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Lance looked in awe at the beautiful mixes of blues and green surrounding him on the ocean floor. He looked up at his mama, who was surrounded by what seemed like hundreds of tropical fish to his young eyes. She smiled down at him and gestured for him to come closer, grinning he did just that wrapping his arms around his mother’s neck. Their sapphire blue tails twirled around them in a majestic dance.“Where did you go, Lance?” His mama suddenly asked, looking sadly down at the young boy. Lance’s face twisted in confusion.“What do you mean Mama? I’m right here,” he replied looking into her eyes.
“Why did you leave us?” She asked her face coming closer to his own. Her eyes were looking blankly through him, even as he tightened his hold on her.“Mama? Whats wrong?” he asked cradling her cheek in his palm. Suddenly he was left alone looking around at the dark ocean, no sign of anyone or anything around him.“Mama?” he called frantically searching the black waters. He swam forward cautiously, his eyes darting back and forth.“Lance?” He heard a voice call in the distance. His head snapped toward the sound and he quickly swam towards it.“Maria?” He called back, recognizing the voice of his older sister. He was suddenly bombarded by the sound of various voices calling out his name; each one more panicked than the last. He continued swimming in the direction of the voices and found his family lined up in the distance. Their tails casting colours into the blue water they were swimming in; the blue water without Lance in it. They noticed him and waved him over. Lance could feel tears welling up in his eyes, even surrounded by the ocean water. He smiled widely and raced forward towards his family. He could see his mother and father holding out their arms, his siblings right behind them. Just as he could feel his parent’s arms coming around him, his eyes snapped open.
He glared at the ceiling of his room aboard the Castle, even as tears rolled down his cheeks and dampened his pillow. Gritting his teeth, he crawled out of bed and towards the bathroom to start his morning routine. He wiped his tears away and washed his face, frowning at the dry skin that came with the lack of swimming in his other form. He hated that he couldn’t make use of the pool in the Castle, but with the type of people the paladins were, it wouldn’t be long until his secret would be found out. He thought many times that he would tell the others his secret, but he was still unsure of how they would react. Technically he has been lying to them ever since they first met him. He pulled his clothes on and trudged towards the kitchen, still lost in thought. He looked up when he walked through the door and noticed that only Allura and Coran were missing. He plastered a smile on his face and greeted the paladins.“Morning Lance,” Hunk smiled in return. The others giving a similar greeting or a distracted nod. Before they were able to make any sort of conversation; Allura and Coran walked in wearing equally excited grins.“Uh, whats going on?” Hunk asked hesitantly.
“And whats with those creepy grins?” Pidge added. They both huffed and dropped their grins for a moment before they crawled back up.“We’ve decided that we’re going to take a break for today,” Allura announced. The paladins looked at her in shock.“Did I hear that correctly?” He asked Hunk. “Did Allura say we get a break?”“Correct young paladin,” Coran confirmed happily. “And we just so happened to be near the perfect planet for this venture,” He added. He pulled up a hologram of a small planet that looked to be mostly made of water.“Crystal blue water, white sand, completely uninhabited, and the atmosphere and water are harmless to humans,” he announced proudly stroking his moustache. The paladin's mouth’s dropped open and they glanced at each other.“When are we getting there?” Shiro asked.“Quite soon, you may want to get ready to go out now,” Allura suggested.
“BEACH DAY!” Lance yelled before the humans aside from Shiro were scrambling out of the room to their quarters. He turned to the two Alteans who were looking at the door where the paladins exited.“Thank you, they really needed this,” he said.
“You do too my boy, now go get ready,” Coran replied before shooing him out the door. Shiro only smiled and ran out of the door as well.
Lance looked at the clear ocean stretched out in front of him, a frown on his face. He had been so excited for the idea of swimming that he completely forgot that the team would be with him. He flinched as his teammates ran into the water, laughing and splashing each other.“Come in Lance!” Shiro called. “The waters so nice!” Lance smiled sadly and backed up a little further.“Um, no thanks, I think I’ll stick back for a bit,” he replied wrapping his arms around himself. The others frowned at each other before returning to their game. Lance watched them as they got further and further away from shore.
“Don’t you want to go swimming lad?” Coran asked sidling up beside Lance. He glanced over at the man then back at the sparkling water.
“Not really,” he lied through his teeth. Coran considered the young man a moment longer before turning his attention to the paladins as well.“Did you know that this planet used to be densely populated?” Coran asked. “Well, I guess you wouldn’t, but somewhere in the ten thousand years we’ve been asleep, everyone is gone,”
“What happened?” Lance asked.“I’m not sure, but the royal family would visit here often and have many wonderful adventures, we believed that you would as well,” Coran replied a soft smile raising on his face. A moment later the smile dropped as a scream pierced the air. The other four were desperately swimming back to shore, a dark shadow following closely behind them. Lance and Coran ran towards the shoreline to meet them as they crawled up the sand, their limbs shaking with fear and adrenaline. Keith choked out in surprise when a tentacle reached out of the water and wrapped around his ankle, quickly dragging him back out into the waves. Before Lance could process what he was doing, he sprinted into the water and dove under the surface. He felt no pain as his legs melded together and his skin split into gills, he was quickly able to catch up to the creature. Oddly enough it looked like a giant squid, however, he could see that it had much larger fangs and what looked like sharp spikes all over its body. Lance could see Keith struggling and he sunk his fangs and claws into the squid’s body. It let out a shrill shriek and let go of the red paladin’s body which was caught by Lance. He didn’t look back to see if the creature was following him, his only goal was to get Keith back to the beach. The two breached the surface and Lance dragged Keith onto the sand. Lance sucked in breaths of air, trying to regulate his heartbeat and calm his nerves a bit. He finally realized what he did and he didn’t want to look at any of his teammates. Tears began to cloud his vision as he looked down at the white sand.“Lance?” Keith asked quietly. Lance slowly brought his head up to look into Keith’s eyes, tears rolling down his cheeks.
“You weren’t supposed to find out like this,” Lance whispered. His shoulders started quivering as more cries made their way out of his mouth. Keith’s eyes widened and he shuffled forward to put his hand on Lance’s shoulder.“Its okay Lance,” he spoke softly trying to calm the distraught teen. The other paladins kneeled around the two carefully avoiding the blue tail.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Shiro asked softly. Lance turned his attention to the leader his lip quivered as he thought about his answer.
“I was scared,” he admitted. “I didn’t want you to hate me, or think that I was a monster,”
Hunk wrapped his arms around Lance’s middle from behind him and pulled him towards his chest.“We could never think that about you, Lance,” He said tucking Lance’s head underneath his chin. “No matter what you are, human or not,” Lance’s eyes widened and he let out another sob, Hunk only held on tighter to the other boy letting him cry out his fears with his family surrounding him.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Whoa! Look at all of this stuff,” Hunk said in amazement. They smiled at the obvious curiosity on Hunk’s face and glanced around at the trinkets around them. They were planet-side, after rescuing the entire thing from a Galra attack. They told Allura and Coran that they were going to visit the planet’s marketplace, because it was filled with all kinds of things from many different alien races.“Hey guys, check this out!” They turned at Lance’s voice and saw him standing by the stall keeper with a small bottle of what looked to be water. They quirked a brow in question. He smirked and poured it over his arm and watched as their mouths dropped in surprise.“Holy crow!” Pidge gasped before reaching out and running her fingers down his arm. The scales almost looked like mother of pearl when they glinted in the light. The shopkeeper cleared their throat and they looked over at them.“We call this, Veil,” they explained holding up an identical bottle to the one Lance was holding. “It’s most often used for young shapeshifters to determine what they really look like, so they can begin transforming into something else,”They nodded in interest and were about to ask more questions but were interrupted by a squawk. Once again they turned to Lance and saw him standing in surprise with his arm in the hand of an alien. They looked to be richer than the general public and they were wearing what looked like a fur coat. “My goodness, what beautiful scales!” They said excitedly. They looked up at Lance with a wide smile. “I’ll give you 12000 GAC for a pair of them, they’d make such lovely earrings,” Lance regarded them with wide eyes.“Um, n-no thanks,” he said hesitantly. The alien’s face fell into a pout.“Well, why not? Did I not offer you enough?” They asked. “15000? 20000? Whatever you want,” They tried.“Well, no, it’s because it’s really painful to pull them out,” he answered honestly. The alien pulled away with a gasp and a hand to their chest.“Oh my goodness, I am so sorry,” they said quickly, fluttering nervously around him. Just like that the tense air disappeared and Lance rushed to comfort them.“It’s not your fault,” Lance said waving his hands around. After a few minutes of conversation between the two of them, the alien left with a smile on their face and Lance turned back to the team.“Is it bad that I’m severely flattered right now?” He asked them with a blush on his face. Pidge huffed out a laugh and elbowed him in the side.“Well, they’re not wrong, you have really pretty scales,” she said taking his arm again. “Even I wouldn’t mind having this shit on jewelry,”“Same,” Hunk said taking Lance’s other arm.“Who wouldn’t?” Shiro asked looking over the top of Lance’s shoulder.“They would go with my knife pretty well,” Keith smirked from the other shoulder. Lance finally tugged his arms back and back away from them with raised arms. He slid in a mock defensive pose and struck out at random areas.“Don’t fuck with me! I’ve got the power of God and anime on my side!” He yelled, taking a second to direct the light off of his scales into Keith’s eye with a smirk. Keith clapped a hand over his face with a curse and lunged towards Lance, who immediately bolted down one of the side alleys. He bolted down the alley but stopped when he lost sight of Lance, he looked around in confusion then walked back to the team who were still in the same spot as before.“Where’d Lance go?” Shiro asked when he noticed that he wasn’t trailing behind him. Keith shrugged his shoulders, still glancing around.“I don’t know, he disappeared when I chased after him,” he replied scratching the back of his neck. He was noticeably worried now. Lance tried to never wander off after the incident with Nyma.“Everyone, keep your eyes open,” Shiro decided. “He can’t of gone far,”“What the hell do you think you’re doing!” Lance yelled once his captor finally took their hand off of his mouth. There were two of them, one of them the same size as Hunk and the other the size of Keith. They looked at him with matching smirks and he felt his blood freeze.“I’m a paladin you know, you’ll get in big trouble for this you know,” he tried. They ignored him and the smaller of the two began tying him down to the metal table in the centre of the room while the larger held him down. He cursed himself for not wearing his armour for this trip like Shiro decided to. He gasped when suddenly a bucket of water splashed on top of him. He groaned when he felt his transformation coming on, and realized that they must have dumped Veil on him instead. His tail ripped through his jeans and he fell limp as he rested in pain.“Looks like we’ll be richer than we thought, Fren,” the smaller one said as the other looked at his tail in amazement.“We’d never have to do anything for the rest of our lives, Hax,” he said in awe. Lance took the chance to look to the side and sink his now razor sharp teeth into Hax’s arm. He let out a loud shout of pain and tried to jerk away but Lance held strong and growled into the meat of the alien. Even as he felt chains now going over his tail to keep it still, he ground down harder into the trembling arm. Only when a strong fist struck his jaw, did he let his mouth fall open and allow the bleeding appendage to escape.“Jeez Hax, are you okay?” he heard Fren ask. He almost felt bad for what he did but decided to let the implications of where he was, sink in again. He yelped when Hax slapped him across the face, making him have to blink away the blackness in his vision after the hit.“Put a muzzle or something on him, I gotta bandage this up,” he heard Hax say. He tried to spit the blood out of his mouth but wasn’t able to before a hand was grabbing the back of his head and a black, metal muzzle was roughly strapped to his face.“Let’s just get this over with and dump him,” Hax said as he came back in the room. Fren simply nodded and picked up something that resembled pliers. Lance immediately bucked up trying to escape the restraints.His head fell back with a shriek when the first scale came loose from his tail. The pain was unimaginable, he could only tremble in shock as Fren started digging underneath the second scale. Tears started rolling down in his ears and his head fell limply to watch Fren. His eyes widened when he saw him drop them in a dirty glass jar as if they were just beads from a child’s friendship bracelet.“Not so tough now, huh Blue Paladin,” Hax smirked walking up to Lance’s head. He shakily turned his head to look at the other alien.“W-we s-s-saved your planet, w-why are you doing t-this to m-me?” He cried. Hax’s fingers went through the muzzle’s caged and tugged it more to make Lance look directly into his eyes.“It doesn’t matter what you or your team did,” he said with a sadistic smile. “I don’t care, all I care about is money and you’re worth a lot of it,” he stated gesturing to his scales. He let out a teary sob as Fren was able to pry the third scale from his tail. He wanted to pull his arms from the restraints but the pain made his arms feel like jelly. Hax patted his cheek and walked towards his tail with another pair of pliers. Panic shot through Lance but he could only limply roll his head around, sob, and scream.He didn’t notice when his friends burst through the door of the workshop, or when he was unchained, but only when he felt the soft touch of cloths did he look around to see Pidge, Hunk, and Keith gently wiping Veil off of his body. He turned his head straight to look up at a distraught looking Shiro. He carefully unclasped the straps of the muzzle and threw it across the room, to hit an unconscious Fren in the face.“Lance we are so sorry we didn’t get here quicker,” Shiro apologized with tears in his eyes. Lance gave him a small smile and shook his head.“It’s not your guy’s fault, I’m just glad you made it in time,” he said sincerely. Shiro gave a hesitant smile back before he scooped Lance up and put a towel on his lap in case he changed back before they returned to the Castle. They almost got out of the door before Lance’s head shot up and he looked back to the table.“Keith grab that jar,” he demanded pointing toward the table.“What? Why?” He asked with a raised eyebrow. Lance gave him a tired glare.“Just do it,” he ground out. Keith huffed but obediently turned back and snatched the jar. He only understood when he looked down and saw the blue scales shining back at him. He gulped and silently handed the jar to Lance, who looked exhausted. Shiro continued walking through the door and soon enough they were nearing Black. Lance decided to peer into the jar and count them. He leaned back onto Shiro’s shoulder with a shallow laugh.“All that pain for four measly scales?” He stated brokenly. Shiro gazed at him with sad eyes and tried to concentrate.“Sometimes when a person doesn’t have enough beauty of their own, they try to take it from the most beautiful, even at the consequence of the other,” Shiro said quietly. Lance looked up at him, puzzlement practically dripping off of him. “What I mean to say is that they’re worth much more than you think they are, and that’s why they’re so hard to get away from you because you’re worth so much,” he tried to explain frantically.“I think I understand Shiro,” Lance said. Shiro sighed in relief and they climbed into Black. Shiro handed Lance off to Hunk, and they took off into the sky towards the Castle.“Oh my God Lance,” Pidge cried when his tail finally transformed back into legs. He winced looking at the chunks of flesh that were missing from his legs. They were still bleeding slightly and looked to be in the same spots where his scales were taken from.“You have to go in the pod man,” Hunk said with worry. Lance shook his head and pulled his legs up.“No, just bandage them, I’ll be fine,” he insisted.“This could cause serious damage Lance,” Keith said with worry etched on his face. Lance sighed but stuck his legs out again.“I don’t know how the pod will heal my tail, so I want to make sure my scales grow back my way,” he pleaded looking instead at Shiro. He thought for a moment but sighed and picked up the bandages. Lance sent him a grateful smile and waited patiently for him to finish.“Thank you,” he said when Shiro tied off the last knot and stood up.“I just hope you’re right about this,” he said, putting away the bandages. “Why don’t you rest up for a little bit and join us in the lounge when you’re feeling up to it,” he suggested. He smiled and nodded his head, waving at them when they left the room. He hopped up from the table and grabbed the jar of his scales. Instead of turning towards the quarters, he headed towards the bridge. He glanced around inside the room and his eyes finally feel on Coran.“Coran!” He called. The altean’s head turned to him in question.“How are you, my boy? I heard what happened over the coms from Number 5,” he asked.“I’m fine Coran,” he said with a smile. “I was wondering if you would be able to help me though,”Everyone looked over at Lance when he entered the lounge. He had his hands behind his back and looked at them hesitantly. They jumped up, thinking that he had been hurt again in some way and quickly approached them.“Lance, are you okay?” Shiro asked. He nodded silently and thrust his hands out. They looked at the dangling leather bands in confusion but each took them in their hands. He opened his hands and let the shiny blue scales fall from his hands to their own necklaces. Their eyes widened and looked at Lance.“They were already pulled out, I wanted each of you to have a part of me with you always,” he explained scratching the back of his neck. “Unless that’s weird, then you can just throw it away I guess,” he said flustered waving his hands around sporadically.“Lance that’s so beautiful!” Hunk cried lunging forward to pull his friend into a hug. Pidge quickly joined in followed by Shiro and Keith.“Thank you so much, Lance,” Shiro said earnestly. Thank yous spilled from the other’s lips as the hug got tighter and tighter around them.“It’s the least I could do,”