What they don't know

Part 3

It had only been a few months. A few months of neglecting to eat and sleep in favour of searching every star system they could think of, questioning every person they came across and snapping awake every time they heard a notification. 

They hadn't found anything. Lance's transmitter hadn't picked up anything the whole time, he hadn't sensed Red either and that hurt just as much, it was too reminiscent of the time Blue discarded him. 

Keith had also been declared Killed in Action and although Lance couldn't even fathom him being dead, he also had almost no reason to say otherwise. Keith was gone and he just had to start accepting it.

The Empire hadn't heard from Lotor either since the castle ship had disappeared. They interpreted it as Voltron betraying them and turning against Lotor, possibly even killing him. Lance really wouldn't have minded the prospect of Voltron annihilating Lotor, he couldn't shake the feeling that he had ulterior motives, but now he had to deal with the fallout on his own.

What was left of the Galra Empire was split between following Haggar and Sendak with a smaller proportion of them becoming mercenaries or pirates. Now that they'd split up, they were just causing them more trouble. The Blade didn't have enough members for this and the Rebels usually refused to work with them for the most part. To try to encourage them to work together, Lance had joined the Blade and regularly went on missions with them while trying to balance keeping the coalition together and searching for the others. 

In fact if it weren't for the Blade's rigorous training schedule, Lance doubted he would have gotten any sleep in at all. It was like they took Keith's obsession with training, multiplied it Shiro's stress and sprinkled in some of Allura's ambition. It was enough to knock him out as soon as his head hit the pillow.

After getting back from a relatively light training session, he was lying collapsed on his bed in what used to be Keith's room. He had a mission in about an hour and desperately needed some rest but the coalition needed his attention more. 

Planets had been withdrawing at an increasing rate since the other Paladins' and Coran's  funeral had been held. They just didn't have any hope in the war without Voltron. What's worse was he knew he would have a better shot at getting them to stay if he could just talk to them in person but he just didn't have the time. He hadn't even been able to properly mourn yet but that didn't matter anymore. His life had barely any meaning left, he only lived to fulfil his purpose as a Paladin - even if he might not even be classed as one now that the lions were gone.

His eyes snapped back open and he sprung up onto his elbows. His Holoscreen had lit back up with a notification.

"Happy birthday, Lance." -Matt.

He smiled sadly, sending a quick reply before stretching and cleaning himself up briskly. He glanced at the time - he only had about ten minutes until he had to meet the Blades in his next mission. Sighing, he pulled on his suit and left the room.

He was having an amazing birthday so far. Such a great, relaxing day.

He kept his mask and hood up on his way, far too aware of how differently he was built compared to the rest of the blades. It wasn't that he was scared of them, his 'unique' appearance just often drew their attention a little too much for his liking. He enjoyed attention but he had his limits and spending the past year or so with only half a dozen other people who usually didn't even talk to him most days made the sudden change at least a little overwhelming to say the least. 

Not to mention the constant reminder of how truly alone he was now. 

There were a few hybrids in the Blade that usually weren't the same height as other Galra, Keith was always the first to come to mind for him. This usually let him pass as half Galra if he kept his face hidden but the tight Blade suit did little to hide the rest of his body, causing him to keep his shoulders slightly hunched and subconsciously curl his arms around himself.