I have an ongoing Maladaptive Daydream storyline for a Klance fic that won’t leave me alone but that I also know I’ll never write, partially because my brain treats it a little like a choose your own adventure story every time I imagine the storyline. But I wanted to write out the bare bones of it so that it doesn’t haunt me constantly.
Basic Background:
Basically takes place in the canon universe, but Krolia was the daughter of Zarkon and Honerva. She secretly joined the resistance and then faked her death when she stayed on Earth to protect the blue lion, then ran off to fully join the Blades full time to avoid alerting her parents that she was still alive. She left Tex and Keith back on Earth where they would hopefully stay undetected from the Galra Empire. Fast forward to the end of canon where they want to put Keith in charge but end up with Krolia as their ruler. Krolia reveals her heritage and history before she agrees to be Empress.
This causes a stir in different political factions and on various other planets with aliens who are still suspicious of the Galra Empire and especially of Zarkon’s family (even though Zarkon and Honerva were corrupted by Quintessence and were not naturally crazy evil warlords).
Keith ends up in his canon role as an Ambassador, traveling around with the Blades and helping to heal the damage done by the Galra Empire as it was under Zarkon and Lotor.
Lance stays on Earth and only ever leaves to meet up with the other paladins on Altea where they have an annual remembrance of Allura. As their lives get busier, fewer of the paladins are able to make it. At the start of the story, Lance and Keith have agreed to meet up on Altea, although the other paladins have either said that they can’t make it or that they will be arriving late.
So this is a time travel fic (because I’m addicted to them. I’ve said this before. I basically have a head-canoned time travel fic for ever fandom I’m in because I’m sort of obsessed with comparing the original characters to their later character growth. I get a little viscerally feral about it. I foam at the mouth for a good, realistic character-growth comparison).
Other background info:
Krolia is in a relationship with Kolivan.
Lance no longer travels space except between Altea and Earth once a year. He’s started to grow insecure about his place with the Paladins—whether he was really ever a hero at all. He hears about Keith traveling as an Ambassador, Pidge working with Alien technology, and Hunk traveling with Shay, and Lance feels overwhelmed—like he’s chosen to stay back and is now being left behind. He knows that Shiro mainly works on Earth with the Garrison, but even that seems miles away from what Lance is doing with his life. He looks at his younger self and wonders where that person went. He’s on a journey, in part, to find himself again.
The story itself:
We follow the story from the perspectives of the early Paladins who have been brought forward in time (whether Allura is there or not has sort of been a shifting element depending on what mood I’m in when I imagine it. That’s part of the whole choose-your-own-adventure thing. Lots of this changes around.) They end up in an underground lab within a sort of maze structure of tunnels. They meet an alien there who begs them for help and says that the Paladins aren’t there to protect them anymore and that he has a plan to bring down the Galra Empire. When the Paladins ask what happened he goes into a speech about how the Paladins were scattered and corrupted and how they would need to stop their future selves. The alien seems particularly interested in Keith based on the way his eyes keep drifting over to him.
Suddenly there are alarms going off in the chaos, the Paladins end up out of sight as the alien goes to check out the chaos. From their hiding spot, the Paladins see/hear Future!Lance. Lance has the alien backed against the wall and is threatening him, asking ‘Where is he?’ The alien is spitting insults at Lance and calling him a ‘Galra-Lover,’ etc. The alien also pokes at Lance for being out of practice, saying he’s not even really a Paladin anymore. He claims that Lance has betrayed the cause.
In the midst of the chaos, the future machine is damaged. Lance finds the younger Paladins and explains to them that Zarkon (and Lotor and Honerva—whom the Paladins don’t really know about yet) have been defeated and that the Galra Empire as they know it has largely been dissolved. The Paladins are a little wary to believe it, but, also, it’s Lance, so they give him the benefit of the doubt. Although they are a little thrown off by his Altean markings. At first they assume this is an alternate universe. Lance tells them it’s not, but hedges around his explanation for how he got the marks.
Lance ends up taking the Paladins with him. He figures the best way to get them home is to rendezvous with Future!Pidge, but Pidge is working on an independent project at the moment and is out of reach. Lance tells them that he’s in the middle of a mission and that he can’t delay it. He’s on his way to Daibazaal for more information and supplies. Reluctantly, the Paladins travel with him. Lance can’t really leave them alone and they want to investigate whether they can really trust Lance.
Upon meeting Krolia at Daibazaal, the young Paladins learn about Lance’s mission. Apparently the Galran Prince (*cough cough* Keith *cough cough* —but they don’t know that yet) and his party were attacked and drugged by a radical political faction—the same one that brought the Paladins forward in time. The group drugged the diplomatic meeting in an attempt to capture and kill the Galrans, but they were interrupted by a Second radical political faction. The second faction abducted the Prince before the First faction could enact the rest of their plan, and, in the chaos of the clashing political groups, the rest of the Galran diplomacy team escaped alive and relatively unharmed.
So the Paladins now understand that the people who brought them forward in time are part of a group intent on the destruction of the remainder of the Galran Empire and the death of the royal family. This is why Lance was there when they arrived in the future: to question the political faction. This is also why the alien that Lance questioned was so particularly bitter: because the plan he’d carefully lain out to capture the Prince had gone sideways. (Lance of course knows that the First radical faction brought the paladins forward in time in order to get a hold of Keith specifically and to turn the younger Paladins against their older selves. He does not share this information with the Paladins.)
What the Paladins don’t understand is why Lance is involved with this at all. They’ve been told that the Paladins are scattered and that Voltron no longer exists. But there are a lot of things they don’t know (that Altea exists again, why the Galra empire still exists at all, who the Blades are, etc. etc. etc.). They don’t trust Krolia, especially after discovering that Zarkon is her father, but they see that she and Lance get along well. While eavesdropping, the Paladins also catch a conversation between Krolia and Lance that seems to indicate that Lance has romantic interest in Krolia’s son (Krolia invites him to visit again and tells Lance that her son misses him and that she knows it would make him happy to have Lance there more often).
Krolia is especially kind to Keith, but she doesn’t tell him who she is. The cooks in the kitchens make food they know he’ll like, the guards direct him towards the training space they know he’ll appreciate, someone alludes to the art studio (although he does not have time to check it out properly). And Kosmo shows up and sticks to Keith like velcro.
Lance and the Paladins spend the afternoon and the night on Daibazaal before packing up to go the next morning. Lance has been in meetings getting information on the radical group and their possible location from the Blades. Krolia can’t leave Daibazaal during a time of crisis, but Kolivan is in communication with various sectors where members of the Blade are investigating leads. Lance agrees to follow up on one of the leads that has not yet been covered. He warns the Paladins to be careful. Apparently this Secondary radical group is a religious cult derived from Hagar’s Druids that worships Honerva and believes that she can be summoned so that she can return as their ruler. (They’d like to use Keith to try and reach her since he’s her grandchild and because of his powerful quintessence as a result of his time spent with Voltron and his mixing of human, Altean, and Galran blood.)
***
When they get to the sector in question, Lance and the Paladins find a massive ship. Lance sneaks onboard, instructing the Paladins to stay behind and wait for him. The Paladins of course do not listen. When the Paladins sneak on board, they find the ship largely deserted, but they walk themselves right into a hallway where the remaining members of the cult are preparing to make their final stand. From the shadows, a cloaked figure drops down, startling the Paladins and causing an uproar from the cultists. The Cloaked Figure grabs the dagger from younger Keith’s sheath and slides into battle. Keith shouts out in frustration that his knife has been stollen, but watches in confusion and awe as the dagger transforms into a sword. Shiro asks why Keith has that dagger and where he got it from, but they are all distracted by the Cloaked figure who is fending off the cultists.
Future!Lance turns the corner and begins to berate the Paladins for not listening to him and staying on the ship. Then he notices the Cloaked Figure. Lance pulls out a rifle and begins firing, shooting the enemies that are in the fighter’s blind spot. As the last of the enemy falls, the Fighter’s hood is pulled back and he turns to face them. It’s Future!Keith. Future!Lance goes up to meet him and Keith looks initially surprised. Lance comments that he ‘should have know’ when he ‘found the cells empty.’
If Keith is surprised to see the younger Paladins, he hides it well. He seems more shocked to see Lance, but grateful. They fall into an easy banter that surprises the younger Paladins by its friendliness. Shiro interrupts to explain to Keith that they’re looking for the Galran Prince. Lance tells them not to worry about it anymore. The Paladins find this odd, especially considering the conversation they overheard earlier where Krolia indicated that Lance had a crush on the Galran Prince. They also want to know why Keith is there. Lance tells them that Keith is an Ambassador who was traveling with the Galrans when the attack happened. Lance makes up an excuse for why they don’t have to go find the prince (in spite of Shiro’s protestations that they have a duty and that they made Krolia a promise), asking Keith if he’s stuck here because the Prince stole his ride. Keith sort of side-eyes Lance but easily falls in line with the ploy and says that yes, the Prince is fine and has a ride out. Lance gives Keith his actual knife (which Krolia had given to Lance earlier), and Future!Keith returns his knife to his younger self.
Together they all make their way back to the ship. They alert the Blades about the enemy cultists and their location. Lance asks younger Keith to fly them out of there and has younger Lance grab the first aid kit to he can patch up Future!Keith.
At some point there’s a meaningful conversation between Keith and Lance about how Keith is surprised to see him because Lance never leaves Earth except to visit Altea. Lance explains that Keith was late to their meeting on Altea and how Lance was at first upset to be ditched by all the other Paladins but came to the conclusion that Keith wouldn’t do that to him. He got into contact with some of the Blades and found out what happened and set out to gain some more intel for Kolivan and try and find Keith.
(Lance and Keith both like each other, but Lance is intimidated by the new life that Keith has built without him, and Keith is worried about whether Lance actually likes him / is over Allura.)
Here’s where I have a lot of divergence:
In some versions, Allura is there with them. She stays back on the ship while the Paladins sneak into the base. Allura refuses to let them back onboard until she realizes that it’s ‘just Keith’ who’s with them.
In some versions, before returning to Daibazaal, the Paladins, Lance, and Keith end up stopping for supplies or answering distress beacons. In some of these situations, they run into other members of the Blade (the one I replay most is running into Antok and his family so that there are cute little Galra kids interacting with ‘uncle Keith’ and close slip ups where the Paladins almost figure out that Keith is the Galran Prince. Most of it is explained away as Keith just being an important Ambassador who’s regularly on Daibazaal).
In some versions where they make pit stops, they run into more members of the radical groups or into hostile Galrans who are against the new rule. At some point, Keith’s eyes go yellow and his fangs come out and the Paladins have their little ‘aha’ moment.
Sometimes I have the Paladins just put two and two together—usually Pidge saying ‘what if we were Always going there to pick up Keith?’ And then younger Lance being in denial and being like ‘you mean, we were never there for the Prince?’ To which the answer is ‘No. what if Keith is the prince.’ Plus all the evidence.
Also scenes of Pidge using technology so the Paladins can spy on Lance and Keith while they’re talking alone to try and figure out whether their future selves are still trustworthy.
A scene where Keith and Lance talk about not advertising the fact that the cultists have been defeated so that they can fly under the radar back to Daibazaal.
A scene where the younger Paladins mention that Lance is totally in love with the Galran Prince in front of Keith and use Krolia’s conversation for reference. They talk about it because younger Lance is trying to puzzle out why his older self would travel all that way to rescue a guy and then would just ditch him to hang out with —ugh—Keith of all people. Cue a necessary conversation between Keith and Lance where they continue to be stupid because they’re both Still hedging around the issue.
The scene where they return to Daibazaal and Krolia hugs Keith and he calls her mom. And then Krolia insists that Lance join the hug as well. And, if the Paladins (or maybe just younger Lance) are still oblivious to Keith’s identity, you see their reactions as well.
Kosmo appearing to tackle Keith. Kolivan showing up as well. Lil Galra kids who Keith has gotten to know from his time on Daibazaal and random guards and Galrans in general being happy that he’s home safe. Members of the Blade who were there when he got captured being there and glad for his return.
Keith showing Lance the paintings and murals he’s done to remind him of Earth (because I’m a sucker for artist Keith). Cue another conversation about Keith not visiting Lance on Earth more because Keith thought Lance needed space. Also Lance being upset that Shiro didn’t come to help Keith even though they’re brothers when Lance knows for a fact that Keith would move heaven and Earth to help Shiro in the same situation (I headcannon that Shiro is really just worn out at this point and that while he cares for Keith it has grown to more of a distant brotherly respect at this point—that Shiro is very practical and figured that the Blades could handle it, while Lance tends to emotionally invest himself and not want to risk the chance that someone else Won’t take care of it).
Pidge showing up on Daibazaal to help figure out the time travel situation.
Keith and Lance asking Pidge about Matt, etc. and younger Pidge getting excited/asking questions.
The general journey of the Paladins to try and decide whether they like the future and whether they want to trust their future selves or not.
Lance admitting to Keith that he feels kind of worthless, especially since Keith basically escaped by himself. Keith emphasizing how important it was for Lance to be there and how much of an impact it made for Lance to actually leave Earth and Altea to come find him.
Alternate rescue scene where Keith has been basically drained of Quintessence by the cult and therefore was unable to rescue himself. Keith thinks he’s hallucinating Lance because of course there’s no way Lance would leave Altea or Earth just for Keith. Them explaining all of it away to the Paladins by claiming that Keith already rescued the prince and that the cultists captured and tortured Keith for retribution.
Any potential drama from a plotline that involves Allura / Lance coming to full terms that he’s not in love with her anymore / Lance trying to separate the version of Allura that he wants to remember from the young version of Allura that is currently hostile and racist towards the concept of the Galran Prince and therefore (unbeknownst to her) Keith, whom Lance is in love with. Allura having the hardest time coming to terms with the new Galra empire and the fact that Krolia is half Altean and that Keith is just as Altean as he is Galran. Young Lance struggling between Allura’s strong feelings about the Galra and the knowledge that his future self is in love with the Galran Prince. And gets along with Keith. Who, surprise surprise, happens to be the Galran Prince.
I’m sure there’s more. My brain is somehow too invested in this plotline and also not invested enough to make it cohesive.
