance now understood why he tried so hard, why he didn’t stay with his family, because how could they accept him if he ever told them that he also the killer of their child? How could he turn back and expect to be loved when he just destroyed everything he loved, especially unwillingly? Lance understood that… he was always afraid of never having a family, never being loved after Takashi was kidnapped. He was always afraid he’d hurt the ones he loved. It's why he went to the BOM for a while. He needed to find Takashi, to rebuild all he thought he had left. Without Takashi, he became a monster.

Lance looked at his hands. Shaking and practically numb. He was halfway done. His eyes wandered to the second tablet, easily assumed to be his. He wasn’t sure how much he wanted to do this, how far was he actually willing to destroy himself in order to give this team the answer that they all already know. Lance let a shaking breath out as he switched the tablets and set the unseen tablet on his thighs.

“Please, show me some hope…” He begged as he unlocked the tablet and pressed play to the first video. But it didn’t play. None of them did. Not a single one of the 40+ videos played. He had to go to Keith and let him know what he’s found so far anyway, but now he has to ask permission to ask Hunk or Matt to hack into this thing to get the information back. That, or he could hook it up to the castle and have it run a diagnostic on the technology.

He grabbed Katie’s tablet and placed it in his back pocket, held ‘his’, and left the room in a huff towards Keith.

Keith was in the same place he left him. Dirt and more things on his face and body and the dumb tick he picked up, apparently in every reality, of him angrily chewing the inside of his cheeks had started back up.

Lance walked into the room and fiddled with the tablet in his hand. Keith didn’t really acknowledge him, more nodded in his direction and grabbed a screwdriver to keep tinkering. “Keith, I found out some things that you may want to hear.”

“Lance, I really don’t have time for this. I need to figure this thing out and--”

Lance’s brows furrowed, his tact was about out the window. The last team tested all of his patience at full. “Keith, Katie was suicidal before your Lance killed her and he willingly let something--or someone--take control over him over it.” Lance blurted out. Keith just stared at him, his look was about to kill Lance. “I have proof,” Lance pulled out Katie’s tablet and handed it over to Keith.

“You fucking better.”