Lost Time

Six

Lance could feel Hunk's stare burning into the back of his head as he urged the Blue Lion forward. The beast purred her reply to him, soothing some of his worries, even as the vast endlessness of the unknown universe stretched before him.

"So!" Hunk exclaimed when he deemed them far enough away from the castle and the aliens and the almost-strangers. "What are the odds that we would meet a space princess with the same name as your creepy alien bear!"

"I hope you aren't actually asking me, Hunk, this is just a little too much for me to be doing math with, right now."

"Lance, this is too much to do anything with right now! We're in a giant robot cat head, going to get another giant robot cat, so some princess we just met can make us into soldiers for a timeless war!"

"I dunno, Hunk, it feels... personal, almost. We can't just let this girl down. Did you see her face when she came out of that pod? She looked so scared when she saw us. And now she's all alone with Coran." Lance frowned. "She's got this war thrown on her, the least I- the least we can do is help out. Who knows, maybe she's wrong. Maybe it won't be all humans piloting the lions."

"Speaking of lions, Lance, how did you know?" Calmer now, Hunk shifted forward until he was beside his friend. "Back at the Garrison. You knew what Voltron was, you knew about the lions. You even call your bear Allura."

"I... I don't know, Hunk. I just thought I saw them in the sky, for a second. Is Allura a popular name? Maybe I heard it somewhere and just liked it."

"I can assure you, it is not a popular name."

"Maybe I heard it in a dream, then. Mama said that my bear used to be named something else, anyways, I just don't remember what it was. I called it 'Allura' when my moms found these little letters I wrote to some imaginary person." Lance frowned thoughtfully, his head straining to reach for the memory, growing frustrated when he came up short. Hunk's hand fell lightly on his shoulder after a moment.

"Hey, buddy, it's okay. Maybe you're psychic. Oh! If you're psychic you better not have known about it because I am your best friend, or, I think I am, and keeping a huge secret like that is not cool, man!" The statement made Lance snicker.

"Hunk, of course you're my best friend! I promise, if I knew anything special about me, you'd be the first to know. I'm not psychic." Hunk opened his mouth, as if to argue, but his attention strayed to the view in front of them and he abruptly shrieked.

"What the hell is that!"

Outside, there were dozens of dark purple ships moving towards a sandy brown planet- or at least, they had been before catching sight of the Blue Lion. Instinctively, Lance jerked the controls toward himself, swerving to avoid the first few shots aimed at them. Hunk yelped once more, his hands gripping the back of the pilot's chair for dear life, as Lance touched control after control, shooting what looked to be bright blue energy at their attackers as they entered the planet's orbit.

"I was hoping this would be a peaceful planet!" The larger boy wailed.

"Those aren't from the planet! They're- ah!" Lance rolled the entire ship to avoid colliding with one of their faster attackers, then willed the lion towards the planet's surface. Both teens screamed as he did, terrified and untested for situations like the one they'd been forced into.

"I don't want to die here!" Hunk wailed, and Lance glared at the ships surrounding them.

"You're not going to die, Hunk! There's an opening down there, see? I'm gonna drop you in and keep these guys off your tail while you go find your lion," he declared, rolling his shoulders. Hunk immediately launched into an argument, but whatever he was going to say was abruptly ended as an enemy ship managed to land a hit on the Blue Lion's backside, jolting her passengers forward.