In Which The Paladin Bond and The Force are The Same [Part Two]
Days pass since Lance's discovery of the Force. It's old. Older than Voltron and Altea and Zarkon's empire. It seems similar to the thing that drives the Lions and Voltron, an energy. Lance sits completely still in his room and allows himself to sink into the buzzing field of the force, despite the screaming and the pain.
While the Force is scalding and demanding, he realizes that it was not like that before. In the time of Jedi and Sith and the time when being Force sensitive was a mystical aether like power it was less of a swirling substance and more of a crackling field. Not evil, nor good , thriving in neutrality.
Now the force swims and swirls, in Lances mind and on his skin and the skins of his teammates.
Time simply changed it.
Lance and Hunk meditate together now, holding onto each other as they explore the howling stream of the force.
"Whoa- how did you do that?"
Hunk and Lance agreed that they were going to set aside a date to guide the rest of team Voltron into the Force. Now, a water packet is hovering in the air and Lance can see it turning slowly before Hunk.
"I think you can use it to lift things up for you." Hunk says and the pack wobbles over to him and drops onto his lap.
"Sweet!" Lance sits next to him and takes a deep breath before diving into the stream. He sits, fighting the howling currents and Hunk pulls him out of his reverie, tapping him on the bicep.
"Dude." He says, "Breathe."
Lance exhales and suddenly his head is clearer.
"Try keeping your awareness on all the time. Like the Paladin Bond, but louder." Hunk says and Lance decides to extend his arm out to the water pouch from across the couch and a split second later the thing smacks him in the head.
"Ho ho-! What a move!" Hunk laughs and Lance chuckles with him. The Lions and the castle always Vibrate now. It's less pulsating madness and more of a norm between Hunk and Lance.
"Do you know what this means?" Lance says, "we can do so much more with this. Just imagine!"
"I'll bet." Hunk hums.
Lance and Hunk go before the team the next day, ready. They're all on the Bridge that morning.
"Guys, Lance found something more to the Paladin Bond." Hunk announces and Lance smiles dazzlingly at them.
"Aw shucks Hunk, I didn't find it, some lady on a planet did. But I did feel it."
"There's more to the bond?" Pidge asks, eyes glimmering in interest, "what is it?"
Lance realizes that convincing the rest of the team to simply feel beyond the Bond would take more convincing. Hunk swoops in to the rescue.
"Find the Paladin Bond." He says, "and we'll guide you."
"An impromptu training sequence!" Allura looks quite happy, proud of Hunk, even for bringing it up, and suddenly everyone's suiting up and going down to the training deck.
Keith, Allura and Pidge sit in a circle with Hunk and Lance and Lance feels something off.
"Shiro." He says suddenly and Shiro looks up from his place on the Observation deck, surprised.
"We need you too." Allura and Keith both give him a strange looks.
"Didn't Shiro loose his connection with the Black Lion?" Allura says.
"He still shares a bond with us." Hunk says, "it's all he'll need for this."
So Shiro sits with the five of them in a circle, sheepish.
"Okay, now- find the bond."
Lance easily clamps onto the steadying glimmers of Hunk and Allura. Pidge and Keith are harder to find but he pulls them in. They're hesitant but willing. Shiro's shimmer is faintest and the most hesitant and Lance has to tug and tug to make it stronger.
"Okay..." Hunk's voice is far away, he's holding onto the other's links with him. Lance wants to simply dive in, to allow the screaming to sting him, but Hunk keeps him held back.
Slowly.... Hunk's voice seems to murmur. It'll be rough.
"Just let it guide you..."
When Lance sinks into the Force, the Castle vibrating powerfully. He can hear the heartbeats of five instead of one- the brief flashes of the Plasma sabers and floating stones swimming across his eyes. The Force is life, but full of pained gaps. Something mangled parts of it beyond repair.
When he pulls his mind back into his body, Hunk's light pulse holds and comforts him. Hunk is gripping his arm.
"That... Was a lot." He says, "it'll still take time to accept it I think."
Lance glances at the others, they're sweating and mostly pale . Lance wishes there's another way to show it to them. He wishes he can repair it back to being serene and whole, but the gaps are raw and dripping. It's all they have.
"What- was that?" Keith's voice is haggard and freaked out, Lance wants to reach out with the Bond and hold him.
"The Force." Allura whispers, awed, "The force is more than twenty thousand years old. A mere myth amongst my people. I didn't know it still lived under the idea of quintessence."
"Sorry." Hunk says, "Lance and I are still figuring out how to introduce it without making people feel terrible."
"Good Job Hunk." Shiro says. His voice is wrecked and his eyes are rimmed red. He must've received the brunt of the pain associated with the force.
"Why was it screaming?" Pidge demands, her voice is shaky and her eyes are shimmering with tears, "there's so many thoughts- it's so bad-"
Lance kneels scoots over to Pidge and holds her cheeks in his hands.
"Breathe." He commands, "It's okay. The disturbance is Zarkon. All Zarkon, and the planets he killed. The force is alive. It's in you and me and Hunk and Voltron. It runs through everything. Concentrate."
Pidge's heartbeat slows in Lance's head. He places his hands in his lap.
Shiro gets up, antsy.
"Hunk, how do you turn it off?" He asks suddenly, "What if you don't want this?"
"Can't." Hunk says, "Lance already said it, the Force is in us and everything that lives."
Lance feels Shiro's wild panicked sparking- he gets up and walks over to Shiro, who's taken to pacing and places a hand on his shoulder.
"The force is calling to you. To all of us." Lance says seriously, "All you have to do is let it in."
Shiro looks uncharacteristically ruffled by what Lance says and he nods mutely.
Lance is glad that the raw ripped up gaps in the force is just as disturbing to him as the others. They can feel it and see it's result but it pulses and thrums with vibrant life despite the loss.
"Allura." Lance says, and she's still in the floor, contemplative. She looks up, detached.
"Will you be okay?"
She stand, wobbling and nods. Lance doesn't want to push this new training any harder, she seems to be more aware of its presence than anything.
Lance and Hunk still meditate and practice together and regularly dip into the full encompassing nature of the Force, hoping to quell its screaming and animalistic scrabbling.
Allura summons her teammates to the training deck and Shiro and Coran stand in the Observation deck. Lance realizes that this will be the first time he'll be using the force to his advantage in a fight. It became Hunk's idea.
Keith and Allura are on the front taking on Gladiators full on and Lance and Hunk are doing damage control while defending Pidge. The session is going well until a Gladiator gets close to Lance and and slams into his stomach, throwing him into Hunk. His bayard clatters to the floor and slides across the room and Hunk stumbles with him, thrown off guard.
It's now or never.
Lance glances at his bayard and sees the Gladiator advancing toward him.
Trust in the force. Let it in.
He whips his hand out to his bayard and in a second the thing clanks against the Gladiator's head and into Lance's outstretched hand.
Lance shoots the Gladiator and that becomes the last of them.and the training session is over.
"Wow Lance!" Hunk gushes, "you used it perfectly! what should we call that move?"
"Dunno." Lance says with a grin, "Force pull?"
"How about a force push?" Hunk says and they both chuckle.
"How did you even do that?" Pidge demands and Lance wiggles his fingers at her.
"I trusted in the force." He says, "just trust it and it'll give."
He wipes sweat from his brow, ignoring her doubtful look and turns to Keith who’s expression turns increasingly sullen.
“Keith my man, jealous of my smooth moves?” Lance smirks at him and Keith frowns.
“I don’t think you truly understand what you’re playing with.”
His smile drops and his stomach twists. He glances at Hunk and he looks just as nervous.
“What do you mean my man?”
He thinks of the scalding, the screaming- the sith and the darkness. He thinks of the insanity and the gaping wounds in the force’s field. It hurts, yes- but it’s not the Force’s fault.
“That thing fucked us up the moment we tried to touch it. If it’s letting you use it now, what if it wants something in return?”
“Keith.” Hunk says, “The force isn’t hiding or anything, and what Lance just did was him trusting it. I also gotta remind you that your Lion is made of the Force.”
Keith flushes a little, and Hunk smiles softly.
“Lance and I meditate with the force every other day. We want you to come.”
“He’ll mess with my mojo. But I’m agreeing because Hunk said so.” Lance pats Keith on the shoulder and walks out of the training deck.
Pidge and Keith appear at the entrance to the common room on Lance and Hunk’s Force meditation day and Lance couldn’t be anymore happier.
They have snacks and poke and prod into the stream in silence, pulling away when the Force gets too grabby. Lance can see that Pidge’s stream pulses and glimmers in curiosity with every interaction and in turn the Force gives a thrum of a memory, a woman of wit and brightness with bright green sabers.
“What happened to her? Her race?” Pidge asks suddenly and Lance is pulled out of his reverie, out of the stream. He sees her staring at him, eyes shimmering with that demanding glint. She wants to know. He glances at Hunk, clueless and Hunk shrugs at him.
“Don’t know Pidge.” Lance says, “Maybe you can ask.”
“How can you ask the Force what happened to the Woman’s race?” Keith asks, he’s been quiet the whole time, allowing his pulse to steadily be gripped along the stream. Lance worries that if he lets go he’ll be carried off and lost to the Force.
“I’m guessing the Force knows.” Hunk says, “Give it a try Pidge.”
Pidge looks hesitant, Lance can tell that she doesn’t want to go in alone.
“Pidge.” Lance says, “Try keeping your awareness on all the time, like with the Paladin Bond but not one thousand percent.”
Pidge sighs, “Helpful Lance, very helpful. But I’ll try.” She takes a deep breath.
Lance finds that her light pulse threads out a little farther than normal. What happened to the Togruta woman?
Hunk reaches out from across Lance’s lap and pushes Pidge’s shoulder, reminding her to breathe.
“Gone.” She finally says softly, “All gone. Died out three thousand years after she died. Planet destroyed five thousand years after they died.”
Pidge’s eyes are rimmed red, her eyes tired. Lance’s stomach whirls with disgust at himself. This is a consequence of asking things of the force.
Torn. It’s torn up and beating not unlike a heart. Lance reaches out with his light pulse, tendrils delicate and careful and finds hers within the safety of the paladin bond. Strange how this form of the Force is a calm pond while the rest of the Universe is tidal wave of agony.
“It’s not your fault.” She says immediately, and she wipes her eyes and glasses, “The Force is old, I should’ve expected there to be generations of dead races. It was just trying to make me happy.”
Lance checks up on Keith’s light pulse, safely within his grasp. He glances at Keith who gives him a puzzled look.
“You haven’t said anything this entire session.” Lance says, “What’s up?”
Keith’s light pulse wriggles uncomfortably in his grasp and it sends a kick in Lance’s chest.
“Keith you’ve been with us in the Force this entire time and haven’t said a word. You’ve been pretty steady too- up until now. What’s up?”
Keith doesn’t answer. Lance then decides to pluck a tendril from Keith’s light pulse- to see what’s up.
What he doesn’t expect is an onslaught of worry upon worry. Keith is worried. Worried about his friends, about Voltron, about Lance and Shiro and the Blade and himself and the force. Keith worries so much that it makes Lance reel.
He also doesn’t expect Keith to fall over from his cross-legged sitting style onto the floor screaming.
