Waking up felt like ton of brick were laying across him, as Lance tried to sit up. Blinking his eyes groggily, he took in his surroundings. He was in an unfamiliar bedroom with no accents or colored lights to indicate where he was, but took note of his jacket on hook by the door and his shoes under it. As he sat up, he noticed Shiro sitting in an armchair nearby, arms crossed and head tilted back as though he'd been sleeping.

As Lance tried to position himself, the ruffling noise of the sheets caught Shiro's attention and he stirred and opened his eyes. "Ah. Hey there, Lance."

"Shiro, where are we?"

Shiro lightly chuckled. "Sam, procured us a house. It's completely ours, the paladins of Voltron, for whenever we want to come back in the future as well. It's more like a mansion than a house though. And of course it isn't on base but Sam did what he could."

"Hmm," Lance nodded.

"Lance," Shiro sighed, "are you okay?"

Lance jerked his head up in confusion. Did something happen?

Seeing the pitiful look in Shiro's eye had everything rushing back to Lance.

"My family! Oh My Gosh Shiro!" Lance started to hyperventilate again. Shiro rushed to his side and pulled him into a tight embrace, saying soothing words to calm him down. It didn't work and Lance started to struggle. "He said they weren't there! Shiro, he said they weren't there! But they are there! He went to the wrong place! Shiro, Please!"

The yelling had been loud enough for the rest of the house to hear but the only other person home at the time was Keith, who came bounding into the room just as Lance got out of Shiro's grasp. Lance made a desperate dash for the door. Keith managed to grab ahold of his arms but Lance fought back. Somehow, in Lance's adrenaline rushing state, he was able to turn the other boy around and knock him over into Shiro who had just stood up. Lance wasted no time running to the door and grabbing his jacket on the way out.

Lance practically jumped down the stairs, his bare feet barely touching any of them, and, though not knowing the layout of the house, managed to find the back door.

Once outside he looked around and just started running. "Blue! Please!" There was a small light purr and nudge in his mind, making him stop in his tracks. "I mean.. I mean Red." Tears were now making their way down his face. "I-I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Red. Please. I-I-I need you." He took this moment to realize that his hyperventilating had returned.

Red came pouncing out of nowhere, landing in front of him. The lion gave her paladin a sad yet understanding nudge before open her mouth to let him in. Lance ran up in to the cockpit, barely registering the yelling of the 2 black paladins coming out of the house. Before Shiro and Keith could make it to the lion, she turned on her heal and flew away.

The two paladins looked out after the lion and then to each other. "What happened, Shiro?"

He older paladin sighed. "It took him a few ticks to remember why he had passed out but when he remembered, he started hyperventilating. That's basically when you came in."

"Do we follow him?"

Shiro made a face. "I don't know. I think we should. Let's give him a good head start and tell the other paladins to hang back a bit longer before coming to us."

With their resolution made, Shiro went back inside to call everyone else and Keith turned to call the Black Lion to prep her for take off.

—

Red was the fastest lion out of any of them. It definitely showed on her flight to Lance's hometown. What would take a normal flight just about 2 and a half hours, took Red only 30 minutes.

Lance was curled up in the pilot's seat the whole time just trying to breathe. Red purred into his mind to calm him and almost reassure him. She didn't like her cub feeling this way.

Lance didn't notice Red land. It took a bit of nudging from Red to bring him to life. He sat up slowly, tears making tracks down his face as the lion knelt down in position for hime to exit.

"Red?" The lion purred in response. "I don't… I can't…" Lance made himself take an extremely shaky breath. "Is… Is he right? Was Mr. Holt right?" The lion stayed silent, mouth still open for him. "If… If he's right… I can't…" He was forcing himself to not hyperventilate at this point. "I don't want to go out there if he's right. If he's right about there being no one. I just… can't."

Red was silent. Lance almost didn't know how to interpret it. And then she purred. It wasn't her reassuring purr that she had been sending him. It was more of a "You have to find out for yourself" purr. If Lance hadn't been so on edge about everything, he would've scoffed at her.

But she was right. There was only one way to find out if Mr. Holt was right.

Lance shakily stood up, his arms wrapped around himself almost in a comforting hug. He moved so, so slowly towards the exit, as if his families life depended on him moving slow. He turned and was able to see the light spilling in to Red's mouth but was far enough back that he couldn't see out. Lance took a few shaky breaths.

"Come on, Lance. It's going to be okay. Your family is going to be there. They are going to be so shocked that you are back. Mr. Holt just went to the wrong town." He breathed again, closed his eyes…. And then took off out of Red's mouth in a dead run.

In his mind it was a good idea. You know, just rip the band-aid off. Get out there before he changed his mind and became too anxious again. The only thing he forgot was that at the end of Red's mouth, there was almost a step off… and he missed it… because he still had his eyes closed.

Lance landed hard on his hands and knees. He hissed in a breath from the pain and opened his eyes to stare at the ground.

Sand. There was sand. Lance stared at it with wide eyes. And as the rest of his senses came to him, he could smell the fresh ocean air, hear the waves hitting the coast, even feel the oceans breeze hitting his neck.

He was home. Lance was home.

Red purred and Lance almost felt relief. He almost felt complete. He just needed to look up and see his family and he would know it was okay.

And so he did.

But instead of his family or even his town, he saw destruction. He saw buildings all around leveled, save for a few here and there that looked to be just barely keeping together.

"No." His voice didn't sound like his own. It sounded fragile, even to his ears.

He forced himself to stand. His right foot moved forward, then his left. He didn't realize he was running till his breathing was becoming hard. He hadn't even paid attention to anything he passed but he knew exactly where along the beach his house sat. And he was too soon there.

He fell to his knees.

His home, his childhood home, his FAMILIES home, it was demolished. The red clay brick his house was made out of was just about crushed into powder, mixing with the sand around it.

No. This wasn't right. His eyes were lying.

"Mom?" It came out as a whisper and almost startled him. And then he was screaming, tears pouring down his face. "Mom! Mom, please!"