Now what
Lance had been forced out of Voltron because of the severity of his wound, he was almost as recovered as the doctors predicted he would get. Lance had been doing physical therapy to learn how to walk again, unfortunately he would never be able to live without mobility aids. Lance was at the point of his recovery where he was strictly wheelchair bound, he wasn’t allowed to walk unless he was strictly supervised or during physical therapy. “Next Please!” Lance called out loudly, he had been sent back to aid with the first aid refugee he was once assigned to before. An elderly alien hobbled towards Lance, the alien adorned an old wooden cane. The soft pat of the cane hitting the dirt floor of Lance’s medical tent was unnerving. The continued patting of the cane against dirt felt reminded Lance of a time bomb, waiting to go boom. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.“I can’t see. Am I going in the right direction?” the elderly alien asked, “Yes you are, ma’am.” Lance responded gently, he rolled himself forward slightly. It was only enough so he could direct the alien into a chair. “What seems to be the problem today?” Lance asked politely. “My arm. It’s very sore, I'm not sure if it’s because of my age though. Would you be able to help?” The woman asked quietly, “Of course. I’ll just roll myself next to you, so please don’t be startled.” Lance instructed. “Wheel yourself? What does that mean?” The woman asked as she continued to tap the floor with her cane. “I was injured in battle and now I have to move around in a chair with wheels.” Lance spoke, he tried to hide the pain in his voice but he didn’t do too well. The lady reached out a hand and rested it against Lance's arm, “You are very brave to fight against the Galra. And to survive no less.” The woman spoke. “Well, it was my duty as a Paladin of Voltron. Didn’t really get a choice.” Lance retorted.
Lance assisted with several patients after the elderly alien, he grew more exhausted by the second. On each patient he used small parts of the magic that Allura had accidentally transferred to Lance when she woke him from the white abyss. “Next!” Lance called out and a young, strong alien walked into Lance’s tent. He was rather handsome, Lance wouldn’t deny him that. “Hey. I just have a burn on my arm, I was told you were the one to come to. Ya’ know to get fixed quickly. Right?” The tall, muscular alien asked. Lance nodded, he was silent as he admired the alien in front of him. Tall, muscular, handsome, long black hair that cascaded down his back. Baggy pants held up with a thick strip of mulberry purple satin. The satin rested against his hips and travelled from one hip over his opposite shoulder and back down to the original hip. The alien's bare chest was exposed and it made Lance falter. “I- uh- yeah!” Lance spoke a little too loudly, “I mean yeah, that's me.” Lance tried to cough out the awkwardness. It kinda worked. Lance directed the alien to sit in the chair opposite him, Lance rolled himself closer.
The handsome alien's burn wound was just below his shoulder but it was a decent size. “Did you get hit by a blaster?” Lance asked casually, “I- yeah… I did. How’d you know that so quick?” the alien asked sceptically. “I would recognize those wounds a mile away.” Lance said as he absent mindedly lifted the side of his shirt to reveal most of his torso and a large harsh purple scar. The scar ran from low on Lance's waist to his upper torso. “Woah, that must’ve hurt. Like a lot.” The alien said as he began reaching to touch it, Lance dropped his shirt and gave the alien a warning look. “Yeah, hurt like a quiznaker.” Lance said as he returned his attention back to the alien's wound. Lance hovered his hand over the wound, the flesh around the wound started to grow. The wound was healing from the magic that Lance was expelling magic from his hands. “Are you ok man? It was going pretty quickly before.” The alien asked as he pointed out that the healing had ceased. “Hello?” The alien waved his hands in front of Lance, his eyes were glazed over. Marks similar to Allura and Corans glowed on his cheeks. He was frozen and unresponsive.
— — —
“Hello? Is anyone here?” Pidge called out. “Pidge, is that you?” Keith asked, he looked around and saw nothing. All he could see was a black speckled plain, it reminded him of a starry night back on earth. “Pidge?” Keith called out as he began walking, “Over here! Wherever that is.” Pidge called out. It was freaky, they had been in their room in their lion and now they were in some sort of space abyss. “Are we the only people here?” Keith asked, Pidge shrugged. “Is anyone else freaked out? Like I was just in the kitchen, now I'm here.” Hunk asked as he slowly faded into view, Shiro by his side. “So everyone but Lance is here? What the hell is happening?” Keith complained. Everyone shrugged. “No- No- Not this again!” Lance tripped backwards and fell into Hunk. “Lance? What’s wrong?” Hunk asked cautiously when he noticed Lance’s panicked behaviour. “Someone is dead.” Lance whispered, “It’s just like when Allura saved me, I entered an abyss. This is almost the exact same. There is no start, no end. It’s just nothing, it's an empty abyss. Only emptiness and pain.” Lance recited. His words of caution worried everyone. “How do we know who’s dead?” Pidge asked, then looked at the computer on their paladin armour. “They show themselves.” Lance was quiet. “You're all here.” a familiar voice spoke, no one was seen. “Congratulations. The war, it’s over. I’ve stopped the pain, the regret and the suffering.” the same voice spoke, still not showing themselves.
Lance used Hunk to help himself stand, he walked. He walked? He was able to walk in this abyss despite his real world injuries. “Allura… Why?” Lance whispered, the rest of Voltron looked at each other. How could Lance recognize the voice? Allura slowly walked into view with a saddened smile. “Hello, Lance.” Allura smiled. “What did you do?” Lance asked accusingly, “I saved us all, the Galra wanted me dead. They want my power to be gone, so I sacrificed myself. I stopped fearing my death.” Allura spoke solemnly, “Protect my heritage Lance.” Allura whispered. She took a step forward and held Lance’s cheeks in her hands. “Why me?” Lance asked, Allura didn’t respond. She rested her forehead against Lance’s. Her marks faded. New marks formed. Lance’s face became stained by blue marks that were almost identical to Allura and Corans. “Allura! ¡no te vayas! porque te vas! (Allura! do not go! Why are you leaving)” Lance cried, Allura faded. Then she was gone. “Lance-” Keith reached out to comfort Lance but he faded. They all faded, except Lance. He was alone. Abandoned. Forgotten.
— — —
“Hey? Hello?” The tall, handsome alien asked once more, “You ok?” The alien was worried. Lance had frozen mid healing, his eyes went glassy. Then there were strange marks under his eyes. “I- uh…” Lance whispered weakly, he raised a hand to his nose. Blood. “Oh no-” Lance whispered, he had a blood nose and was about to faint. “Call Keith.” Lance whispered only just audible to the aliens' heightened senses. Then he fell forward harshly, he would’ve fallen out of his wheelchair if the alien hadn't stopped him. The alien panicked, his wound only partially healed and now he had the person healing his wounds unconscious. “Help! I don’t know what to do!” the alien yelled in a panic, the alien helped to sit Lance upright. The alien found a small device on the table behind Lance, “Hello?” the alien said. He had managed to answer Lance’s phone just as he picked up. “Uh, who is this? You're not Lance.” Pidge said plainly, “i- uh. He’s hurt! He just- he just fell out of his chair with wheels.” The alien panicked.
“Quiznack!” Pidge groaned through the phone, “He asked me to call someone. Keith? I think.” the alien questioned. “Ok, just stay there. I’m on my way, just make sure he’s still breathing.” Pidge huffed out before hanging up. “Pick up damn it!” Pidge complained, “Finally you idiot! Get to Olkarion as soon as you can! We have a situation.” Pidge demanded, they were flying to Lance’s location as quickly as they could. “I- wha- what happened?” Keith asked, “Lance-” Pidge spoke. Keith’s breath hitched, this wasn’t going to be good. “I’m on my way, i’ll be about an hour at the earliest.” Keith responded without letting Pidge finish their sentence, Keith sped up and entered the coordinates. Pidge was rather close to Lance so they managed to get to him quickly, unfortunately because of their size Pidge had to get the alien Lance was supposed to be healing to carry him into the green lion. “You're coming with me, I'll need you to carry him out as well.” Pidge commanded, “Besides, you get properly healed there.” Pidge said absent mindedly. Pidge managed to get to Olkarion within 30 minutes of leaving the first aid refuge.
“Ah, Pidge. What a pleasure to see you again, how may we help today?” Ryner asked politely as Pidge emerged from their lion. “Hospital please. And quickly.” Pidge left no room for gossip, they were urgent. “Very well, follow me.” Ryner understood the rush and led Pidge and the other alien to the hospital, “We’ll take it from here, thank you.” A doctor said politely as they were given control over Lance’s wheelchair. “I- I am here!” Keith called out through laboured breaths as he ran through the hospital doors. “I… I'm here.” Keith huffed out, he was exhausted with worry. He also just ran about a mile from where he landed his lion. “Where is he? Is he ok? When can we see him?” Keith bombarded Pidge with questions, “Keith! Calm down! I think he had just been overworking himself, plus he seemed pretty distressed when we were in that abyss kinda thing.” Pidge comforted. Keith took a deep breath, it only calmed him slightly. “But he's ok?” Keith asked, “As far as I'm aware, yes.” Pidge said as they placed a reassuring hand on Keith's back.
— — —
“Hey! Excuse me!” Keith called out calmly, “Yes, you! Can I please see Lance?” Keith asked. “Only family is allowed to see him at the moment unfortunately.” The Olkari doctor said, “Wait- I uh- I’m his husband.” Keith wasn’t sure what he was doing. But it was worth a shot. Right? “Husband? I don’t mean to sound rude but where is your ring.” the doctor spoke gently, “uhh- We eloped? Didn’t have time to get a ring.” Keith had forgotten about that detail. Whoops. The doctor looked sceptical but smiled. “Very well then.” The doctor led Keith into Lance’s room, “Hey Lance.” Keith smiled. “Lance, your husband is here to visit.” Keith blushed hard at the doctor's words, Lance was only just starting to gain consciousness. Keith had to play the part until the doctor left, so he held Lance's hand. There was a soft blue glow. It was emanating from the marks under Lance’s eyes. Keith looked down at his left hand where a cold feeling appeared. A ring? “Is this normal for your species?” the doctor asked, “uh, yeah. I think so.” Keith replied.
— — —
“Come on Keith!” Lance whined, “Nope, the doctors let me have the documents.” Keith teased. “Oh please, why would they do that?” Lance complained. “Because I think I look the part, besides I’m apparently your husband.” Keith waved his left hand in Lance’s face, “Yeah, yeah. You're very sexy Keith. Now let me see the documents.” Lance rolled his eyes. Keith adorned a red button up shirt with the top two buttons undone, tight fitting pants. And low and behold a pair of black boots. “I- what?” Keith was taken aback by the comment. “I’m your husband, I'm allowed to tell you how I think you look.” Lance waved his left hand in Keith's face, mimicking what Keith had just done to him. Keith laughed, “Very well, I'll let that one slide.” Keith continued to laugh as Lance walked to catch up to him. “Please, I just want to know what it says!” Lance complained, “Ok, you've earned it.” Keith said with a cocky grin and handed Lance the documents. “What?” Lance looked at the documents, they weren’t actually documents. It was just a small stack of papers and the top one had 3 words written on it in bold. You’re an idiot. “Seriously! What’s that for!” Lance slapped the documents onto Keith’s chest who hadn’t stopped smiling. Keith tilted his head to look behind Lance, “Congrats. That’s a new record.” Keith smiled. Lance turned to see he had walked about 10 metres away from his wheelchair, with only minimal assistance from the handrail. “I- what?” Lance’s legs started to give out and fell into Keith’s arms. Keith giggled as he caught Lance, “Hold on.” Keith said as he manoeuvred to move one of Lance’s arms around his waist. Keith slowly helped Lance back to his chair. “Is that the only reason you dressed up nicely? To mock me?” Lance huffed. “It was more to add a little ‘Lance flare’ to me congratulating you on your progress. But yeah, sure let's go with what you said.” Keith teased.