love and grief // allurance

Chapter Six

As Allura got closer to the battle, the signal grew stronger. Battle cries and groans never stopped coming over the radio, and Voltron was clearly losing this battle.
"Pidge!" Keith yelled, "Hang on! I'm coming!"
"We can't win this without Voltron! Where's Allura? Where's the blue lion?" Hunk shrieked.
"Shiro, what are you doing?" Pidge's voice was shaking as she spoke, if she wasn't crying, she was surely about to, "You came back to life yesterday! You need to rest!"
Suddenly, four screams in sync came over the radio, sending a shiver down Lance's spine. The video call ended.

"No!" Allura whispered, desperately trying to call the paladins, but there was no response. Meanwhile, guilt was eating Lance up inside. He clenched his fists, as tears began streaming down his face. They're dead. They're dead because you ran, like the wimp you are. You put the team in jeaprody because you couldn't face the truth, and now they're dead. What's it like being the last human alive?
"Stop it, please. Stop."

Something had started since Lance started doubting himself, started to believe all the insults the other paladins threw at him, his heart falling in love and then breaking for Allura. It started with a little voice in the back of his mind, critising his errors and other thinking his faults that he could swat away or distract himself from. As things got worse, the voice got worse. It would insult him, attack him with words it knew would hurt him, and he found that distracting himself simply didn't work anymore. Earth being destroyed must have been the tipping point. Now, the thoughts that overpowered his mind seemed to pin him down, and hit where it hurt every single time. Lance had developed a little word for it. His demon.

Mourn your friends. It's the most you can do for them. It took you a long time to figure out you're really the dummy they said you were.
"Lance, are you okay? " The princess cried.
'Leave me alone.' He commanded to himself, 'For five fucking minutes.'
Something in him changed. Something overpowered his demon, and hopefully, it would never come back.

Lance opened his eyes; Finally, peace and quiet. It was gone, at least for a little while.
"Paladins, please respond!" Allura pleaded. Still, nobody replied.
"We won't get there in time! We're already too late! There must be some way we can-"
Lance placed his hand over hers, and squeezed it gently. She looked at him. Her eyes softened as their eyes met. As long as Lance was by her side, nothing could ever hurt her. Ever.

The tone Lance spoke in was quiet, calming and slightly sensual. He hadn't used that tone in years.
"We can do it, and we'll do it together. Is there anything you learned on Oriande that could help? Princess, the universe needs you."
Allura broke her gaze and looked at the floor uncertainly.
"I-I don't know if this will work, but it's worth a try."
She closed her eyes, and gripped the controls tight.
"Please." She pleaded. A tear ran down her cheek. Followed by another, and another.
"Father, please." She gripped the controls tighter.
"Father!" Tears were flooding down her face now. It broke Lance's heart a second time looking at her like this.
"FATHER!"
Allura's head fell backwards as she called out. The blue diamond on her headpiece began to glow, drops of pure quintessence came out of it and floated mid air; it was a beautiful sight that Lance would truly never forget.

Allura's eyes flew open. Suddenly, the drops of quintessence flew back to her headpiece as if they were magnetic. Pure determination on her face, she forcefully pushed the controls forward, the sudden increase in speed sending Lance flying backwards. He fell on the floor, banging his head on the wall behind him. Yelping in pain, he cradled his head and shut his eyes. Upon opening them again, he looked up, and saw another sight worth remembering. Allura roared as she made her lion move faster and faster, elecricity sparking from the console,  planets and stars flying by.

"I-I told you, ah!" Lance tried to stand up, but fell back down again, "I told you you could do it!"
Allura didn't hear him. Adrenaline overtook her, and all she knew was getting back to the paladins. She felt a hand on her shoulder, and quickly turned to see who it was. Nobody was there. But maybe, no, it couldn't be. Her father?

The Voltron lions, dead and floating apart, came into view. She sharply pulled back, halting her lion. Lance slid from the back of the lion to the front, and this time, knocked his head on the wall in front of him.
"I'm fine."
Allura didn't jump into action like she thought she would. She just sat in her chair, panting, coming down from her high. She couldn't feel her father's presence anymore.
"Allura," The princess twitched as she heard her name, snapping her back into reality, "You did it. I knew you could. I... I'm proud of you."
She turned to face the boy that admired her so much, taking in the view of his kind smile and big, sad eyes, and felt her cheeks heat up. What? Again?
Now isn't the time to dwell on it.
"Thank you, Lance."

She tried to call the Castle of Lions again, and this time, it got through. Coran's face appeared on the screen, a huge smile spreading across his face as he saw the princess and Lance, unharmed.
"Allura! Lance! I-Where have you been? The paladins weren't able to form Voltron, they didn't stand a chance!"
Allura's face lit up too as she saw Coran and the Castle of Lions had survived the attack.
"I was taking Lance back home after he tried to isolate himself on a planet galaxies away; I'll explain later! But, who, what happened?"
Coran's face grew dark again,
"It was Haggar and Sendak. They must have knew the paladins were coming back to Earth somehow, so they destroyed it and used the opportunity to defeat them!"
"Where are the paladins now?" Lance asked, "Are they okay?"

Coran hesitated, unable to look at Allura as he told them,
"The paladins have been kidnapped by Haggar and were taken into her ship. I haven't heard from them since."

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UHHHHH IDK WHEN I LAST UPDATED AND AT THIS POINT IM TOO AFRAID TO CHECK.
i literally have no excuse for not updating in so long but this has still been blowing up without a new chapter?? y'all are great <3 i'm so sorry lmfao