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Keith fidgeted nervously as he waited at the large banquet table, wondering why on Earth he was the only one there even though he was right on time. He'd gotten a message from Coran the previous week that he was needed at the Garrison, but not much other information was included.

Keith had wondered if it was for a mission, but Coran had never called on him for an independent assignment before, so he guessed that it was probably a general check-in with the Blade. Still, those types of meetings were monthly and scheduled, not on a whim.

The Blade had been working hard since the end of Voltron and Keith was incredibly pleased with the progress they'd made. They were helping citizens all over the galaxy and their numbers grew with each passing day. He was so proud of how far they'd come.

It felt nice to finally be working alongside his mom without the constant threat of Haggar and the rest of the Galra. They'd grown closer, making up for the time they'd lost. The two of them had even visited Keith's father's grave and Keith could still vividly remember how Krolia had traced the name on the gravestone.

"Oh, Kit," she'd sighed. "You'd be so proud of our son."

Keith had choked up a bit, but it had been the first time he'd ever visited his father with someone other than Shiro and it felt comforting to finally have his mother with him.

Speaking of Shiro, the two saw each other as often as they could, or as often as Keith's Blade duties would allow him to. Keith hadn't known Curtis very well when his was still a paladin, but Shiro had made sure that when he and Curtis had started dating, Keith approved of the young man.

Of course, it was hard for both Shiro and Keith to move on after the devastating news of what happened to Adam, but with support from each other, they were able to accept his death. And Curtis was incredibly kind and gentle- he was good for Shiro and Keith definitely approved of him.

Keith was pulled out of thought at the sound of the door to the conference room opening. A familiar lanky frame with messy brown hair stepped inside. Keith stood, letting a small smile lift his lips. "Lance," he greeted, walking forward towards his friend.

But, as Lance stepped into the light, Keith felt his stomach lurch. Lance looked awful. There were bowls of bruise-blue beneath his ocean eyes and his face was thin and wan. This young man was no longer the Lance that Keith recognized. He was a shell.

Keith dropped his outstretched hand and instead pulled Lance towards him in a loose hug. Beneath the pale blue tunic, Keith felt Lance's bony shoulders and torso. Lance felt fragile and small and Keith felt like, if he held him too tightly, his skin would bruise like flower petals.

Pulling back, Lance smiled and it was the old smile that Keith remembered. "Hey, Keith, what's up?"

After their heart-to-heart that one night when Allura had been unconscious, the two of them had seemed to silently agree to drop the enemies act. Lance had been Keith's right-hand man and they'd even gone so far as to call each other friends.

Still, it had been a while since they'd seen each other last. Too long, Keith thought. "Same old," He said airily, brushing off the question. He didn't want to talk about himself- Lance needed help. "How are you?"

Lance smiled again, like it could cover up his sunken eyes. "Hanging in there," he said, shrugging.

"Eating?" Keith half-joked.

Lance laughed weakly. "I miss Mama's enchiladas, but farm life suits me well."

Liar, Keith thought. He'd always been opposed to the idea of Lance becoming a farmer. As long as he'd known the blue paladin, Lance had been filled with energy, excitement, and dreams of becoming a Garrison pilot. It was so out of character for Lance to retire to farming that Keith almost argued against it. But, back then, he'd trusted that Lance knew what was best for himself. Now, he wasn't sure.

"Speaking of which," Lance muttered, reaching down into a woven basket he held, "I brought a few flowers with me." He handed Keith a Juniberry bloom, it's magenta petals bright and beautiful. Keith smiled sadly- the flowers never failed to remind him of Allura.

"Thank you, Lance."

Lance nodded, looking around distractedly. "Where's everyone else? Are we just early?"

Keith frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I just thought that the whole team would be here."

"I have no idea. Coran was a bit nondescript." Keith shrugged.

As if called by the sound of his name, the Altean suddenly entered the room with a smile, immediately spotting Keith and Lance standing in the center of the room. "Ah, boys! Sit, sit, we have much to discuss."

Keith and Lance locked eyes in confusion, but both took their seats next to each other at the table. Coran sat across from them, steepling his fingers and regarding the two ex-Paladins with a curious gaze. Coran always looked inquisitive, like he was constantly learning something new.

"I have a mission for you two," he stated simply. Pulling out a small, clear screen from his satchel, Coran fussed with the tablet for a few seconds before sliding it across the table to Keith and Lance. Keith felt his throat tighten in excitement.

"They arrived this morning," Coran said warmly. In a picture on the screen, the red and blue lions sat beside each other in what looked to be the back of the Garrison, their gazes fixed to the sky. "We didn't know why, at first, but then we tried locating the other lions. Yellow and Green are in the nearby galaxy, but we can't locate Black. We think something's going on."

"What d'you mean?" Lance asked, anxiety in his throat. His eyes were still glued to Blue on the tablet. He missed the feel of piloting the lion.

"Well, I got the Holts to look into it and, if their calculations are correct, then Black has wandered into another reality."

Keith frowned. "Is that even possible?" He remembered entering that one reality so long ago when Allura had been an oppressive Altean Empress and Shiro had been some sort of Russian resistance fighter with Slav.

Coran shook his head, "It shouldn't be, but I trust the Holts and I don't think there's any other explanation. We don't have communication with the black lion, but its coordinates are known and it seems stable."

Keith sat back in his chair. "I only knew that Black could teleport. I didn't think he could travel through realities."

"Neither did I," Coran admitted, "but maybe there's another Trans-Reality Comet out there that created a rift in the realities."

"Why would Black want to travel into another reality, though? I mean, I know Voltron was able to get through the rift that one time, but you said it was because of Voltron's quintessence composition," Lance added.

Coran shrugged, looking helpless. "I wish I knew. But I know that we need to find Black and get him back into this reality, at least, in case we ever need to form Voltron again. Maybe he was called by a distress signal, maybe he was captured- we don't know- but that's where you boys come in.

"If you're up for it, I need you two to go and find the black lion."

...

hey yall (: uhdhdhdhdj so yeah welcome to chapter 2 haha. I'm still working out a lot of future plot points but we should be jumping into the action fairly quickly. i hope that you're enjoying so far<3
also, you guys told me you liked my qotds, so I'll start putting them in (:

Qotd: favorite voltron character?

for me, it's my blue boi lance. love u, loverboi<33

n i love u guys too!! see you soon (: