The New Paladin

2: The Human In The Castle

After several difficult moments it became apparent that Allura was in fact the princess and that she was Altean, so was the man, Coran, the one with the mustache.

The others were all different types of aliens.

The black one- Shiro, a Galran and Altean half-breed with a Galran made cybernetic prosthetic arm, with black and white hair and a scar across his nose.

The red one- Keith, a Galran half-breed with anger issues and a really bad hairstyle.

The green one- Pidge, an Olkarian half-breed with big intellectual eyes that caught the light of the room.

The yellow one- Hunk, a Balmeran half-breed with a nervous disposition. He had a strange headband, orange in colour, tied around his head which suited him nicely.

"And you are?" Shiro asked kneeling in front of him.

"I'm Lance." He hissed as Coran pressed more firmly at his side.

"We should get him into a pod." Pidge said sounding nervous.

"I agree." Coran nodded. "He's lost a lot of blood, and I'm not sure how long he'll be coherent."

Lance shook his head. "What's a healing pod?" He asked blinking to get his eyes to clear. It didn't work.

"Something you need." Keith grumbled.

"But what does it do?" Lance asked locating the red of his armour.

"It heals you, it's in the name." Pidge replied tilting her head.

"While I'm awake?"

"No, it puts you under first." Shiro explained patting his shoulder.

Lance shook his head rapidly. "I'm not going in a pod." He explained trying to sound more in control than he felt. "Not when I don't really know or trust you guys."

"We just saved your life." The red barked angrily.

"Keith, he's hurt, he's probably not thinking straight." The yellow one replied. "That and we haven't really told him who we are."

"Yeah." Lance mumbled.

"We're the paladins of Voltron."

Lance's eyes snapped open meeting the warm grey eyes. "What?"

"The paladins of Voltron."

"No way." Lance breathed deciding to try and get up.

Everything in the room pitched and Lance found another cough over powering him.

He choked being held up by the Altean and the black one.

"You don't really have a choice about the pod." He said gently. "We'll protect you I promise."

Lance lifted his gaze feeling weird about such a phrase. They wanted to protect him?

"Now tell me my boy, what is your species." .

Lance grit his teeth. "I'm human."

"Pidge do you mind setting it all up?"

The green one smiled squeezing Lance's arm before she was rushing off.

The black one tugged at the old armour he was wearing. "We need to take this off." He explained quietly.

Lance just nodded, his head was fuzzy and he was sure he was going to pass out.

His armour was removed for him before he was being moved forwards.

Carefully he was guided inside one of the strange pillars before the blue glass appeared.

Panic suddenly filled him. He was trapped in here, there was no escape.

Had they trapped him?
Was the healing pod all a trick just to get the information he had?
What was going to happen to him?

Someone more clearly appeared at the glass, the black one.

"It's alright." He said gently his voice muffled by the glass. "We'll talk more when you come out."

Before Lance could question it the same fog like gas lifted from around his ankles. It quickly filled his senses and his eyes became heavy slipping closed.

Despite his deep set panic he let himself think he was safe.

Then the cold feeling wrapped around him. It took him back to the mines, or more specifically the lab after the accident.

Lance's entire body shuddered but he couldn't fight the mist. It pulled him under and soon he was drifting off into a dreamless sleep.

~~~

"How does he not know what a healing pod is?" Pidge frowned crossing her arms as she watched the pod begin the healing process.

She noticed the quake in his stance and the way his lips trembled and eyes scrunched up but then he was relaxing as the healing pod put him under.

"I have no idea but-" Allura's words cut short. The whole room going tense.

No one dared to speak almost afraid of what she had found.

"Coran." She whispered shakily. "We've been in the pods... For 10,000 years."

"We what?!" Keith asked eyes flying wide. "No! That's impossible."

"I'm afraid it's very much real." Coran said softly shaking his head. "After it became clear that Altea would be lost your father set the pods to keep us in stasis until we were released."

"And I don't think he released us on purpose." Pidge commented gesturing to the blood stains on the console. "So our family... Friends and... Maybe even our homes... Are they all gone?"

Shiro glanced towards the pod and sighed. "We'll ask him when he wakes up."

"You really think he'll know anything?" Keith asked.

"He's working against the Galra, he must know something." Shiro shrugged.

"Here's hoping." Hunk whispered watching as the pod began its countdown. "He should be healed in a few Vargas."

"Good." Allura nodded.

Hunk glanced towards Lance's armour, the blaster and other equipment he had, it was all mostly stained with blood and he did feel bad.

"I'm going to clean this all up for him." He decided quietly.

"Hang on." Allura said firmly. "There are more Galran sentries out there, I need you to clear them out so myself and Coran can reach the control room and get the defenses back online."

"Well sort it, but I think Hunk should stay here." Pidge said as her Bayard formed.

"Wait why me?"

"I have a gut feeling that he isn't going to be alright coming out of the pod, and you're the kindest person here so, you know you'll look after him the best." Pidge explained.

Hunk spluttered trying to get his words to work when Shiro placed his hand on his shoulder.

"I'll come back to help, but I need you to stay here and on the coms so you can call me if he wakes up, okay?"

Hunk let out a small sigh. "Alright."

"Can we get going? I'm dying to take down more of these guys." Keith smirked kicking the dead sentries head.

"Yeah sure alright." Shiro chuckled. "Let's go."