Wings of Home (Voltron: Legendary Defender/One Day at a Time 2017 Crossover)

Trepidation

What he thought would be a nightmare was, in fact, a nightmare.

One of the last things he wanted to do was drag children into a war, particularly when he knew first hand what war was like. Shiro's eyes drifted towards his own brother who was also the reason why they were now in charge of Voltron, but his mind barely registered the fact Voltron would if they worked together form a giant robot.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lance glare at Keith, yet something told him Lance now had something else to be jealous of Keith over. Katie crossed her arms. "I wanted to be a pilot."

Lance turned his head towards her. "Sure. You're just a little kid."

"I am not."

"Knock it off you two."

"Yeah, but Lance has actually used the pilot simulators." Hunk stammered out. The cadet's fingers twiddled together, but he honestly looked as if he were going to cry. "So why me?"

Shiro almost said, "I'm not sure," but instead opted for, "Well, she picked you based on the fact you're a kind person, right?"

"But how could she have known that?"

"Correction." The funny looking man piped up. "The lions picked their pilots."

"The lions must be very dumb."

The funnyman pulled on his funny mustache. "Lord Alfor the king of Altea created the lions."

"He must be..."

"Lance." Thankfully Veronica was the one to give Lance the dirty look for his comment.

Elena's lips pushed together. Out of all the ones chosen, she was not a cadet, yet Shiro knew Penelope would in fact not be happy when she found out her daughter was chosen by some strange aliens to be a pilot of a war machine. The earth shook as another attack occurred. Shiro knew they needed to get the lions out there. "Keith, Matt, and Hunk. I want you three to get to your lions while I speak to Elena real quick. Keith, you're in charge until we're able to get out there."

"What?"

"You heard me, cadet."

"Yes, sir."

Shiro was glad Keith responded, yet wasn't surprised. Despite Keith's dislike of authority he knew when not to rebel. A quick glance from Lance made Shiro let out a sigh. Lance was obviously jealous of the others, but Elena was getting a pep talk from Shiro.

"Elena..."

"I can't do this," Elena whispered while looking at her cousin, brother and significant other.

Schneider walked over. "Maybe I can help."

"Schneider, I can't do this."

"Keith says that a lot." Shiro watched Elena look at him in surprise.

"Keith's already flying actual aircraft."

"Spacecraft actually, but yes." Shiro didn't like how her voice strained.

"Yeah, but he's got a talent for this."

"Funny. Last time I checked Keith didn't think so, and I should know my own brother."

"I..." Elena looked him in the eye. "This is more Alex, Lance, and my mom's thing."

"I know." Shiro glanced at Allura. "It has to be the pilots the lions choose?"

"Yes. The Lions picked for good reason."

The look on Allura's face said she didn't exactly agree with the choices which were made by the lions. A quick look at Elena made Shiro realize she'd seen the look on Allura's face. "Look. If you're worried about your mom chewing you out, I'll say this is my fault."

"Woah! I'll say it's my fault. That's more believable."

"Or that if he's right, though technically while we're both responsible adults here I'm actually the adult in charge, but I'm also not going to force you. That's not how a team works Elena."

"Yeah, but you guys need me."

"True." Shiro took a deep breath. He watched her eyes drifting over to Syd. "Hey, does this have anything to do with Syd?"

"What if I die? What if Syd dies? It's always the gay person who dies isn't it?"

"Elena, I'm not following."

"The gay person dies because they're expendable."

Shiro frowned. "I am still not following."

Elena took a deep breath. "It's homophobic."

"How is a fact of life homophobic?"

"Killing off a character in a story is wrong because it's done because they're gay and not as important as the gay character is homophobic."

Schneider raised an eyebrow. "She's right you know."

Shiro took a deep breath. "First off, this isn't fiction Elena. People die regardless of whether they're heterosexual or not, but I'm not sure I'm comfortable with the idea of fiction not reflecting that reality."

"What would you know? You're not..."

"I am. I am actually bisexual, but more importantly, I lost someone recently I was almost in a relationship with. Your sexuality is not some magic wand which protects you from reality, though I do agree with you that a character shouldn't be killed off simply because they're gay, I would never, ever say you're not as important as the rest of the team. Goodness knows Adam was always the most important person on the team to me, but he was one of the few people who ever got Keith."

"Yeah, but I don't want to die." The ground shook and Shiro found himself looking back at Syd.

"This may come across as manipulative of me Elena, but if we don't do this then countless others will die. If I have to die, I'd rather do so trying to protect everyone else, but I don't think I could live with myself if I didn't do the right thing."

"Syd will die if we don't do something?"

"That is simply a possibility. I honestly don't know what the power of the Galra is."

Schneider listened carefully. "Elena, you go get them. I'll protect the ones you care about who are here while you protect the rest of us, okay?"

Elena looked up at the strange landlord in amusement, yet her eyes also said she doubted Schneider's capability. "Okay, but I want to talk about this further later. I'm not sure I agree."

Shiro pointed his thumb at Veronica. "She's the counselor, but I think I'll be talking to her as well."