7Starting when you turned thirteen whenever your soul mate got hurt, whatever wound they received you received as well. If that wound scarred on your soul mate, the wound scarred on you as well. There are some exceptions to this rule. Like when your soul mate broke or dislocated a bone, you just received extremely strong pain in that area. Or when your soul mate lost a limb, you just received a scar as close to losing that particular limb as possible without actually losing it. Or if your soul mate happens to die from an injury you won't, but you still receive a scar from it.
Some people liked this because they thought it made them able to understand some of the pain their soul mate might have gone through. Some people said that it takes away some of the possible pain away from your soul mate. If that was true, no one ever received the amount of pain anything caused. People still thought like that anyway. It was all up for speculation though.
Lance had always found the concept interesting after his mom had explained it to him when he was seven. He always wondered what would happen after he turned thirteen. Would he get burns? Would he feel strong enough pain to know that his soul mate injured their bones? Would he receive any scars? He obviously doesn't want to experience any of these things, but he was fascinated nonetheless.
Luckily, the wounds Lance received from his soul mate were pretty spaced out. Lance first experienced pain that wasn't his when he was fourteen. He had been playing with some of his younger siblings when he had suddenly felt excruciating pain in his left knee. He had shouted and collapsed leaving his siblings to freak out and call for their parents. His soul mate had apparently dislocated their knee. Most of the injuries Lance received after that were more of scrapes and bruises every now and then that seemed normal to most people. He would occasionally get the pain from a burn or a broken bone or dislocated joint.
It's sometime well into his time at the Garrison that the injuries become more severe and frequent. It started after the announcement of the Kerberos mission failed due to pilot error, after Keith dropped out and Lance was promoted to fighter pilot.
A scar across the nose was the first of many to appear. Lance was a little shocked as none of the injuries had scarred yet. The others followed quickly after that. Some of them minor, while the others seemed serious. Lance wondered what the hell his soul mate was doing to be receiving these injuries. There were times when Lance had thought his soul mate had died.
The worst one happened in the middle of the night. It had woken him from his sleep with the most excruciating pain ever. It felt like his right arm was being torn off. He had to bite on his bottom lip to keep himself from screaming and waking his dorm mate Hunk. When the pain had subsided, he looked down to see his whole arm scarred from the middle of his bicep down to his wrist. Lance had been horrified. He had quickly grabbed a long-sleeved shirt to cover it. He never wore anything that didn't cover his arms after that, nor did he let anyone see him without a shirt.
The scars continued to show up after that. They only seemed to stop on one of the days he had been in the simulator. He had wondered why they stopped all of a sudden. He soon found out though when a small ship crashed. Him and Hunk had followed Pidge to the roof when it happened. They had went to investigate to find out that Shiro, the pilot of the Kerberos mission, was on the ship. They rescued him, with the help of Keith, and escaped.
Shiro had explained that he and his crew were taken by an alien race called the Galra. When he had held his hand out to Lance to thank him for the rescue, Lance noticed the robotic prosthetic arm. He had stared at it for a second, almost subconsciously reaching for his own right arm before he caught himself and shook Shiro's hand. Lance had also noticed the scar across Shiro's nose, but it seemed Shiro hadn't noticed so he wasn't going to voice his suspicions. It wasn't the time to anyway.
Keith had lead them to the cave he had found after that. The cave had dozens of carvings of lions and Lance had curiously wiped the dust from one of them. To be honest, he had been a little startled when the carvings had lit up. The resulting fall further into the cave had not been on the top on his list of things do.
Although, his discomfort of the fall disappeared when he saw the blue lion. Lance had been amazed and beyond shocked when the force field surrounding the lion actually fell at his knocking. Flying the lion was a whole other experience by itself. It was exhilarating and surprisingly comforting. His soul mate scars didn't bother him as much when he flew Blue.
When Allura had fallen out of the cryopod and fell into his arms, he flirted even though, deep down, he knew she definitely wasn't his soul mate. There was no scar across her nose, she had both of her arms, and aliens might not even have soul mates.
He had looked towards Shiro during Allura's explanation of the lions. His eyes landed on the scar across his nose. Lance was sure that Shiro was his soul mate, he just didn't know how to go about it. How do you go about that sort of thing anyway? He heard Allura say Shiro would pilot the black lion and be the head of Voltron.
In all honesty, Lance didn't think he was worthy of being Shiro's soul mate. Shiro didn't deserve someone as useless as Lance. He wasn't even a good paladin. He was just a cargo pilot. He wished Shiro had gotten someone better as his soul mate.
Lance was walking back with Coran to the party being held with the Arusians in the castle. He had found Lance on the observation deck. Lance had told him about how he was homesick and felt a little better after talking to Coran.
"Hey Rover," Lance said as he saw the Galra drone that Pidge reprogrammed float in.
"Wait," he turned back around. "Where's Pidge?"
He saw Rover near the crystal that powered the castle and the blinking red light. His eyes widened with the realization that it was a bomb. Lance quickly turned around. He shouted for Coran, tackling him to the ground as the explosion went off. He apologized to Shiro in his mind for the pain he must have gave him before he lost consciousness.
Meanwhile, Shiro was in the common room where the party had been taking place. He was talking to Keith and the princess when he suddenly felt pain all over. He grimaced. He was reminded of his soul mate, whoever it was.
"Are you alright Shiro?" Allura asked with concern.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I just felt a sudden pain. It was most likely my soul mate."
"Soul mate?" Allura asked with clear confusion in her tone.
"Oh, you probably don't have those. It's-" Shiro started to explain before he was interrupted by the castle shaking.
"What was that?" Keith asked.
"It sounded like an explosion on the observation deck where the crystal powering the ship is," Allura said, sounding alarmed.
They rushed to the room where the crystal was being held only to be met with rubble. Hunk and Pidge followed quickly behind them. Coran was struggling a little to get himself from the ground when they arrived.
"Coran, where's Lance?" Allura asked when she noticed he was the only one not there.
Coran glanced down towards the rubble at Allura's question. Everyone followed his line of sight to see Lance half covered by the debris and unconscious.
"He saved me from the explosion." Coran stated sadly.
Shiro was suddenly aware of the barely noticeable, but ever present pain that hadn't gone away since right before the explosion. Could it have been from Lance? Was Lance his soul mate? He did have the same scar across his nose as Shiro. No, it's probably just a coincidence. That was the only tell. He didn't have any of Shiro's other scars as far as he can tell. No, Lance wasn't his soul mate.
Lance was currently sleeping inside one of the cryopods as the team watched.
"I can't tell if he looks healthy… or not."
"I think he's breathing weird," Pidge said as she gave the pod an odd look.
"Oh, come on!" Keith said, tapping on the pod.
"Not yet! A few more ticks," Allura says, stopping Keith.
"How much better do you think he's gonna get in a few more ticks?"
"And what exactly is a tick?" Pidge asked.
"You know, a time-slice."
"What, like a second?" Shiro asked, trying to make a comparison.
"What is a… 'second'?"
Pidge took out a clock that was counting in seconds to show Allura. Coran ended up taking out a ticker and comparing the two. This somehow turned into some kind of competition as Hunk exclaimed that they were winning. Keith asked what they were winning exactly and made up a name as a joke. Although Hunk answered with a 'yes' in serious tone.
Unbeknownst to the team, Lance exited the cryopod and stumbled in their direction. He looked at what they were doing with confusion furrowing his brow.
"You guys having a clock party?"
Hunk turned around saying, "Aw, Lance, you just ruined it." It then dawned on him that his best friend was standing before him and seemingly healthy. "Hey, Lance!"
Hunk brought Lance into a bone-crushing hug. Lance tried to hold in a wince. Shiro felt a slight pain until Hunk had put Lance down. He was confused by this brief pain, but the confusion vanished when Lance said something.
"What happened?" Lance asked.
"We can tell you all about it while you get something to eat. Are you able to walk?" Allura asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Talking? Eating? Are you asking me out on a date?" Lance asked even though he knew Shiro was his soul mate. He still thought of himself as unworthy of being Shiro's soul mate.
Allura was unimpressed, as was most of the team.
"Yep, there he is."
"Yep, he's okay."
"Classic."
If anyone noticed the strange expression on Lance's face after he made his attempt at flirting, no one said anything.
Hunk was currently rambling about what they should do when they reached the Balmera. This lead him to ask if there should be no blasting. Keith told him to calm down and that, yes, there will be blasting.
"Eh, it's our first big rescue mission. He's excited." Shiro said in Hunk's defense.
"Excited to see his new girlfriend~" Pidge responded by teasing Hunk.
Hunk gasped in defense. "She's not my girlfriend! She's just a rock that I met and I admire very much."
Suddenly alarms started to blare throughout the bridge. Everyone looked on with confusion and a little concern.
"What is it? Are we being attacked?" Shiro asked what everyone was probably thinking.
"No, it seems to be a distress beacon. It's coming from a nearby moon. Apparently, a ship has lost power." Allura answered Shiro's question.
"I wonder who it is."
"Whoever it is will have to wait. Shay has first priority. We can check back on them when we're done," Hunk said in response to the reason behind the alarm.
"The Paladin Code states that we must help all those in need."
Lance straightened up where he was standing in excitement. "Wow! This is so cool. It's like we're space cops on space patrol." He turned towards where Coran was standing near the controls. "Coran, do we have a siren we can turn on?"
Coran looked over his shoulder at Lance. "Uh, no, but we could record you making a siren noise and broadcast that to them."
"Perfect!"
Lance then started to try and imitate the sound of a siren before Shiro placed a hand over his mouth, cutting him off.
"No, not doing that."
Lance smiled sheepishly as Shiro removed his hand and scratched the back of his head. That wasn't a way to impress his soul mate. His grin faded as that thought came to mind. How was he ever going to be good enough for Shiro? If ever… Yeah, that probably wasn't going to happen.
Unknown to Lance, Shiro had been watching him. He noticed how that happy-go-lucky smile faded into a somber expression and he was going to get to the bottom of it.
The team had formed Voltron to try to save Allura from Zarkon's base, but unfortunately they were somehow pulled apart. Shiro had been ejected from the Black Lion. Keith, being the enormous hot-head he is, charged in to fight Zarkon. So, all in all, this mission to save Allura has gone to shit.
Currently, Shiro was somewhere on the Galra ship.
"So, Champion returns."
Shiro whipped around to see Haggar. "You…"
"I made you strong and this is how you repay me? You could have been our greatest weapon. Now, I will destroy you."
Meanwhile, Hunk was rescuing Allura with Lance and Pidge covering for them. Hunk had burst through the hull of the ship to reach Allura.
"Hunk!" Allura shouted in surprise.
"We're going to get you out of here."
"What are you doing here? Tell me you didn't bring Voltron straight to Zarkon's control command! Where's the Black Lion?"
Lance was about to ask Hunk if he got the princess when a stabbing pain pierced through his side. He shouted in pain, gaining the attention of Hunk as he heard him through the communicator in his helmet.
"Lance! Are you okay?"
"Yeah. We have to save Shiro!"
Hunk was about to argue, because obviously Lance wasn't okay, but decided against as Lance was probably right. He grabbed the princess and they went to Shiro's rescue.
Sometime during Shiro's fight with Haggar, she gave him a deep wound on his side. She tried to destroy Shiro once and for all when Hunk and the others come to his rescue. They managed to escape back to the castle.
"All right, Paladins, time to get out of here!"
"Hello? What's going on? I don't see a wormhole," Hunk said in a panicky voice.
"The Galra barrier is jamming our ability to create one!"
Suddenly the barrier disappeared.
"What just happened?"
"Who cares? Wormhole!"
They get a wormhole opened and fly the ship into it, but not before a ray was shot into the wormhole from the direction of the Galra base. The surroundings of the wormhole shifted. When the castle started shaking, the Paladins started to panic.
"Coran, what's happening?" Shiro asked in concern.
"The integrity of the wormhole has been compromised. It's breaking down!"
"What does that mean?" Lance shouted in alarm.
"It means we have no control over where we're headed!"
The Lions are sucked out of the castle soon after that statement, everyone going in different directions. From the cockpit of his Lion, Lance saw as Shiro and Keith exit the wormhole.
"Keith! Shiro! No!"
Lance shouted in pain that most likely belonged to Shiro. The pain is so immense that he passed out, but not before he saw everyone else fall out of the wormhole with him close behind. What kind of soul mate am I? I couldn't even protect Shiro, was his final thought before he lost consciousness.