#android lance

Everything changed when they were battling the Galra, as most of their life-changing moments did. Everything had to happen with dramatic flare these days.

Being captured was high on the list of undesirable things to happen to the team. Especially when they were all together like this. They had taken Hunk and Lance first, taking the opportunity to grab Pidge while she was trying to figure out the centre’s computers. It was harder to capture Shiro and Keith but soon enough they were kneeling beside their teammates as well.

“So you are the paladins of Voltron? I have to say, I’m not very impressed,” the Galra commander smirked, his eyes drifting across their angry faces.

“Don’t underestimate us!” Keith growled, struggling against the soldier holding him. The commander let out a resounding laugh before striding forward and grabbing Lance by his hair and pulling him away from the line, to the loud disapproval of the rest of the team. He dragged him a few feet away and stood between the two groups.

“I’m giving you one chance paladins, surrender Voltron to me or I will shoot the Blue Paladin,” he threatened, pointing his gun towards Lance’s head.

“Don’t do it, guys!” Lance yelled panicked, wide eyes looking at his friends.

“Well,” the commander pushed.

“We won’t,” Shiro said sternly, trying subtly to loosen the soldier’s hold on his arms. The commander looked at him with narrowed eyes for a moment before shrugging and turning towards Lance.

“Alright,” he said calmly, his finger squeezing the trigger.

Without a sound, the laser left the muzzle of the gun, hitting Lance in the head. He slumped to the ground with an echoing thud. There wasn’t a single sound for a few moments until a horrified scream erupted from Pidge’s mouth.

They sobbed, screamed, and begged violently struggling against their guards trying to get to Lance’s side.

“Take them to the ship, we’ll see how the princess of Altea will take the news of her team’s capture and unfortunate loss,” he laughed, the soldiers nodded wrenching the distraught paladins to their feet and started dragging them towards the looming Galra warship.

“NO! LET US GO! LANCE! LAAAAANCE!” Hunk screamed, he strained towards him, only turning back in the right direction when the soldier hit him in the back of the head. Even as his vision went blurry from the hit, he looked back and his eyes widened in shock.

He was pushing himself up.

He went to shout his name with a smile but stopped when he finally got to his feet.

Half of his face was gone. Instead of the gore and blood that he expected, all he could see was gleaming metal and sparking wires.

“Lance?” He whispered, in a blink, he was behind the commander and with a single punch, he was throwing his hand straight through his back and out his chest. With a final roar from the Galra, he toppled to the ground motionless.

The rest of the soldiers’ hands dropped away from the paladins and they stared at Lance in shock. His hand slid out of the Galra’s body without a struggle. Slowly his head turned to look at the rest of the soldiers.

“Survival mode has been activated, do not engage,” his voice was distorted and emotionless, though it still clearly sounded like Lance. The metal was still sparking, and the exposed eyeball was eerily illuminating the intact part of his face. His other eye matched and, was opened wide, the normal dark blue was glowing a bright blue.

The soldiers didn’t heed his warning and one of them charged at him, gun drawn and aiming. He shot off a couple of rounds, but it didn’t phase him and instead, he stomped towards him and grabbed his throat. The soldier started struggling in pain as he started squeezing, his eye didn’t move an inch until the soldier went limp in his grasp.

He only looked away when another soldier charged at him and without warning, sliced his arm clean off letting the soldier drop to the ground unmoving. He backed away in horror when Lance only turned towards him, the new stump sparking at the same beat as his face.

It was like the soldiers were just tiny germs in his path, with only a few quick punches they were on the ground, either unconscious or dead. He looked over at the team who was still reeling in shock.

“No enemies detected,” he said before he fell to the ground, back hitting the dirt with a thud.

“Excessive damage to external and internal assets, seek immediate repairs,” he droned on, laying on his back looking up at the stars.

After Shiro was able to snap through his restraints, he went to each of them and deactivated their bindings. Together, they cautiously approached their fallen teammate.

Kneeling at his side, they carefully looked over his body and tried to figure out a way to carry him back to the Castle in his shape. He didn’t turn his head to look at them, instead, they stayed glued looking up at the night sky, filled with stars from another galaxy.

“What are you, Lance?” Pidge whispered, eyes searching his figure for any clue. At the whisper, his body seemed to shake and for the first time, the glow dimmed in his eyes, returning to the ocean blue they remembered.

“I don’t know,” was the teary reply. They went to say more but again his entire body locked up and his eyes returned to their glowing state.

“Repairs required, shutting down,” he announced before his eyes shut and his body went limp. They cast frantic looks at each other before Shiro was picking him up and they started sprinting for the Castle. As they passed the bodies of the Galra, Pidge scooped up Lance’s disembodied arm and sprinted after them.

When Lance woke up, he wasn’t exactly sure where he was or what had happened.

“Lance?” He looked over and saw Hunk standing beside his bed looking at him with concern.

“Hey, buddy!” He said cheerfully, giving him a wide smile.

“Um, do you remember what happened?” He asked nervously, wringing his hands together.

“Not really? I mean I know that we went on a mission and stuff but after that, it’s pretty blurry,” he admitted, looking around the room to see the rest of the team gathered around his bed. “Why? Did something happen?”

“Yeah, something happened,” he replied. Lane waited for him to continue but it seemed like he was having trouble getting it out. Instead, he turned to Pidge who was sitting beside Hunk on her laptop.

“Pidge?”

Her fingers stopped tapping and she glanced at him nervously. His eyes flicked between her and Hunk before straying over to Shiro and Keith who were equally as silent.

“What happened? Is there something wrong with me?” He asked frantically.

“The short answer to both of those questions is that you’re an android,” Pidge said carefully, moving her body to face Lance completely. The spoon fell from his hand, clanking off the tray and landing on the floor beside the bed. His eyes were wide in shock before he burst out into laughter, clapping his hand on his leg.

“That’s a good one Pidge, you almost had me,” he chuckled, wiping a fake tear from under his eye. He glanced around but no one else was laughing, instead, they were looking down at the ground. “Pidge?”

“I know that’s a joke that I would make but it’s not Lance,” she insisted with a frown. His eyes darted from her to the rest of the group, quietly begging for one of them to crack a smile, but none of them did.

“But, robotics aren’t this far advanced, it would be in the news, it would be everywhere on Earth,” he argued, gesturing wildly with his hands. “Unless…I’m not from Earth?” he asked with a wince but Pidge only shook her head at him.

“Your programming is all in English and Spanish, you were made on Earth and we think we know why nobody knew about such an advanced robot,” she said, moving to her computer set up. He ignored the programming part and tried to focus on the information she was giving to him.

“Your creators; Rosa and Cortez McClain,”

His stomach dropped.

“Everything is in your main database; their research journals, their processes, everything that was needed to keep you running, they even included where you live,”

“Mom and dad?” He whispered weakly. “This can’t be true Pidge, it can’t! I remember being a little kid, I remember growing up!” He was tearing up in a panic, grasping at straws that were quickly being pulled away.

“In their journals, they talked about a fatal incident,” Pidge tried, looking at her screen quickly.

“The car accident,” he clarified without missing a beat. It was always stuck in the back of his mind like a looming shadow.

“I shouldn’t have survived it, I-I didn’t survive it. Lance didn’t survive it,” he corrected himself. His hands clenched at his sides, shaking slightly.

“Lance,” Hunk tried, moving forward to put a hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t call me that,” he said weakly, brushing away the gentle touch.

“What?”

“I SAID DON’T CALL ME THAT! I’M NOT LANCE! I’VE NEVER BEEN LANCE!” He cried, eyes wide and filled with tears as he yelled at Hunk. With a gasping breath, he burst into sobs and hunched over, hiding his face in his hands. Hunk’s hand went to his back, gently rubbing up and down. As much as he wanted to wallow in his newfound misery, he was calming under the motions.

“What do you mean you’ve never been Lance?” Shiro asked calmly, coming to his other side and laying a hand on Lance’s shoulder. He gasped in an uneven breath, and tears rolled down his cheeks.

“The real Lance died in a car accident, I’m just someone-something that looks like him and has his memories,” he explained carefully. “I-I just feel like such an imposter,” he burst out with another sob. “This wasn’t the life that I was supposed to live, this is the life that Lance was supposed to live and I’m here instead,”

“We’ve never met the other Lance, we didn’t get to know him,” Keith said, finally stepping forward to stand beside Shiro. “We’re your friends, not his,”

“But if he was still alive, you probably would have been his friends,” he argued.

“But that’s not what happened! It’s unfortunate what happened, but this is the outcome and you’re our family Lance, we care about you,” Hunk broke in, startling Lance. He watched him with wide eyes.

“Family…” he trailed off suddenly in thought. Emotions raced across his face before settling on devastation.

“Lance, it’s pretty clear that your family loves you if they were willing to go this far to keep you with them,” Pidge reminded him, before patting him on the arm.

“You don’t understand,” he stated mournfully, turning to look at her with new tears streaked down his cheek. “I was made to be a replacement, what if I get back and they’ve just made another one of me?”

They sucked in a quick breath at the question. They were noticeably hesitant to answer if they had already replaced Lance once, what was stopping them from doing it again?

“Then fuck them,” Keith finally said. Their heads snapped over to look at him with shocked faces.

“Keith?”

“Seriously, fuck them. They shouldn’t doubt that you’re alive; when Shiro went missing, I never gave up hope that he was alive. The same with Pidge, and now she has proof that Matt is alive,” he said gesturing first at Shiro, then a beaming Pidge.

“Sure, the Garrison can lie but what acceptable thing can they come up with? ‘Three teens go missing during a lockdown?’ My dad is gullible but even he would know that something is up,” Hunk said with a smile, which Lance tentatively returned.

“I’m apologizing in advance for the shit that I’m going to go through in the next little bit,” he said quietly, a frown sliding across his face again. They huffed good-naturedly before wrapping him in a group hug.

“Don’t worry Lance, you’re only human,” Shiro soothed. Immediately, his mood plummeted again and he sagged a bit in their arms.

“But am I?” he asked quietly. The arms tightened around him.

“Of course you are, it doesn’t matter what you’re made up of,” Pidge said, squeezing him as much as she could. “You laugh,”

No matter where they were, no matter what was happening, Lance could always make light of the situation. When she felt down, a mischievous smile in her direction had her perking up, waiting for what Lance was going to do. Maybe he’d throw in a joke, or pull off a prank, most of the time he would stand there laughing at himself if the joke fell flat. She could see that sometimes, he would joke more for their sake.

“You cry,” Hunk added.

Days and nights spent in the kitchen, with Lance sobbing over a mug of watery space cocoa. Arms squeezing around his body trying to take as much comfort as Hunk could bear to give. When it came to Lance, he could take it all if he wanted. The nights in the kitchen came more and more often the longer they cruised through space, the possibility of returning home growing lower as the days passed. He could only let out his emotions at this time of night when no one else was around and only trusted his best friend to stick it out with him.

“You get scared,” Keith said softly.

Lance wanted to be brave and he pulled it off well, but if you looked close enough, you could always see his hands shaking before every mission. You could see the hesitance in his eyes during a mission planning. He would look off to the side to avoid eye contact during practices when he was facing off with Keith, Shiro, or Allura. They were all scared and they knew they were all scared, but Lance was a lot better at hiding it.

“You care, Lance,” Shiro finished, brushing his fingers through Lance’s hair.

Every planet, every inhabitant got Lance’s full respect. When he was there to save somebody, he was in 100%. It didn’t matter if they were rude to him during a meeting, if they were in trouble, he would lay his life on the line for them. He tried to hide what hurt him to keep the team happy, he did whatever he could to present his best self so they didn’t have to worry.

“You’re you,”

“Thank you,” he whimpered, leaning into the hugs a little bit more. A wobbling smile was on his face and happy tears were rolling down his face.

“You don’t have to thank us for this Lance, we’re always going to be here for you no matter what you think of yourself,” Hunk said with a grateful smile.

Lance just let himself be for a few minutes. Just let himself feel the warmth radiating off of his family.

“You know,” Hunk suddenly sighed. “I love how you haven’t noticed that you’re missing an arm,”

“WHAT!” He yelped, flinging everyone off of him to look down at his arms. One was the familiar brown he had always been used to while the other was a sleek white and black metal. When he flexed his fingers, the joints lit up with a blue light. He looked up at Hunk with wide eyes.

“I don’t know how much of the fight you actually remember but we were able to transfer some of the “skin” on your arm to fix your face. Turns out that Alteans do not take cosmetic surgery lightly, so it’s nice and even too!” Hunk said, holding up a mirror for Lance to look in. Apparently, he was right because he saw the exact same face he always had.

“Your arm was completely useless though, so we made you a new one,” Pidge preened, scooting up to run her fingers up and down the arm.

“Okay, I guess that’s kind of cool,” he admitted, bringing it up to examine it more closely.

“Great, now would you like the bad news or good news first?” Hunk asked cheerfully despite what he said. Lance looked at him with a deadpanned expression before he let out a heavy sigh.

“Well, it can’t be any worse than any of the other news today, bad first,” he chose, looking back down to the arm.

“Okay, well, we aren’t exactly sure how Altean tech will work with yours, so we’re going to have to monitor you for a while,” Pidge said with a bit of a shrug. “We haven’t fully activated it so there won’t be much damage if there is a problem,”

“Okay, that doesn’t sound too bad, the good news?” He asked looking up at Hunk who was fully smiling.

“Shiro,” he said instead. Lance blinked in confusion looking over at their leader instead.

“We’re twining!” He exclaimed, batting at Lance’s new hand with his own metal one.

“Oh my god, that literally just made my day,” he laughed, as he leaned over to Shiro and gave him a one-armed hug.