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"What do you mean you can't get out?" Pidge yelled through the radio com."I mean I got separated from Shiro," Lance yelled in the same irritated tone back at Pidge. "Okay, I see you on the map, I'll guide you through it," Pidge sighed. "You couldn't just let them go, could you?" The teen girl said as she started locating the exit."They don't call me the sharpshooter for no reason," Lance said as he smirked to himself, taking the first turn directed by Pidge."Nobody calls you that," he could hear the rest of his team say in unison."Just focus on getting me out, how about that?" Lance scoffed as he took yet another turn."Okay, you are going to have to pass by some of the prisoner quarters, and then signal Red to get you from one of the openings," Pidge instructed."Signal Red? I can't just do that, she just comes to me when I am in danger," Lance whined as he continued on, hiding as one of the guards passed by."Well, if you don't get out, you are going to get killed. Enough danger for you?" Pidge asked sarcastically."Yeah, okay," Lance said as he turned another corner."Okay you should be making your way through the outside of the prisoner quarters," Pidge said.Lance nodded as he looked at all the closed metal doors. There weren't that many, and most prisons he was used to having metal bars or at least the same way to see the prisoners."Are you sure this is for prisoners?" Lance asked as he slyly walked through."It says here, that-um, oh here it is," Pidge said through the com. "This is supposed to be for isolation, or some dangerous prisoners," she added."That brings me comfort," Lance said as he suddenly heard people coming down the prisoner hall. He jumped through a gap as quickly as he could as he heard Galra. He held his bayard close to him in case he would need it."Everything would come so easy if you would just obey, human," he could hear the vicious words of a Galran soldier.Wait, did he say human?"Lance, you have to get out of there fast, the castle can't stay here forever," he heard Allura say through the com."There's a human prisoner," was all Lance said as he could hear Pidge pause to process what he had said."We don’t have much time,” he heard Allura say. "I have to try," Lance cut her off as he powered his bayard and jumped out to the prisoner hallway, meeting the Galran soldier face to face.Before the soldier could even respond he shot him, and he fell to the ground. He looked at the frail prisoner that feel down with him. Right away, Lance could tell he wasn’t in good condition. His lip was bloody and there were bruises all over where his skin was visible. He did look human though.Very human.Lance winced as he looked at the prisoner more. All that he was wearing was a long shirt that ran to the midway of his thigh. His hair was styled in a mullet, and there was blood running down his legs."Lance, if you are going to do this, you have to get out now!" Shiro yelled causing Lance to jump into action. He turned on his jet pack and picked up the passed-out prisoner bridal style. He was shocked and worried at how light the boy was but tried to not pay too much mind to it as they made it towards the exit."You have company ahead," Pidge said as Lance could feel the prisoner in his arms rustle and groan in pain."Why can't the Galra just give me a break?" Lance asked as he tried to shift the boy to his back. It wasn't working, and if he didn't wake up, they would both probably be shot down."Pidge!" Lance said as he felt himself panicking."I'm working on it," Pidge responded in the same panic.Suddenly, Lance turned to corner and instead of being greeted by gunshots, he was greeted by powered off, collapsed sentries."Thank you Pidge," Lance sighed as he once again grasped the prisoner securely in his arms."Wait, Pidge, he won't make it out in space," Lance suddenly realized."Lance, we don't have the time. And who knows what this prisoner could do. What if he has a tracker?" Allura warned."He is a human Allura. How many human prisoners do we come by?" Lance said as he started making his way through the opening."Let's just hope Red thinks I am in a lot of danger," Lance said as he grabbed the collar of the boy's shirt and tightly put it over his nose and mouth, hoping it would buy him some oxygen as Red got to them.With one last deep sigh, Lance burst out and within seconds, he could feel the prisoner in his hands start freezing up. As he was starting to lose hope but he saw his lion come rushing towards them, engulfing them both inside."Thanks Red," Lance said as he situated the prisoner as best as he could to pilot Red."Lance, we will try to hold the fighters off, but you have to make it to the castle as soon as possible, or we might not make it," Pidge said to him as Lance piloted through the fighters and the debris from the fight.With a few shots and dodges, Lance made it through the castle's particle barrier and successfully entered the castle. He could feel the castle getting ready to enter a wormhole as he landed his lion and carried the prisoner out.Lance took off his helmet and placed it on the prisoner, setting oxygen levels high, hoping it would help him recover as they made their way to a healing pod."How did you get on their ship?" Lance quietly said as he kneeled down to look closely at the boy.
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"Did you check him for trackers?" Allura asked as she hovered near the healing pod containing the rescued prisoner."For the last time, yes. He does not appear to have any location devices of any sort," Pidge groaned as she sat down and started typing away at her laptop."How long till he wakes up?" Lance asked as he looked at the boy."Soon, for we are just going to let the superficial wounds heal up, and then for the reassurance of the princess ask him some questions before continuing the process," Coran responded as he checked the vitals of the patients."Is his information coming up?" Shiro asked Coran as he crossed his arms in from of his chest, picking at the metal crevices of his Galran arm."Paladins, I won't be able to check anything if you do not give me space to breathe. I will inform you of any occurrences when they come," Coran suddenly burst out, turning to look at all the Paladins."Sorry, but because he is a prisoner, there are obstacles we have to get by. He seems to be in shock, and he doesn't seem to be responding completely to the treatment. Until he calms down a bit, I won’t have his medical information for you to see.There was a pause as the hovering dispersed and the paladins processed what was being said."Well I'm going to go make dinner, if any of you want to go help me," Hunk announced as he started walking out."I'll go do some combat work," Shiro announced, as he too walked out. Soon enough, it was just Lance and Pidge in the room as Coran went to check on the ships operating systems while he waited for some of medical program to work. Lance sighed as he sat down next to Pidge."Do you think this is getting to him, you know with him being-you know," Lance said to Pidge as she looked up from her computer."Yeah, I mean he was kept by the Galra for some time. So, to see, a prisoner, human nonetheless, could bring up some stuff Lance. I wouldn’t push it," Pidge said as she returned to her computer."What are you so busy doing?" Lance asked, trying to settle his mind from something other than the current situation. He had to get the sight of seeing that poor boy in such an awful state from his mind."Well, I am just doing some data analysis," Pidge said, briefing over the subject."What does that mean exactly?" Lance asked, knowing she was ignoring the topic."Well I got a blood sample-" Pidge began."Where the hell did you get a blood sample? Did you poke him with needles, gosh Pidge, after everything he probably went through, you just-," Lance burst out, accusing Pidge."Lance! Shut up!" Pidge yelled. After Lance calmed down, she spoke once more, "I got it from your suit. When you carried him in, I got the sample form your space suit," Pidge explained as she rolled her eyes."But why would you need a blood sample?" Lance asked as he looked at her with inquiry."Allura asked me too, she wanted to know exactly what he was and what to expect," Pidge explained."Are you kidding me? Look at him. He is human," Lance said as he pointed at the fragile figure in the pod behind him."It is just a precaution. We are just kids Lance. Allura knows much more as to what we should be looking out for. She says that back in the days prisoners were injected with some type of tracking fluid, but it could have stopped being used because of the expenses of the war. Lance, it is just a precaution to know what is going on," Pidge reassured."Still," Lance said as he looked over at the boy behind him. "Did you find anything out? Anything to ease Allura's conscience?" Lance asked as he got up and looked closer at the boy. He looked troubled and it made Lance’s heart ache that even in a healing pod, the boy wasn’t calm."Well I can assure you, he is not being tracked," Pidge said, as she read off the information. Lance heard her pause and made a confused sound as she looked at her screen."What is it?" Lance asked as he turned to her, taking his eyes from the pod fully."He-he, well he is," Pidge struggled to say as Lance looked over at her computer and looked at where her cursor was."What does that mean? That makes no sense," Lance said as he looked back at the figure behind him. "There has to be a mistake," Lance said. "He can't be. Look at him.""It could be DNA mixed with his blood from other Galra. I mean where was he bleeding from?" Pidge asked as she adjusted her glasses, starting to think there had to be some other explanation."Well he was-there was blood running-well down his legs," Lance struggled to say as he looked down at the ground."You mean from his-?" Pidge asked as the color ran from her face. Lance just nodded."Well, then that would explain things. Either he is part Galra, or his blood got...mixed with other DNA because of-," Pidge started to say but couldn’t mutter out the words."Yeah, I understand what you mean," Lance said as he cut her off, not wanting her to finish. He thought it was a possibility, virtually the easiest conclusion to make.It just hurt to even imagine such a frail person having to endure that, and much less seeing how much bigger the Galra were to just a puny little, defenseless human, just made Lance despise the Galra even more."Are you going to tell Allura?" Lance asked as he turned away from the boy behind him, not being able to look at him without imagining his pain."I have to, but I will make sure to explain what the possibilities could be," Pidge said as she began to get up and walk out, leaving Lance alone with the boy. After a while, he called it a night and went to his room to sleep.Lance couldn’t sleep. He hadn’t been able to. All he could think was when the boy would wake up. What he would have to say, what he would do? What was the reason a human-Galra hybrid even existed? Had the Galra made it to Earth while they had been away?The boy looked older than the two years they had been in space though. He had to be at least thirteen. He looked around Pidge’s age but Lance didn’t know if it was due to malnutrition or because he was actually around that age.There is so much we don’t know, Lance thought as he felt himself frowning and looking above himself as he laid in bed. Suddenly, before he was about to attempt to sleep again he heard his comm buzz to life."Lance," Coran’s voice passed through. He immediately sat up and pulled the covers off himself."Yes?" he asked, in a still drowsy voice as he rubbed his eyes to try to collect himself as much as possible."He is out of the pod," Coran said, and Lance was out to the healing pods before he could even finish, pajamas and all.As soon as Lance entered, he could see all the Paladins were present except for Shiro. He could see as the boy was laid in some type of floatable cot that Coran had probably brought out. Lance could see that he was dressed in a white shirt and white shorts. His wrists and ankles were bound, and his gaze suddenly turned towards Allura."Why is he bound?" He asked as anger started filling his voice."It is just a precaution. We still don't know anything. As soon as he talks, we will be able to clear everything up, and then we will decide what to do. But for now, this is what is best," Allura explained as she stood next to Coran who was running through some medical reports.Lance swallowed the retaliation down as he nodded and set his eyes on Keith. He felt Hunk’s hand at his shoulder, reassuring him to just let it be."I was able to pull up the medical report," Coran suddenly said, breaking the growing tension in the room. Lance could see the look of pain in Pidge's eyes as she scrolled through the information with Coran."It appears-," Pidge said as she gulped."There are multiple lacerations all throughout his body, but from what the tech can gather, he is around eighteen years old," Coran said, and the rest of the room fell even quieter as they all looked at the boy, who everyone thought could pass for being just a measly pre-teen. He was Lance’s age.Lance felt like he was going to be sick.“There seems to be multiple deep cuts that should have killed him. There also seems to be multiple bruising areas located on his writs, arms, legs, ankles, and just about any place that would allow for restraints.," Coran continued to report. The team winced and looked at the boy, or the man, that laid unconscious in front of them."There is also severe damage to-the-to the rectum area, as well as a Galran piece of tech on the mid left side of his neck, there's a lot more, but I think you get the idea. This boy should not be alive," Coran somberly said as he turned off the holographic medical report."Then, how is he?" Hunk asked what the rest of the group was too in shock to ask."Druids," a voice suddenly said that came from the opening of the room Shiro."They can heal just about any wound, and easier if it's on a human," Shiro explained."But why would they use their power to save a human who could easily be killed?" Allura asked."Humans are hard to come by in space, and plus we make perfect subjects for experimentation," Shiro added as he slightly signaled to his arm. “The druids mentioned something about out genetic coding being easily adaptable.”"So, you are saying that he should be dead, but he isn't because some magical Galran witch thingies decided that they should use him for experimentation?" Hunk asked."Yeah," Shiro said.The room fell quiet as everyone processed the information."But where in the quiznack were they able to get a human? It seems a lot of trouble to go to Earth just to get one, and telling by his appearance, he looks rather young, so he was taken during the war?" Coran thought out loud.“There were no reports about this in the Garrison,” Pidge then said, there was a pause as she came up with an idea, "I think I know a way to check his prisoner data, the same way I was able to look at Matt's. It will just take some time, but I think I will be able to have it in at least two days," Pidge said and the rest of the team nodded.It was quiet for a moment, but then everyone sprung to life as the boy's eyelids fluttered open.As soon as he gained consciousness, panic was quick to follow. Lance could see the boy breathe heavily. He tried to move his limbs, but as soon as he noticed he was bound, he stopped rusting and went limp, as if waiting for something. It was Lance who decided to finally walk up to him, and as soon as the boy took note of someone approaching him, he started trembling violently."Hey, hey, I'm not going to hurt you. We are just trying to help you," Lance said as he looked at the boy. Sweat building up around his hairline, and his purple eyes, looking were everywhere but at Lance as they filled up with tears."Hey, it's okay," Lance said as he tried to grasp his hand. The boy winced but didn't fight it. "Can you tell me your name?" Lance asked, but the boy looked at him puzzled. Lance thought he was about to answer but then he just whimpered and turned his head away."I don't think he understands you," Hunk suddenly said. The boy’s eyes darted to where the voice came from and then he started looking around more, noticing his surroundings and the people in it. Lance could see his chest was heaving."Shh, shh, it's okay, we are here to help you," Lance said, and the boy locked eyes with him, shaking his head vigorously and whimpering more as he started sobbing."Allura, are these really necessary?" Lance asked as he touched the cuffs holding the boy in place. She seemed to start to reconsider the cuffs but Shiro spoke up."This could all be an act," he said. His jaw was set and he has crossed his arms on his chest. Everyone looked at one another as they analyzed his hard expression. This wasn’t like Shiro. They didn’t have more time to process it as the sobs became more violent and filled the room.The boy was losing it and in the process starting to hurt himself from pulling at the restraints."Here, how about we put him in a holding cell, but at least take these off, he is going to hurt himself," Pidge said as she walked up to Allura. Thinking about it, Allura nodded.“I think that’s best,” she said."Sedate him first and then take him to one of the rooms aboard the ship but lock the door. No one is to go in unsupervised," Shiro instructed as he started walking out. "We still don't know what it is capable of," he added as he walked out. Allura followed after him."It's not an it," Lance scoffed under his breath as Coran injected the boy with a sedative. Lance watched him pass out, wiping away his tears, on the boy’s calm face. Pidge quickly undid the restraints. After, Hunk carried the boy to a room off one of the hallways near the med bay. It was closer to the paladin’s rooms. When they all gathered in, Hunk set the boy down and everyone looked at Coran for the next instructions."Let's leave him to rest," Coran said as the three Paladins crowding against the exit nodded. Lance was a bit hesitant walking back to his quarters, but Pidge suddenly grazed past him."He will be okay," she reassured as Lance nodded and headed to bed.
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It wasn’t easy for Lance to leave the boy alone.Something in him ached as he thought about him hurting or panicking alone. He didn’t know why he cared so much. Well, he had a pretty good idea as to why, but he didn’t really want to think about that.So, he focused on his experience with the boy experience rather than his own.He’s my age, Lance was quick to remember again. It was hard to face the fact that the small, weak thing that couldn’t have even weighed more than a hundred pounds was the same age as Lance, or at least around the same age.He sighed as he ran his hands on his face and breathed in a long deep breath.He didn’t even talk, Lance thought back. The man seemed to not respond at all to anything he said, and worst of all, he seemed to not even understand what he was saying. If he even spoke a human language it was possible that it wasn’t even English. There was also a chance he didn’t speak a human language, or even any at all.Recalling the situation, the boy hadn't spoken a single word of any sort since he got here, there was even a possibility he could be mute.Lance let out another drawn out breath as he stood up from where he sat. He was in the common room, looking at the information from their last mission as an attempt at a distraction. He read the mission log where he stood near the computer he had been at.They had just discovered a possible rebel Galran organization, the Blade of Marmora. It had been the next big thing in their time in space, but now it couldn’t compare to their current situation at the moment. He had actually been trying to access some of the logs Pidge had been trying to get.He had heard she managed to get some but he wasn’t as tech savvy as her and nowhere near understanding all the technology yet even with having been two years in space."Can't sleep either?" he suddenly heard Pidge say as she entered the room, placing her own laptop on the long desk space as she sat down in the seat next to him"Says the insomniac," Lance chuckled as he scooted to make more room for Pidge to settle."Funny," Pidge said sarcastically as she looked over at what Lance was doing. "You reading over the mission logs?”"Yeah, I was actually trying to look at the logs. How do you even access them in the system?" Lance asked as he shut off his computer and turned to her, hoping she would just pull them up on her own laptop."A master never reveals their secret, but if you must know I did manage to access the first couple of logs, which actually seem to be less encrypted than recent ones. I will probably have all of them in two days like I said," Pidge explained as she pressed some buttons on her computer, and suddenly Lance's blank screen turned on, presenting several messages from Pidge."Are these?" Lance began to ask."Yeah, they are pretty dark though, so don't read them all in one go," Pidge said as she clicked away on her laptop."I'm guessing you already read them all," Lance weakly chuckled as he pulled up all the logs that were sent to his computer."Actually, I didn’t. They are really heavy, Lance. Even for me. It just gave me more reasons to hate the Galra Empire. I didn't know a being could be so messed up," she said as she moved to sit on one of the sofas in the common room.She clicked a few buttons and some snacks appeared on the coffee table in front of her. She nibbled away as she went to do her own thing. Lance sighed as he was left alone with the few logs Pidge had sent him.He already knew he wouldn’t be prepared for this but he scrolled over slowly to his inbox anyway. He noticed there were only three logs present. He opened the oldest one and it was surprisingly all in readable English. He usually had to translate Galra documents first if he wanted to read through them."Did you translate it?" Lance asked, turning back to look at Pidge."Uh-yeah, I created this software that allows-," she began to say, but stopped as she looked at the confusion in Lance's face. "Yeah, I did," she sighed as she returned to her work.Lance just hummed in response as he looked at the logs."Here goes nothing," he muttered as he opened up the first log.
[Prisoner HG102-05 was born today. It is shown that even in awful conditions, a mother will do anything for their child to survive. The human mother suffered severe injuries during labor, but the druids were able to heal her up.
This is the tenth time the mother has tried to die on us, the next time might be the last. But by then she will be of no use if the project fails, so resources wouldn't be needed to be wasted on her if the hybrid does not obey and survive.
The child proved to be healthy and strong but does not show any Galran features. It will be tested for Galran DNA as soon as it is stable. This could be a huge advancement in Galran hybrids, as we could easily disguise our soldiers in what appear to be such weak and frail species. This is currently the fifth successful experiment from all of the one hundred and two tries we have had. There is still time for the offspring to die, but we have had more success in longevity with natural germination and growth. If it does survive, it will be the first to do so for more than five phoebes.
The child has shown to have indigo tinged eyes, as well as pale skin, like the mother. It is fascinating how few Galran features the hybrid obtained. But it will be the first in hopefully many future, successful experiments. As the child grows up, we will see how well the experiment goes to proceed further action.]
As the short log ended, Lance looked at the screen in pure shock. It was hard to process.He couldn’t wrap his head around the morality of it all and the fact that this seemed to have goen on for a while. He also didn’t really want to process it all.How could they force someone to give birth a child from their own abductors? And how could they plan to do it so willingly in the future? He felt like throwing up, the sound of the Galran referring to the man they had found as a thing, and talking about using him like some type of weapon in their war like it was some type of game.Lance frowned as he looked at the screen. Throughout the log they were reffering to the person as a thing, as a being not worthy of being reffered to as a living thing. Something in him ached to at least not refer to the person they had found as ‘the man’ or the ‘the prisoner’. He had to have a name."Have you been able to find his name?" Lance asked as he looked back at Pidge who flinched as she was pulled from what she was reading, probably some more logs she had been able to decode."What?" she asked as she focused back into reality."His name. Have you-?" Lance asked."Keith," Pidge answered before he could finish. "I mean that's what the mother-his mother, wanted to call him, but she never really got the chance," Pidge said sadly as she closed her laptop and looked at Lance. "I can't read anymore," she sighed as she laid on the sofa. "I'm going to doze off for a bit.""Okay, you do that," Lance said as he clicked on the second log Pidge had sent him."Let's find out who you are and how we can help you, Keith," Lance whispered to himself as he clicked on the next log.
[Prisoner HG102-05, does in fact appear to be at least 50% Galra. Because of his Galran side, he is able to be stronger in severe conditions. We have waited until the subject is of age to withstand our tests and give us some presentable results to report back to the Empire and ultimately the Emperor. He has taken interest in our project.
Today the test subject turns two human years, and we have started our experimentations officially. We tested the limitations of the hybrid with a voltage test, an isolation test, and an instinct survival test.
It was able to withstand, in incriminations of five to thirty watts of electricity to its body. After, the being appeared to start seizing and go into cardiac arrest. One of the druids was called to heal up the child before it died. Next we saw how long it will last without communication with others or the fulfillment of its basic needs. It showed great strides and will make more an amazing weapon for the Empire.
The child is still not able to talk, just slight murmurs or hand movements indicating what it wants. We were given orders to not teach the being how to communicate, and to see if it tries to talk all on its own.
We will check back when the child appears to not withstand the conditions.]
As Lance finished reading the log he could feel his stomach start to churn. He had curiosity as to what the man’s-Keith's life had been like, but he never imagined this. For the Galra to breed their own human and use them as some type of experiment in their war plan. It was sickening, imagining what else the species had put this person through. He gulped as he was about to click on the next log, going against what Pidge had advised, but he suddenly heard a blaring alarm."We just got a distress signal from a nearby planet!" Lance could hear Coran through the room's speaker." Also, we are under attack," he added and Lance jumped into action as he shut off the holographic screen to his computer and ran towards the main piloting room. He entered seeing Allura already piloting the ship and Shiro is his leading chair, giving orders to the other Paladins."Who is attacking us?" Hunk asked as he tapped away on his screen."It appears to be the species from the distress signal," Pidge says as she checks the cameras."So, the people that are asking us for help are the ones that are attacking us? Talk about mixed signals," Lance joked. "Hey where is Keith? Wait is he safe, did he wake up?" Lance began to ask frantically, realizing Keith was nowhere to be found."Who's Keith?" Allura asked as she steered the ship away, Coran already starting their communications system, telling the attackers they were there to help not to fight."The boy that we rescued, his name is Keith," Pidge said as she helped Coran broadcast the message."Hey, that's a human name! That means he is human right?" Hunk said."We will explain later, first how about we get out of the brinks of death," Pidge sarcastically suggested as she and Coran were able to broadcast the message. As soon as it sent, the attackers stopped in their tracks and held their ground."They are telling us to land our ship," Coran said, targeting his words at Allura. "Do we wish to proceed with action, Princess?""Voltron is a protector to all innocent things. Send them our confirmation," Allura said as she started steering the ship. "It will take a few hours, but we should be there without harm.""Now that we are out of death's grasp, I am going to check on Keith," Lance declared."All of Voltron needs to be there to greet these people, Lance," Allura lectured."Well someone needs to check on, you know, the person we just rescued from the Galra, who is probably scared as hell that he is alone in this new place," Lance said and walked out the door before anyone could stop him."He can't go see him alone, it's dangerous," Allura warned, hinting for someone to rush after him."I'll go," Pidge said as she turned off her screens and headed out the door. "Don't anybody jump at the opportunity," she added sarcastically.Lance took a deep breath as he went down the hallway where Keith was staying."Hey Lance, wait," Pidge called after Lance and he turned around, looking at the panting girl."You are going to see him to?" Lance asked."Nobody is allowed to be alone with him, Allura's orders…apparently advised by Shiro," Pidge responded."He isn't going to hurt anybody. You read the logs. He isn't dangerous," Lance said, almost irritated at Pidge."We don't know that. I still don't have all the logs, and plus, nobody else knows anything about him other than you and me. Everyone else just thinks he is part Galra and some type of trap for us to fall into. You can't blame them, just give it time," Pidge reasoned, and Lance didn’t give any response before finally nodded.He went to wordlessly open the door and they both quickly slipped in. The room was a lot bigger than what the Paladins were used to. It looked like the master bedroom, if it was compared it to Earth architecture. It even had its own bathroom.Because the ship wasn't built with holding cells, it was either this, or force Keith into hibernation in a healing pod, which Lance would have never agreed to. He didn't want the guy to feel like he was yet another prisoner, having no say in what was done to him. At least in this room, he would have free will to tend to himself.As they entered the room, they were both on the edge as, Keith was no longer in the bed."Check the bathroom," Lance said as he turned and looked under the bed. Pidge nodded as she headed into the bathroom."Lance, oh my god Lance!" he suddenly heard Pidge yell, and he immediately rushed to where she was. Keith was on the floor, sitting on his knees, with a razor in his hands. Lance could see blood on his white shirt and shorts. His own blood ran cold as he saw jagged cuts on his forearms.As he noticed the duo staring at him, Keith stood up and growled at them like an animal. His eyes started glowing an unnatural yellow and he looked like he was ready to kill someone. He looked nothing like the helpless person that had been helplessly unable to move on his own when he first woke up."Lance, he looks like he wants to kill us," Pidge said as she drew hey bayard."Just try to get the razor from his hand, try not to hurt him," Lance said as he drew his own bayard, and got closer to Keith."Hey, hey, we aren't going to hurt you, just drop it, and we can have a talk," Pidge said as she drew closer to Keith. He just growled, baring his teeth, and tried to slash at Pidge."I didn't want to have to do this," Lance said as he shot at Keith's hand, and instantly he dropped the razor and groaned in pain. His eyes seemed to return back to their original color and he curled in on himself on the floor into a ball."Did you actaull-," Pidge began to ask."It's on tranquilize settings. He should be able to move it in a few minutes, but until them, it will feel numb," Lance explained as they both rushed to the dazed boy. Keith recovered quickly and looked at both Paladins with a deathly glare before he fully returned to the person Lance had found. His features round and gentle rather than harsh and threatening."I think that's his combat mode," Pidge said."Combat mode?" Lance asked."It's in his logs. At least in the description. He goes into combat mode' when he thinks he is in danger and has enough strength to go into it. It is apparently genetically coded into him by the Galra at the lab. Because of his state right not, he can’t control it and it doesn’t happen for long," Pidge replied."It shouldn't be happening at all," Lance stated as he laid his hand on Keith's shoulder, helping the boy balance his strength."Agreed," Pidge said as she disarmed her bayard. As soon as Keith seemed to acknowledge what happened, he started trembling. He suddenly knelt down and bared his neck to show the rectangular piece of Galra tech on its left side."I think he wants us to push it," Lance stated as he looked at Keith, his eyes squeezed shut and awaiting something. It looked like he was expecting pain. Lance quickly retracted his from Keith’s shoulder as he took a step back in response."I don't think we should. We still don't know what it does," Pidge said as she grabbed the razor from the floor and showed it to Lance. Lance winced as he saw it was red from what Keith had been doing to himself."Okay, yeah we should find out what it does. But why do you think he was hurting himself like that?" Lance asked as Pidge set the razor down on the bathroom counter and washed her hands, her face paled from touching and seeing blood."We don't know what they were doing to him. He might have been --- Well it wouldn't be surprising if he was-," Pidge tried to say, not being able to."He was trying to kill himself," Lance finished the thought as he looked at Keith, who was still baring his neck, trembling in Lance's gaze. Lance sighed as he went to help Keith up. He flinched at the sudden touch and eyed Lance cautiously as he slowly accepted Lance’s hand to rise back up."He hasn't had much to eat," Pidge commented."Hunk made food earlier, so-owww, what the hell!" Lance yelled out as he felt Keith bite the palm of his hand. He pushed Keith off harshly and sent him flying backwards, causing him to trip and fall into the bath behind him. Lance looked at Keith apologetically, realizing his reaction probably terrified Keith."You scared the crap out of him dude, why did you do that?" Pidge asked and went over to Keith who just growled at her."He bit me," Lance hissed as he touched the wet spot on his hand, seeing it was pretty deep, and some spots had blood surfacing.“He’s on the edge,” Pidge said as sh"We have to clear this space of weapons, he can't-," Pidge said.“We should take anything he could hurt himself with. I'll tell Coran to come in and treat his cuts, but warn him to be cautious to not set him on the edge," Lance said as he placed his hand over the bite mark, trying to numb the pain."Okay, fine. I'll tell Coran, but you need to treat that too," Pidge said as she looked over at Keith. "I'll tell Hunk to bring some food by later, but we should both rest. We will need our energy later to deal with the distress call."Lance nodded as he looked at Keith, who had scrunched himself up in a ball in the tub. He was mumbling some gibberish to himself. It didn’t sounds like any coherent sentences, just noise."He will be okay Lance, his mind is probably mess right now. Who knows what they did to him? He is bound to have some mental disorders. It is best to let him rest after we get all the weapons, let him get adjusted to the place," Pidge said. Lance nodded again as they started cautiously opening up drawers and removing any sharp objects and chemicals they thought Keith could harm himself with.When they were done, Pidge put it all into an expandable pack she had on her, and they headed towards to door. As they were about to leave, Lance was pulled back ever so slightly and Pidge instinctively flinched back, watching as Keith was gently grasping Lance's hand. "What is he?" Pidge said, as she started drawing her bayard. Keith didn't even flinch as the buzzing noise of the bayard filled the room. He just looked at Lance, inspecting him. He intertwined his fingers with Lance's on his right hand and squeezed it tight for a couple of seconds. Lance looked at him, trying to stay as still as possible.Keith let go of his hands and slowly grasped his fingers one by one with his non-tranqualized hand. His gaze was fied and he hadn’t blinked in a while that it would have worried Lance if he wasn’t so focused on Keith actually making an effort to be near them.Lance watched him bring his stable hand up and place his palm against Lance's. There was a widening of his eyes as he seemed to make a realization. His lips twitched as if they were trying to smile, but it wasn’t something that came instinctively."I think he is realizing we look like him," Pidge said as she watched Keith inspect Lance, still having her hand hovering over he bayard at her side in case the situation changed.Lance nodded and looked at Keith pressed their hands closer, causing Lance to wince as the bite mark got touched. He pulled away slightly and made a sudden movement that caused Keith to bare his neck again, asking him wordlessly to press the button. He started trembling like he had before and he dug his hands into his forearms, aggravating the wounds that had started to clot."No, Keith it's okay. It didn't hurt that much," Lance said as he touched Keith's shoulder, but pulled away as the boy flinched harshly and fell backwards on the bed. He was quick to scramble back until his body leaned on the headboard and he could bring his limbs together to curl into a ball."Lance, Pidge, we are about to board the planet," Allura's voice chimed through the room speaker. Keith just curled tighter into his protective ball and started making a distressed noise."I thought you said it would take at least a few hours for us to reach the planet," Lance responded through his radio, trying to keep his voice gentle and quiet as he kept his eyes on Keith."Well I lied, get down here," Allura said again, her voice causing Keith to bundle himself deeper and his noises to become more of a pattern that made both Lance and Pidge look at him in concern.“He’s really messed up, Lance,” Pidge said, the shock dripping from her voice as Keith rocked back and forth and breathed heavily. Lance didn’t have any response to that as he glued his eyes on Keith, not knowing what to do.Not knowing if he could do anything at all."Lance,” Pidge broke the periodic silence after a while, “We will check back on him later, like we said before, but I think we need to get going now," Pidge said as she picked up the bag in her grip with the things they had taken out of the room. “Coran will come back to deal with the wounds.”"Okay," Lance said, his voice emotionless and still in shock as he looked back at Keith. He wasn’t even looking at them, but he seemed to be calming down."We will come back later, Keith," Lance finally said as Pidge exited the room."Bye," Lance said as he too walked out with Pidge, leaving Keith alone once again.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
As soon as the two creatures that had come in left him alone, he had dozed asleep, partly from the rush of adrenaline finally settling and the aftershocks of him going into his “Galra” phase. It shocked his body every time he went into it when he was this weak. It was too much to handle.When he finally did awake again, he was quick to analyze the room and check if anyone was in there. He winced as he noticed a pain in his arms. He frowned as he looked down at them. They were bandaged up. He made the realization as he looked at them that he was unsuccessful in ending his imprisonment.He thought since the creatures around him did not look like the ones he was used to seeing, he had been transferred to another place. All he had remembered before waking up in the room the first time was being cuffed to something, helpless as everyone around him studied him, their eyes boring into his whole being.He hated when he was looked at like that, like he was weird, a thing. He hated being something that everyone was always looking at all the time. The next thing he remembered was being sedated. Waking up the first time, he realized he wasn’t hurt, which meant the tests, or the torture was probably not starting right away. Usually when he was transferred, they gave him a few hours, but never as long as they had, so he grew impatient and anxious.He was not about to wait for them to come for him so he remembered when he started exploring. He settled on the probability that they had put him in isolation, possibly to make sure he didn’t have any diseases he was bringing from his previous prison. The more he looked around though the more he realized how different this prison was.He was used to dark walls and dim lights, but everything around him was so bright it hurt his eyes. It felt like another type of torture. He quickly started getting a headache and he went back to the bed, enjoying the first soft surface he had gotten to sleep at willingly in what felt like forever.He decided to rest a bit before anyone came in to check on him. If he was in isolation, he assumed that would probably be a while so he attempted to sleep. Before he had the luxury of actually sleeping though, alarms started blaring. His body went into panic mode again, his tired, malnourished body aching as it was filled with anxiety again.If there was a noise like that, it always meant something bad. There was always shaking of some sort to the ships he had been on and then after a while when it stopped, guards would come in coated in sweat and anger. They always took it out on the prisoners, and he didn’t want to deal with that. He couldn’t deal with that again.He tried calming himself down as he paced in the room. He had to find a way out now. His mind was racing at what his new captors would do to him, what horrible things they had planned. He had run into what looked like a personal cleaning facility. It was small and he wondered how so many prisoners that were probably on this ship could get clean in there.He ignored the fact and cautiously started opening drawers. He didn’t expect to find anything, he usually didn’t, and it was effortless. He knew if he did find anything what he would do and although he knew if he got caught, he would be severely punished, he knew the aftermath of whatever they had planned for him was going to be worse.This could be his way out, one of his only ways out. So, he opened the drawers and his eyes darted with desperation as he tried to find a suitable tool. The relief that washed over him when he found a sharp object was almost too much for him to contain.He hoped the druids didn’t catch him again. He hoped they wouldn’t make it in time to heal him. He hated when they did that because not only did it mean he had to keep on going, but it felt invading. The feeling of their magic going into the crevices of his wounds to bind him together again made a cold feeling go through his whole body. He started like he usually did, going over the previous places where there should have been scars, but magic made them disappear. He was so lost in finally getting out of this mess that he didn’t notice that there was someone watching him. They were dressed in green and yelled something, signaling someone else to come. Keith reacted quickly, knowing that if he failed, he would be punished greatly.Suddenly, he felt a blur of the next events. He only remembered the tan-skinned creature holding him by his shoulder, as the two things conversed between each other. He then realized how numb his right hand was and started freaking out a bit. Had they performed their test while they sedated him? Was he going to lose his arm? Were they going to replace it?As soon as he gained complete consciousness, he started freaking out. He had just harmed himself without their permission.He bared his neck to them, and he would feel his whole being shake with fright as he awaited the button on his neck to be pushed. He knew that it would send a horrific amount of pain throughout his body for a total of ten ticks. His captors pressed it to show him obedience, but by this point, he had grown accustomed to saving them the trouble of forcing him to bare his neck. The sooner the pain was over with, the sooner he could recover, so he waited, but no push to the button was made. He stayed in the position, until he felt the creature that was near him move suddenly and his brain hot-wired on red alert. He bit his hand, right at the palm. It wasn't too hard, but enough that the being sent him flying across the cleaning facility and into what seemed like an oversized individual bathing chamber.He thought of moving after he was in the tub but thought it would save him the pain if he only stayed still. So, he stood, curled in a ball in the tub, hoping they wouldn't touch him anymore.They didn't, but they stayed in his room, taking things and putting them in a bag. It took a while for Keith to understand what they were doing, but he soon realized they were taking weapons away from him. He sighed as he finally took the time to look at his captors. The more he looked at them, the more they reminded him of something.The way their eyes were shaped, the way their skin wasn't filled with fur, or their hands appeared to only have five fingers. The more he took the time to inspect them, the more something in his mind clicked. They looked an awful lot like...something he had seen before. Something he had lost. A memory he had buried under layers of trauma.He didn’t move though and as they walked out, he followed them, knowing that they would pull him out later anyways. He ignored his body aching from just blacking out into his “Galra” phase.As he made his way behind them, slowly so they wouldn’t exactly notice and leave him alone, he looked at their hands again, the tanned creatures one.It felt dumb and impulsive decision, but he pulled at the creatures hand before he was about to leave the bathing chamber. He took note of how their hands interlocked perfectly, not how his hand was forcefully fitted into a large furry hand of a Galra.He wasn’t immediately pushed off, so he took the opportunity to inspect it before they got angry with him.."I think he is realizing we look like him," he could hear the other being say, but he ignored it as he brought his thin fingers feel the skin of his hand. He took note of how it felt like his own skin, and how soft and kind the features looked on the person’s face compared to what he was used to. He then accidentally brushed over the new bite mark and the creature made a pained sound. Keith flinched, and just bared his neck again instinctually, awaiting the awful sensation that his body would endure from the device. He had gone too far they were going to hurt him now. Why had he grabbed his hand? He knew better than to do stuff without orders.Like the last time though, no click came, and no pain was present, instead the same calming voice he heard before."No, it's okay. It didn't hurt that much," he heard the creature before him say as he tried to touch him, but he felt his hand retreat, probably from how much he felt himself trembling.He still waited for the pain and then he felt the tanned-creature touch his shoulder and he flinched even harder than before, tumbling back on the bed behind him and scooting all the way back to the headboard to avoid being touched again.He then heard an electronic voice coming from the walls and his stabilizing mind went haywire. He started remembering he was still in a prison. These people had still taken him from somewhere and he still didn’t know anything about them. The person speaking from the walls was probably telling them about what type of torture was next and he curled in tighter on himself.Slowly, he started rocking back and forth as he whimpered and tried to console himself. They were going to do something to him. Whatever that something was going to hurt, and the anticipation was terrifying.He didn’t snap out of his state until the doors closed and then he realized the people weren’t in the room. Even though, he felt like his body wouldn’t be able to sleep, he eventually passed out from exhaustion and the multiple panic attacks.That brought him to now, where he had stood for at least five minutes in silence, waiting for the scene to fade from focus, and for him to wake up strapped to a table. But no fading came, and he wasn’t bound to anything. He sighed as his head became confused as to what was going on. He thought that maybe when the creatures left, he would realize this was all another simulation and the guards would come to his cell and let off steam. He even hoped it would just cut to that, instead of dragging it out this long.For now, though, he was still in the lightly decorated place, that seemed somewhat more welcoming than the dark color scheme he was used to. If this wasn’t a simulation, it was a very different prison than he was used to, and it unsettled him.Where had he been taken now?He let himself explore the room again, and as he looked around, he made his way to the small cleaning facility. He managed to find what appeared to be some type of reflecting device. He had seen one before in the Galra prison and found it quite fascinating how it showed the reflection of what stood before it. He had only seen it a couple of times, the times being able to be counted on a single one of his hands throughout all his lifetime.As he looked at his reflection, he frowned as he realized this was definitely not a simulation. There had never been one of these reflection devices in a simulation and usually seeing himself in one of them broke the illusion, at least for him.He looked at himself though, noticing the scar going from his jaw, marking most of his cheek, the jagged ends of his hair from having it cut poorly by other prisoners. He noticed his skin. He looked closely at it and noticed its usual discoloration wasn’t there.The bruises he was used to seeing weren’t there and he looked down at himself to notice they truly weren’t anywhere. After his shock, he went to look at some of the things still left in the cleaning facility and noticed boxes of different scrubs and even some brushes left.They had some weird, alien language. He had only learned how to read Galran. Even at that, he hadn’t had a lot of practice in reading Galran. He didn’t even really speak it because he wasn’t really allowed to talk.It wasn’t as if he was allowed to talk he would. He hadn’t talked in a long time. After his mother had died, he lost the need to. When he had started being moved around in different prisons and treated much harsher, he was punished for speaking.His captors only wanted to hear him be in pain and whatever he said they didn’t listen anyway.As he went to look around the room, he suddenly found that a plate with what he assumed was food set down at the nightstand beside the bed. He had overlooked it before. He went closer to it and he saw a glob of green and a glass of water. There was also colorful blocks of something next to it.He felt his stomach grumble and he grabbed the tray and went to the floor where he usually ate in most prison ships he had been on. He remembered how degrading it had been to be on the floor while eating when the guards got to eat on actual tables, but he found comfort in it now.He then started grabbing at the glob with his hand, noticing it didn’t really taste like anything. It was another confirmation that he probably had been moved to another prison, seeing that none of the food he was ever given really tasted like much.When he was done, he drank the water and then noticed the colorful pieces of food next to it all. He had never seen such a thing in a long time.He remembered in one of the simulations, they had created a mirage of colorful food and he had eaten it naively. He remembered how awful he felt afterward, throwing up for days and feeling like he was dying. He left the cubes on the tray as he stood up and went to put it back on the nightstand.Afterwards, he settled down in the bed and started waiting for what would come next. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do. They usually either hauled him out of his cell by this point or were already hurting him consistently. He didn’t like not knowing what was coming next. He wished the creatures just told him what they wanted from him. As he was about to give up on waiting for them, he heard a sound outside of his door.He flinched and took a deep breath as he prepared himself.It was happening. He could do this. He had done it many times.He tried to keep his breathing even as the creatures came in. One had been here before. He was in what looked like red armor. The other one looked like a female. She was in blue armor. She had strange marking under her eyes and her skin was like the tan-skinned creature next to her.He’d never seen this type of species before. Were they crueler than the Galra?"He seems very stable," he heard the female like creature say as she nodded her head in his direction. He curled in on himself, starting to rock back and forth as he awaited their next actions.It would all be over soon. They would start doing whatever they wanted and it would just become routine from there. He could do it.“He is just scared,” the voice of the red armored-creature filled with room. Keith tried to focus hard on what they were saying. It wasn’t anything like the language he was used to hearing. It frustrated him how he couldn’t understand it. It seemed familiar, but not familiar enough."Yeah that bite mark tells me just how scared he is. He is dangerous Lance," the female said as she looked at Keith with disgust. It reminded him of how the other prisoners looked at him, and he hated the feeling her eyes made him feel. It was a condemning look, one of judgement. He found himself hissing at her for her to stop. It usually drove the guards and prisoners away at his previous prison. He would see if it worked here. When the female reacted by flinching back, Keith thought she was going to hit him, so he flinched in return and hid his face in his knees again.He had messed up. They were going to hurt him worse now."You are scaring him," the tan-skinned creature said. "All I did was look at him," she responded, “He hissed at me, Lance. What am I supposed to do? He’s like a rabid animal. It’s probably because of his Galra si-“"You need to learn how to put your prejudice aside. Shiro was a prisoner too, and look at him he is leading this team. Why can't you get it through your head that he isn't going to kill you? Look at him.We had to sedate him just to change him and get him some bandages because he would freak out when we touched him," the red one’s voice rambled. on. Keith groaned as he heard the words, and he let himself fall to his side, continuing to curl into a ball and grab at the blankets around him. After a while, he covered his ears with the sheets as he got tired of hearing the conversation. He wished they would just do whatever they had come here to do and stop making him so anxious.After a few moments of him zoning out, he felt a touch at his shoulder. He winced at the sudden touch and found himself sitting up immediately. He looked up and noticed it was the male creature looking at him."I know you don’t understand me but-" he said, and Keith just sat up staring at him, confused and afraid. Why couldn’t he understand? What were they saying? Why were they saying it so gently? Were they trying to trick him? Was this another test?"Okay, um, how do I tell you this, um, well we just made an alliance with a planet," he said, making a circle motion with his hands, Keith just looked at him with the same expression but it was growing even more confused and terrified.“Um, okay I’ll stop,” the creature said, “We are going to head somewhere else now. So we won’t be going on a lot of mission, so we will be able to rest for a few weeks,” he continued. He was rambling again and Keith was zoning out, growing frustrated at how long this was being dragged out, how anxious they were making him feel.“Well you don’t seem dangerous, Keith,” that drew his attention.Keith, he hadn’t heard that word in so long. Where was it from?He let himself think.
Keith.
Keith.
Keith.
“I love you Keith. It’s going to be alright. You will be alright. Please stay strong,” it had been his mother’s last words. She had said them in Galran and he remembered everyone around him understanding what she was saying. Their eyes of pity, their melancholic glances because they were witnessing a child losing their mother.
Holding their dead mother in their lap as their tears make tracts on her pale face.
Keith.
How did the male creature know that word? Why was he calling him that? He hadn’t been called that in years. No one but his mother had called him that. Did they know his mother? Is that why him and the other female creature in green looked like her?“So that is your name,” the creature said. He sounded surprised? Keith didn’t know, couldn’t tell. The dialect he was speaking could have been different, but it sounded surprised.“Keith,” the creature let the word slip out easily again as he smiled at Keith. All Keith could do was stare at him. What did this mean? He had so many questions he wanted to ask, so much he wanted to say, but he still didn’t know where he was. He still didn’t know if this was all another test, another simulation.This could all be a lie no matter how believable it seemed to be."Lance," the creature spoke again. Keith looked at him, confused again.“Keith,” he pointed towards Keith, “Lance,” he pointed to himself.Keith’s mind started to make the connection. The creature’s name was Lance. He nodded as he understood, but he felt a sense of dejection wash over him as he realized what it meant. Lance was only probably telling him his name so Keith could get acquainted with his captors.Maybe they wanted to put up a friendly face and make Keith trust them just before turning on him.“I think he understood that, right?” the creature spoke again, drawing Keith out of his thoughts. He noticed the annoyed look of the female creature looking at the whole ordeal playing out. He guessed she thought this was pointless. He bet her way of torture was just being cold and distant.He proffered that way. It was less confusing than whatever the male one in front of him was attempting."Lance, what is the point of this?" the female, "Just bring him to eat. Stop talking to him. It’s not like he understands what you are saying anyway."“Just because he doesn’t understand doesn’t mean we should at least try to make him feel human,” Lance said. Keith saw Lance straighten up after that and offer his hand to him."We should probably go eat, though,” Lance said as Keith looked at his hand, letting the tight curl of his body soften as he looked at him. What was he supposed to do? Was he supposed to take it? Was it a test?Lance just looked at him and then there was a shift in his hopeful expression. A frown as all Keith did was stare at his hand like it was going to hurt him. When he saw that shift, he was quick to move. He didn’t want to see what else it would change into. Usually after that frown came anger and he felt his body still too weak to handle that.“Be careful,” the female said as Keith made his way out of the bed and stood beside Lance. The fact that they were so close in height, with Keith because a tad bit smaller was alarming. It only brought up more curiosity he had to squash down. This wasn’t the time to be curious and he knew soon enough he would figure out if it was even a place that would be tolerant of it.“Just take him with Hunk," the female said as she walked out, leaving him alone with Lance. Keith didn’t know why that comforted him more in any way.“Come on,” Lance then said as he started walking away. Keith looked at him in panic. He was usually told what to do, the panic of not knowing what to do, not being able to figure out what they wanted started crushing him.The realization that he would take a long time to understand orders and then he would be punished for not knowing what to say or do or act or how to do anything to survive. It was crushing, he felt it crushing his lungs.“Hey, hey,” he heard, “Keith, you’re alright.” He felt hands on his shoulders, and he couldn’t even push them off if he tried because he was so focused on trying to stop the closing on his throat as he felt the anxiety engulf him.Why was it so hard to breathe? What was happening to him? The torture hadn’t even started and he was already breaking down. He wouldn’t make it long here. He was going to die in this prison. He didn’t even have any of his belongings with him, not that he had a lot, but he didn’t have anything.He was in a completely new place and he was going to die.“Keith!” It was sudden and it shocked him, “Keith breathe!” He managed to recognize it was Lance in front of him, “You need to breathe.”He then heard Lance breathing deeply, identified him going through the motions as he held him by his shoulders. Keith realized he wanted him to mimic him. He wasn’t sure he could, but he knew he would get hurt if he didn’t at least show he tried so he did.Breathing deeply until the aching I his chest stopped and the crushing feeling dissipated.“Okay, you’re alright,” Lance said, and Keith saw a relief on Lance’s face that made him feel relieved as well when Lance didn’t hit him or make an angry, threatening face.He was going to be fine for now at least.He just needed to figure out how to be fine for later.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Lance felt a wash of relief go over him as Keith calmed down.“You’re alright,” Lance kept repeating. He didn’t know if it was more for him or for Keith.Lance calming Keith down.Allura rushing in and realizing his mental state and about to be mean but Lance being protectiveTaking him to eat.Keith refusing to sit on a table. Keith refusing to eat the colorful stuff.Lance and Hunk eating it. Keith freaking out.Lance taking Keith on a tour. Shiro and Allura freaking out about Keith being alone on the ship.Keith having to wear cuffs. He actually seems happy about it. It breaks Lance’s heart.Lance shows him his room. Disgusting clothes he got at mall he never wears. Resembled earth clothes. Keith grows fond of them.He hands them to Keith who starts stripping aimlessly.They travel to the training deck. Lance shows sword Keith looks at him.“prob don’t fight” but here is where we train.Went to eat again. Eating on the floor. Dropping him off in his room. Lance goes in his room and immediately Keith is on the floor trying to get to him. Lance pushes him off. Keith is a mess and doesn’t understand.Runs away.Goes to pidgePidge in a ball curled with headphones on the floor and video is just going.Lance looks up and then at Pidge who is on the floor.Is that?Describe videoPidge nods and she freaks out. “What if that’s what they are doing to Matt?”Lane looked at Keith in bewilderment as he spoke."Lance," Keith said again, surprising himself as he spoke. He kept repeating his name over and over again in different tones. He almost seemed a little frightened by his own voice that it made Lance smile wider as he turned to look at Keith."Lance, we have to get-," Allura spoke as she opened the door slightly to come back for Lance."Lance!" Keith yelled, interrupting Allura."Did he just-," Allura began to ask as she looked at Keith in amazement."Yes, he just spoke," Lance smiled as he came closer to Keith. "Do you want to go get your food with me?" Lance asked as he made a sign trying to indicate eating to Keith. Keith looked at him and nodded as he rubbed his stomach, showing he was hungry."Lance we can't just have a prisoner wandering around," Allura interjected their mute conversation."I will be watching him. I mean he needs to realize where he is, maybe it will help him calm down," Lance suggested as he sat down back on the bed next to the cross-legged Keith who looked at Allura in confusion. It was obvious he did not yet know how to feel about her."He can realize where he is in this room," Allura said as she frowned as she pulled out a device and clicked some buttons on it."Allura, he is never going to get better if we don't stop treating him like a prisoner," Lance said."A prisoner? That is what he is-was Lance. He is part Galra. Who knows what they taught him to do? Sure, he seems weak now, but who knows what he is capable of?" Allura said as she pointed at Keith, making him hiss at her and grab a pillow from the bed, almost to shield himself from her."I think you should see something," Lance said as he got off the bed."Lance," Keith said as he looked at Lance, begging for him not to leave. Lance looked at him, almost indecisively as he didn't know what to do. He wanted to show Allura the logs Pidge had found, but he felt almost guilty if he left Keith alone again."Pidge got some logs," Lance announced as he sat back down on the bed. "I think you should look at them before you make any assumptions.""If you think these logs are going to change the fact that he is part Galra, it isn't-," Allura said."Just read the logs please," Lance interrupted. He noticed how Keith was looking at them, frustrated. "What if I made sure he didn't cause trouble? I would-," Lance said."It is too dangerous, we can't have a prisoner running around, at least not freely," Allura said, an idea popping into her head."No, we can't do that to him," Lance said, understanding what she was saying. There was no way he was willingly going to put restraints on him."If you want to take him out of this room, you will have to restrain him. I know how much you want to help him, but there is still much to figure out. And since he are going to the Blade of Marmora, we can't have our course delayed because of him," Allura said."Okay," was all Lance said as he battled his thoughts. Keith looked at him, still bewildered by all the words being exchanged."Do you have some- some...cuffs with you?" Lance finally asked after a couple of ticks of silence. "I can go get them from a storage closet, it will take a few ticks," Allura said and Lance nodded as he looked at Keith. The boy just looked at him, he was starting to get worried by his facial expression and he started clawing at the pillow with his hands."Here," Allura said as she entered the room once again with the restraints in her hand. They surprisingly looked nothing like the restraints Lance was used to seeing. They were like to white cuff bracelets. "They are magnetic," Allura said as she wrapped a small, thin bracelet around her wrist with a button on it."I'm sorry, but I don't want to leave you here alone, and the droids have to come clean up, and I think you will get scared if you see them," Lance apologized as he got the cuffs from Allura and set them down beside him on the bed. Keith eyed him, worried, as he looked at the bracelets and then at Lance. Lance sighed as he reached for Keith's hand. Keith shuddered as he was touched, but didn't fight it. Lance continued as he grabbed a cuff and started nearing it to Keith's wrist. As soon as Keith realized that the cuff was supposed to go on him, he looked at Lance, hurt almost. He didn't fight it though, but he looked at Lance, betrayed.Lance took another deep breath as he opened the cuff and placed Keith's wrist inside of it. Keith winced as the cuff shut close and he looked like he was awaiting some type of pain or shock. But as none came, he let a breath out he seemed to be holding.By the time Lance managed to put both cuffs on Keith, the boy was surpassingly calm. He was still shaking, but he hadn't tried to hurt Lance or attack him for putting the bracelets on him. Lance reached out his hand, and Allura handed him the remote bracelet, which he wrapped around his own wrist. Keith looked at him and then at Allura. "I will only push this button if he seems like he is going to put himself or others in danger," Lance told Allura as he pointed at the button. "But other than that, I don't want to make him walk around like a prisoner.'"Fair enough, but if anything happens, we are putting him in a hibernation pod," Allura warned and Keith looked at her, noticing her threatening tone, and started to shake more violently. "I'll call the cleaning droids, please don't get yourself killed,"Allura said as she walked out, leaving Lance and Keith alone on the bed."Let's go get you some food," Lance announced to Keith as he examined the bracelets around his wrists. Lance was about to help him out of bed, until he looked at the floor and noticed there were still pieces of glass all around. "I guess I will have to carry you, if that's alright with you?" Lanced asked, before he realized he wasn't going to get an answer.Lanced sighed as he stood up from the bed and held his hand out to Keith, who just looked at it and then put their palms together. Lance chuckled as he looked at the completely clueless Keith. "You have to hold it," Lance instructed as he pulled his hand away and tangled both of his hands together, showing Keith what he needed to do. Keith nodded and then when Lance held his hand out the next time, Keith grasped it. Lance took the opportunity to pull Keith in to carry him, but as soon as he started to do so, Keith started shaking and he immediately pulled away, looking at him in horror. "Hey, I'm not going to hurt you, it is just so you don't cut yourself with the glass. I promise I will let you walk by yourself as soon as we walk out the door," Lance said, hoping Keith would understand even a little bit of what he was saying. Unfortunately, he didn't and he curled on on himself as Lance tried to grasp him again.Lance looked around instead for something to get Keith out of bed, but gave up as he saw nothing. "Come on, work with me Keith. I won't hurt you," Lance tried again to reassure Keith, but he still looked at him with fear. "Okay, um how about you just get on my back then?" Lance suggested as he turned around and tapped his back, signaling for Keith to climb on him, but Keith just looked at him confused as to what he meant."Okay, look you need to eat, and I think it would do you some good if you ate by yourself instead of us having to feed you when we sedate you, so please, look I'm trying to help you," Lance said as he turned around and held out his hand to Keith. "Look I'm like you, I am human," Lance said as Keith looked at him, with less fear and uncurled himself."Here," Lance said as he grabbed Keith's hand, ignoring the obvious struggle, and put it to his chest, where Keith could feel his heart beat. After a couple of ticks, Keith looked at Lance like normal, and seemed to untense."You see? I am human, and I'm not going to hurt you," Lance said as he tried again to grasp Keith to carry him through the glass debris. At first he was hesitant, and he was trembling a lot, but Keith let himself be cradled, bridal style by Lance, and Lance took the opportunity to quickly rush through the door and across the glass filled floor."See? That wasn't so bad," Lance said as the door of Keith's room closed behind them, and Keith started tensing up in his grip. When he realized they were outside his room, he quickly shifted uncontrollably in Lance's grip and caused Lance to drop him.As Keith got up, he looked around in panic and he was about to turn the hallway, until the cleaning droids came and blocked his path. He panicked even more as the robots came towards him and he curled himself into a ball and looked as if he awaited to be beat.Lance winced as he thought how his first instinct was to protect himself from being beaten to death. The droids soon, made their way around Keith's curled up composure and proceeded to the room."Hey, it's okay, nobody is going to hurt you," Lance said, and he brought himself to sit on the floor beside Keith to try to get him to get up. He frowned as he could hear muffled sobs from Keith as he squeezed himself tighter in a ball."Hey it's just me, Lance," he said, and Keith's head bobbed up at the mention of the name. Lance could see his reddened eyes, and his cheeks that were now covered in tears. Keith looked around and he noticed the robots weren't there anymore and held onto himself a little less tight."Come on, let's go get you some food," Lance said as he got up and reached down his hand to help Keith up. Keith looked at the hand, and then at his own hand. After he seemed to realize the robots were completely gone, he clasped the hand and allowed himself to be helped up. He rubbed at his eyes and face with his free hand, wiping his previous tears away. Lance could feel a feeling of joy as he realized Keith was starting to feel safer.They made their way to the kitchen without bumping into anyone. Although Keith was on the edge the whole time, and closed his eyes half of the way there, he hadn't had another breakdown, which made Lance's feeling of reassurance stronger."Hey Lance-," Hunk greeted as they entered the kitchen, but his eyes widened a bit as he saw Keith."Could you try to at least seem a little less shocked?" Lance sarcastically said as he guided Keith to one of the counter table stools. Lance let go of Keith's hand, which he almost forgot Keith had been holding the whole way here."Here sit down," Lance said as he patted on the stool next to him. Keith looked at him confused and stood there looking at the stool."He looks like he has never seen a stool before," Hunk commented and Keith seemed to officially acknowledge the other person in the room. He started hyperventilating as he ran under the nearest table."Can you make something really quickly? Not anything too fancy though," Lance asked Hunk as he got off the stool and rushed to where Keith was huddled beneath a table. He was able to drag Keith out and guide him back to the stool, where Keith finally sat down. He seemed like he was going to make a run for it as soon as Lance settled down beside him, so Lance grabbed his hand to reassure him that he was okay."Here you go," Hunk said as he laid a small plate of fruit, milk, and crackers in front of Keith. Keith looked at Hunk instead of the food and his eyes started going wide, squeezing Lance's hand as he stared as Hunk."Hunk could you give him your hand?" Lance asked, and Hunk looked at him, confused. "It is to show him you are human," Lance said, and Hunk nodded hesitantly, holding out his hand to Keith, who took note of how much bigger it was. Hunk appeared to get too close and Keith tried to bite at the hand before him."Lance, he tried to bite me!" Hunk said, retracting his hand."He is just scared," Lance told him. "Human," then said as he pointed at Hunk. Keith looked at him, not fully understanding what he meant."Human," Lance said again pointed at Keith, and then at himself."Lance," Keith said, almost correcting Lance as he pointed at him. Lance chuckled as he brought their intertwined hands to Keith's face. "Human," Lance said again as he signaled at their hands and then at Hunk. Keith looked at him, like as if something clicked and looked at Hunk, letting go of Lance's hand and reaching for Hunk's.Lance nodded at Hunk, as Hunk hesitantly allowed Keith to hold his big hand with both of his across the counter. Keith analyzed it the same way he had Lance's. After a while he crawled on top of the counter, and hesitantly reached his hand out to Hunk's chest. Lance nodded again, to reassure Hunk to let him, and Hunk stood still, letting Keith search for his heart beat.When he found it, Keith smiled and retracted his hand, He pointed at Hunk and said, "Human."Lance smiled as he helped Keith pull back and sit back in his stool."He isn't as bad as Allura makes him out to be," Hunk said as he seemed to process everything that just happened."Yeah, he really isn't," Lance agreed as he smiled at Keith. "You just have to be a little patient."Lance only got Keith to eat the crackers and drink half of the milk. He tried to feed Keith the fruit, but as soon as it made its way into his throat, he made himself throw up, so Lance just decided that crackers and milk would have to do for now.After he ate, Lance thought it would be a good idea to try to get Keith to bathe. He led Keith back to the big room where he was staying, that had been cleaned up by the cleaning droids, and led him into the large bathroom. He turned on the water, but as soon as Keith realized what was going on, he started screaming and tried to bite at Lance yet again to let him go. So eventually Lance decided, that bathing would just have to wait until Keith was calmer. After running away from the bath, Keith had gone back to his bed, and when Lance got close to him, he would scream. Lance ignored the piercing screams that filled the room, and continued to try and calm Keith down, but instead Keith bit at him again and hissed at him to leave him alone. After a persistent ten minutes, Lance decided to leave Keith alone, and he would come back later for when he calmed down.He thought it would be a good idea to let him rest anyways, so he sat in one of the chairs until Keith fell asleep, and then left to the computer room, where of course Pidge was at. Lance was beginning to think she never actually used her own quarters and just lived in there."Hey," he greeted as he walked in, and Pidge looked up from her computer, her eyes were red with tears and Lance looked at her with worry. "What is going on?" Lance asked as he rushed up to her in worry."How-how, c-can they do t-that to s-someone?" Pidge sobbed her question out."What do you mean?" Lance asked, as he looked at her computer screen. He felt like throwing up as he saw the sight.[He saw a small child bound to a table, He was gagged by what appeared to be a metal spike ball. It was causing his lips and mouth to drip vibrant red and his eyes were wide and in fear. He was wearing what appeared to be a purple tattered shirt that reached midway down his thigh. His legs were bare and covered in deep gashes and his hair was black and short. He could see that he appeared to be looking at some screen, as his eyes teared up, they were the same indigo color as Keith's and Lance soon made the conclusion that, that could be Keith.]Lance was glad that Pidge was wearing headphones, or else he would have probably thrown up right then and there is he was able to hear exactly what was going on. He looked at the screen for a couple more seconds before closing the laptop. "Pidge, you don't need to be looking at that," Lance finally stammered out as he gathered himself."Th-they are h-horrible," Pidge said, as her sobbing calmed down.Lance just embraced her as she completely calmed down.'Where did you even get that? I thought there were only logs," Lance finally said when she pulled away from his hug."Well-there was a lot more than I thought, and I wasn't able to get all the logs. But just today, as I got a few more, I noticed that there were videos attached to it," Pidge said, looking down at her hands, Lance could see that she was trying to push out the disturbing images."How old-how old, was he...in that video?" Lance managed to ask, almost not wanting to know the answer."F-four, he was just freaking four," Pidge said as she started tearing up again. Lance could instantly feel the desire to throw up once more and he looked at the floor beneath him."Why would they do that?" Lance asked as he kept looking at the floor."They were testing what he would be willing to endure for another," Pidge stammered out. Lance didn't talk, but he signaled for her to continue explaining. "They would show him videos of his mom being tortured, and the longer he endured the pain, the less she would be tortured for," Pidge said as she soon looked at Lance with the same feeling of disgust and disturbance.Lance was about to say something, but he suddenly fell for a loss of words as he imagined the scene in his mind. He didn't know how to respond to that, and he didn't know how Pidge could even function after watching and reading that log. It made him even sicker imaging what else was in that video. They stood there for at least five minutes in silence before Lance ran to the nearest waste basket and threw up.
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[P
risoner H546-98 was able to survive a week in isolation. He was in poor condition though, and the druids had to heal him up. The subject did not respond well to the feeling of being healed and went into animalistic state once he appeared to be able to fend for himself. He had to be tranquilized and is restrained in his cell until further notice.
We have discovered so much about the human species already through this test subject. Humans do not pose a threat to the Galran empire, but they could be of great service if they are bred with Galran species. Since this is the first subject that has managed to survive this long, we are working vigorously for we have a time limit in this war. Since its human mother seems to be the only one who is able to care for the child, we have decided to spare her life.
If she bonds with the child, she may be a great asset in getting the child to do what we want it to. For we hear, that such creatures are bonded to their offspring in a way that presents a great weakness.
As of now, the only superficial state of the child being Galra is its 'feral mode' where it is able to be stronger and swifter in its movements. We will try to trigger this 'mode' again as the subject wakes up. IF we can learn how to manage it, we might be able to use its DNA to trigger the same affect on our own troops in battle.
It all depends on the subject though, so until further notice, it would't be safe to mix DNA with the test subject, or any of our troops. We will log more once the child appears to be awake. The files of the isolation time of the child are attached below and we hope to note some valuable observations from whomever views these files. Please report any key observations to your commanding scientist.]
Lance let go a breath he didn't even know he was holding, as he finished reading the log. It had been a few hours since he had viewed part of the video on the log Pidge was on. She still hadn't come out of her quarters after she left. Shiro even came asking what happened, for she locked herself in, not responding to anyone.'It's the logs' was all that Lance could tell him because it was indeed these sadistic and messed up logs. He wasn't going to finish up the ones that Pidge had sent him, the third one to be precise, but he somehow found himself needing to know more, and he din't feel it was right to go and ask Pidge to summarize it for him from the state that she was in.Lance sighed as he slowly edged his finger to the file attached to the log. He battled reasons to click it. He could click it and see Keith in a horrible state. I mean it couldn't be something other than purely horrifying, as he would be watching how a two year old starts to break down in complete isolation. On the other hand, he might be able t uncover some things that would tell him more about Keith, and help him understand him better. He almost chuckled at the thought of ever being able to understand what he had been through.I mean he was red to solely be experimented on his whole life, and by the looks of how his prison wasn't well guarded, the experiment lost motivation and had become some type of sick game for the Galra to entertain themselves. Lance could feel his body chill as he thought of how he had found Keith. His eyes were closed, and his mouth cut, and dry. His mouth agape as if begging for some type of hydration. He remembered his matted hair that was tangled and a complete mess. But most of all he remembered how he had blood running down his legs, Lance could feel himself shiver at the horrifying picture in his mind, and he quickly tried to block the image out.He tried ot picture Keith now. He was actually looking better. His clothes were actual articles of clothing, not the lame excuse for clothes that was the filthy grey shirt he was found in, coated his blood splatters and other questionable body fluids. His hair was washed, although starting to get dirty again, at least it wasn't coated with filth like it had before. He also seemed to be getting a lot of sleep, the more Lance thought about it the more he realized that Keith had actually slept a lot, and it wouldn't be soon before he started actually sleeping, and not just passing out due to sleep deprivation. He was bound to start having nightmares soon and seeing as he started growing more comfortable with Lance, he would have to be there to deal with it. Finally, he made a decision and turned off his computer. He wasn't going to sit through another video of watching Keith in pain. He was about to talk out of the room when Allura came in. "OH, hi, Lance," Allura greeted quietly as she hesitantly walked over to the computer next to Lance."Hi, I was just heading out," Lance said as he stood there."Oh- I was just going to look at those logs you told me about," Allura suddenly said. "I mean ever since you told me I should I wanted to, but after seeing how Pidge has literally not come out of her room from looking at them-," Allura said."They are horrible, and they will only make you hate the Galra more," Lance suddenly interjected, knowing she was going to ask to see the for herself. Lance couldn't bring himself to get her to see them anymore after what he saw on Pidge's screen. In good conscience, he couldn't recommend anyone watch those videos or read those horrific logs."Yes, I understand that, but-," Allura began to say."I can't let you watch them without feeling guilty Allura," Lance said. "You won't like what you read or see, and we don't need more of our team falling apart because of what these logs could do to them.""Lance, I just feel-," Allura said. "I just feel guilty myself. I judged the boy-Keith, I judged Keith, and now I see that I was wrong. I mean can't you at least help me understand him?""Allura-," Lance began to say, he really didn't want to have to explain to her."Please, Lance," Allura said. After a moment of silence, Lance nodded solemnly and sat down on one of the couches, Allura sitting on the one perpendicular to him. "Well he isn't-wasn't like a normal prisoner we usually see," Lance began to say, trying to find a way to word it."I mean he is Galra, so-," Allura said."He is part Galra, Allura, and he didn't ask to be that way," Lance said sternly."Sorry," Allura apologized as she waited for him to continue."He was bred, meaning that the Galra made him. From what I have read, they wanted to know more about humans, and how a human-Galra hybrid would function. They were planning to use him as a weapon, but something went wrong," Lance said."What do you mean something went wrong?" Allura asked."I don't know what exactly, but they weren't able to use him for what they needed, so instead they have been using him for experiments since I don't know when," Lance said as he let his head fall onto his hands. He hated how this was actually possible."So you are saying this boy was made somehow just to be treated like some type of Galran experiment?" Allura asked, and Lance nodded, still holding his face in his hands. He inhaled sharply and looked up at her, leaning back and sitting upright."He just-he never has known anything else besides a cell, Allura. He has probably never seen another human other than his mother." Lance said. " I mean he hasn't even seen fruit for goodness sake. He ate it, and thought we were trying to poison him, so he forced himself to throw up," Lance added as he remembered how Keith had desperately stuck his fingers in his mouth, trying to get the fruit from his system."Lance, I am so sorry," Allura said, and Lance took note at how her voice cracked and quavered. "I didn't know, and I made assumptions, and -oh my- I, how can the Galra do this? How can they-oh," she said as she started to look angrier than sad."I don't know, I honestly don't know. All I know is it gives me motivation to put a stop to this because if they are capable of this, who else knows what they are capable of?" Lance said as he managed to stand up and walk over to his computer."What are you doing?" Allura asked, as she too rose from the couch and followed Lance."I'm going to search the prison databases," he responded."Isn't Pidge already doing that?" Allura asked."She opened up the prison database to us, and she is getting his logs for us. I am going to check every other source for information on Keith," he said as he pulled up the last log he was reading."You mean, we don't already have his information?" Allura asked, confused as to what Lance meant."All we have are his logs and his basic prisoner overview. If I type his prisoner code, then everything relating to him should pop up. It might let us know more about him, and could even show us who his parents could be. It also could show us more to help him. I mean if we can access his medical data, then we can use it to tell the healing pod exactly what to look for," Lance explained."Are you sure this is such a good idea, Lance?" Allura found herself asking. Lance stopped what he was doing and looked at her."What do you mean, if it's a good idea? This will help us find out more about him," Lance said, getting defensive about the issue."Lance, I know what it will do, that's why I am concerned," Allura said, Lance looked at her still, his fingers hovering over the keyboard. "I understand you trying to help him-Keith, but you are starting to invest in him too much. I understand what he went through is more than horrific and terrible-," Allura began to explain."Allura, are you listening to yourself? It sounds like you are saying we should just let him go, or drop him off like he is some kind of liability," Lance said, noticing how Allura wasn't stopping him. "You think he is a liability? Allura, how could you-," Lance began to say, his voice rising."Lance, I know you think I am horrible for thinking that, but look at us. We are fighting a war, and I would more than love to help Keith, but the universe is depending on us, we can't be taking care of a prisoner and tending to their needs, when we need to be saving every being in it. I am not saying he just abandon him, I am just saying we take him to a place where he will be safe and taken care of," Allura said."You are saying exactly that, Allura! What if they are Atlean? I bet you would be fighting everyone on letting him stay if he was liek you!" Lance burst out, turning to face her now."That is a whole different matter, Keith is human, there are plenty of humans on Earth that are more than capable of tending to his needs," Allura responded."Oh yes, because Earth is going to be very understanding when we drop off someone that is half alien, and has been experimented on since birth. They are going to be so not suspicious when they see how he shouldn't even be alive. What a great idea, Allura," Lance said sarcastically, making large hand gestures as the argument to more heated."Well there are other options. He is hurting our team Lance. Look at you and Pidge, you guys are both breaking down from those logs, and you haven't rested properly since he got here. Not to mention how Shiro is not even capable of wandering the halls because every time he sees Keith he starts having a memory. Lance, he is breaking us apart," Allura yelled."So what? It's not his fault that he was born to suffer! We can't just turn our back when we can do more than help him. I mean we are Voltron and you are somehow telling me that we are not capable of pulling ourselves together to help one person get their life back on track? What if it were one of us, what if it was Shiro who was broken like him, would you still bring up the 'we can't handle out shit card'?" Lance asked."Stop saying what if, this isn't a 'what if' situation. He is a prisoner, a Galran scientific prisoner Lance! That is exactly why we can't have him on the ship!"Allura said."Oh, so we are back to him being Galra, yeah nice one Allura, like he freaking asked to be Galra, it's not like he had a choice!" Lance yelled and suddenly the doors to the computer room slide open, Hunk and Shiro running in."What? What happened?" Allura asked, noticing their troubled faces."Keith is gone," Hunk said. Lance could feel his whole body quake. What did they mean he was gone?"Like he isn't in his room, or-" Lance began to ask, frustrated still from the argument with Allura."I went to give him some more food, but he wasn't in his room," Hunk said."He probably just got scared," Lance said. "I mean it's not that big of a deal. I'm surprised he hasn't tried to get out by himself before. he is just exploring probably. I'll go find him myself, cause I know everyone else but Pidge and I think he is something other than-" "That's not it Lance!" Shiro yelled abruptly, causing Allura and Lance to flinch. "Pidge," he said. "We can't find her either."
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'What do you mean you can't find her?" Allura asked. "Can't you find her on the cameras?""I was staying outside her room because she wouldn't come out, and then when I finally opened the door she wasn't there. Her computer is gone as well. I went to try to find you, but I only found Shiro," Hunk explained."And you somehow think that Keith has something to do with this?" Lance asked defensively."I checked everywhere, including Keith's room, but when I went to look, he wasn't there. She could have gone in and he could of attacked her-," Shiro explained."This is why nobody is allowed to visit him alone," Allura scolded as she rushed to a computer. "Let me check the cameras.""We already tried that, and they seem to be blocked," Hunk said."Where is Coran?" Allura asked frustrated as she turned to the rest of the team."Last, I knew he was checking the ship's operating systems at the lower level," Shiro said."Have you checked if Pidge is with him?" Allura asked."Yes, of course we did, we wouldn't want to make it a big deal if we hadn't checked everything first," Shiro said. "I knew this was all a bad idea," Shiro muttered quietly."What?" Lance asked, but Shiro quieted down. "You mean rescuing a prisoner was a bad idea, oh god please punish us for freeing a helpless prisoner from the wings of a cruel dictatorship," Lance said."You know what he means, Lance," Allura said."How can you even say that, you were a prisoner too," Lance said to Shiro."That's different, I am not part Galra, and I wasn't bred by the Galra," Shiro said."Guys! Pidge is nowhere to be seen. If this has anything to do with Keith, we don't know, but fighting about it isn't going to help us find either of them," Hunk declared as he tried to simmer the boiling fight down."Hunk's right," Shiro sighed as he looked at Lance."Tell Coran to try and get the cameras and security defenses working again, and help him if it makes them work any faster," Shiro ordered Hunk and he nodded as he rushed out of the room. "Allura you go check her quarters and try to find anything that could lead us to her," he added and Allura listened and rushed out."Lance-," Shiro began."I am going to go find Keith," Lance said, as he looked at Shiro defiantly."I know you are, but I am coming with you," Shiro said. Lance took a second to look at him before nodding. They both rushed out the door to start their search.Pidge had been crying from the video she watched. All she could picture was Keith sprawled out, his limbs restrained and his young, four year old face covered in his own blood and tears.Pidge shuddered at the thought, just thinking about it made her cringe in pain. How could someone do that to a person, how could they be so vile and cruel to test a four year old like that? Pidge could feel more tears start to erupt from her eyes as she thought about it more.After a couple of seconds, she could hear people outside her door, they were probably worried about her. But going outside meant having to explain what she saw, or being all suspicious and hiding it like some type of messed up secret, which it was. She didn't want to worry them either way, so she just stayed, curled up in a ball in the corner of her room, alone."Pidge, please let me come in," she could hear Shiro say, and she just dug her head deeper into her arms. Pidge could only think of how many memories this could bring up for Shiro. If he ever laid his eyes on those logs, she felt the whole team would just fall apart. He could not only remember things about himself, but things to Matt. And Pidge flinched at the own thought, She pictured her own brother going through the blood coiling, gruesome experiments, ands she almost felt herself throw up. She suddenly felt herself start heaving, and she quickly got up in panic."I have to get rid of them, I have to get rid of them," she repeated to herself in a whisper over and over again. Her room had a secret opening that she found out about while scanning the room, so she quickly pushed at a part in the wall, and it opened up, letting her crawl in quickly with her lab equipment. As she exited through the passageway, she looked around. Her chest was still bobbing up and down erratically."I can't let them see, I have to get rid of it," Pidge kept repeating to herself. As soon as she got situated she went to her computer equipment and turned off all location services on herself, and shut down the camera security system. She knew if Lance spotted her, he would stop her, and she couldn't have that.As she looked on her computer, she logged onto one of the cameras in the computer room, logging it on. She heaved as she saw Lance and Allura in there. Lance could have shown Allura everything and they could have already seen everything. Everyone was going to fall apart because of her stupid obsession with wanting to know what happened, with wanting to just be a little closer to her brother.It was stupid thinking a human-bred prisoner would lead her to any clues about her brother. Instead he has brought nothing but hateful and gore filled sights to Pidge's eyes. Not only that, but Pidge can only imagine what they did to her brother, or if he had been captured again, or what could be happening to him.When she finally faced that she could not barge into the computer room and just erase everything without Lance noticing. I mean how stupid was it for her to sync up her data with Lance. They had made a stupid pact where both of them had to be in consent to delete the files, and Pidge was not in the right mindset to use her hacking skills to the full potential, or risk her getting caught or doing something stupid to the defenses.She was just angry. She was angry at Lance for knowing this, and throwing up and just making her feel worse. She is angry that this could have happened to her brother and she was worlds away from him, as he probably stood helpless against his vicious captors. She could feel herself tearing up. She sniffed, and she figured out how she could just get rid of all this.She had to go see Keith. She was angry at Keith. For bringing this all on her, and the team, for tearing everything apart. For some reason, her anger and her sadness were enough to fill this cruel and longshotted view that this was all Keith's fault. That all their problems were linked to an innocent and tortured being. So she ran, she left her computer and ran as fast as she could to Keith's room. She reached his door and pulled out her bayard, unlocking the door. She had to get answers.She could see Keith was sleeping, his room dark and peaceful, and she lingered in, the door shutting close behind her, making Keith squirm in bed. She came up to him and waved her bayard, trying to wake him. Keith groaned as his eyes started fluttering open, and he blinked, adjusting to Pidge's stance over him, He rubbed his eyes and whimpered as he tried to slide backwards into the headboard of them bed, his eyes with fear as PIdge held her bayard close to him."Shh," Pidge said.Keith nodded his head violently from side to side as he sat upright, his neck centimeters away from Pidge's bayard."Why did you do this to us?" Pidge said, as she held her stance, making Keith start to tear up. "Don't you start crying! You are tearing this whole team apart!"Keith looked at her with terror as the small bayard blade started inching closer to her neck, he whimpered as he leaned back all the way against the headboard to support himself."Don't do that! Stop playing so innocent! You are tearing this team part and you know it! You have to, just look at you!" Pidge yelled out in frustration, her words not making sense anymore and tears started to form at her eyes."You shouldn't have given up, you should have fought harder and not given up!" Pidge yelled and Keith looked at her, full on sobbing by now, as he supported himself against the headboard."How could you give up on your own brother!-How-how-how can you-just," Pidge yelled out, starting to sob, realizing she wasn't talking about Keith anymore, she retracted her bayard a little, and Keith took the opportunity to move away, but Pidge saw sudden movement and automatically drew her bayard again, the electronic blade stabbing into the button of Keith's neck. Pidge gasped as she moved away her hand and dropped her bayard.Keith's eyes went wide as the bayard caused the tech to go wild. He started looking like he was having a seizure, and his limbs went numb after a couple of seconds. Pidge sighed as she thought it was over, nearing him, but it started again and again. Her bayard must have caused a malfunction from the overstimulated electricity current."Keith! Keith!" Pidge yelled as she tried to hold him still as he spasmed. She caught a glimpse of his eyes and he looked to be in so much pain. There were tears running down his face as he bit his lip during periods of time where his body stopped shaking. Pidge started crying as she saw him in pain, the video coming back into her mind."I''m sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Pidge said as she looked around for something to help Keith, anything would work. She sighed as she realized there were sedatives in the supply closet not too far away from here. She ran towards the closet, forgetting to lock the door behind her in panic. She opened the closet and made a mess shuffling through all the supplies, finally finding a sedative she knew worked. She ran as fast as she possibly could back to the room.She completely ignored the open door and looked around at the dim lit room. Keith was no longer on the bed shaking and trembling in pain. His body wasn't having spasms or going haywire, he wasn't there.PIdge looked around. "Keith! Keith!" she yelled as she realized what she had done. "Shit!" Pidge said as she threw the box with the sedative on the floor harshly. "Shit, shit shit shit," she repeated as she started crying.What had she done?
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Keith was asleep. He was tucked in his bed and sound asleep. He soon realized he got too comfortable. He relied too much on the kindness of the other humans to last longer, or even last at all.He learned this as he started to hear faint noises of his room opening. He shoved the noises out, not wanting to get up and face them or sit through a conversation he did not understand, so he tried to stay asleep, and then he heard buzzing.He recalled it was the same buzzing from the weapons the humans held, so he slightly opened his eyes to see what it was exactly.As soon as he saw the small human dressed in green with their weapon above him, he could hear a whimper escape his body as he tried to quickly get away and shield himself.He then realized he had been too trusting. The test were finally going to begin now. He cold feel his being cower into the headboard, as far away as he could get without making sudden movements. He wasn't going to let them experiment on him without some type of resistance. He couldn't just go directly back to being a test subject, so he sat there and tried to stay still, as the weapon drew closer to his neck. At least they weren't forcefully grabbing him, so he was a lot calmer until the human made a sound."Shh," it said, trying to be calming in some odd way, but it just made Keith back away more. He nodded his head from side to side erratically, just trying to beg for them to hold the test until later, he couldn't take it right now, he needed more time."Why did you do this to us?" the creature said. Keith just looked at them in horror, cursing himself for not understanding. He could already feel his eyes start to water. He didn't know what to do or say, and the more they spoke the more confusing and frustrating the situation became. Not to mention, the closer the weapon got to his neck, and he started to panic."Don't do that! Stop playing so innocent! You are tearing this team part and you know it! You have to, just look at you!" the green dressed human yelled out. Keith noticed how their eyes were filled with anger, and it was weird. He had never seen that look of anger in someone's eyes.He usually only saw satisfaction in his pain or his use as a lab object. But never anger, he never saw the emotion up close. Nevertheless, it scared him, a lot more than the looks he was used to, and he could feel tears start to slip from his eyes as he saw the anger rise in the being."You shouldn't have given up, you should have fought harder and not given up!" they yelled and Keith looked at them, full on sobbing by now, as he supported himself against the headboard. He couldn't deal with this, it was too much. He didn't understand what he was doing wrong. The human wasn't prying at him to follow them or yelling order like things, they were just yelling in fury, expecting him to answer."How could you give up on your own brother!-How-how-how can you-just," they yelled out, starting to sob. Keith looked at them from his tear filled eyes and noticed how they put her guard down for a second. He immediately took the opportunity to finally run away, but as soon as he did he could see the being move and he felt the weapon stab into the button on his neck.He screamed, but because he learned that screaming usually gave his captors satisfaction in giving him pain, he bit his arm as hard as he could as he felt the pain convulse throughout his being for the first time. His whole body shook at first and he collapsed onto the bed, then it stopped. Keith panted and heaved out air until it started again and he resorted to biting his lip instead.He could hear muffled yelling probably from the being, but after a while he felt his eardrums ring white noise and the shocks made his whole body seize.It hurt, it hurt so much, that he felt his voice start to go away after a couple of shocks. He didn't even notice how the being had left for a couple of seconds, until the shocking stopped. He took the opportunity to recover and wait out the next shock. Fortunately, the shocks were less prolonged, and they came less frequently, allowing Keith to catch his breath and muster up little strength to force himself out of the bed.He immediately fell on the floor, not able to gather enough strength to stand up by himself. So he slowly, but surely crawled as well as he could. His breathing could be heard around him as he occasionally fell out of consciousness for half a second before making it out the opened door of his room.He had to get away. The beings weren't friendly and they were just like the rest. He had had captors like them before, but just not as nice and convincing. They used tactics to get him to trust them, and then slyly betrayed his trust by doing things like this. How had he been so stupid as to believe that just cause they looked like him they were any different? It was probably even a disguise, they were probably druids like Haggar on the ship he had been on before.He couldn't ignore how much it hurt though. He thought they were safe, they were something better. He thought Lance was something better, but if he was, how could he let his friend do that to Keith. If he cared, why would he allow for such a painful thing to be done to Keith?"Keith! Keith!" he could hear voices call, and that forced the little adrenaline rush his body was able to produce burst though him, giving him the motivation to stand up, limping as the tech on his neck occasionally caused him to spazz at any given time, causing him to bump into a wall have to stop and bite his arm to keep quiet.Nevertheless, he tried. He tried his absolute best to get away, and he started weighing out his options. If he could not find a place to hide, he should be looking for something to hurt himself with. He couldn't deal with it. It had been more than a week since the button had even been touched and to have a sudden rush of painful shocks pervade his entire body, made him realize exactly what he was.He wasn't a human or whatever the creatures had told him. He was a prisoner, an experiment, a whore, and nothing more than someone with no control over their life. Keith processed how he could be so stupid as to think that anything would or could have ever changed.He had been so blind and idiotic, so hopeful, and for what? To have a buzzing green blade held to his neck, and be stabbed into submission?He panted as he took a break against a hallway wall. He his head fall forward, his forehead touching the cold surface as he put his arms against the wall. He tried to catch his breath, somehow keep it under control, but every time he got close, his body would be shocked and the process would be ruined. Soon enough, a prolonged shock came and he wasn't able to hold himself up, so he fell. He fell hard and brutally to the ground, and he could feel the world starting to blur as his head hit against the floor beneath him. All he remembered before passing out were the white surroundings and the sound of his body trying to control his breathing finally tuning out. When he finally awoke, his whole body was sore. He felt cold and he didn't recognize where he was for a second. It was white, like the rest of the ship he remembered passing out on. Okay, so they hadn't transferred him. At least, that is what it looked like. It did however, not look like anything he was used to. He slowly saw up and winced at the pain pervading throughout his body. It hurt, but honestly, he was almost numb to the feeling by now. His senses were starting to kick in.Every shock, kick, punch, slap, and even stab bore into his mind. The shocks had only been a tad reminder of what he had been through and what he has faced. He could feel himself yawn as he started looking around.There was nothing around him that seemed familiar. It was just a white room, and he was on a ground level bed with nothing but a coat hanger like thing on the opposite side of where he was laying down. He yawned and as the sleep slipped out of his eyes, he jolted awake and sat up completely. His body ached in protest, but he willed himself to stand up. He took note of how his clothes smelled, clean and washed. His hair was also smoother and felt like Lance's. Although, he appreciated being clean, he frowned because he didn't like the idea of anyone doing anything to him while he was unconscious, despite it happening so many times.Suddenly, the door to the room opened, and he dashed to a corner, realizing there was nothing to hide behind in the room. He cursed internally for not going to at least the bed, that had covers he could have hidden in, but took note of how obvious the lump in the bed would have been to anyone that had walked in."Hey," he heard whoever come in say, and he immediately recognized who it was.It was Lance, he knew it was Lance, but he didn't look up from the curled position he was in at that open, and white corner. He only tucked himself deeper into his knees. He knew he would be greeted by that warm and loving smile, and he didn't want it.It made everything so confusing, so twisted in meaning. He had been hurt by whomever was with him before. They had shocked him, and all he could remember was the pain and the way their face contorted in an angry manner, How they gritted their teeth in anger and yelled at him as if he had done something wrong, expecting him to answer, making him feel even more idiotic than he already thought he was.He wanted them to stop. He almost wished for them to just hurt him and stop being so kind, to stop confusing him and associating them with safety to be hurt in return."Keith, it's Lance," he said again to the curled Keith. "Keith, I know you are scared, but Pidge didn't mean to do that," Lance added as he placed a hand on Keith's shoulder, on top of the white t-shirt he was wearing. Keith didn't flinch instead Lance could hear him make some type of weak and fragile noise as he stuffed his head deeper into his tucked knees and wrapped arms."I'm sorry," Lance said as he pulled his hand away and sat in front of Keith on the floor."She was just, emotional and she is very sorry," Lance said as he looked at Keith, who was now visibly trembling. He was scared and he wanted to just be left alone, and he knew that it wasn't possible. He knew he had no power to tell him to go away, and the more he faced it, the weaker his frame and his body became. He suddenly kept on thinking on what they could possibly do to him.Would they shock him again? Or worse do that test where they would put that thing in him? The thing that made the weird feeling and white liquid come from him?He could almost feel their hands on him. Furry, purple hands on him. It hurt. He could remember how much it hurt. Where he was before, they were growing fond of performing that test now, it seemed to be the only thing they were fond of for a few months. He didn't know what they were testing during it. If it was his screaming? How much pain he endured? Or maybe it was just simply for fun because the main person that ordered for the tests, Varkz, wouldn't be there anymore. Keith didn't even notice as arms were enclosing him until he heard Lance speak, breaking his thoughts."Keith, I know what she did was horrible, but you are okay now," Lance said as Keith's eyes grew wide from the sudden touch.He whimpered and immediately pushed at Lance for him to get away from him. His words seemed kind, but he was probably holding him to pick him up or take him somewhere, and he didn't want that, he didn't want to be taken anywhere, or do anything other than stay in the room, alone."Keith, I'm not going to hurt you," Lance said and Keith brought his eyes to meet his blue ones and he hated how safe they made him feel. They weren't yellow Galra eyes, they were glowing, or emotionless. They were pouring with love and concern and Keith hated it. How it brought up this weird feeling that made him feel like he should feel thankful for being here, for being on this new prison ship."Stop being scared please," Lance said as he pulled all the way back to his sitting position, leaving Keith in his tucked position, staring at him.Keith wanted so badly to understand him, to know what that kind tone was trying to say to him, but instead he just took a deep breath and touched his face, he surprised himself as he felt his cheek were wet with that weird, warm liquid from his eyes."Tears," Lance said as he pointed to Keith's eyes and cheek. Keith looked up at him and shied away."Those are called tears," Lance said repeated that word, tears, "Tears," he said again pointing to the liquid he had rubbed away from his face.Keith then processed that the liquid was called tears, and then could feel Lance awaiting for him to repeat the words to him, but he didn't. His throat hurt from screaming before and he knew if he spoke it would cause Lance to smile and look so proud of him somehow. Like as if he was worth something, and he didn't feel worth anything right now, he didn't want to feel like anything right now, he just wanted to be left alone.If only he would be taught how to tell them that, not like they would listen though.Keith scoffed in his mind, he knew they would listen, that is what made everything so confusing. If that other creature hadn't shocked him, he wouldn't be questioning everything. If he didn't have to be reminded that he had no power, maybe he would have talked to Lance, and felt the need to thank him somehow for making him feel safe.But he didn't feel safe anymore, that was the problem. He felt betrayed and confused. He found more tears spill as he acknowledged how much he wanted his mom right now. How much he missed having her to comfort him, the only person that he was sure loved him and wanted to make him feel better. "Keith, please I'm sorry," Lance suddenly said as Keith noticed how Lance had tears on his face too. It was enough to pull Keith from his own emotions and make his brain stir with even more confusion. Why was Lance crying? Keith knew that tears came only from feelings of sadness? Why was Lance sad? "I-I-, shouldn't have l-et you out of my sight. I- kn-ew how much e-everyone would have reacted, and I-," Lance sobbed as he dug his face in his hands, trying to muffle his sobs. Keith looked at him and felt even sadder, somehow the sight of someone that had been so kind to him crying, made his heart burn, it made his body shiver in some type of weird pain. He didn't know why, he shouldn't have cared so much about Lance, for all he knew it could all be an act. But something in him made him feel it wasn't.He had never seen someone else cry, that was the thing. He had seen his mother cry when she was in pain, but that was about it. Keith had never been put in a position where his captors showed him weakness, raw emotion, and that is what made him lower his defenses.He shifted so he was sitting on his knees and he brought himself close to Lance, slowly doing what Lance was doing to him before, hugging him.It made Lance look up and flinch, causing Keith to pull away in fright. He awaited some type of hit or slap for being stupid and touching his captor that way, he even bared his neck, to be punished. Lance brought his hand up to his neck and Keith flinched as he awaited for the button to be pressed. Instead he felt Lane's fingers on his skin, and he gasped.He could feel his fingers on his skin. He could-it couldn't be. He wasn't supposed to feel anything there, the button was supposed to be there, unless, and he immediately shot his own hands to his neck and felt his skin. It was tender and there appeared to be some type of scar or bump where the button had been, but there was no button.There was no cold, metal on him anymore and he could feel more tears coming, and he wondered why if he wasn't sad, he was happy. He was relieved, he was almost in shock as his mind processed that there was nothing on his neck anymore. He looked at Lance in question as if asking if it was really what he thought it was, if the button on his neck was no longer there. "Yes, Keith it's gone, it's gone forever," Lance said as he chuckled through weak sobs.Keith was full on sobbing my now as his hands dropped from his neck and around Lance, sobbing into his shoulder. "Keith, you are safe now, I won't let anything bad happen to you again," Lance said, and for some reason, it only made Keith sob more. He wasn't sad though, he was happy, something he had forgotten he could feel for a long time.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Pidge panted as she looked all over the room before full on panicking."Shit," she repeated as she processed what had happened."Keith! Keith!" she yelled out again hoping she would get some type of answer, she didn't and instead ran out to the hallways.How had she been so stupid? She had forgotten she had turned off security system and therefore the door would not close automatically."Keith please answer!" Pidge yelled out and she stayed quiet for a few moments, only the sound of her erratic breathing being heard.Suddenly she flinched as she heard a loud thud down what sounded a few hallways, she could hear low buzzing as well. She ran as she processed that the low buzzing was Keith's button spazzing out, her body winced in pain as she ran to where it was coming from, trying to be as quiet so she could identify where it was coming from.Soon enough, after a few corners, she was able to fully hear the low buzzing and she saw Keith. He was sprawled out on the floor. He was laying on his stomach and every few seconds, his body would spazz, and electricity would crackle from his neck."Keith, I'm so, so, so sorry," Pidge repeated as she kneeled down and pulled something out of her suit. It was an expandable pack she had forgotten all about. It was her tech gear. There was bound to be something she could power off the button with."I am going to make it stop okay?" Pidge said, almost expecting some type of response."Keith, please please forgive me," Pidge said as she finally found something that could break the electrricity circuit.She took a deep breath and held the tool in both her hands, firmly grasping the handle with both. "I'm sorry," Pidge hissed as she hit the button as hard as she could and it suddenly stopped buzzing, causing Keith's body to go limp.Pidge sighed in relief as she dropped the tool and looked at Keith. His back would lift up and down, signaling his heavy breathing, his frame was still weak and he was unconscious.Pidge could feel herself wince as she saw how damp his cheeks were, coated with a layer of tears and sweat. She took note of how his arms had deep gashes that looked like bite marks, as if he had bit himself. It was that that made Pidge start tearing up again. "I'm so stupid, I'm such an idiot," she kept repeating as she kneeled next to Keith, and attempted to examine him more.After a while she looked around and saw where they were. They were in one of the hallways close to the healing pods. If she could pull Keith to there somehow, she could get him cleaned up before anyone would notice something.Before Lance would notice what she had done, she sighed as she fumbled around in her bag. She didn't find anything to help her carry Keith to a pod, so instead she was going to have to do it herself. She didn't know whether to be concerned or grateful at how light Keith was for his age. Although he was bound to be at least two years older than her, she could almost say they weighed the same or even Keith weighed less.Pidge slowly grabbed him by his underarms and dragged him into the healing pod room. She looked at the watch on her wrist as she slowly set down Keith on the floor. It had been about two hours since she locked herself in her room, and people were bound to notice that they were both missing. "Shit," Pidge cursed again as she was able to open one of the pods and put Keith in. She was about to set the settings to the pod when she heard footsteps, and she immediately panicked and lowered the pod, causing it to sink into the floor. She then hid behind a column and tried to steady her breath."Pidge!" she could hear Shiro call."Why would she be in the healing pod area?" she heard Hunk asked, annoyed."Well we have checked everywhere, this is one of the last places we haven't checked," Shiro scoffed as he kept calling out, moving closer to where Pidge was."I don't think she would be here, have you even checked Keith's room?" Hunk asked and Shiro's breath hitched up.Pidge held her breath as Shiro was about to turn to where she was hiding, but then retreated and started running out."We are so stupid, she could be wih Keith! Who knows what that Galran could do to her?" Shiro said as he rushed out."He isn't that bad," Hunk said to himself and he too went rushing after Shiro.After Pidge was entirely sure that they were both gone, she came out from hiding and brought Keith's pod up from the ground. "Oh, no, no, no," she said as she saw how Keith was again spazzing, the healing pod must had caused another disturbance with the malfunctioning tech. She started clicking different procedures to get it to stop, but unfortunately nothing she tried worked and Keith was starting to wake up. As he did so, the healing pod opened and he fell out, landing on his stomach."I need to get help, I can't do this by myself," Pidge said as she started panicking, bringing her hands to her forehead and her hair, running them through her light brown locks in frustration.After she was able to calm herself down a little she managed to catch a glimpse at the fallen Keith and his eyes were open wide, and they were turning that shade of yellow they had turned in the bathroom when she had tried to take the razor from him."Keith, Keith, calm down," Pidge then said, her voice quivering.It didn't help, as his eyes switched from their purple color to the unnatural, glowing yellow. Surprisingly, it was more concerning, even though they indeed look more frightful in their yellow tinge, they still looked scared and terrified, and in so much pain. It was enough pain, that Pidge brought herself to swallow her fear and kneel down next Keith, rubbing circles on his back, as he whimpered in pain."I should have just asked for help, I'm so sorry Keith," Pidge said as Keith was too weak to shove her soothing hand away. He just gave into it as his eyes started producing tears and he kept spazzing out."H-h-elp," Keith managed to stutter out.Pidge started crying as she looked around for anything to contact anyone, but because she had been so stupid as to turn off all security measures, she was bound to not be able to contact anyone. Not to mention how no one was going to be able to find her as she had left her communicator and her locater in her room."I don't want to do anything because it might hurt you, but I swear someone will find us soon, and they'll know what to do," Pidge tried to reassure him, and almost as if Keith understood what she was saying, he managed to nod up and down as more tears slipped out from his eyes and onto the floor beneath him.If it wasn't such an alarming and awful situation, Pidge would have payed more mind to the fact that Keith was actually comprehending her words, but because it was indeed a terrible situation, she blocked the thought from her mind.After a couple of minutes, it seemed to appear the spazzing was becoming less frequent and Keith started breathing slower, his eyes falling tired and stayed at their normal purple color. Along with the calming, the security systems were starting to boot up as well, and as soon as the cameras appeared to come back to life, she heard shouting from down the hall seconds later."Keith!" she could hear Lance shout."Pidge!" Shiro called out as well as they both entered the room and saw the scene."What the hell happened?" Lance asked as he came rushing to Keith's side, whose eyes were now closed. He was about to touch him when he suddenly spazzed and a pained whimper escaped his mouth. "Pidge, what happened?" Lance asked as he looked at her horrified at what he was seeing."I-I didn't-, i-t was an acc-accident," Pidge sobbed out as she dug her face into her hands."You did this?!" Lance yelled out, his face growing hot in anger."Lance, calm down, there has to be a purpose for this. He is dang-," Shiro was about to protect Pidge."No, it was my fault. I was-I-I was angry, I-I wasn't thinking, and I, I'm sorry," she sobbed out. "But you need to help him, he's in so much pain, and- and I don't know how to-to help him," she added as she weakly got closer to him, Lance sat up from his sitting position, almost protecting Keith from her."Lance, she is just trying to help," Shiro said."She's done plenty, look at him! Look how he is spazzing out and shaking and crying," Lance shouted as he pointed at Keith, who was now again unconscious, sweat and tears coating his face, along with his hair that was sticking to his face and neck."Lance, you don't even know what happened-," Shiro began to say."Okay, so tell me what happened?" Lance asked bitterly. "Did he somehow attack you, did he try to hug you, or I don't know better yet try to speak and you became like everyone else and decided hey, why not torture him?" Lance said."Lance!" Shiro yelled in defence as he looked at how Pidge was crying."No, Shiro he's right. I was angry at him because he reminded me of Matt, and how- it doesn't matter, it's just I was stupid and I know how stupid I am and how Keith deserved none of this," Pidge explained. "All I want is to help him now though, you have no idea how much pain he is in right now.""The button on his neck in malfunctioning, and it is causing shocks throughout his whole body," Pidge said as she wiped her tears.Lance processed the information and looked at Keith, he swept the hair from his neck away to show red, irritated, and blistered the skin around the button was. He winced as he could hear it buzz, causing Keith's whole body to convulse, his hands balling into fists, as he unconsciously tried to endure the pain."How do we stop it?" Lance asked after analyzing the situation."I don't know, it's too advanced for me to-," Pidge began saying."Take it off," Shiro then said."What?" Lance asked, shocked at his response."Take it off, out, I don't care, but I've seen this kind of thing," Shiro said looking down. "At-well, at the, prison, where I-, at the prison, they had something like that on a collar. The guards, they would make the collars malfunction to the point where the prisoner couldn't stay alive anymore. It's going to kill him if we don't take it out," Shiro said."What?!" Lance asked."It's already starting to cause infection as it irritates the skin. I've seen it happen, we have to take it out, or it's going to cause heart failure from the shocks, or some type of septic from infection," Shiro said as he finally brought himself to look at Keith, wincing at the sight. Before that, he had been so uptight about this prisoner being here. But as he looked at him, pity filled him. He looked so weak. He was supposed to be around Lance's age, but he looked almost the same size as Pidge."How are we supposed to take it out? We aren't exactly surgeons!" Lance panicked as he started to put the dots together, looking at how weak Keith was. His eyes were closed, and occasionally you could see him scrunch his face in pain."He's going to die, we need to do something!" Lance said as he stood up and started looking around."What if-," Pidge began to say. "Nevermind.""No, don't do that, Keith is going to die if we do nothing, spit it out!" Lance said."I could download an Earth medical procedure into one of the healing pods, and with Allura's magic it might just be able to perform surgery to remove the button," Pidge said."Might," Lance said."It's his only chance," Shiro said."Shut up," Lance scoffed as he rubbed his hands on his face."Lance-," Shiro began to say."Get Allura, just get her, just get everyone," Lance said. Shiro looked at him, "I said go!" Lance yelled and Shiro ran out. "Start downlaoding that procedure," Lance said to Pidge and she rushed to the healing pod computer. "Put him in the healing pod, I need to scan him to find one most suitable for him," Pidge said weakly as Lance looked at her, his eyes starting to go puffy.Lance nodded and picked up Keith, putting him into a pod."Lance," Pidge then said as the scanning began. Lance looked at her. "I'm sorry-it's just-," Pidge said and Lance just looked at Keith."I know, but it doesn't matter right now, just do everything you can," Lance said and Pidge nodded as she started running through the database."I found one, I just need these things from the storage closet, that will act as the surgical tools on Earth. I also need to do some coding on it, it shouldn't take long," Pidge said as she handed Lance a list with different things on it."Pidge, in all honestly, do you think this is going to work?" Lance asked.Pidge sighed, "I don't know Lance, but I don't know I will be able to live with myself if it doesn't so let's just hope it does."Lance nodded as he rushed out to get the list of things needed."He is dying!" Lance yelled at Allura. Everything was in place, all that was needed was for Allura to use her magic to power such a complicated procedure."I know he is Lance! But he is a prisoner, and I can't be performing surgery on him, what if someone comes and attacks us and I can't help form Voltron because I am too busy with a Galran prisoner!" Allura yelled back."Allura, I wouldn't ask you if it wasn't dire. He is a freaking human! How do you not understand that! He didn't ask for any of this!" Lance yelled."Allura, please," Lance said as tears started pouring from his cheeks."You can't let him die," he said and the room fell silent."He isn't dangerous," Hunk said as he placed his hand on Lance's shoulder, looking at Allura."Shiro?" Allura asked as she looked at Shiro who was looking at Keith.Shiro nodded, and then Allura's eyes went to Coran."It's not ideal situations Princess, but whatever his background is, you have the power to save someone from death," Coran said. "Your father would do the same thing. He wouldn't let an innocent boy die."Allura processed everyone's words. "What if Zarkon-," she began to ask."We will take care of it," Shiro said and Allura gulped and nodded at Pidge as she went over to the control panel where she stood."Just tell me what I have to do," Allura said and Pidge smiled.Lance just looked at her and then at Keith."Thank you," Lance said as he and everyone but Pidge and Allura stayed in the room to give them space to concentrate.It was about ten minutes until Allura and Pidge finished and everyone had stayed in complete silence for the past four hours. Hunk was asleep, but Lance was wide awake and bouning his leg up and down ad he sat waiting for any news."Lance," Shiro finally spoke, and Lance fliched from the sudden sound."Yeah?" Lance asked."Why do-I know it might sound rude, but why-why do you care so much?" Shiro asked.Lance winced at the question and sighed. "I have- I used to have a brother," he said. He paused almost as if he was debating continuing.He made up his mind and took another deep breath. "He was five and I was ten," Lance said as his voice started cracking. "He was kidnapped one day when he was walking home," Lance explained and Shiro looked at him pained. "They eventually found him naked behind a dumpster, barely alive when I was fifteen and about to leave to study at the Garrison, but by that point they found out he had been... beaten and -r-r-raped, and mentally scarred by his captor," Lance said as he held his head in his hands as he looked down, his eyes forming tears."We tried to help him, but he wouldn't let me touch him or talk to him. He was so scared of me, of me, his own brother," Lance said."Lance, I'm so sorry," Shiro said."He commited suicide after four months of being home, at eleven years old. I found him, he swallowed a whole bottle of pills, and he-he wasn't breathing-" Lance said. "And I couldn't-I couldn't do anything about it-I couldn't, I tried and I couldn't," Lance squeaked out. "He was just-I couldn't do anything for him."Suddenly, he could feel Shiro's arms wrap around him and he openly sobbed into his shoulder."That's why-it's why, I can't watch someone like Keith give up, I can't-he, he has to survive-he has to get better," Lance sobbed. "He-he can't just die, he has-has to get better.""He didn't ask for any of this, none of it was his fault. It's never their fault," Lance said as he pulled away and wiped his tears. "They think it's their fault, that they will never be happy or have some type of control over their life. They don't know any different. He didn't know any different," Lance said as he fidgeted with his hands. "He never knew any different.""Lance, we are going to help him," Shiro said as he placed a hand on Lance's shoulder. He just nodded silently in response."Did-did they ever-catch the person who did it?" Shiro asked."He got into a bar fight and someone recognized him, he commited-he killed himself a few days after being reported," Lance said. Shiro looked at him with more pity."Lance, I'm so sorry," Shiro said and Lance just looked at his hands, trying to stop picturing his brother, lifeless in his arms, and his piercing screams as he yelled for help. After a couple of seconds Pidge walked in and Shiro and Lance both looked up."He's in recovery in one of the extra smaller room close to our rooms so we can look over him easier, everything went smoothly," Pidge walked into the room where everyone was waving, she had a look of concern as she saw Lance, but Shiro just nodded telling her not to ask."He should be awake in thirty minutes, if you want to see him now, it is fine too," Pidge said."And Allura?" Shiro asked."She is resting," Pidge said and Shiro nodded, nudging Hunk awake.Before any other formalities could be said though, Lance was out of the door and into the room Pidge had informed him of.He entered the room and saw Keith, his neck bandaged and some weird glowing thing in his wrist."It's like an IV," Pidge said, making Lance flinch.Lance nodded and went to his bedside."So it's gone," Lance said. "Yeah," Pidge said."What was it for exactly?" Lance asked."I think I read about something describing it in the logs. They mention some type of, obedience device," Pidge said and Lance scowled. He hated how anyone could ever do that to someone else, force them into submission."Was it hard?" Lance asked. "To take it out?""Well it wasn't just a button, there were wires connected to it that went all throughout his body," Pidge explained. "What do you mean?" Lance asked as he went over to Keith and made small circles on his pale, frail hand."That it wasn't just a shock collar thing, they made sure it would hurt everywhere. There were wires all over his body, like everywhere Lance, it's so sick and sadistic. It's the reason we took so long and Allura is so tired. It would have been impossible to take everything out without her magic," Pidge said, avoiding details."I'm sorry, I don't mean to pry, it's just-," Lance said."Don't worry about it, it's the least I can do after-," Pidge gulped."It doesn't matter anymore, he is okay now," Lance said as he looked at Keith's face, it looked peaceful and calm compared to his composure before. it brought some peace to Lance, that he was helping at least somewhat. He ruffled his hair and took note of how soft it was. How the black locks seemed to easily slip through his hands. He felt himself smiling as Keith almost leaned into the touch."Did you bathe him?" Lance asked and Pidge nodded."It was necessary to sanitize the scars and stitches," Pidge said.Lance hummed and he brought his hand back down to Keith's hand and continued carresing it."He's going to be okay," Pidge said and Lance thought about what she was saying."I hope so," Lance said.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Keith was in the dining hall with Lance. He was going to try to eat again ever since his surgery. "You want this one or this one?" Lance asked as he held up two plates, both with green goop in them. "Green goop, or green goop?" Lance asked again, smiling as Keith pointed to the one in his right hand."Green goop, great choice," Lance teased as he set the plate down in front of him, placing a spoon to the side of it as he stood up across from Keith on the countertop they were eating at. Keith looked at the goop and gulped. He hadn't had actual food voluntarily for a week. He looked over at Lance, who was already taking spoonfuls of the goop with the same utensil he had given Keith.Apparently, it was called a spoon, but Keith had never used one. He didn't really need it as he was just given bread or some mush to eat with his hands at the prisons he had been at. So instead of eating, he swung his legs a bit from the stool he was sitting on, as soon as he looked up though he could feel Lance's eyes on him as he frowned."Keith, you have to eat," Lance said. He knew that tone, it was the tone Lance used when he did something wrong or when he was concerned for him.Concerned for him, the concept was still relatively new and alarming to Keith. He had never had anyone be concerned for him, except his mom, and he had at least not been with her for months since he was rescued. "Here," Lance said, picking up Keith's spoon and grabbing some goop with it. "I still don't understand why you'd rather eat this than some actual fruit, but oh well who am I to judge, am I right?" Lance said, making that weird noise after, laughter Keith had learned, at the end of his sentence."Open," Lance said and Keith winced at the word. It reminded him of what the guards around him would say when they wanted to stick the weird long part of them in his mouth. Either way, he opened his mouth a bit and Lance fed him. As soon as the spoon went inside his mouth though, Keith choked, the feeling of actual food in his mouth bringing about bad memories of his time in prison. It made him so disgusted that he turned pale, and he held his hands over his mouth, trying to keep himself from throwing up. "Keith," Lance said as he put the spoon back on Keith's plate and waited for Keith to look up at him."Are you okay?" Lance asked and Keith looked at him. "Good?" Lance asked, making a happy expression, "Or bad?" he asked making a sick expression acting as if he was throwing up."Bad," Keith said as he looked down at the green goop. "You have to eat though, I know it doesn't taste good, but you have to if you won't have any of the other foods we have here," Lance said. "But I guess we can try solids later or tomorrow," Lance sighed as he put Keith's plate in the fridge and his own, finished plate in the sink.Suddenly, the kitchen door flew open and Pidge walked in, looking tired. Her hair was still a mess and she went directly to what looked like a coffee dispenser. "You know what I like about being in space, it's this coffee thing like it keeps you awake for so long-," Pidge said and then noticed that Keith was staring at her, frightened.It had only been six days since the surgery, and it was one of the two times he had had to confront her or see her in person."Oh-sorry I didn't know you were in here with him-I, I will just come back later for the coffee," Pidge said as she started walking out. "Pidge," Lance said and Pidge turned, they were right next to the closed door, and Keith just averted his gaze to the countertop, ignoring Pidge as best as he possibly could, "Uh-have you have gotten any more of those logs?" Lance asked and Pidge solemnly nodded."Lance, we shouldn't read them-," Pidge said and Lance frowned."We have to find out more," Lance interrupted."Lance, sometimes ignorance is bliss," Pidge warned and Lance frowned again."Pidge," Lance said as he pulled Pidge right outside of the room, leaving Keith inside the kitchen by himself, with the door open of course. "Just like you wish you knew everything about Matt, this is the same thing, I need to know about Keith, I need to know okay?" Lance said.PIdge sighed as she looked at Lance and then looked down, "I have them, but I don't think you should watch them.""Have you?" Lance asked."I-I, they are not in order anymore, the security crash caused random ones to appear and other ones to disappear," Pidge said. "It's bad Lance, and I don't know what connection you are forming with Keith, but you don't want to see him like that, to look at him like that," Pidge said, almost begging Lance to not look at them."That bad?" Lance asked and Pidge nodded. He sighed as he looked at Pidge and then looked back at Keith, who was twirling his strands of hair and picking at his scabs, almost examining them."I have to see them, I have to help him," Lance said and Pidge sighed again."I'll upload them to the computer room, but Lance please don't watch them alone, or all at once, or read them all at once," Pidge said. "I wish you wouldn't even look at them at all-," Pidge said."I have to," Lance cut her off."You don't, you owe him nothing, you don't owe him this at least," Pidge said, choosing her words carefully."You don't understand, what if it was Matt? What-," Lance said."If it were Matt, I know he wouldn't want me to see him in that way, he wouldn't want to be weak, or have to feel ashamed," Pidge explained. "It's different-just-don't bring my brother into this," Pidge said."I'm sorry," Lance said and Pidge nodded. "It's just-it's complicated-I, I just want to help and he won't talk to me, I can't help him if I don't know what they did to him to make him this way," Lance tried to reason."He was tortured, captured, and bred to be an experiment, that's all you need to know, don't do this to yourself," Pidge said. "I know you care about him, but you can't tell yourself you owe it to him, you had nothing to do with it," Pidge said. "Pidge-I," Lance began to say."You need to know, I know," Pidge finished his sentence as she turned to look at Keith who immediately turned his eyes away from them and pretended he wasn't looking at her."He will get over it," Lance said as he noticed the troubled look on Pidge's face as she noticed Keith turn away."I hope so," Pidge said. "Anyways, I'm going to go shower, please don't hurt yourself too much," Pidge said as she exited.Lance took a deep breath and turned to look at Keith, who was running his fingers over the scar on his neck."Don't touch it, you might hurt yourself," Lance said and he went over to Keith, taking his hand off of his neck."Bad," Keith said as he pointed at his scar, indicating it hurt."Do you want some cream?" Lance asked as he reached in the fridge, pulling out the cream that Pidge had made, it was supposed to help with the pain, and also reduce the severity of the scar, so Keith wouldn't have to look at a huge and deep scar on his neck his whole life.Keith nodded as he heard the word cream, he knew it meant the medicine that would help it go away."Do you want me to put it on?" Lance asked pointing at himself, "Or do you?" Lance asked, pointing at Keith.Keith pointed at Lance and Lance could feel himself smile and even stand a little taller with pride. He slowly walked over to Keith and moved his hair off of his neck, and tilting his head so that his neck was exposed."Just do something if I am hurting you," Lance said, even though Keith could only understand parts.He began by squirting some of the clear cream into his hand, feeling the coldness of it on his hands. He then placed it on Keith's neck and he could feel Keith flinch as the cold cream made contact with his neck.It hadn't been the first time he had to apply the cream, but it still caught him off guard every time. It also hadn't been the first time that Lance had applied the cream. The first time, he had had to be sedated due to him not letting anyone touch him, but after a while, he let Lance apply it and even applied it himself.Something about Lance brought him comfort though, the fact that Lance cared about him, or at least he thought he cared about him, made him feel good. It made him feel something weird as well, like something he felt about his mother but intensified. He thought his mother called it love.Keith found himself smiling as he thought of his mom, how she used to say "I love you". He frowned as he realized he had almost forgotten what those words meant by the last few months without her, or without anyone to care enough to tell him that or even bother telling him anything at all.His mind drifted back to the Galran ship. How everything was so different, how everything there looked so sad and lonely, and how here, the walls and the people were so friendly. The walls weren't black, the rooms weren't dim, and although some of the people here were still driving him on the edge, they weren't as cruel as they were back there.They didn't touch him like they did or hurt him like they did. They didn't laugh as he cried or beat him when he whined or whimpered. They seemed to be nice, friendly even, and Lance, well Lance felt safe.He felt oddly very safe with Lance, and he didn't know why. Just the way Lance looked at him made him feel like maybe this was real, maybe he would stay here forever and he wouldn't have to ever be in a dark, dim lit, purple, room again."Hey, you okay?" Lance asked and Keith was pulled out of his thoughts."Okay?" Lance asked, giving a thumbs up.Keith nodded as he looked at the gesture Lance was making, he had learned that was good or okay. And he was okay right now. He wasn't shaking and the cream helped with the soreness of the still healing scar on his neck."I'm going to go to the computer lab, you can come and play a game or something, maybe watch something," Lance said. "Or just nap, whatever you want," Lance added and Keith looked at him, confused by the number of words he was saying."I'm going to go, you can come and-," Lance began to say but then just shook his head and said," You know, I'm just going to go, and you can follow if you want." But of course, Lance knew Keith would follow him anyways because he still didn't fully understand what Lance was saying.After a few turns and hallways, they made it into the computer lab, where Shiro was sitting at one of the couches with a holographic tablet and a mug, looking at something, reading something. His face looked a bit pale and his hand was shaking as he brought the mug to his mouth."Hi," Lance said and Shiro shook as he choked on his drink, putting it down and coughing. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," Lance apologized and Keith clung to his shoulders, hiding behind Lance's back as he heard Shiro coughing."Looks like you aren't the only one who scared someone," Shiro said as he recovered and turned to look at Keith."Oh, huh, yeah," Lance chuckled as he patted his shoulder with Keith's right hand on it, comforting him, and trying to show him that he had nothing to be scared of."So what are you doing here?" Shiro asked, trying to talk about something other than the already abused subject, Keith."Actually probably the same thing you are doing," Lance said, bringing back the conversation to Keith, yet again."How do you-what do you, your," Shiro stuttered."I know that look and that tremor," Lance said as he pointed at Shiro, causing Keith the grip on his shoulders tighter, thinking he was going to move away."I just started reading them," Shiro said. "I don't think I can get past this one and keep my sanity. I think I will have to stop after this one," he added as he shut the holographic tablet off.Lance nodded and hummed as he went to get a tablet, causing Keith to stand with his arms crossed awkwardly around his lean body as he looked at Lance and Shiro, nervously biting his lip. It only took a few seconds but Lance turned on the tablet for Keith and gave him some headphones. Keith took both things quickly and went to a bean bag in the corner of the room, wrapping himself in the blanket that was already there. The first time Lance had come in the computer room with him, he refused to sit where everyone else sat, so Lance dragged one of the bean bag chairs to that corner, giving Keith his own space to himself, something that made Keith feel a lot more comfortable when he had to go places with Lance.When he got situated, Keith put on the Bluetooth headphones, turning on some piano music, and then swiping through the tablet, finding his favorite app. It was a learning app, where he would learn how to speak what everyone else spoke, English, as he had learned. But sometimes he became a bit frustrated with it, and he would just play a coloring game, it made him feel relaxed somehow, and made him happy as he saw colors he hadn't even seen before. There was only a limited palette of colors when you lived in Galran prisons your whole life."He is getting better," Shiro said when he was sure Keith could no longer hear him."You think?" Lance asked as he picked a tablet up himself and a pair of Bluetooth earbuds."I mean he isn't as frightened anymore. Before, he wouldn't even be able to walk into this room or much less stay in it without screaming or crying," Shiro pointed out as he started putting away his tablet."Valid point," Lance said, as he scrolled, finding the logs Pidge had mentioned."Lance, are you sure it's a good idea?" Shiro asked as he picked up his mug and sat on the couch where Lance was, where he could see Keith sitting diagonally across from him, in the corner, clicking away at the tablet."I thought you said it was. I mean Keith isn't-," Lance began to say."No, I don't mean Keith being here. I mean you looking at these logs," Shiro asked as he set his mug down on the end table to his right."You mean because of what I told you?" Lance said, almost irritated."Well-yes. I mean don't you think it will bring up feelings. I mean like you don't have to know what happened. You know the basics, which is what matters, you don't need to read them, it's just going to make things worse," Shiro said, trying to sound as convincing as possible."If you had the opportunity to find out exactly what happened in order to help someone, wouldn't you?" Lance asked."Yes, but not at the cost of my own sanity because if I'm not sane, I can't help the person that I am trying to help," Shiro responded.Lance looked like he was seriously processing what Shiro said, "I have to."Shiro sighed, looking like he was about to say something, but decided against it. He just picked up his coffee and grabbed one of the earbuds and put it in his ear."Well, you don't have to do it alone," Shiro said as he took a deep breath."You don't have to," Lance said. "I know what type of memories this brings back.""Same goes to you," Shiro said and Lance smiled at Shiro's comment, rolling his eyes as he pulled up the next log available. it was a video, and he sighed.He looked over at Shiro and he nodded, so he pressed play and braced himself.The screen went from black to show a much older Keith than what Lance had previously seen. He looked to be about the same as he was right now, just with longer hair, and Lance winced. It was too real for a second as he looked up at saw the same matured face at the corner of the room that was in the video.[Keith was shackled, his wrists locked behind his back. He was wearing the same long grey short-sleeved shirt Lance had found him in. The sleeves were so big though that they reached his elbows. There were two other Galra in the room. Both of them were unfamiliar to him, and he had not seen them in other videos, they looked like guards though. Which was weird because they usually weren't there without some higher supervisor.He looked at Keith closer, and he noticed how he was gagged with what looked like a ball gag, but it was shaped like a cube and the straps that were holding it in place looked to have little dull spikes that were digging into his cheeks. "Such a good boy," one of the Galran spoke and it made Lance flinch. He wasn't used to the way they were speaking to him. The last video he had watched, Keith looked to be about four and the experiments looked much more official and clean. This one though, looked very informal and he wasn't in his usual experimental cell, and the Galran that always seemed to be there giving scientific orders wasn't there either."Aw, are you scared?" Lance could hear the other Galra of the two ask Keith as he gripped Keith's jaw, it was enough to cause a shiver of pain throughout Lance's body as he wanted to scream at the Galra to stop, he felt he knew where this was going.His thoughts were confirmed as the Galra gripping his jaw reached under the bottom of Keith's shirt and started stroking him, causing Keith to writhe and squirm. The other guard came quickly to them and went behind him, holding his shoulders, to hold him in place.Keith's muffled protests were enough to break Lance right then and there. Lance didn't even look at Shiro, because he knew he wouldn't be able to bring himself to look back at the video if he looked away."You would think you would be used to this, after the things they put you through," the guard stroking Keith said as he started sucking on Keith's neck, pulling the hem of his big shirt, exposing his shoulder, which was layered in bruises and what looked like bite marks.The other guard, behind Keith, started sliding his hands under Keith's shirt, exposing that Keith had no type of pants or underwear under the shirt. He began stroking his butt and Lance felt himself turn pale. He couldn't even imagine what Shiro looked like as he felt him tense up next to him.Keith soon began to cry in the video as the guard unlocked the cuffs around his wrists to allow him more room to grope Keith. The small boy immediately tried to try to fight them off of him, but because they were so big compared to him, they wouldn't budge no matter how hard he tried."Stay still!" the Galran in the front thundered as he squeezed Keith's member, threatening him, and Keith stopped moving and started crying more uncontrollably. He brought his hands up to his mouth to try to calm himself down, but nothing seemed to work.Suddenly, the guard from behind started pulling off the shirt he was wearing and Keith didn't even fight them, he just stood limply, his legs giving out as he kept on sobbing. The two guards had to support him to make sure he didn't fall, but it was no difficult task, as they were both huge in comparison to him."That's more like it," one of them said as he grabbed a bunch of Keith's hair and pulled at it to the point where Keith's head pulled violently back, causing a high pitched scream from the teen. The screaming got louder as the guard in the front pinched his nipples and dug his nails into his now bare chest."Humans make such intoxicating sounds," the guard at the back said as he started slipping his finger in between Keith's ass cheeks and that was enough to cause Keith to come back to life and scoot away from his touch, causing his groin to lean closer into the other Galran's touch."Oh looks like he wants more attention here first," the Galran in the front chuckled wickedly as he started jerking Keith off, only causing Keith to scream more, his voice starting to fade. The guard then proceeded to go on his knees and take Keith into his mouth, causing Keith's eyes to widen and his hands to push as hard as they could away from him.That caused the guard to take his wrists with one of his and he smiled against Keith. "Such a slut," the other one said. "No one could ever love a slut like you, if only you understood me," he added as he pulled at Keith's hair again."He's so hard," the same guard said, looking at Keith from the front. Keith seemed to not be paying attention to him until he grabbed his hips and started to slightly start bending him over and spreading his legs out forcefully. Keith just shook his head from side to side and he screamed and clawed at both of them.The guard in the back undid the gag around his mouth and there were dark bruises forming from the dull spikes of the straps across his cheeks. As soon as the gag was undone, Keith bit his lip to force his mouth close. The Galran then pinched his nose, causing Keith to open his mouth releasing a moan."Don't know how your mother could have ever loved such a whore like you," he said. "You should be glad she isn't here to see the disgrace you became." Keith flinched at the words even if he didn't understand all of them, they made him feel dirty and ashamed. He didn't want to make those noises, they just happened, and he couldn't stop them. He knew those sounds would only get them to keep going, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't hold them back. But it didn't mean he didn't try. He repeatedly tried to hold his mouth closed, but then the guard took all of him in his mouth."Come on, beautiful," the guard in the back said as Keith was unable to hold back a moan from the blowjob. At the same time, the one in the back stuck his big and furry fingers in Keith's mouth, causing Keith to gag and choke around them, crying even more as he lost strength to fight back.Within the next second, Keith climaxed and he let out another moan, turning red in shame as he cried harder. The guard in the front didn't stop though, instead, he continued and the other started prodding in between his butt cheeks.-]"I can't," Lance choked as he turned off the video and realized he was crying as he pulled out the earbud from his left ear. He noticed that Shiro was completely pale next to him and he was shaking as he stared at Keith. He looked to be zoned out for at least a minute before Lance spoke.It took a couple of seconds for Keith to feel their eyes on him, and he looked up from the tablet, the blanket still covering his lower half. He took off his headphones as he looked at how Shiro and Lance were looking at him. They looked so numb and blank. It made Keith think he did something wrong. Maybe he had been too loud when trying to practice a word, or maybe he had used up all the time on the tablet.He didn't know what he did wrong, and it started to worry him how Lance shot up and walked over to him. First, he just stared at Keith, making him look down in fear that Lance was mad at him, but instead, he felt Lance hugging him.He thought it was weird since Lance hugged him when he was feeling sad or when Keith was hurt, not just out of nowhere. He didn't fight it though and instead, his eyes just widened."I'm so sorry Keith," Lance said.Soon he felt another set of arms envelope him, they were much stronger and bigger and Keith winced at the sudden new touch.After a while though, we got used to it and when he was let go, he looked at Lance and who appeared to be Shiro looking down on him as he sat, still curled up in the red blanket that Lance had given him. He took note of how puffy their eyes were and the look in them. They had the same look Lance had when bad things happened to Keith, but it confused him.Nothing bad had happened to him recently, so there was no need for the look or a hug. Almost as if Lance could read Keith's mind, he crouched down so his eyes were level to Keith's and he brought their foreheads together, causing Keith to flinch from the sudden proximity."Lance?" Keith questioned and suddenly tears started slowly streaming from his eyes."It isn't your fault," Lance said as he brought Keith to his feet and hugged him once again. "Keith," Lance said."I love you, I love you so much, and you need to know that," Lance sobbed out. "Y-you need to know that someone cares a-about you and t-that you are l-love," Lance said.Keith hummed in question as his eyes widened at the words."Love?" Keith said in confusion, not believing what he heard."Yes, Keith I love you, I care about you, and I am going to do whatever possible to help you," Lance said and Keith hugged him tightly with every fiber of his being.Keith let his head rest as he fawned over the word, it reminded him oh his mom and made him think that maybe this person, Lance, was more than just another person, he was special, he loved him. He loved him even after knowing about him, seeing him starved and beaten, dealing with the aftermath of Keith's actions.He loved him, and before then Keith thought that he was going to forget what love felt like.