Paladins of the past.

Chapter 29:

Chapter 29: Heartfelt conversations, Ceremonies and a surprise.

Dropping his plate into the sink, Lance sighed, overthinking what he had said to Hunk, 'I shouldn't of snapped, he's just worried. Not that he should be worried,' Lance thought as he tapped the surface on the side, 'I'm a soldier for Altea's sake, I know how to handle myself, and now he's just looking at me as if one wrong word will cause me to break. He's walking on eggshells on me, does he not see that I'm fine, does he not see that I can handle myself?'

The methodical, yet harsh scrubbing was interrupted by someone grabbing his wrist, "And what did the poor plate do to you?" Shiro asked with a smile, before crossing his arms leaning against the side, "What did Allura want?"

Lance sighed, turning to put his plate on the drying rack, "The rejuvenation ceremony, that's what she wanted," came the snipped reply, Lance watched as Shiro watched him with an eyebrow raised, "the rejuvenation ceremony will use quintessence to heal the heal." Lance explained further.

"And?"

"And what?" Lance asked, looking at Shiro suspiciously.

"What did the plate do to you?" Shiro asked, standing straight, arms still crossed, Lance sighed rubbing the bridge of his nose, looking years older than he should be, "Are you okay?" Shiro watched as the tired exasperation turned into annoyance as Lance dropped his hand away from his nose and into a fist at his side.

"I'm fine," Lance replied curtly, inwardly biting his tongue as to not snap at Shiro, "If you'll excuse me, I need to get to Red," Lance said brushing past Shiro, "I mean Blue," Lance breathed out just loud enough for Shiro to hear before the door shut.

Lance quickly made his move towards Blue's hanger, hoping that he wouldn't bash into anyone else, but luck was never on his side, "Hey Lance," came the voice from the newly opened door, Lance wanted to carry on and ignore them but couldn't bring himself to and instead nodded in their direction.

"What's up?"

"I was talking to Hunk a few minutes ago," Pidge started, spotting but ignoring that way he tensed at that, "I wanted to know more about the rejuvenation ceremony,"

"Oh," Lance blanked on what to say, clearly expecting another worry wart, "Yeah, course I can, but we'll need to walk and talk," Lance replied and started to walk in the direction of the hanger's again, just this time at a more relaxed pace, "So what did you want to know about it?"

"Well to start with, What is it? and how does it work?"

"Going straight for it are ya? Well okay, the rejuvenation ceremony is typically performed when one is taking a crystal from the balmera, as producing and then technically losing a crystal takes a lot of energy, depending on the size of the crystal, the person taking the crystal would give up some of their quintessence to the Balmera in return for the crystal. It works like equivalent exchange from the anime Full Metal." Lance explained using some hand signals to emphasize his point, Pidge nodded along writing notes as quickly as she could, barely dodging the corner when they turned.

"Can anyone do this ceremony? Or is it just certain Aliens like Alteans? How long does the ceremony take and why did the Galra never do this ceremony? Pidge rambled, only pausing when Lance let out a snort.

"I guess anyone can do the ceremony obviously they need to have some sort of connection to quintessence, and you don't have to be Altean, I mean I was doing the ceremony unintentionally," Lance said with a smile, "But Alteans do have an affinity to quintessence, The length of the ceremony also depends on the size of the crystal as well as the amount of quintessence you have and any training you have had. What we're doing is healing a planet, so it can take a while, not to mention me and Allura haven't had any formal training." Lance explained as he walked up the ramp of the Blue #Lion.

"Some Galra do, The Blades do, but the empire? As far as I'm aware they don't care, they run the Balmera dry and leave the people on a crumbling planet." Lance replied solemnly, watching as Pidge nodded finishing her sentence, "Did you want to come with?" Lance said, changing the subject.

"If that's okay."

"Course it is," Lance replied, pushing the controls forward, pushing the Lion forward and speeding out into space, "Why haven't you asked me if I'm okay?" Lance wondered aloud.

"Did you want me to?" Pidge questioned, watching as Lance shake his head," After the Kerberos crew was declared dead, pretty much everyone would ask me if I was okay. It only caused me to seclude myself from everyone." Pidge explained, "I was guessing you didn't want that."

"Thank you," Lance sincerely said.

"It is annoying, but it's what most people do when someone they care about is hurting."

"I get that, but it isn't necessary annoyance I feel when asked," Lance started ignoring Pidge's mutter of 'ew feelings', "It makes me feel pissed and weak and some other emotion I don't know the name of," Lance explained clutching the controls till his knuckles went white at the thought.

"No one thinks that." Pidge whispered, resting her hand on his shoulder, feeling him take a breath and relax slightly, "we're just worried, and you know Hunk has always been a worry wart, and Shiro, he knows better than anyone what you're feeling, but he doesn't know you the way you know him, it's a learning curve for him. Keith well he socially inept on his worse days and introverted on his best. As for me, I worry, you've been through war and you're still going through it, and I don't know how to act around you but I don't think you're weak." Pidge explained watching as Lance turned away slightly, his shoulder's tensing slightly.

"Let's go heal this planet," Lance muttered in response as they landed both ignoring the slight redness and sniffles.

"Right." With that the two left their heartfelt conversation in the cockpit, instead focusing on the mission to come. The pair ignored the looks they received from the others, as Allura started to explained what they would be doing.

"I asked Keith to bring Red to the surface as well, due to your connection with her," Allura explained turning to Lance, "I figured two Lions and a castle should be enough energy to join to ours to heal the planet,"

"Probably," Lance shrugged, walking to Red, ignoring the others who watched the transaction. Lance placed his hand on Red's snout, connecting with her quintessence once more, before laying his forehead against her cool metal, even as her fire filled his body, "I see you Red," Lance whispered, before turning around to see that the others weren't just idly watching but instead staring, flushing red, Lance turned away from the group to stand exactly in the middle of the Lions. "Let's get this over with," Lance said louder. ignoring the Blue light that sprung up around him.

The Voltron group moved to one side, leaving Lance between the Lions and Allura under the Castle, various Balmeran citizens bowing around the pair. Lance and Allura briefly locked eyes with each other, before falling to their instincts. Lance gathered all his quintessence into his chest, connecting to both Blue and Red at the same time for the first time ever, the contrasting temperatures burned at Lance's chest, the overload of quintessence pushing Lance to his knees, as a pained groan escaped. Redirecting the quintessence from his chest into the floor, relieved the pressure, Lance looked up to find himself on the astral plane.

The purple colour swirled around him, occasionally turning back into the separate colours of Blue and Red before reconnecting. Movement to the side, caused Lance to twist his head violently in that direction only to see the Red Lion, turning to the other direction, Lance watched as the Blue Lion manifested, "Look at you, always stronger than any of us,"

Lance turned his head towards the voice, "I didn't know he could do this," came a second voice, Lance's eyes widened with shock, tears gathering in his eyes, breath halting not wanting to disrupt what was clearly a dream.

"It's not a dream love." Said a deeper voice.

"You look like you saw a ghost, sharpshooter," followed a feminine voice,

"Keith? Allura?"