Someplace Like Home

Someplace Like Home is the third work in Voltron: Duality and the second season. It can be found here.

Summary
"Team Voltron is not in good shape. Matt's suffering the effects of Galra experimentation, Lance refuses to accept the presence of a Galra on the team, Allura's struggling to cope now that Shiro has taken his place as the black paladin--and unbeknownst to them the Galra have already begun to move against Earth.

If the paladins don't get their act together soon, they're going to lose everything they hope to protect."

Content Warnings

 * Graphic depictions of violence

Pairings

 * Matt Holt/Shiro
 * Keith/Lance
 * Hunk/Shay
 * Matt Holt & Keith
 * Keith & Shiro
 * Coran & Lance
 * Allura & Coran
 * Allura & Shiro
 * Allura & Matt Holt

Main Characters

 * Matt
 * Pidge
 * Lance
 * Hunk
 * Allura
 * Coran
 * Shiro
 * Keith

Chapter 1: Returns
Matt heads to the Balmera with half the team for a bit of healing. He's not out of the woods yet, so in order to avoid keeping him cooped up and out of the action, Shay volunteers to come along. Meanwhile Keith, Lance, and Pidge head back to Vel-17, where they manage to extract research records that they hope will tell them what's wrong with Matt and how to fix it.

Chapter 2: Practical Team Building
Lance has a chat with Coran about the last blue paladin, Lealle (who just so happens to be Allura's mom), and about what the Blue Lion looks for in a paladin. Meanwhile Keith asks Allura why she trusts him and learns about old Altea, King Alfor's guards, and Zarkon's betrayal. Both conversations are cut short by the arrival of a Galra ship, but Lance's panic and guilt prevent the team from forming Voltron.

Chapter 3: Knife's Edge
Having built himself a knee brace, Matt decides it's time to get back into the action. He trains with Lance (who quickly excuses himself once Keith makes an appearance), and when Allura calls the paladins to action, Matt rides along with Keith in the Red Lion. Shiro, Lance, and Hunk go down to the surface of the planet Merkul to aid the local miners, while Pidge goes to the more heavily populated moons to take out the sentries keeping the Merka subdued. Keith and Matt head to the smallest moon to take out a communication relay, but are intercepted by a pair of robeasts who disrupt transmissions, cutting the Red Lion off from the rest of the team.

Chapter 4: The Red Paladins
The battle for Merkul takes some unexpected turns as Lance deals with his rising guilt, Pidge and Shiro take on some Galra too stubborn to die, and Allura and Shay run into a Galra robot trying to take down the castle-ship from the inside. The Red Lion allows Matt and Keith to copilot her, unlocking her true potential.

Chapter 5: Reprecussions
After copiloting Red with Keith, Matt is excited to test the Black Lion's potential for dual paladin shenanigans, but his efforts with Shiro and Allura amount to nothing. Allura tries to talk to her mother's AI for advice, but the computer doesn't have enough information on dual paladins to be of much help. Meanwhile Matt finds Keith helping Pidge with translations and drags him off to talk. After glimpsing Matt's memories of Vel-17, Keith is afraid his presence will only hurt Matt further, but Matt isn't having any of that. Even if it takes time for those scars to heal, Matt wants Keith in his life.

Hunk and Lance finally get a chance to talk about the morality of war, and Hunk admits he's been counting how many people they save as a way to fight off the guilt. Shiro stops by to offer his own support but Lance still needs to find his own answer. Unable to sleep, he instead pulls out his sewing projects and gets to thinking.

Chapter 6: The Fallen and the Future
The next morning, following an emotional discussion with Coran about the ethics of war, Lance apologizes to Keith and invites him to try some one-on-one team building in the invisible maze. It doesn't exactly go smoothly, but they make it through and have their first real conversation afterwards.

Chapter 7: Coming Clean
Val Mendoza was caught snooping on Garrison property more than two weeks ago, and she hasn't been seen since. Karen Holt, Eli Kahale, and Akira Shirogane are searching for her, as well as for the missing cadets, but they're making slow progress. Akira fears his investigations may have caught Iverson's eye. Eli tells Karen he thinks it might be time for her to tell her family's story. But first, Karen wants to try a different tactic.

Chapter 8: Earth
Team Voltron attacks a prison world named Revinor, where "weak" and "traitorous" Galra are sent. Despite a comms failure, an ambush in the air, and child hostages on the ground, the paladins prevail--due in large part to the fact that Shiro and Allura find a way to copilot the Black Lion. In doing so, they gain the ability to sense and communicate with the rest of the team, coordinating the battle from afar and allowing Keith, Matt, and Lance to rescue dozens of Galra prisoners.
 * Trigger Warnings: Minor panic attack, accidental misgendering

Chapter 9: Shay
The team finds out Shay is the second yellow paladin. She's not sure she has what it takes, but flying Yellow is easier than she could have imagined. Keith wanders the castle and runs into Zuza, a refugee from Revinor who was in his training group in the Empire.

Meanwhile Pidge, upset over the things they've learned from the Vel-17 research logs, goes to Matt. They talk about his experiences, and that leads to Shiro opening up about the override Haggar planted in his arm. Matt and Pidge promise to help disable the override. Later that night, unable to sleep, Matt ends up seeking solace in Shiro's room.

Chapter 10: High Security
Team Voltron receives word from Dez (going by the name Hythan of the Accords) that one of her operatives was being held in a high-security prison. She also warns them about what Thace had discovered--Haggar is tracking Shiro. The team splits up, Shiro and Allura confirming the existence of a tracking device, the other paladins attacking the prison ship to rescue Jost. The Galra track down Shiro and Allura, who are able to escape unharmed, but they also know about the attack on the prison ship and rig it to blow while the paladins are still on board. They are forced to leave Jost behind, but not before he tells Keith to seek a place called New Altea to learn how his mother died.

Chapter 11: Heritage
Team Voltron runs into Rolo, Nyma, and Beezer at the wreckage of a rebel freighter. Keith and Rolo (who it turns out is half Galra) hit it off, and after a short conversation, the Harbinger's crew volunteers to run supplies and information for Voltron and its allies. Meanwhile on Earth, Akira is attacked in the middle of the night, only to be rescued by the mysterious Naomi. And Val decides to try a bluff, telling Vanda she knows the location of an Altean cache on Earth. Vanda takes the bait, but Val's not out of danger yet.

Chapter 12: Project Robeast
TBA
 * Trigger Warning: Dysphoria