love and grief // allurance

Chapter 2

Destruction

The next day, the paladins began their journey for home. They all packed so much, so many memories they wanted to keep. Pidge had all her new tech, Hunk had even more alien tech and a lot of food goo, Allura had all her things from Altea, and Keith probably had a lot of knives and other cool junk. Lance had Kaltenecker. In all honesty, he didn't want to take anything else. Maybe he would regret taking nothing later, but for now, every object reminded him of something that made his heart sting. Except for Kaltenecker, the only living creature that didn't let him down at this point.

Allura looked around at all the boxes in her lion. They were the objects that meant most to her; they were linked to something important in her life. She wished he Castle of Lions could be a part of this, but it had to go for the greater good.

Coran and Romelle entered. Romelle looked nervous. Coran looked heartbroken. Some of the boxes contained his things too, but all he really wanted was the castle. He was never chosen to be a paladin, so it was the ship he felt like he was destined to pilot. Now, it was gone. As for Romelle, she felt alone. She was with Alteans, but these are not the Alteans she knew. They weren't her brother.

"I've set a tracker for Earth's coordinates," Pidge announced, making Lance even more nervous than he was before, "Is everyone ready?"
One by one, everyone approved. Lance was last; his voice was quiet and unsure.
"Uh, yeah! Let's do this."

It was going to be a long journey. The lions by themselves couldn't open wormholes, and they were thousands of miles away from home. Nobody really spoke throughout the journey, either. Nobody had anything to talk about. Everyone was busy thinking about their own problems.

Allura was thinking about how she would introduce herself. This is a planet who didn't know aliens existed until last year; she would have to look presentable, intellectual and peaceful. Speaking of, she hadn't actually tried to persuade other planets into joining the coalition for a long while. After all that had happened, she didn't know if she could do it anymore. She didn't want anyone else wrapped up in this war.

The peaceful planets and all the stars managed to distract Lance for a while, so the journey was actually pretty enjoyable. Lance was so excited to see all his family, and introduce them to Kaltenecker, of course. He was also excited to leave the events of the last 3 years behind.

"Hey look, there's Kerberos." Shiro pointed out. For some, this was going to Earth for the first time. For most, home was closer than it had been in years.

"No." Pidge angrily blurted out. Everyone went silent for a moment, not knowing what she was on about.
"....What?" Hunk asked. Though, Pidge didn't respond. She zoomed ahead of the team, heading straight for Earth.
"No, no! Why?" She screamed, racing towards her home planet.
Lance, getting nervous, raced after her.
"Pidge! What's- Oh my god."

Lance knew what Pidge was screaming at now. As he approached, a gap between Mars and Venus became apparent. Earth was gone. Nothing remained, it was almost like it had never existed. Pidge was crying and screaming, Hunk was frantically running all sorts of tests incase what they were seeing wasn't the truth. Keith and Shiro were silent, probably in a state of shock. As for Lance, he'd started to panic. His pulse got faster, his chest got tighter, and his eyes began to water. The only place he wanted to be right now was Earth, back in Cuba, in his mother's arms. Everyone and everything was gone. He was trapped in space, the very thing he wanted to escape from.

"Could it have moved?" Hunk rambled, trying to make sense of all of this, "Can we travel back in time or something, anything?"
"Hunk," Allura answered calmly and solemnly, "If we could travel back in time, the war would be over by now."

Lance couldn't hold it back anymore; his tears began pouring, and they couldn't stop. It felt as if they would never stop. He finally understood how Allura felt after finding out Altea had been destroyed. The feeling was heart-wrenching.

"Lotor." Romelle added, her voice slightly shaky, "It must have been Lotor."
Allura's hatred for Lotor deepened. Zarkon had taken everything from her, and now his heir had taken everything from her best friends.

Meanwhile, Lance had made up his mind. If he couldn't stay on Earth, he would stay somewhere else, and never come back.
"I'm sorry."
Lance turned the red lion around, and began to fly away. Putting his thrusters on full power, he fled. He was going to settle on the furthest away planet he could and never come back.
"Lance!" Allura shouted, trying to follow after him, but he was going too fast.
"Lance, come back!"
Though no matter how much she pleaded, he was never coming back. She set a tracker on Lance's lion, and headed back for Mettatopia.

Allura couldn't let him go, she wouldn't allow it. He couldn't go now, after all they'd been through. Lance wasn't going to slip away, not like Lotor did. He also had the red lion, of course.

"Princess!" Coran pleaded, after they'd been dropped of at Mettatopia, "It'll take quintants, maybe even pheobs to find him by yourself! There's no point in doing this!"

"I'm sorry Coran," She replied politely, "But I've made my choice."

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935 words
now you know why it's called love and GRIEF lmaooo