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“Guys, I think I’ve been hit,” Lance spoke over the comms. “Blue’s got something loose in her.”“What do you mean by ‘loose’?” Pidge yelled over the explosions outside their Lion.“What do you think I mean by loose?!” Lance demanded, “She’s really hurting and I don’t think I can keep her in the air much longer.” He resisted the urge to grip his head, Blue was sending some of her pain and urgency over their bond, and Lance’s head felt like it was going to explode.Keith’s voice came crackling over the comm link, “You’re flying fine right now, do you think you could keep her up for just a little bit longer? The Galra look like they’re getting ready to retreat.”Lance nodded even though he knew the others couldn’t see him, “I can try.” He spun Blue to evade an attack, but he must have knocked something else loose because all of a sudden his head exploded in pain.“Lance! Lance, are you okay?” Hunk’s worried voice asked, “That looked like a direct hit.”I was hit? was the last thought that went through his mind before Blue crashed into the surface of the planet.---“-an-”Static filled his mind like cotton and made it hard to think.“La-ce!”He groaned in response which seemed to satisfy whoever was trying to scream through the static.“He’s alive, guys!” Hunk. That voice was Hunk, wasn’t it?“We could all hear him, Hunk.” A second voice spoke. “Lance, can you hear us?” Was that Keith? Maybe Shiro.He groaned into the comms again and tried to squeeze his eyes open, but a sharp pain in his side distracted him further. “’m here.” He spoke. His mouth was dry and his tongue was twice its usual size. He coughed weakly, but that only sent more pain through his stomach.“Thank God.” Shiro breathed, “Lance, are you okay? We’re trying to get to you, but it could be a while. When you crashed, you might have accidentally set off a cave-in beneath you which swallowed Blue up.”Lance opened his eyes but was met with complete darkness. “I-” He coughed again and groaned, “I may be having some slight problems.”Pidge groaned obnoxiously, “What kind of problems, Lance? Is Blue operational?”He reached out in his mind for her, but couldn’t find any trace of her. He shook his head, even though he knew they couldn’t see him, “I can’t feel any trace of her. My problem might be that I’m not operational.”There was silence for a few seconds where the rest of the team could only hear his labored breathing.“What… Do you mean by that, my boy?” Coran asked cautiously.“I mean, I’m having a hard time breathing and there’s this really bad pain in my side. I can’t see anything either.” As soon as he said it, a cool blue light washed over the cabin, allowing him to see some, but not all of the predicament he was in.The entire front window had been shattered and through it was a large black crystal shard that ended in Lance’s side.“Okay, one problem solved.” Lance tried to push hope into his voice, but knowing exactly what was happening was somehow worse than the unknown.Keith sighed over the comms, “What problem have you solved?”Lance coughed again and the movement caused the rock to push deeper into his abdomen. He gasped loudly into the comms and waited for the spots in front of his vision to fade. He was starting to feel dizzy and he hadn’t even moved, this was going to be great.“So, I can sort of see now. Blue must have some emergency lights that still work.”“This is good news.” Pidge said, “Why do I have a feeling that there is bad news following?”Lance tried to breathe deeply, but he failed, “Out of curiosity, is anything on this planet toxic to humans?”“I’ll do a scan of the planet immediately,” Coran said. His voice got softer as he moved away from his mic.“Lance.” Shiro asked quietly, “Why do you need to know if anything is toxic?”Lance smiled to himself softly, man, he was getting so lightheaded, “You know Pidge’s prediction that there was bad news? Well, they may be right.”Hunk anxiously asked, “So, how bad is bad news? Are we talking can’t find our teddy bear bad or facing off against aliens bad?”Before Lance could answer, Coran came back with the results of his scan, “So it looks like most things are harmless. The one exception to that is a mineral inside that cave system you fell into. Particles in the air only act as a mild irritant, but ingestion of even small amounts could be lethal to your species.”The blue paladin sighed heavily and rested his head against the back of his seat, “Coran, does this mineral happen to look pitch black and shiny?”There was silence on the other end for a few seconds, “Yes, my boy. How did you know?”“There may be a large shard lanced through me.” He tried to throw some humor into his voice, “C’mon guys, laugh at my dying joke.”“This is not a time to be joking, blue paladin!” Allura’s voice ordered, “Your life could be in danger and you are attempting to make jokes?”Lance rolled his eyes, “Look, princess, if I’m going to die, I’m going to make sure at least one person is laughing.”“You don’t have to die.”“What was that Pidge?” Shiro asked.“I said he doesn’t have to die.” They repeated, “Lance, under your chair there should be some sort of medical kit. Can you reach it?”He reached down and felt around for the kit Pidge had described. Several moments went by before he finally grabbed it. Inside there were three rolls of gauze, which he had no clue how to use; band-aids or the Altean equivalent, which he didn’t think would help him now; a large and intimidating knife that he didn’t understand the presence of; some sort of needle and thread; and other miscellaneous medical supplies.“I’ve got it.” He was breathing heavily, too heavily for just grabbing and opening the medical kit, “Pidge, I’m not sure how to break it to you, but I don’t think band-aids are going to help me now.” His eyes were starting to droop. Was this from poisoning or blood loss?“You aren’t going to use the band-aids.”“Well then what am I supposed to use?”“The knife.”The answer came so suddenly, Lance was speechless, “I’m sorry. I’ve been stabbed and you think that a knife is going to help me?”Pidge exhaled in frustration, “Yes. Now, you need to do what I say and you are going to hate me for it, but after this, you might not die.”“What the quiznack is a knife going-”“Lance.” Shiro interrupted, “We are working on getting you out, but we need to be extra careful. If we pull the wrong rock, you could be crushed or impaled even further. Listen to Pidge and do as they say.”Lance was quiet for a moment before he reluctantly answered, “What do you need me to do?”“I need you to use that big knife and cut through the crystal. The scans that Coran sent me show that the mineral is malleable enough to be cut with a serrated knife. The knife in my kit is serrated, please tell me that yours is as well.”Lance hummed his agreement, it was getting hard to follow their words, but he hoped he was doing a good enough job at it.“Cut through the crystal. I apologize in advance.”Lance bit the inside of his cheek to try and regain consciousness. It gave him a small spark of energy, so he did it again when he hefted the knife against the crystal and started to saw.“Ahh! Oh my God, Pidge.” Lance panted. Sweat broke out on his forehead and he bit his cheek harder to distract himself from the pain that every single vibration shot through his body, “Are you sure death isn’t an option?”He continued to saw through the mineral, whimpering softly and trying to keep the tears from spilling over.“We are all very sure that death is an option.” Keith spoke, “That’s why you need to listen to Pidge and do what they say.”Lance tried to smile through the pain, only it ended up more like a grimace, “Awww… is Mullet worried for me?”“Yes, you idiot!” Pidge shouted, “Now hurry up, we want as little toxins in your body as possible, and the longer that is in you, the more problems it will cause!”The blue paladin sighed, “I’m just trying to lighten the mood. It’s a little hard to not want to when I’m feeling everything that is happening like I’m cutting into myself with this knife. I’m just about done with this part. Please tell me the next step is significantly less pain.”Pidge shook their head, “The next step is to remove the rest of the mineral from your wound, so I need you to carefu-”“Oh, fuck. Mistake. Mistake.” Lance groaned and panted heavily to keep himself from screaming in pain.“What did you do?” Pidge asked, concerned.Lance held the sawed-off chunk of mineral in his hand, “You told me to take it out.”“I was going to tell you to carefully take it out!” They screamed into the com and made Lance’s repressed headache reemerge, “I wasn’t going to tell you to yank it out like some half-wit!”“I realize…” He trailed off. The ceiling was really interesting. It would be so nice to just sleep right now, “I realize that what I just did… might have been…” He yawned, “a stupid decision.”“Yes. It was very much a stupid decision.” Pidge yelled back, loud enough to startle a Hellen Keller, “Okay, so now, you need to stop the bleeding and quickly.”Lance placed his hand on the wound, thoroughly covering it in blood. His hand did practically nothing to staunch the flow of blood and it slipped easily between his fingers. “Guys, this is going to sound weird, but I’m actually feeling really… good.”“I need you to pay attention!” Shiro ordered, “We should be able to get to you in another few minutes or so and I don’t want to have gone through this much trouble only to find a corpse!”The blue paladin smiled happily to himself, “So, what am I supposed to do… little Pidgey?” He played with the blood on his hand and felt how slippery it made them. It was so much more slippery than water. Slip ‘n’ Slides would be so much better if we used blood instead of water.“I need you to close up the wound as best you can,” Pidge spoke, snapping him out of his delirium, “There could still be traces of the crystal in your blood system, but blood loss will kill you a whole lot quicker than poisoning. Do you still have your kit?”Lance nodded happily, still playing with his blood, although it was coming a whole lot slower now. “Yep.” He affirmed, popping the ‘p’.“Okay, great.” They started, “There should be a local anesthesia. Mine looks like a tub of blue goo, but it will numb anything it touches. Get that out and apply it with one hand, probably your left hand, to your wound.”He reached into the box and pulled out the tub, only for it to slip from his grasp, fall to the floor, and roll a few feet away from him. “Question.” He said, “Is it possible that I don’t need an-, anthe-, ass-, whatever it is you said?”Pidge breathed heavily,"Yeah, it is possible, only it's going to hurt a lot. And I mean a lot."Okay great." Lance said, "Because mine may be on the floor right now and I'm a... a little worried... about moving.""Then you need to give yourself stitches without anything to numb the pain. Can you manage a needle and thread?"Lance smiled to himself, "You know what they called me back in the Garrison? 'The Tailor' bec-""No one called you that." Pidge interrupted him, "Now, can you handle a needle and thread or not?"He shook his head, which only added to the list of places that were hurting, "Probably not, but I don't think I have a choice..."Gracelessly, he managed to somehow fit the thread into a needle and he resisted the urge to tell Pidge that he can actually thread the needle, thank you very much and began stabbing himself repeatedly because he couldn't get the needle to go in the right place.His vision was growing black around the edges, "Hey, guys?""Yeah?" Everyone responded quickly."I... I don't think I can stop this bleeding. I don't... I don't know how to give myself stitches. I can barely see anymore, and it's getting harder and harder to breathe.""Lance, all you need to do is give yourself basic stitches." Keith told him, "We will be there within two minutes. We can see parts of Blue, but not all of her. Just hang on a little longer."Lance coughed and more of his blood spilled out of him, "I just want all of you to know that I have had such a great time out here in space with-""No!" Hunk yelled, "You're not going to give us the damn, 'I can't go on speech' and tell us all how much you love us. That's something that you can do when we're all back and safe in the castle and you can tell us as much as you want. Now give yourself those last few stitches that could possibly save your life and wait for us to get to you."Groaning, Lance pushed himself up straighter in his chair and gripped the needle between his fingers. Slowly, he pressed his skin together and agonizingly slowly he stitched the wound shut.He was drenched in blood, sweat, and tears, quite literally when the team found him, his hand still holding that needle like a lifeline.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Lance should never have gotten into the Garrison.His family had known that it was his dream to go to the stars. He tried to hide it by swimming in the waves and disguising his desire behind corny jokes and smiling eyes.He loved laying on the beach with his little brothers and sisters with the moon’s light reflecting off the waves and making it look like there were stars in the sea. He would point up at different constellations and describe their history to Veronica and the shapes to Marco who was still too young to see them. He wondered what it would be like to swim in the stars rather than the sea.They all knew he would never be able to.They knew the second he was diagnosed with epilepsy. He would never be able to be a pilot. He would never be able to see the stars just a little bit closer. Lance was doomed to Earth.The rest of his family did what any sensible people would to: they forged his medical records when he applied against all hope to get in.“It’ll be okay, mijo.” His mother comforted him the day before he was to leave, “You’re on some of the best medicine money can buy. You haven’t had an episode in almost a year. You’ll be fine.”Veronica came out to them and looked up at the stars with her brother, “Hey, Lance.” She spoke softly, trying to keep a tremor out of her voice, “Tell me what the stars look like from the other side?”He lost it then, tears poured from his eyes and he sobbed harder into his mother’s shoulder, “I will, Veronica. I will.”---He was out of medication. Not running out. He was out. Lance searched through his entire room in the Castle. There were clothes strewn about his room haphazardly, the pillows were in the corner, and his bed had been stripped of everything on it. This was so unlike him.Hunk. He needed to get to Hunk. Maybe he would have some sort of cure all that would automatically fix him. Maybe he was just a little too stressed and he would be able to avoid this if he could just calm down. It was no use. He could feel one was going to hit him, it was like a sixth sense he had developed in the Garrison and he had gotten so good at figuring them out that he was only caught once.Before he left, he made sure to use the restroom, if he was going to have a seizure, then he sure as hell wasn’t going to embarrass himself any further.Carefully, he walked into the hall; he closed his door behind him and hoped nobody would see the mess he had made of his room. His footsteps echoed off of the barren walls and he could hear the light sound his fingers made as they trailed across the metal hallway.“Lance!” A cheerful voice said behind him. He jumped so high his head almost hit the roof of the hall. Behind him, Keith jogged a short distance to catch up, “Did I scare you?” He teased lightly as he threw an arm around the blue paladin.Lance shook his head lightly and tried to force a smile on his face, “Not at all. You’re going to need to try better than that.” He forced himself to relax into Keith’s embrace, but doing so only made him tense up more. He couldn’t do this in front of Keith. It was bad enough that Hunk already knew.Keith pulled back and held his boyfriend at arm’s distance. His face was suddenly incredibly serious as he searched Lance for any sign that something was off. “Babe, are you okay?”He tried to nod his head, but he couldn’t move it anymore. His eyes flicked to Keith’s, full of pain and fear. No. No. Nononononononononononononononono. His mouth wouldn’t form the words to tell him to get Hunk. Hunk would know what to do. NononononononononoKeith’s eyes filled with fear, a perfect rendition of what he saw in Lance’s, “Hey, can you talk to me? Babe, did I do something?”
Nonononononononononononononononono
Lance felt the muscles in his legs contract and before he knew it, he was falling, falling, falling.---“Lance!” Keith shouted, “Babe, what’s wrong?” Lance’s eyes were glazed over and he was just staring to a space just behind Keith. He wasn’t sure that was worse, the complete and utter fear that he had seen just moments before, or how quickly they had gone blank.His legs were shaking. Keith had no clue what was happening and he pounded on the door besides him. He just needed to get someone anyone.Lance fell to the floor like a sack of potatoes. His head hit the floor with a resounding Thunk and his blue eyes rolled into the back of his head. “Shiro!” He yelled down the hall, “Pidge, Hunk, Coran, Allura! I don’t care who comes, but something’s happening with Lance!”He was shaking all over now, and he would throw one of his arms out to the side. It hit the wall hard, and Keith was worried it was going to bruise. “Lance? Lance!” He tried to grab one of his arms, but Lance moved it at the last second and it almost hit him in the face.Hunk came around the corner first and his eyes widened at the scene: Lance convulsing on the floor and Keith huddled worriedly over him, trying to grab onto one of Lance’s flailing limbs. “Don’t grab him!” He said quickly and moved faster than Keith thought he was capable of, “Go and get pillows! Five of them, maybe more if you can.”Keith nodded and raced through the hall to Lance’s room; it was the closest. He pulled on the door flung it open. Inside, the room looked trashed. Everything was on the floor, even Lance’s beauty products had been disheveled. Had he had an attack in here before? Keith didn’t let himself linger in the doorway and his eyes settled on the pillows in the corner. He grabbed them, there were only three, but it would have to do.He ran back just as fast and Hunk already had one pillow between Lance and the wall. It looked like his convulsions had started to recede, but that didn’t reassure Keith all that much. He had been gone for a minute and Lance hadn’t stopped.He dumped the pillows by Hunk and then rushed to Lance, only to be stopped by Hunk’s hand around his arm.“What are you doing?” Keith demanded angrily.Hunk shook his head, “Don’t try and restrain him in any way.” He handed him some of the pillows that Keith had just dropped by his feet. “Put a pillow against the wall, under his head, and on his other side if you can. Do not hold him down.”The red paladin nodded and placed them where Hunk had told him, “Okay, what do we do now?”“Now we wait.”“What do you mean we just wait?” Keith demanded as he looked back at Lance who was now only shaking violently, “What’s even happening to him?”Hunk breathed out evenly, “We just wait. Eventually he’ll wake up. It’s only serious if it lasts for more than five minutes. He should be coming out of it by now.”Pidge came sprinting around the corner, “I heard screaming, what’s-” Their eyes widened, “What’s happening? Oh my god, Lance?”“He’s fine.” Hunk assured the both of them, “He used to get these all the time when he was younger.” He frowned at Lance who had finally stopped shaking, “This one was longer than his others though.”Lance’s breaths were coming more evenly now and it just looked like he was sleeping in a bed of pillows, “You can touch him now.” Hunk told Keith, “You’re not supposed to touch him when he’s having one because he can hurt you and himself further.”Keith was at his side as soon as the words left Hunk’s mouth. He grabbed one of Lance’s hands in his own and carefully ran his thumb across the top of it. “Why didn’t you tell us about it?” He mumbled to Lance’s sleeping form.Hunk shook his head, “That’s for him to tell you. Don’t push him too much, it could set him off again.”A weak groan emanated from Lance and he squeezed his eyes shut and opened them slowly. His eyes searched the ceiling for a few seconds before Keith hovered his head in Lance’s line of vision. The red paladin smiled, “Hey, glad to see you’re in the land of the living.” Lance’s eyes bunched up in confusion and he looked away from Keith and tried to push himself up.“No.” Hunk said, “Keep him down, he’s gonna be really dizzy and he could fall down again.” Hunk moved over so that Lance could see his face as well, “Hey, buddy. Can you tell me what your name is?”Lance scrunched his face in confusion, thought about it for a moment, then shook his head.“Babe, your name is Lance, don’t you remember?” Keith asked him, looking for any sense of recognition in the blue eyes. “Do you remember my name?” He asked after a moment, worry filling his voice.“Hey,” Hunk started, “If he’s not remembering his name, he’s not gonna remember-”“Keith.” Lance said. It was strained and weak, but it was undeniably Keith’s name.Keith nodded happily, “Yeah. Do you remember his name?” He gestured to Hunk and Lance nodded his head and said his name. They continued to ask a few easy questions and before too long, Lance was answering them correctly.“I-” He started, “I think I’m good now.” He looked to the yellow paladin who nodded and helped Lance sit up against the wall.“In that case.” Keith said, “What happened?”Lance looked away from his boyfriend as if he were ashamed, “I… I have epilepsy. I didn’t want you guys to know.”“Why wouldn’t you want us to know?” Keith asked concern coated his voice.“I was afraid.” Keith was about to ask his what he could possibly have to be afraid of before he continued, “I never should have gotten into the Garrison. I was always afraid that I would get found out, that I would go to class one day and find out that they had found my real medical records and that I would never fly again.“I guess that the fear just followed me. I didn’t want to be cast off from the team. And I thought I would be fine. I had my medication with me, and I hadn’t had an attack in months, but then I ran out and I didn’t think that it would be a problem but then I felt one coming on, that aura thing I was telling you about and I tried to go to your room, but I couldn’t make it and I knew it, and I was just so anxious and then Keith came by and I didn’t want-”“Shhhhhhh…” Keith interrupted him. He moved so that he was sitting next to Lance and he pulled him down so that Lance could cry into his shirt. Normally, Keith hated all of the touching that Lance thought was necessary 24/7, but he made exceptions for times like this. “We aren’t going to send you away. You’re valuable to everyone here. We can see if Coran can synthesize some time of medication to help and keep your attacks at bay.Lance nodded, he was still sobbing and Keith’s shirt was getting steadily wetter, “Everything’s going to be fine.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Bang!
“Let us see him!”“You can’t keep him locked away like this!”“I’m sorry, paladins, but you may not see your friend.”“It’s been three days!”Huh. Three days? It felt like so much longer to Keith. The darkness made everything worse. It made the beats of his heart seem longer. It made the hours seem longer. It made his breathing seem long and weak, like he was already dead.“You can’t just bar him away from us.” That must have been Shiro. Shiro, who was always watching out for the team and making sure that they didn’t do anything wrong.Well, that did so much for him now, didn’t it?“We can, and we will, black paladin. Your red paladin has broken one of our cardinal rules.”“He was trying to save one of your people!”“Lance, calm down.” That was Shiro again, “Yelling isn’t going to solve anything at all. Our best bet is to just wait until he’s released.”“And how long is that going to take?” Lance again, there was an alarming amount of concern in his voice, “It took us three days to get this far and we still don’t know what’s going to happen or how long he’s going to be in there. I think that we’ve waited long enough.”Keith tried to call out, and tell them that he was alright, but his voice was hoarse and scratchy. Out of all the luxuries he had been given: a single cell, a bucket to piss and shit in, cold handcuffs to make sure he couldn’t sleep right, and a lightbulb that occasionally flipped on to burn his eyes with its light, water had not been one of them.Neither had food now that he thought about it. The cold stone floor was as much of a bed as he could hope for.Why was he even being punished anyways? He hadn’t known that touching was considered incredibly offensive on this planet! He hadn’t known that grabbing that child’s hand was the equivalent of having sex with them. What were they? Fucking Vulcans?He had saved that girl’s life and all he got for it was to be locked up in a cell for three days. Three fucking days. He didn’t deserve this.“Keith! Keith was that you?” Lance shouted down and there was a bustle up towards the top. Keith smiled vaguely as he pictured the blue paladin trying to push his way past the guards and into the prison.“Yeah.” He called back, but his voice cracked in the middle of it and made him sound a whole lot worse for wear than he actually was.A Clang! echoed against the barren walls of Keith’s cell as his guard hit his weapon against the bars. The weapon was shaped like some sort of crescent that was sharpened on both sides, and there was a short dagger that poked up through the center of it. Keith had eyed it warily when he had first arrived on the planet, but now that he was closer, he realized that it was just a really inefficient design made to look intimidating.The guard wasn’t even taking good care of it, the metal was tarnished around the hilt and wherever the two different pieces of metal met. Keith took much better care of his weapons. He wouldn’t be caught dead with tarnish on his blades.“You, keep your mouth shut, klanzit.” The guard spat at him. He actually spit, there were new spots of moisture on his face that Keith wasn’t able to wipe off. The guard quietly continued, “You will keep your mouth shut until you can’t help but cry out.”Keith’s eyes darkened and he clumsily made his way to his feet. When they were both standing, he could tell that he was taller than the guard by at least a head. For a millisecond, the guard emitted an aura of pure fear, who wouldn’t when a paladin of Voltron was hovering over you, and giving you his undivided attention.Then, he hit his blade on the bars again, hard enough to send sparks up. He laughed when Keith flinched away, trying to shake the afterimage effects from his eyes. “You try and act so high and mighty now, but in two days, you won’t be shit.”Footsteps reverberated down the stairs, probably another guard to change shifts. As he left, he let his blade drag against the wall and created a sound reminiscent of nails on a chalkboard. Goosebumps rose across Keith’s skin and he waited until the guard was completely gone before he shivered.At least he knew that in two days he would get out. Two more days of taunting, cold, and darkness.Keith settled down to wait.---“Get up, klanzit.” It was another guard this time. Keith had started calling the three of them names by the weapons they carried. This was Clean Blade, because his blade was flawless. Keith doubted that he had ever swung it maliciously in his life.Clean Blade sneered at him, “I told you to get up.”Keith tried to get up, he really did, but he still hadn’t been given water. He really should have been dead and he sure as hell wasn’t going to spend the rest of his energy just to save the guard a bit of extra energy.Cursing, Clean Blade unlocked his cell and his handcuffs. He must have not been very scared of a dehydrated, malnourished human. Keith just… didn’t want to fight. That was it. He wasn’t too weak to even fight back here. That wasn’t it at all.The guard laughed as he tossed Keith over his shoulder easily, “Look at the klanzit now. You aren’t so scary now that you’re weak.” He turned and exited the cell. The keys on his waist jangled as they climbed the stairs.“I’ve got him.” Clean Blade said, Keith could tell from his voice that he was smiling smugly as if he had fought some great battle and hadn’t just picked the red paladin off of the floor.Weathered Blade stepped up to him. Her blade was the most used. There were nicks on the metal that spoke of war experience. She was the one whom Keith was the most afraid of.She grabbed his head in her hands and turned it so that he could see her face, “Are you ready for today? You get one of the best punishments our little planet has to offer.” She smiled sweetly, but her scarred face made it seem nothing but sinister.She looked at Tarnished Blade, “Go ahead and skin his hands before we go out there. We can’t have it look like he came out of our Prisons unharmed.”Keith felt his own eyes widen, what type of barbaric shit was this? He had saved a little girl’s life. He wasn’t going to be able to hold a weapon in his hands for months. The smile on Weathered Blade’s face let him know that she knew exactly what that meant for him; his blades had been confiscated on the first day. They all knew his weapon of choice.“You fuckers” He tried to say to them, but all that came out was raspy air that set off a coughing fit. How long had it been? Five days? Five days without food or water was really taking its toll on his throat which was dry as a desert.Tarnished Blade smiled at him before looking up at Clean Blade, “You can drop him now.” And Keith was on the ground. He didn’t even have it in him to groan. Not when he hit the ground, and not when Tarnished took his tarnished blade to the skin of Keith’s palm and pulled.He panted heavily and tried to pull his arm away, but the blade only cut deeper and deeper, and the hand anchoring him in place was too strong and he was too weak. He just grit his teeth and tried not to let the tears spring from his eyes; he would not give them that satisfaction.At the end, he was left with two blocks of bloody flesh that vaguely resembled hands, and eyes full of unshed tears.“Get him up and out there.” Weathered smiled, “The people want to see the klanzit’s pain.”Keith was hauled viciously to his feet by his hands and he bit back a cry of pain. Sandwiched between them, Keith was forced along down the path and up towards the surface. As they got higher and higher up, Keith could hear people. A lot of people. There were jeers and boos that got louder and louder as they neared the top.Doors in front of him opened and for a few moments, he was blinded by the sheer amount of light that assaulted his eyes. It was so bright that for a moment, he forgot about the throbbing pain in his hands for the sharp pain in his eyes.Before him stood thousands of people. Thousands of people that had come to watch… whatever was going to happen to him. As he was moved along, he saw four figures in white armor standing near the front. The rest of his team was standing in an area cordoned off from the rest of the population. They were being watched to make sure they didn’t try and free him from whatever was about to happen.As he watched them, he saw Pidge cover their mouth with their hands when they saw his bloody hands. Hunk turned around to try and avoid looking, but was quickly pushed back around to watch. Lance’s fists balled up at his sides, his knuckles were white. And Shiro…Shiro looked furious. His eyes were dark with hatred and everything about his posture screamed that he was going to attack. His hands twitched at his sides, wanting desperately to summon his bayard. Keith looked him straight in the eyes before he shook his head, no, that would only make it worse.Weathered Blade stepped to the front of the platform, was she some type of big general or something like that? She began a speech in her own language first, pausing at the appropriate times and waiting for the crowd to quiet before she began. Was she a public speaker now too?After she was done, she continued in English for the paladins to hear, “The red paladin of Voltron, Keith Kogane, has committed one of the most heinous crimes of our people. In order for him to rectify himself, he must endure five days devoid of nourishment and sixty lashings in the set of twenty threes. After all sixty lashings have been delivered, he will be released back to the remaining paladins of Voltron, whether he lives or dies. If any have any objections to the ways of this planet, please, speak up now.” She smiled her scarred smile.All of them looked like they wanted to speak up. Every single one looked as if they were on the verge of spouting out how unjust his treatment was, but Keith shook his head. If he survived this, then there might be a chance of repairing these burned bridges at a later time. If they tried to stop this, then there would be no chance that this planet would join the coalition.After seeing that no one had any objections to the treatment, Weathered Blade spoke again, “Then we may begin.” A roar went up from the crowd. Not just a chear, a roar these people were here to see the red paladin bleed.The guard stepped down from her perch on the platform and she addressed Keith privately, “You will die today, red paladin. No matter what you and your friends may believe. You will die.” She smiled again. That smile was going to mock him in his nightmares, “Now remove your armor. You may keep your undergarments, but everything else must go.”Keith glared back at her, but the sun was getting to him and he was so thirsty and so, so tired. What did she want him to do?She gestured to Clean Blade and Tarnished Blade. One of them held him still while the other ripped the shirt from his body. “You can remove your pants.” Weathered told him, “Or we can have my friends here do it for you, and they will not be gentle.”Keith scowled back at her, but it was getting more and more difficult to concentrate on her words. Weathered Blade gestured again and Clean Blade took his weapon, shining in the bright light and none too gently slashed a line down one pant leg. Keith held in a hiss of pain and he squeezed his eyes shut to avoid looking at the dark line of red that ran from the meat of his thigh to his ankle.He repeated the same action on the other side, and all of a sudden, Keith was practically naked in front of thousands of aliens and the friends he had made over the last few months.“You may hold onto this stick to keep yourself upright as long as you can.” She told him as she motioned to a wooden, splintered pole standing vertically in the middle of the platform. She smiled again, “That is, if you want to cause any more damage to your hands.”She smiled too much for someone so cruel.Keith was manhandled to the center, right in front of the pole, and he didn’t even have it in himself to fight against their grip. He heard the crack of the whip and raised his eyes enough to see a vicious looking flog. It was made of three separate pieces of leather with a piece of polished metal affixed to the end of the middle strand.Only one thought went through Keith’s mind at the sight this was going to fucking hurt.The first strike was fire and he grabbed on to the pole in front of him to keep himself from falling over. He felt the splinters slide in along his bloody palm, but he only gripped it harder. Warm liquid dribbled down his back in rivulets. At this moment, he knew that he would die.The second strike struck him vertically and he couldn’t bite back the gasp of pain that burst through his lips. He bit down on his lip. If he was going to cry, it wasn’t going to be now.The third strike surprised him. It was so quick after the second and the piece of metal finally did what it was supposed to do. It dug into the flesh of his back and tore a layer of skin straight from his back.Keith glanced up, straight into Lance’s blue, blue, eyes. Hunk was beside him trying to wipe away tears as quickly as they were coming to fruition. Pidge didn’t cry about the tears streaming down their face. They watched with such a fierceness in their gaze that Keith almost forgot about where he was.Almost, until the fourth strike. Keith saw Pidge’s lower lip tremble and he saw them mouth to him, “I can’t lose another brother.” Shiro wasn’t looking at him. He was looking at the person who was holding the weapon, and if looks could kill, Shiro could have committed genocide.He was twenty percent done. Twenty percent. He just had to endure everything he just had four more times. That thought brought him back to Lance’s eyes, which were so blue in their color and their feelings. The tears only made them more vibrant.The fifth strike descended, and Keith felt the pain overtake him.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“What to do, what to do?” The Galran soldier paced back and forth in front of the two of them. “Honestly, I think I should just kill the both of you and wipe my hands clean of this entire matter, but where’s the fun in that?”He shook his head, “No. I think I will kill one of you before this is all over and done with though. It will be such a great sight for the rest of your dear friends to witness.” Keith and Lance glanced sideways at each other. Keith was sporting a nasty cut right above his hairline which was bleeding profusely into his eye, and Lance had blood seeping from a split lip.The rest of the team was forced to their knees beside them, soft grunts exhaled into the air. Pidge was shivering from the cold of the planet and Shiro could feel icy tendrils grasp at his shoulder around his freezing arm and in his snow soaked boots.All of their helmets had been removed and placed in a pile a few yards away to keep them from secretly communicating with each other.The soldier trailed his fingers down Pidge’s face, “You’re such a pretty specimen to waste as well.”As their body shivered, Pidge’s eyes lit up with rage, “If your hand comes any closer to my mouth, I will bite your fingers off.”Lance smiled in pride, “That’s the Pidge I know and love.” He looked to Keith, then back to her, “Give him Hell.”“And you, blue paladin.” The soldier bent down in his face, “You were by far the easiest to capture. I wonder why that was? Was it because you were the most obvious to see? Was it because you were constantly trying to protect the others? Or was it because your subconscious was telling you that you were the least valuable to catch?”Lance rolled his eyes, “Obviously I let you catch me. You just caught me a little off guard is all. If I was at peak performance…” He clucked his tongue and shook his head, “You would never have stood a chance.”The soldier threw back his head and laughed, “You’re the funny one, aren’t you? You’re the one who everyone goes to have a good laugh, to brighten their spirits when they’re having a down day. You know what the best part of those people is?” He asked and got uncomfortably close to Lance’s face, “They’re the most fun to break.”Lance laughed back, “You see, that is only true if you can break them.” He spat in the soldier’s face.“Lance…” Keith hissed through gritted teeth, “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Are you trying to get yourself killed?” He was pulling against his bindings subtly, but not subtly enough.The soldier wiped the spittle from his face and turned to the red paladin, “Well you see, Keith, I don’t actually have to touch him to break him. All I have to do is touch all of you.”Lance scoffed, but there was a darkness in his eyes that wasn’t there before, “You really need to choose your words a little more carefully. People might get the wrong idea.”“It is just my desire for people to get the wrong idea.” He said as he stalked behind Keith, “Especially you. If I remember correctly, you and this fellow right here have grown rather… close, have you not?” He grabbed a fistful of Keith’s hair and pulled his head back so he had no choice but to look at him.Lance didn’t breathe. His cocky facade dissolved around him and all that was left was a primal instinct of preservation. Keith’s neck was bared so that everyone could see a healing red mark that Lance had left there just the night before. Don’t touch him flashed through his mind and quicker than he could think to stop himself, he was hissing them out.The soldier laughed again and pulled the red paladin’s hair so hard, he was forced up off of his knees. Keith’s eyes were blown wide and his cheeks puffed out with a sudden exhalation of breath. “So, you two have gotten close, haven’t you? I think we can solve this problem.”He pulled out the pistol and fired a shot through the back of Keith’s chest. Blood splattered all across Lance’s face. Beside him, Pidge screamed bloody murder, “No! No, Keith! Keith, look at me!”Lance couldn’t speak. He watched in horror as Keith’s eyes rolled to the back of his head. Sound muffled around him as Keith’s knees hit the ground. Slowly, slowly, slowly. He saw the white of the paladin’s armor quickly stain red. He felt a single tear roll down his face.That couldn’t be Keith’s body falling lifelessly to the ground of this alien planet light years away from Earth. It just couldn’t Lance’s boyfriend was smiling and laughing and teasing and joking and tickling and breathing and safe and alive.Keith was so alive.That couldn’t be him. His pale face was too pale because he never went out in the summer. His mullet was blowing in the wind because somehow, it had come out of the braid that Lance had done it in. His eyes were closed because Keith was always sleeping if he wasn’t training. There. There was a tiny breath.He urged him to just open his eyes.
Just open your eyes, Keith.
---“What did I tell you?” The soldier asked as he dropped Keith’s body to the floor unceremoniously. He wiped the blood from his hand distastefully, “The happy ones are always the most fun to break.” He aimed a kick at the crumpled body as the rest of the paladins screamed in horror. “Would you take this away for me?” He asked one of the guards beside him.She nodded once and bent to drag the body along the ground to a grave that they had already dug to dispose of the bodies that were destined to fall around their official. The body made a dull thwump as the soil beneath it depressed. She thought she heard a slight moan come from the pile of limbs and armor, but it must have been her imagination.Shalik, her leader, never missed anyways. If he was still alive, it wasn’t going to be for long.---Keith’s eyes twitched. That was good. Concentrate on that. Don’t concentrate on the burning hole in the middle of his body. Don’t wonder how he’s still alive, because if he thinks about it too much, it might turn out to not be true.He felt something light and soft fall on him. Snow? No, he had never felt snow before and he didn’t think it would be anything like this. More of it fell on him, then more, and then he was completely covered in it.He tried to open his eyes, but an instant gritty, burning feeling enveloped the eye that he had opened. Dirt. It was dirt. Those damn Galran soldiers were burying him alive.He tried to move, but very quickly found that that was much easier thought than done. Think, Keith He thought, berating himself in his head, What do you need to do to get out of this mess? What’s going to be the first thing to kill you?The throbbing in his chest was a pretty good indication of that. He breathed in and almost coughed, which set off a wave of pain that coursed through his entire body. Inhaling dirt. That would be the next thing to kill him.Slowly, so he didn’t mess with his wound too much, and slowly so he didn’t alert whoever was pushing dirt onto him, he moved his hands to cover his mouth. It was a race against time, and he knew it. If he wasn’t fast enough, then he would bleed out and die here. If he was too fast, the guards would notice something moving in the grave and shoot down just to be sure that he was dead.He had to be perfect.If Lance was telling the truth, then he had never had any problems doing that in the past.He moved his feet around to create little pockets of air around his body. The larger the pocket, the more he could move. He tried to shift his chest to do the same thing, but he almost screamed in pain.Keith had to bite his lip to control his whimper. A whimper. How was he so weak that he was fucking whimpering?The weight was growing heavier and heavier and it was getting harder and harder to breathe. He inhaled as much air as he could to give him more room to wiggle. It seemed like the weight was leveling out now. He began to move.He pulled his knees up to his chest and pushed them out again, like he was rowing a boat. If he got out of this alive, he was going to show Lance the night of his life for teaching him how to row.Desperately he tried to righten himself. Maybe he was in a short grave. They couldn’t have had that much time to dig that deep of a hole. Could they have?Distantly, he heard a rumble as something broke atmosphere. A Galran ship? He needed to get out to save his team. He needed to get out now. He needed to- If he got out, there would be no chance of him helping them. If he got out and no one was there, he would still have no way of contacting the castle to tell Allura and Coran what had happened. If he got out, he would bleed to death.If he got out, he would die alone.When he got out. He may not live, but if he was going to die, he was going to make sure he died looking up at the clear sky and picturing Earth’s blue abyss and white clouds. He was not going to die buried in a hole while he slowly ran out of oxygen.He reached out with one hand and felt the wind blow across his fingertips.---The Castleship breached the atmosphere and sent the Galran soldiers running. Coran rained down fire on them, hitting a few of them and killing others. The Alteans had come to save the day, but none of the paladins rejoiced.The Lions followed suit, creating a circle around the four of them who didn’t even flinch when the mechanisms landed next to them. Finally, Shiro’s arm burned through the rope binding him. He had been too slow. Too slow. He took too long and now Keith was dead because of it.He bit back tears as he undid the bindings around Hunk. He was letting them fall silently as he released Pidge. But when he reached Lance and saw the empty look in his eyes, Shiro broke. His human hand shook violently in time with his sobs while the prosthetic remained solid like the machine it was.He heard Lance mumble something under his breath and Shiro ducked down to listen, “What was that, Lance?”“Ready or not, here I come, Keith.”Shiro shook his head as tears spilled over, “What are you saying?” His voice broke. He was a failure of a leader. He couldn’t remain strong when he needed to be.“We’re playing a hide and seek.” Lance explained. His eyes never left the ground and Shiro didn’t think he had seen him blink at all, “I just need to find him. We were playing last night before we went to bed. Hide and seek in the covers.” He smiled. “Ready or not, here I come.”“La-” Shiro’s voice broke and he tried again, “Lance. Keith he’s- Keith is gone.”Lance smiled softly at the ground, “He’ll come back. He always does.”The black paladin shook his head, “Not this time. Don’t you remember? Keith is dead.” Something broke in Shiro then. Something that said that you should never have to explain to someone who was still covered in their lover’s blood that they were never coming back.Lance’s eyes gained lucidity for a second and he raised his head to look Shiro in the eye. His face was splattered in drying blood, “I saw him. Right after he fell. He breathed. He’s going to come back to me.”Shiro closed his eyes and ducked his head. Keith was shot through his armor to the other side. There was no way anyone could survive that.He felt cold hands around his wrist and he raised his eyes to see Lance’s blue ones staring right back at him, “Why does it hurt so much?”Blue threw back her head and roared at her paladin’s turmoil, “We were laughing and playing around just last night.” He sobbed into Shiro’s shoulder, “I need to find him.”Shiro shook his head, “You will only cause more grief for yourself.”“I need to find him, Shiro. I can’t let him just be left on an alien planet. He wouldn’t want that for me.” Lance pushed himself to his feet, “He could still be alive.”“Don’t get your hopes up, Lance.”Red landed on top of a hill a little ways away and ducked her head so that her nose was almost touching the ground.“He’s there.” Lance breathed and took off running. Shiro watched as he stumbled over a rock and fell to the ground, but just as soon as he fell, he was back up again in a desperate scramble to the makeshift grave.Shiro helped Pidge to their feet and the three of them followed Lance more slowly up the hill with dread weighing down their steps. Tears streaked their way through dirt and grime on Hunk’s face.When they joined Lance on the top of the hill, he was scratching desperately at the ground around a limp hand. A limp hand with a fingerless glove on it.Lance was sobbing. His fingertips were bleeding from where he had scratched them on the dirt and he was chanting, “He’s here. He’s here. He’s here.” He stopped for a brief second to look at them accusingly, “Help me! He could still be alive! He could still… Help!”Shiro didn’t have the heart in him to try and stop the other two as they got down on their hands and knees and dug at the loose soil around Keith’s pale arm.Pidge shook their head, “Guys… He was still alive when they buried him.”“Then he could still be alive!” Lance screamed, “Find his head!”“Lance…” Shiro started.“He’s here! He’s here!” Hunk called and excavated more of his body so that they could haul him out of the hole by his arms.Keith was pale where he wasn’t covered in dirt. He was too pale, but they could all see the steady rise and fall of his chest. Lance sobbed in relief at the sight.“Allura.” Shiro called into his comms, “Get a healing pod ready.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

His vision exploded in white as Shiro felt the blade tear through his abdomen. He distantly felt himself hit the ground. His knees went first accompanied by a dull thud, and then he fell to his side. Somewhere along the way, he had dropped his bayard and the clang that ricocheted throughout the corridor.“Shiro!” Who was that? He tried to raise his hand to tell whoever it was that he was fine. It was just a scratch. He’d be better after he just… rested… a bit.The sound of a gun reached his ears followed by thundering footfalls, “Stay away from him, you bastard!” Shiro was fine. There was just a blinding pain in his stomach, that was all. He opened his eyes, but everything was just so bright that he closed them again.“Guys, get a pod ready. Shiro’s been hurt. Bad.” That was… Lance? Whoever it was moved Shiro so that he was flat on his back and the pain enveloped him again. He gasped heavily. There was so much pain.“We are also going to need something to bind his wounds right now. He might not last until we get him into a pod.” Shiro was moved again, and this time he groaned. When he finally managed to open his eyes, he was greeted with a worried Lance. Lance didn’t look any better than he felt. Well, he probably felt worse than Lance’s bruising face and cracked armor. “Shiro, can you hear me?” Lance asked. It was… wrong though. It was like he was seeing Lance’s lips move before he heard his voice. Like he was watching a poorly made video where the audio wasn’t linked properly with the visuals.His confusion must have shown on his face because Lance was moving him again. “Dammit, Shiro.” He bit his bottom lip as he looked around the corridor, “Shiro, can you hear me?” He enunciated every word as if he were teaching a two-year-old a new language.He nodded his head and gasped in pain. Why did it hurt so much? It was all he could do not just to scream.“Well, at least he’s responsive.” He looked back down at Shiro, “On a scale of one to ten, how intense is your pain.” If glares could cut, Lance would have been eviscerated. “Great, I’m gonna take that as a nine.”“Lance, how close are you to your Lion?” That was Allura’s voice. “There should be some basic medical supplies in there. They might be a little old, but thankfully Altean bandages don’t expire.”Lance nodded. He ducked down to try and lift Shiro, then noticed the error of his ways. “Okay, Allura. Is there any way that you could get here to help him? I thought that you weren’t supposed to move injured people, and Shiro looks pretty injured to me. I don’t want to leave him alone because who knows who can come racing down this hallway.”As soon as he said it, two drones came around the corner, their guns held at the ready. One shot and hit the wall above Lance’s head before he could get his own weapon ready in time. The second never got a chance to fire because the Blue Paladin’s shot got him right between the eyes. Lance got the other with a glancing blow to the shoulder.That didn’t seem to do anything except piss him off it seemed. The soldier yanked out a wicked looking blade from his boot and proceeded to charge him. Lance let out a rather embarrassing squeak as he fired off three more rounds that all hit their mark. His adversary slumped against the wall, lifeless.“The Castle won’t be able to get to your location while there are this many Galran ships out there. And getting you out here won’t be any easier.” She answered, “Just get something to stop the bleeding until Coran and I can take care of the fleet outside and get to you.”“Lance, what’s your location?” Keith’s voice asked over the comms. “I made it back to Red and got some bandages from her.” His breathing was short and sharp followed by heavy and even thumps. “I might also have a few followers, so be prepared for that when I get to you.”Lance nodded even though he knew Keith couldn’t see him and relayed their position, “Okay, could you hurry? Shiro isn’t looking too hot.”The black paladin’s skin was pale and clammy, his eyes were unfocused and dull, and he was subtly playing with the giant gaping hole in his stomach. The dark liquid was instantly red against his white armor. Lance cursed, and he pressed his hand to try and stop the bleeding, or at least slow it down.It was useless; trying to staunch the flow was working just as well as holding back a waterfall with bare hands.“Shiro!” Another voice called down the hall followed by a grunt and a metallic crunch as Keith barreled into the wall because he didn’t slow down fast enough to turn. His hands were laden with supplies and Lance smiled before Keith’s pursuers rounded the corner behind him.The Cuban raised his gun, lightning fast and took aim, “Duck.” He said. His voice was hard, cool, and calculating. Keith found himself obeying without a second thought; his body fell into a smooth slide with one leg extended and the other.Lance exhaled sharply and pulled the trigger, moving quickly from target to target. In ten seconds, the only living beings in that corridor were the three paladins.Keith nodded his thanks to Lance and muttered, “Good shooting,” as he spread the bandages out, “Now please tell me you remember at least a little of the First Aid class that we had to take at the Garrison.”Lance sucked in a breath between his teeth, “Yeah, but my knowledge extends to broken bones and wounds on extremities. Abdominal injuries are way over my head.”“Damn,” Keith cursed, “All I remember are bloody noses and setting bones. Mostly that everything we think we’re supposed to do is actually wrong.”Shiro’s eyes were flitting around the room, never landing on anything for longer than a tick or so. Keith took one of his gloves off and pressed his hand to the other’s forehead. The skin was cold and clammy under his palm and it took all of Keith’s willpower to not grimace at the feeling.“First aid 101 it is then.” Lance said, “Just try to minimize bleeding.” Keith nodded once then grabbed a wide sheet of what looked like gauze.“Alright, Shiro.” He spoke as he worked, even though Shiro probably couldn’t hear what he was saying, “This is going to hurt. At least, I think it is.” He placed the gauze-like thing over the wound and pressed down. The sheet was instantly bright red.Shiro hissed through his teeth when he released his breath; he panted heavily. His eyes rolled to the back of his head, and his muscles tensed once before he groaned into the pain.“I’m so sorry, Shiro,” Keith muttered as he pressed harder. His pale skin was stained a stark crimson where the blood spilled from the wound. He piled a few more layers of the material on top of each other, hoping that it would take him a little longer to bleed through the layers.He pressed them into the wound and grimaced when Shiro whimpered weakly. Lance shot down the hall, felling another soldier, “This hall is getting really hot, Keith. How much longer until we can get him to a lion?”“Not now.” Keith said, “I still need to- shit.” The tell-tale red was seeping through already, “No. No, no no no no no no.” He grabbed a handful of the material and pressed it to the wound, “Shiro, I need you to look at me.” Shiro held his gaze for a few moments before his eyes fluttered shut.Keith cursed again, “Lance, can you help me? I need to wrap this before he loses too much blood.”The Blue Paladin shook his head and he spun on his heel and nailed another Galran soldier between the eyes, “I would, but we might get overwhelmed. Sorry, Keith.”“Allura, how are we coming with the Galran fleet? Any chance we could get out a little before schedule?”Static filled Keith’s coms for a moment before her voice broke through, “There might be a slight opening in ten doboshes or so, but you would need to be quick and the Galran forces would need to be slow. Coran has a pod prepped, so as soon as you get Shiro here, he can go in.”Keith nodded, “Good because he’s going to need it. I need to wrap this and then I’ll be on my way. Lance, can you cover us?”“What do you think I’ve been doing for the past varga? Making pastries?” Lance responded sarcastically, “I’ll cover you, don’t worry. Just make sure that he gets to a pod right away.”“Okay.” He breathed, “Patience yields focus. How am I going to wrap this without hurting Shiro any further?” Awkwardly, he stretched the bandages out in front of him. He pursed his lips and looked at the steadily growing pile of soldiers, “I’m so sorry, Shiro, but this is going to hurt… Again.” Keith lifted up Shiro’s chest so that he was leaning up against the wall.Shiro’s face winced, but not much else than that, they were losing him.Keith quickly wrapped the bandages around the gauze as tightly as he could, but with every layer, more and more white linen became red.Lance cursed beside him, “There’s more of them coming. I can’t hold them off much longer.” A shot fired from behind some cover and got Lance on the shoulder. He cursed again, “I’m fine, but we need to get out of here before we’re overrun.”Keith nodded once and apologized to Shiro’s unconscious form once again before he picked him up bridal style and ran to the Lions. Red was closest and only a few short turns away. He just needed to make a left, another left, a right, go straight, make a left… or a right?He stopped in the middle of the hall with Shiro still in his arms. Lance was following close behind, running backward and shooting as best and accurately as he could, “What’s the hold-up, mullet?” He yelled back, “We don’t have time to stop and catch our breath.”“I… I can’t remember the way back,” Keith admitted reluctantly.Lance rolled his eyes, “Listen to your damn Lion, man.” He shook his head, “And they say I’m the dumb one.”Keith closed his eyes and felt out with his consciousness, Where are you Red? Where are you? I need to find you for Shiro’s sake. He smiled when he felt the familiar pull at the edge of his mind, “She’s this way!”They finally made it to Red after only a few minor delays which mostly consisted of bad instincts on Keith’s part. Lance left to head back to Blue so that he didn’t leave her behind.The Red Paladin set his Lion to autopilot as he knelt at Shiro’s side, watching helplessly as the stain grew larger and larger and larger and darker and darker and darker. They were running out of time.“Hang in there, Shiro.” Keith urged as he gripped his friend’s hand tightly in his own, “Hang in there for me.”“Please.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Pidge, get out of there!” Keith’s voice roared in her coms. She could hear shots on the other end.“I’m not going anywhere just yet.” She spoke back, determined. Glowing script flashed in front of her eyes, faster than anyone could read. She was just looking for anything that could lead to her brother’s whereabouts. Anything. Anything.Lance’s voice broke through the static, “Pidge, you really gotta hurry up. Their reinforcements are coming in quick.”Pidge rolled her eyes and pushed her glasses further up the bridge of her nose, “I’ll be fine. You guys can go on back to the Castle. I’ll meet you there when I’m finished here.”“Unacceptable.” Allura commanded, her voice was cold as she spoke, “We don’t know if there’s any information there for you. Get back here before we need to make a getaway.”“Allura.” Pidge pleaded, “I am closer than I’ve been in months, please give me a few extra ticks. Everyone can make their way back to the Castle, just give me a little longer.”Silence filled the room, broken only by occasional blips and beeps from the console in front of her. Finally, Allura conceded, “You have five doboshes, make the most of them.”Pidge breathed a sigh of relief, “Thank you, Allura.” She poured as much sincerity as she could into the words and redoubled her efforts into the computer skimming through layers and layers of coding and Galran lettering.She started downloading everything that she could, hoping to gain anything that she could so that she could look back on it later if she missed anything. She tried to ignore the timer’s ticking as it slowly counted down on how much time she had left.
Tick
Nothing. There was nothing on this computer about any prisoners or hostages or experiments. It was as if, Matt and her father had never even existed.
Tick
She urged her eyes to scan faster, scan more of the text littering the screen. There had to be something here. They couldn’t just be gone.
Tick, tick, tick
Pidge was running out of time, and she only had a few ticks left, all she needed was a seed. A seed of information.“Get back to the castle, Pidge,” Allura spoke calmly, carefully.“No…” Pidge’s voice broke, “No… There can’t be nothing! I can’t give up now!” She viciously wiped the moisture from her eyes and fought to swallow down the lump in her throat trying to choke her.“There’s always tomorrow, Katie.” Shiro consoled, “Come on back to the Castle. We’ll find them eventually.”Pidge nodded and packed up her things through her swimming vision. Slowly, she turned off her coms and sobbed. Sorrow tore its way through her feelings, drowning out every other feeling that she could have possessed. She felt the burning flames of desperation ignite in her hears. There had to be more. There had to be something else.She knelt in the room for too long. It was too empty, too cold, too dead. Galran voices drifted down the halls to her ears. Fear locked her joints in place. She needed to move, move, move now. “... said it’s coming from this room up ahead.” A voice cut through the silencePidge glanced around the room. The computer was open and still flipping through different menus where she had left it. Her kit was wide open, displaying its insides to anyone that could walk in. There was no hiding that she was here.“Isn’t one of the paladins really tech savvy or something like that?” Another voice asked, “We could bring them down to four if they’re here.”An explosion rocked the ship, and that was enough to knock Pidge out of her stupor, she grabbed her kit and quickly dove for cover, spilling several noisy items that the explosion thankfully covered up. “Guys, I might be a little late, sorry.” She whispered.The two soldiers entered the room. At the sight of the disarray, they instantly raised their weapons, prepared to kill. Pidge took a deep breath. The soldiers turned their backs. Pidge sprinted.“THERE!” one of them shouted. A shot rang out, and Pidge fell to the floor. Her kit spilled out in front of her, everything releasing an awful clatter.It was like she just fell; her leg just stopped working. A second later, the pain washed over her, and she screamed. Fire spread from her calf up her leg, and she shook from the fierceness of it.“Hah! You got it!” One said as he high-fived the other, “We better get some kind of reward for this. Who knew all you needed was a shot to the leg to bring one down?”Pidge scrambled away from them as best she could, but they both shot the same leg again. She pulled herself away from them, fresh tears following the tracks that hadn’t yet dried, “Guys, come in. I need assistance right now. Please, anyone, respond.” She pleaded.The guards laughed joyfully, “Aw, isn’t that cute? Little Green here is begging for the team to help.”Pidge felt a chill shoot down her spine when she remembered that she had turned her coms off. The team couldn't hear her. The team thought that she was on her way out.Slowly, she reached up to turn her mic back on, but before she could touch the button, the guard pulled it straight from her head, disheveling her hair and flinging her glasses from her face. Matt’s glasses.“Hey, how much of a bonus do you think we’ll get if we bring back the Lion too? How else did the paladin get on?”Fear spiked through her and Pidge’s eyes widened. Green was still here, and if she were caught, then there would be no more forming Voltron. Paladins could be replaced, even Shiro, but Lion’s were unique.Go Pidge urged through her bond, please. There is nothing here but pain for you and me, so spare yourself. Tell the others of what’s happened. Don’t worry about me. She tried to push as much resolve and reassurance into the connection as she could, but her fear still shone through.Green shot concern back, overwhelming fear for her paladin, and Pidge shot cold logic back. Green could not be replaced, and the Galra would gain far more from her capture. It took mere seconds for the Lion to agree, but it felt like years to Pidge.“Did you hear us?” A soldier asked as he kicked her stomach and she flew into the wall, “We asked you where your precious Lion is.” Another kick. If they really wanted a response, then they should have at least let her breathe an answer before they continued their beatings.“Gone.” Pidge choked out. Her mouth was flooding with excess spit that spilled from her lips when she spoke. It disgusted her a little. “She’s smart. She knows when to cut her losses.”The guards’ expressions turned sour, and they looked at each other, “You know.” One walked straight towards her, “You better hope for your sake that that’s false because a Paladin is useless without a Lion.”“Looks like I’m useless then.” Pidge smiled triumphantly as she felt Green leave the Galran vessel. She just hoped that her team would get back to her as quickly as they could.---“Alright, Green is back in, let’s get out of here!” Shiro called to Allura. He waved her into action, “It’s way too hot, get us a wormhole now!”The princess nodded seriously and quickly made the commands, sending Voltron and the team halfway across the Universe.---Pidge was placed in a small cell. ‘A small cell for a small person,’ her guards had said. A small cell, my ass. Pidge thought to herself, the room was barely large enough for her to sit down in with her legs both extended. Her back was uncomfortably arched, and if she wanted to lay down, she needed to pull herself into a fetal position. It was like she was being kept like an animal in a cage.But sure, small was the appropriate word.She didn’t spare much thought to the size of her cell though, not when her leg was on fire. The shots that she had taken had grown incrementally in pain, and she couldn’t move it without lightning shooting up her spine. She couldn’t lay down at all, and whenever she tried, her leg went stiff in refusal.Her tiny cell was freezing cold; she could feel sweat drip from her skin and chill her skin to the bone. Everything was cold except for her leg. It was on fire. She could feel the heat radiating off of it when she hovered her hand over it, and when a little bit of light made its way into her cell, she could tell that the skin was red with infection.Every now and then, the guards would come by her cell to check up on her. Sometimes they brought food; sometimes they didn’t. Sometimes they brought medicine; sometimes they didn’t. Sometimes they asked questions, fewer times they didn’t.It was getting harder and harder for Pidge to decipher their questions, not that she was considering answering them honestly, but occasionally it was nice to let a little bit of sarcasm shine through.“Where is the Castle of Lions?”“In space.”“Tell us about the other paladins.”“Well, there’s a blue one, a yellow one, a black one and a red one.”“Where are you from?”“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… my parents had sex.”But today, she could barely understand what words were and what was background noise. Her eyes were getting heavier, and all sound sounded as if it had to pass through cotton wads to get to her ears.A kick resounded in her other thigh. Someone had asked a question, but she couldn’t even hear it; she didn’t even know they were there.“I said, ‘Answer me.’” The guard emphasized with another kick, but even if Pidge wanted to answer, her mouth was so dry, and her body was so cold, and her leg was so hot, that she wouldn’t be able to. The most she could manage was a defiant glare which only earned her more abuse.Another figure joined the first, and they spoke in blaring voices. Their words seemed to mush together so that it was one long sound being played with different levels of pitch. Pidge’s head ached again.Finally, it seemed they came to the conclusion of their conversation, and the newcomer bent down to pick Pidge up and slung her over his shoulder like she weighed no more than a pound. There were sometimes that her size was an advantage and other times when it was just annoying. Now was one of the latter. Did he really need to just pluck her off the ground? It was like she weighed nothing to him.Her vision swung back and forth on the floor as the soldier walked the hallway. She should be trying to find landmarks to find her way back, or to find her way out, but the most she can manage is just to avoid how bright the purple lights are.“... Already be dead?” A gruff voice said from behind her. Or in front of her. Whatever it was. She felt someone poke her back as if he were poking a wild animal. Whoever it was, was afraid of her. Interesting.When she gave no response, he laughed, “Might as well be dead. Has she moved at all?”“We’re trying to keep it not dead.” The man who was carrying her said, “She’s not healed from the imbeciles who captured her. I can’t believe the buffoons got a raise for turning in a damaged bounty.” The guard squeezed the meat of her calf to show what he was talking about and Pidge’s entire body exploded in pain.Bright, white lights danced in front of her vision, blinding her. She tried to squeeze her eyes shut against the waves of nausea that assaulted her senses, and she tried biting the inside of her cheek to distract her from the pain in her leg. She tasted blood, but the feeling didn’t fade.The guards had continued talking while she had tried to hold back a scream, and now she had lost whatever she could have gained from listening in. All she was able to hear were the parting words, “The med bay it is then.”But the way he said it made it sound like she was going to the end of the line. But, that couldn’t be right. Could it? She was valuable, at least slightly, right? That’s why she was here and not dead. Wasn’t it?Wasn’t it?They practically threw her on a cold metal table that seemed a little too close to an autopsy table for Pidge’s comfort. She tried to roll her way off of the table, but both Galrans held her down by the wrists. She glared at them despite a bright light being turned on above her, shining directly in her eyes.“You’re a feisty one, aren’t you?” One said through gritted teeth, “We’ll take care of that soon enough, don’t worry.” Pidge kicked out with her good leg, but she missed the soldier she was aiming at by a long shot. He complained anyways, “Would you just- just give her the sedatives already and we’ll get this over with quickly.”Another person entered the room. They were a vaguely humanoid shape dressed in all black and pushing a cart of what could only be medical tools from the light jangling that they made as they passed over the raised doorframe, “Just hold her down and tie down whatever you don’t want to move.” The figure said she had a higher voice that was clipped at the edges and made Pidge fear that she would cut herself on the words.“Are you sure about that-” The guard started to ask, but she quickly cut him off.“I am sure. We’re only using local anesthetics. The higher-ups want her to know everything we’re about to do to her.” The newcomer’s face appeared above Pidge’s, startlingly clear in her blurred vision. “She can even have a nice mirror to see every part of her… humanity… that we remove.” Her teeth flashed white out from her purple skin. Pidge could see her fangs which looked sharp enough to cut her just by looking.This was a dangerous person. For the first time since Matt and Sam had gone missing, Pidge was completely and utterly afraid.Sweat broke out on her forehead, and she couldn’t tell that heavy leather bindings were being fastened around her wrists until they were already being pulled tight. Her eyes flicked around the room, looking for anything that she could use to get out of this situation, but there was nothing; the walls were barren.Her good leg was buckled to the table, and the woman injected something directly into her bad leg. Pidge screamed.Her blood felt like it was liquid fire running through frozen vessels. Her muscles seized like the time that she had accidentally brushed against a live wire while fixing a computer, only it was a thousand times worse. She sobbed into the air and tears made their way down the side of her face.“Hmm…” The woman hummed as if she were thinking carefully, “We can’t have you doing that during the operation, now can we? Tie down her waist.”Pidge shook her head back and forth, only sending more waves of icy-fire through her body. The strap was fastened around her waist, and Pidge found out that she could no longer move. Everything was restricted to her futile head movements.It wasn’t until the woman laid a hand on her inflamed leg that she realized she couldn’t feel anything below her waist. Nothing. It was like she had lost both her legs along with any feeling that might have resided in them.The woman smiled her fangs at Pidge again, it was almost motherly, but the glint in her eyes assured Pidge that there was no love in her, “Now, should we go with the neat and clean?” She brandished a small scalpel that glittered in the fluorescent light, “Or the big and messy?” She hefted a heavy looking tool that could only be described as a saw.Pidge felt her heart rise to her throat; this was going to be the end for her. Galrans had no semblance of knowing about human blood types. She was going to die if not from blood loss, then from infection.“Big and messy it is then, I’ve always had more fun when there’s more blood involved. I don’t think I’ve seen inside one of your species either, so it will certainly be a learning experience for us both.”She placed the saw at the joint where Pidge’s leg meets her hip, and she braced herself for the feeling of cold metal touching her skin, but again there was nothing. There wasn’t even anything when she started sawing. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth on her leg. She could hear the squelch of blood and tissue and eventually the hard dragging of metal on bone.In the corner, one of the guards looked like he was going to be sick, and the other already was. A mirror was moved so that at any time, Pidge could take a look at what was happening to her leg and she felt her stomach lurch at the bloody mess that she was becoming.The innermost part of her joint was torn where the teeth of the saw had caught on her skin. The bright red arterial blood was being held back by what looked like a small band, but it was still pulsing weakly with the beating of her heart. It was so odd to see her life slowly draining from her body as she was becoming tired steadily.She fought to keep her eyes open, but that was a challenging task, even when she thought she heard an explosion from the other side of the ship. It was hard when the two guards left the room and locked it behind them quickly. It was hard when the woman redoubled her efforts. It was hard when Pidge looked down, and suddenly, there was nothing left where there had once been a leg. It was hard when the woman bandaged her stump of a leg to keep what little blood was still in her system there.It was hard when four white figures burst frantically into the room, their demeanor faltering when they saw that they were too late. They were too late to help her.The tallest one pinned the woman against the wall, and even as Pidge’s vision was growing steadily darker, she knew the woman was smiling.“What did you do to her?” He demanded.“I saved her life of course.” She replied, “If it weren’t for the Galra her poison blood would have gotten the best of her.”Shiro pressed his bayard into her temple, and she screamed, “She would have been dead! You should be thanking me! Sure, she’s down a limb, but guess what? So are you, Champion! You’re no different than her now. It’ll be a way to bond!”Another figure appeared in Pidge’s line of view. He removed his helmet and revealed a lean, olive face. “Hey, Pidgey.” He smiled, and she thought that she felt his tears take the same tracks that hers had, “How are you doing?”Someone released the bands around her wrists, and she felt her entire body relax. There was no more tension. No more obnoxious pain. She couldn’t feel her leg, but numbness was better than the awful burning pain that always seemed to be present.She felt her eyes begin to drift shut, but Lance clapped his hands in front of her face, snapping her eyes to it. “Sorry to do that, I’ll apologize for it later, but you’re really not supposed to be falling asleep.”Pidge mustered her best glare, and against her will, her eyes started drifting shut again.“Nice try, but Allura’s orders.” He smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes, “She scares me more than you.” He shrugged to try and keep the atmosphere light as someone completely undid her bindings.“You know, you’re lucky.” He continued to give her something to concentrate on, “If Green hadn’t been so distraught, then we never would have gone to see if you were there for at least another varga. We thought that you would need a bit of alone time after… everything. So, when we get back,” He lifted her up carefully, and she winced out of habit, “You really need to thank your Lion. She also helped us track you down here. We owe it all to Green, your amazing girl.”Lance smiled down at her and continued talking. Before long, they were back on the Castleship, the bright white lights so much better on her tired eyes than the dim purple ones.Coran greeted her with a forced smile and barely disguised pitty, “Let’s get you into a pod, now shall we?” He suggested even as his voice wavered dangerously on the edge of tears.Pidge nodded and tried to push herself away from Lance, but her leg quickly collapsed, and Lance caught her before she could hit the floor. He was able to position her correctly, and the last thing she remembered seeing was the tear-streaked faces of the rest of the team as they filed their way into the room.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Light peeked into his cell. The first light he had seen in what seemed like forever. It pierced his eyes and had him curling in on himself instinctively.“Oh, Lance.” A soft voice spoke above him. He knew that voice, didn’t he? He tried to open his eyes only to shrink back immediately after. Were those eyes purple? Dry, calloused hands reached for him and grabbed his biceps to pull him up.He curled in even further on himself and a small whimper escaped him.“Shit. Hey, I found him, but I’m going to need some help getting him out of here.” There was a pause, “It’s bad.”More hands grabbed his arms and and they weren’t familiar hands. The purple hands gripped his arms and pulled him forward into another room where they would do who knows what to him again. He didn’t want to go back in, couldn’t go back in. He-“Don’t worry, Lance. We’ve got you.” Who’s got him? They have him. They have always had him. Hands grip him around his chest, and he’s back on the table. He feels the strips of leather constricting his breathing. He can’t move. He can’t breathe. He can’t-He’s being carried. Carried to the room. They’re going to- “Lance, stop moving. I don’t want to drop you before we can get you into a healing pod.” The voice was warm and inviting and familiar, but Lance couldn’t help but wince away from it. They’re not here to help him. They’re taking him to the room again. He won’t be able to move. He won’t be able to breathe. They’re going to stick him full of needles and drugs again and-He risked cracking his eyelids open briefly and was almost instantly blinded by the sheer amount of light that flooded his pupils. He forced them to stay open though. There was bright white light. He wasn’t on his way to the room. He couldn’t be on his way to the room.He was placed in a healing pod, and his eyes managed to follow the people that had placed him there. They were looking at him, concern on their faces and in their expressions. It was familiar, almost too familiar almost like there they were, watching him for any reaction. He was just some experiment for them. How would this drug interact with human anatomy? How much could we get him to scream this time?He closed his eyes, but sleep offered no respite from the nightmares.When he finally woke, the room was dark. He caught himself before he could stumble to the ground and he sighed at the almost foreign sensation of walking and holding himself up with his own two feet. He needed to use the side of a table to keep himself up, but he was standing. On his own.“Lance?” A voice called from the darkness. He started and turned towards the voice.His blood ran cold when he saw the mound in the corner. From the middle of it shone two eyes that reflected yellow light straight through the darkness and shot fear right through his heart.
They’re here, they’re here, they’re here, theyreheretheyreheretheyrehere.
“We weren’t expecting you to come out for another day or two.” The mound rose and so did the fear in Lance’s chest. I’m not free, not free, not free. I can never be free, they’ll follow me everywhere, and they’ll always come back for me. I’ll never escape. I’ll never be free. Never be free, never be free, never be free.“Are you okay, Lance?” The mound seemed to slide away and reveal a vaguely human shape. It was like the mass of a monster just melted away to reveal the inky black skeleton underneath. The fear continued to rise.The skeleton moved towards him, and Lance tried to move away, but his feet were rooted to the floor. His muscles were locked in place. A Galran soldier standing at the end of the table, looking down at him. He was strapped to the table, cold metal under him, sapping the warmth from his body unforgivingly. He was so gaunt; he looked like a skeleton.His vision flashed between the two images until they almost blended into one. One figure, one enemy, one fear.The lights flipped on, and suddenly Lance could move again. He could breathe again. The mound that had melted off of the Galran monster -not a monster, Keith- was nothing more than a pile of blankets that had fallen from his shoulders when he woke up.Tension dissolved from his body. Keith was fine. He knew Keith. There was no way that Keith would hurt him.“Lance, I asked if you were okay. Is there anything I can get you?” Keith asked, “I can go and get the others if you want.”The blue paladin shook his head; he didn’t trust his vocal cords after all they did was scream. The red paladin looked worriedly at him before picking up a small plate and glass of water from beside where he had been sleeping.“We didn’t think you were going to wake up this soon, but I couldn’t eat earlier, so you can have it.” He slid the plate on the surface of the table so that it came to a stop right in front of Lance’s hand. He smiled slightly at it. “Are you impressed? I’ve been practicing for the day when we get back to Earth, and I can be one of those bartenders you see in movies.”Lance quirked an eyebrow at him before looking down at the food. It was just the normal green food goo that they had as a team, there was nothing special about it, but he heard his stomach rumble nevertheless.Cautiously he raised a bite to his lips, already tasting the spoiled food, half decomposed. Who knew what it was? Was is vegetation or past prisoners? Maggots crawled through his grimy fingers, the only utensils he was allowed-The fork fell to the plate with a loud clatter. Despite nothing being in his stomach, Lance felt contractions as if he were going to throw up everything in his gut. Bile rose in the back of his throat and keep it down, keep it down, keep it down, you don’t know when the next time you’ll get to eat is-Lance shook his head clear of the images of decomposing food and lifted the forkful to his mouth again. He forced his lips closed around it and slimy, greasy, rotten it tasted like normal. Like the first months that he had been in the Castle. He couldn’t help the tears falling down his face. It tasted like home.“Are you okay?” Keith asked. He was biting his bottom lip, and his eyebrows were furrowed together in concern. He reached up a hand to wipe Lance’s tears away and Soldiers taking swings. One, two, one, two, one, two. Impacts throwing his head into the wall behind him. Hands holding his head up to look at their handiwork right before-Lance didn’t think he could move as fast as he could in his condition, but he did. He was away from the soldiers, the enemy, the people who would hurt Keith. But he was also away from the table, and his legs gave out beneath him. The red paladin reached out to steady him hands grabbed at his arms, pulling him roughly to his feet. Raucous laughter surrounded him as his head was thrust underwater again. He’s the blue paladin, why is he drowning?Keith a soldier kneels in front of him, worry hatred on his face and Lance flinches back. Hands touch his shoulder where fire explodes across his skin. The brand fresh from the hearth hissing angrily as it burns through layers of skin. Sweat breaks out on his skin, and he screams. He had never felt pain this intense before, and he felt a hot poker on his other shoulder where Keith was shaking him awake, back to reality.
But he was being held up again, the cold was almost too much for him as he shivered in the Galran’s grasp. His nose was dripping considerably, and his teeth chattered against each other. He couldn’t speak, even if he wanted to.
“Lance, look at me, please,” Keith begged, his hands gripping the sides of his face gently painfully. He couldn’t move anything but his eyes which flitted around the room looking for something anything that wasn’t just a shadow in the dark. Glints of silver caught his eye, but not for long. Then they were getting closer and closer to his eyes. “Look at me and hold still, otherwise this is going to hurt.”But this is Keith. Keith and his violet Galra eyes which would never always hurt him. ”Look at me.”“Please, Lance.”Lance closed his eyes.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Voices echoed through Lance’s head.Keith was back, weren’t things supposed to get better? Shiro was supposed to stop his patronization. Keith was supposed to look at him as an actual person. Allura was supposed to laugh and joke with him. Pidge and Hunk were supposed to start inviting him to things again. The Garrison Trio, back together.None of that happened.“Are you going to do something other than waste space, Lance?” Shiro spat at him as he shoved Lance to the side. The red paladin’s side flashed with pain. He had been putting in extra training hours to try and better himself, and he had earned himself a nasty bruise on his side where a bot had attempted to chop him in half. Maybe if he trained hard enough and improved enough, then he would be able to stay on the team. After all, Keith was back, that made it one paladin too many again.But what did he really have against Keith? He was just a guy with a gun who got lucky. Keith was incredible. He flew amazingly. He fought amazingly. He never let anything touch him. He was the red paladin, the black paladin. Everyone in the Blade of Marmora knew him too. So, how was Lance supposed to compete with that?He couldn’t.Lance cast his eyes down, willing the tears to stay in his head. He tried to blink them away as he swept past Keith. He made sure not to let their bodies touch; he didn’t want to inconvenience him more. His gaze never lifted from his feet, and he never saw the stunned look on Keith’s face as he looked at Shiro.The door locked behind him. Fat, ugly tears burst from his eyes as if they had literally been held back until they heard the click of security. He slid down the wall and tucked his head between his knees. Little spots of moisture appeared on his jeans. He would have to change out of them later.
You heard him.

No, please, don’t start this now.
Useless, the voice hissed into Lance’s brain. He tried to curl up into a smaller ball. Good, you’re just a waste of space anyway.Lance’s hand had his wrist in a death grip. It was cutting off circulation to his hand, and his fingers were starting to tingle uncomfortably. “I’m not a waste of space.” He whispered to himself. “I’m not useless. I can help the team.”
Are you sure? Shiro told you himself. He just wanted you to shut up, didn’t he? How can someone who’s words can’t be useful have actions that are?

I’m useful. I can make everyone else laugh-

They’re laughing at you, not with you. That’s all that’s happening. You’re such a useless failure that they can’t help but laugh at you. Maybe it’s even in pity.
A lump formed in the middle of his throat. It was choking him. Maybe if he let it, then he wouldn’t have to deal with the voices. He wouldn’t have to deal with the knowledge that he was continually disappointing the team.You should. The voice inside his head whispered into his ear. It would be so nice, wouldn’t it? A little bit of pain, nothing that you’ve caused the team, and then? Nothing.I don’t want to hurt. Lance managed in retaliation. Even he knew that was weak in response.
Even if it’s what you deserve?
For a few seconds, everything stopped. The tears stopped falling; the lump in his throat stopped growing. His hands stopped trembling, and he stopped thinking. He allowed his body to move on autopilot.The voice in his head was in control.He opened the door to his bathroom and opened the bottom drawer. Shiny pieces of metal gleamed back at him. He reached into the drawer and pulled one out, letting the artificial light reflect off of the polished surface and back at him.
No.
He wouldn’t do something so blatant, so messy. He didn’t want to scare whoever found him with a bloodbath. Besides, he didn’t think he had the willpower to dig the blade into his skin and drag it from his wrist to his elbow. He didn’t want something so unsure. If he was going to do this, he was going to do it right.
It will be the first thing you do right in your life. Isn’t that ironic? The first thing you do right in life is dying?
He opened the medicine cabinet. Right next to his toothbrush was a half-finished bottle of sleeping pills that Coran had given to him. ‘Here you go, my boy!’ He had said as he had handed the bottle over. The pills clinking almost playfully against the plastic they were in. ‘Now be careful, one will put you to sleep in thirty doboshes, two will put you to sleep in ten, but don’t ever take more than that!’ Lance had nodded and taken the pills.Sorry, Coran.He popped the cap off of the pills and shook one into the palm of his hand. It was small, white, circular, and had a slight indentation down the middle so that he could have taken half of one at a time. Lance held it between his fingers, and he stared it down, knowing full well what he was about to do.He looked down at the bottle. There were 25 or so left, so if he took 10, that would be enough, wouldn’t it? He shook his head and grabbed 15, just to be safe.He carefully put the lid back on the bottle, sealing the evidence away in his medicine cabinet. Fat tears hit his hand and the sink below him. When had he started to cry again?He filled one of the castle cups with water, a lot of water. The little pills in front of him had been lined up, perfectly straight, like a line of soldiers ready to fell their enemy. Tan hands shook as they brought the pastel cup to his lips. His tongue felt too big for his mouth, too dry.He took a shaky sip, just enough to wet his mouth. The water had never tasted any different in all of the months that they were out in space, but now it tasted bitter. The difference was almost enough to get him to stop, but the voice urged him on.Quickly, before he could change his mind, he popped one pill into his mouth and took another swig of water. But he couldn’t make himself swallow it. He just stood there, looking at his ugly face in the mirror. His cheeks were puffed out like a chipmunk’s, and if he weren’t in the process of trying to kill himself, then he would have laughed.The pill began to dissolve in the water, making it even more and more bitter, urging him to spit it out. He couldn’t make himself swallow it, but he couldn’t bring himself to spit it out.Look at how pathetic this is. Lance forced his eyes to meet in the mirror. His hair which he usually prided himself in being straight and orderly was sticking up at an odd angle from when he had slid down the wall earlier. His eyes were red-rimmed, and the tears he had shed earlier had made tracks down his cheeks.He swallowed.The rest of the pills went down easily after that. One, two, three, four, five… Down the hatch, each and every one of them.… fourteen, fifteen. And he was done. Fifteen little white pills would do their job, and Lance McClain would be no more.He went back to his bed and laid down. Tomorrow the team would wake up, and they might think it’s a little odd that he’s not at breakfast, but they wouldn’t worry. Of course not. Why would they worry Then they would go off their separate ways. Keith and Shiro would train together again, maybe Krolia would even join in. Hunk and Pidge would get together and work on some new contraption. Coran and Allura would be with Romelle because they finally had another Altean to talk with. Lance would just be forgotten.Slowly, he let his eyes shut. He felt himself slowly drift away.Until a loud knock sounded at his door. Lance froze. This wasn’t part of the plan. No one was supposed to come looking for him. Maybe if he just feigned sleep, then whoever it was would go away.“Lance, are you in there?” Keith’s voice came through the metal door. He continued quietly to himself. “Well, that’s a stupid question, I know he’s in there.” He raised his voice again, “I just wanted to see if you wanted to- to talk about anything. It’s just, it’s been a while, and I saw the way that Shiro treated you just now, which was not okay. And then I was cruel to you right when I came back, and I didn’t even think about it. I just. I just wanted to apologize, and you’re probably asleep right now, but I wanted to tell you that I was so, so, sorry about everything, and I wanted to say that to your face, but like I said you’re probably asleep and I’m just rambling to the empty air. I’ll just go now, and if you did hear any of that, then please come and talk to me tomorrow or even tonight.”Somehow, Lance had gotten from his bed to his door. The fear of being discovered had given him a spike of adrenaline, but he fell bodily against the door, and the thump was loud enough to rouse Keith.“Lance? Lance, are you alright?”No. I’m not alright. He thought desperately to himself, but his mouth wasn’t forming the words. I don’t want to die. That was it. He didn’t want to die, but his traitorous limbs were getting heavier and heavier, and his eyelids were dropping further and further. He scrambled for the latch on his door, wanting needing Keith to come in because I don’t want to die.
But I am.
That was almost too much for him. His body was shutting down, and here he was trying to fight a losing battle. “Lance, did you fall or something? I’m going to come in after I count to three unless you tell me that you’re fine.” Come in right now, please.“One.”
I don’t want to die.
“Two.”
Why are you counting so slow?
“Three.” Before the word was even out of his mouth, Keith had the door open. He searched the room before his eyes rested on the trail of blankets Lance had made in his rush to get to the door. Keith was instantly crouched on the floor next to him; his violet eyes were filled with concern.He took in Lance’s drooping features and carefully cradled the red paladin’s head between his palms. That was odd, Lance couldn’t feel the hands on his cheeks. His own fingers were losing feeling as well. He tried to bend them, but nothing happened.Blue eyes met Keith’s. “Lance, Lance, are you okay?”Lance tried to shake his head, but it mostly flopped from side to side. His eyes drifted shut for a half second, and that half second felt so good before they snapped open again.“What happened?” Keith asked. His own eyes were searching Lance’s body for any sort of wound that could have hurt him.Lance chuckled or tried his best to chuckle, and it only ended in an unattractive snort. “Fucked up.” He whispered. His lips were chapped and bone dry. He tried to smile, and he felt the skin tear, but he didn’t feel any pain. “‘M sorry. Fucked up.”Keith’s eyes widened in understanding, “Lance. Lance, what did you do?” Urgency crept into his voice. He was blinking frantically, just like someone who was trying to hold off tears would do.“Don’t wanna die.” Lance whispered. He felt tears burn at the edges of his eyes but blinked them away as best he could. He was already dying in front of Keith, he couldn’t cry on him too. “Don’t wanna die. Don’t wanna die. Don’t wanna die.” He didn’t mean to keep repeating the phrase, but he couldn’t stop. It was like he was a broken record.“Look at me, Lance.” Keith begged, “Ple-please. What did you do?” His voice broke, and he had to breathe deeply to steady himself. “Please, tell me what you took.”His eyelids were getting incredibly heavy, and he could barely keep his eyes open. “Tired, so tired. ‘M sorry, Keith. Gonna… gonna sleep. Don’t wanna sleep.” Keith turned around and practically ran into the bathroom. He caught sight of the razor blade on the counter and found himself almost sick to his stomach. Yanking his gaze away from the polished metal, Keith wrenched the medicine cabinet open. There was only one bottle of pills. It was almost empty. He felt a lump lodge itself in his throat. How many had Lance taken?He rushed back into the room. Lance was limp. He was breathing slowly, so slowly, it was like he wasn’t. “Lance!” He yelled and rushed to his side. The red paladin didn’t move. He didn’t even twitch out of reflex. “Shit. Coran! Allura! Hunk! Pidge! Someone, I need help!” He clenched his jaw. “Sorry for this, Lance, but you’ll thank me later.”Quickly, before he could lose his resolve, he swung his hand into Lance’s cheek the sting hurting him more than it probably hurt the other, but now blue eyes were staring back at him. They weren’t right, though. They were murky and clouded, and it didn’t look like the red paladin was truly seeing him.“Look at me, Lance. How many did you take, Lance?” He was saying Lance’s name too much, but he couldn’t bring himself to stop.Blue eyes focused on the orange bottle, and he muttered under his breath, “Too many. ‘M sorry. ‘M sorry, ‘m sorry, ‘m sorry. Don’t wanna die.” He seemed to gain perfect lucidity for a brief moment, “Don’t let me die, please.” His eyelids fluttered shut, and Keith cursed.He slapped Lance’s cheek again, harder this time and he felt himself break a little more on the inside. He didn’t open his eyes this time. Frantically, Keith pressed his fingers into Lance’s neck, searching for a pulse. He found one, it was faint and slow, but it was there. He quickly picked Lance up bridal style and rushed through the halls, running as fast as he could.Hunk bumped into him along the way and instantly followed him through the halls. Pidge was right behind him. One of the two called ahead for Coran to get a healing pod ready, Keith wasn’t sure who said it, all he knew was that the words had been spoken, and that was good enough for him.They barreled into the med bay. Lance’s breaths were getting shorter and shorter, and he was going longer between them. He didn’t have much time left. They rushed past Coran who had just finished prepping a healing pod. The doors slid open soundlessly, and all of them helped hoist Lance’s limp body into it. They didn’t even bother trying to get him into a suit.As soon as the pod hissed shut, and the healing process started, Shiro stepped into the room. His eyes flickered around the room as he took in worried faces and Lance locked away in the healing pod. “What happened?” He asked, but his voice was emotionless; there was no concern hidden away in the cadence.“Why don’t you tell us?” Keith spat, and his voice was anything but emotionless. He could feel tears prickle at the edge of his vision, but he couldn’t let them fall. Not now. He threw the near-empty bottle of pills on the table, and it noisily rolled around on its side until it came to a stop, the words ‘Sleeping Aid’ clearly printed on the label.Coran gasped as he stared at the bottle, his own eyes brimming with tears almost instantly. He covered his mouth with his gloved hands and turned away from the rest of the group as realization flooded the room.“He tried to kill himself, Shiro.” His voice was breaking around the edges. His hands were trembling so much that he had to place them firmly on the metal table in front of him. “He tried to kill himself not an hour after you told him that he was a waste of space.“How could you do that to him?” Keith continued, desperately blinking the tears away. “You were his goddamn hero. He looked at you as if you had personally hung the moon in the sky. Do you have any idea what telling him he was a waste of space would do to him?”Shiro scoffed, “Well, he obviously tried to off himself, so it seems like that question has already been answered.”Keith almost inhaled his tongue. “How can you be so unfazed by this?” He whispered. This wasn’t Shiro; this couldn’t be Shiro.“It looks like he’s fine now, so I don’t see what the big deal here is.”“The big deal?” Allura asked as she walked into the room. It was like there was a storm swirling around her, and none of them wanted to be caught in the draft. “The big deal is that you encouraged a paladin of Voltron to try and end his own life. The big deal is-”“Did I give him the pills?” Shiro interrupted. “Did I explicitly tell himself to go back to his room and swallow a handful of sleeping pills? Did I tell him to kill himself?” The silence in the room was deafening. “I don’t see the problem here.”Allura’s voice could cut through steel with how hard it was. “The problem is that we could have been down a paladin once more, and you don’t seem to care in the slightest.”The black paladin scoffed, “So what?” With those two words, he broke five hearts, but he kept going. “Keith’s back; he could have taken over Red once more if we needed him to. He’s a better paladin than Lance anyway. Maybe it would have been best for the team if he hadn’t been found.”The entire room held its breath. None of the paladins could believe what Shiro was saying. Allura calmly broke the silence, and when she spoke, she wasn’t speaking to a Paladin of Voltron anymore. “If that’s what you really think, then it seems we locked up the wrong monster.”She turned to Coran, almost leisurely, “Let Lotor out of his cage. It’s going to have a different inhabitant.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Keith’s arm was gripped tightly by a woman. There were red tears streaming down her face, which might have been normal for her species, but it was unnervingly reminiscent of bloody tears. “Please,” She whispered, too desperate to do anything else. Her lips formed the words awkwardly, and the syllables were poorly pronounced. She had learned English on her own. “My offspring. Please.” With her other hand, she made a gesture that might have been indicating their height.“Are they still in there?” He asked. The building behind them let out another groan as more of it started to collapse in on itself. The mother nodded, more bloody tears springing from each of her six eyes. “What are their names?”Her eyes blinked shut for a second, maybe out of relief, maybe out of something else. “Adretheti, Maxcictom, and Bextyl. Please help.” Bextyl, I can say Bextyl he thought. The building had been a school before it was attacked while classes were in session. There were bound to be children still in there, but the thought still made his stomach clench uncomfortably.Keith nodded once before he turned his comms on. “There are three kids trapped inside still; I’m going back in for them.” Blue and Green flew above him. They had tried to use their powers to keep the school from degrading any more, but the vines only caused the other areas to collapse faster, and it turns out that the aliens on this planet are incredibly susceptible to cold.“We’ll get them out some other way, Keith.” Shiro’s voice calmly spoke. “That building is going to come down soon.”“Too late, Shiro.” Keith smiled. The school groaned above him and a sizable amount of dust fell to his shoulders. “It’s going to fall with three less kids in it.” He flipped his comms off to yell into the empty hallways. “Bextyl? Are you and your siblings here? Can you shout for me?”“Or it’s going to go down with one more palad-” Shiro shouted at him through his comms, but Keith muted them. He needed to listen for the kids; he couldn’t do that if someone was screaming in his ear. He went from room to room, checking it and shouting for Bextyl.The sound of crumbling infrastructure brought his attention back to the present. There were only three rooms left in this hallway, then he would go back outside. It was getting a little too dangerous, even for him.No one was in the first two rooms. Keith poked his head into the last one and let his eyes roam across the grey debris that littered the ground. He felt his heart drop through the floor before he saw a flash of green skin between two slabs of rock.As he got closer, he saw that it was a single child huddled over top of two other slightly smaller children. Three terrified orange eyes looked at him from the side. Red tears fell with a small plip plip plip onto the rocks below the children. Keith stepped closer and the kid curled up more tightly around the two below it. Above them, the roof groaned and released more small rocks and dust to fall to the floor around them.“Bextyl?” Keith whispered. He held his hands up in a way that was hopefully the least threatening that he could be. The alien shook it’s head and pointed to the smallest form that it was protecting. “You’re one of Bextyl’s siblings then, right?”“I’m his big sister, Maxcictom.” The alien spoke. Her voice was so soft, so small, and so fragile. Her eyes didn’t leave Keith for one moment, even when more of the ceiling came raining down.The red paladin smiled. “My name is Keith. Your mother sent me in here for you; she is very worried about you.” He tried to say it as softly as he could so that he could step closer to Maxcictom.She shook her head vehemently. “She’s a liar. She doesn’t care about us. All she wants is for us to make more money than her.” The roof groaned above them and something substantial shifted, but nothing fell. Keith had to work fast.“I don’t think that’s all she cares about.” He comforted. ”You should head out there and hug her as tightly as you can. You’re worth more than money to her.” He was now kneeling in front of the mini cave that had formed around them. “Can Bextyl and your other sibling stand up and get out of here?” Bextyl’s orange eyes creaked open and he nodded loosely at Keith’s words.Three sets of neon green eyes flickered open from the far end of the cave and stared at him through the darkness. “My name is Adretheti.” The last one sneered. Her voice was slightly nasally and harsh compared with her sister’s. “And I can’t move if these two are still here.”“Are you stuck?” Keith asked. Adretheti glared back at him. “If your siblings weren’t here, would you be able to move?” He clarified. She shook her head. “You guys are all going to go out and hug your mom, okay? I swear she’s worried.” He moved so that he was directly in front of the opening. “Here’s what’s going to happen. Bextyl, you’re going to crawl out of there while your incredibly brave sister holds up the world for you.”The little boy nodded and he wormed his way out of the hole with Keith’s help. He turned to run out of the room, but before he did, he turned around and threw his arms around Keith’s chest. Apparently, hugs were universal. Before he could reciprocate, Bextyl was already rushing out of the room, not uttering a single word.“And now you’re next.” He gestured to the snarky child and silently berated himself for not only thinking of her that was and also forgetting her name. “Slide along the floor a little and I’ll help you out. Then you need to follow your brother out, alright? Try not to hit your sister on your way out.”She made her way out on her own and slapped Keith’s hands away from her when he tried to help pull her out. She didn’t even turn her head to look at him as she stalked out of the room, completely uncaring of the destruction happening around her.“You were wrong,” Maxcictom said. “I’m not brave like you told my brother. I was just so scared.” Her arms were trembling and red droplets hit the floor beneath her. “I’m going to die here, aren’t I?”“Hey, look at me.” Keith’s violet eyes met her orange ones. “You’re not going to die, okay? I’m not going to let you. Right now, you’re going to slowly crawl towards me. I need you to be very careful to keep your back up against the rock above you. You’re doing great.”Something quite large fell to the ground in a room next to them and the building shook from the force. Maxcictom’s breaths were coming in short, sharp bursts. Her hands had formed fists below her, and her eyes were shut tight. “I- I can’t. I’m so sorry. I can’t do this.”Keith heard his name being called from outside the school. The rest of the paladins were probably starting to worry. Two kids had left, but there was still no sight of them. “You’re doing great. Once you get a little closer, I’m going to hold it up while you get out from under, okay? You just need to get a little closer to me, and then you’ll be out.”She shook her head again. “I can feel it moving whenever I do. It’s like I’m holding up half of the school.”“Look at me,” Keith said. “You just need to get a little closer. You’ve been doing so well. I just need you to help me before I can help you. You have been so brave so far. Would you be a little more brave for me?” Slowly, she inched her way over to Keith. Every time something shifted above her, she flinched and stopped moving completely. Things would settle, and then she would move again.It was a slow process, but eventually, Keith was able to reach in and help keep the wall from falling any more. “Alright. I have most of it. What you’re going to do is you’re going to let go and run as fast as you can. No matter what happens, you run as fast as you can. Don’t look back, don’t slow down, don’t stop. Got it?” She nodded. Keith took a deep breath and flicked his coms on before shouting. “Okay, go! Go now!”Maxcictom shot out from under the wreckage like a bullet. As soon as her support was gone, Keith’s arm was almost yanked from his socket as the weight of the wall came down on it. “Keith, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” Shiro’s voice yelled into his ear.“Is she out yet?” He asked. His voice was strained, and the words barely made their way past his lips. Sweat had instantly coated his face and some of it dripped into his eyes, stinging them.“Is who out? The little girl? She just came running out a few seconds ago. Why? What’s- Keith!” With a mighty groan, the building collapsed right over where Keith and the kids had been. “Keith!” Shiro shouted again as the other paladin deigned to answer. Heavy breathing filled the comlink before Keith answered. “I don’t think I made it.” He coughed weakly. “Oh, that’s… that’s not good.”Adrenaline shot down Shiro’s spine. “What’s not good, Keith? We need to find you because you didn’t stay out of the building.”A strained groan reached the paladin’s ears followed by heavy gasps. “I wouldn’t- wouldn’t worry about it. I’m sure- I’m sure it’s nothing.”It was definitely not nothing. The darkness was almost as oppressive as the tons of rock pressing up against Keith’s body in every direction. He couldn’t move. The fingers on his left hand were the only part of his body that he could even slightly move. A sharp pain permeated through the entirety of his right shin and he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was stabbed through his calf.“How ba- -s it, Keith?” Shiro asked. His comms must have been slightly damaged too. Just add that to the list of things.Keith coughed again and he tasted more blood on his tongue. “I’m just a little banged up. There might be something in my calf.” There was silence, and for the longest moment, Keith thought that his comms had given out before a sudden stream of curses made their way to his ears. “D-n it, K-th.”“I think I almost made it out though, so there’s- there’s that.” It was getting slightly harder to breathe, but he couldn’t tell if that was from the building currently sitting on his chest, or if his air was already starting to run out. He decided to think that it was just the building.“Oh yea- you only ha- half of a -all on- you -ather than -hole one. Tha- -akes me -eel so- better.” He said sarcastically. “-sten. It’s gon- -ree minutes o- so. Hold tight.”Keith nodded even though he knew Shiro couldn’t see him. He coughed again, and this time he couldn’t catch his breath and he continued to cough. By instinct, he tried to curl his legs up into his chest, and that was where everything went wrong.When he pulled up on his right leg, pain washed over his entire being. The fire spread from his shin up his thigh and into his chest. He felt his lungs struggle to simultaneously pull in as much air as they could to gasp and push as much air as they could to scream. They settled on screaming which was all that the rest of the paladins heard before the rest of the debris fell and settled right over top of where Keith was.Four voices screamed his name.There was no response.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Plip, plip, plip
The water dripped onto the roof of his cage, making infuriatingly consistent noises. The only noises in this god-forsaken dungeon. It wasn’t like Keith wasn’t used to rain on a metal roof. In the desert, the shack was filled with the little impacts whenever it rained.This… this was different. This was torture. It wasn’t irregular like rain was, suddenly pouring down and then letting up in the course of two minutes. It was a single drip every second and a half. It never failed. He had nothing else to focus on besides that regular plip, plip, plip against his metal roof.He coughed wetly. His body curled in farther on itself as he brought a closed fist to his mouth. Just the effort of getting through that had him tired again. The cage was far too small to be comfortable in any sense of the word. He had to bend his neck so that he could even sit up. Sometimes he was able to lean his forehead between his knees as a makeshift pillow that left him in a great need of a massage after he slept through the night.Sleeping through the night almost never happened though. As soon as he would doze off, they would come through, swinging their batons against the bars of his cage. He would jerk awake, away from the sound, and into his cold metal prison. They would give him some type of bread that had been soaked through once a day.Everything here was soaked through. The metal that kept him here was slick with water, and his fingerless gloves just kept the moisture close to his skin. The boots he wore weren’t faring any better, and he was beginning to worry about trench foot.His captors didn’t even give him anything to drink. They just dumped a bucket on him every now and then, keeping him perpetually cold and wet. He had to resort to sucking the water from his hair. Keith silently thanked his past self every day for refusing to cut his mullet off.He chuckled weakly, but couldn’t stop a cough that tore from his throat. Phlegm filled his mouth, and he spat it out unceremoniously. The effort had him breathing hard. He was coughing more and more often, and his nose ran freely despite his several sniffles.What had he been reduced to? He was once the red and black paladin of Voltron. He was a member of the Blade of Marmora. He was a thorn in the Galra Empire’s side.He had been captured on a simple in and out mission because he went back for a team member. Keith had thought that maybe he could help get him out in time for the two of them to get back to the ship. Instead, the ship had left without him, just like Kolivan had said it would, and the other member had been killed right in front of him.Keith had never felt so, utterly useless. Not even on the first mission that he had led Voltron in. At least then he had had Lance to help him get through his poor leadership skills. Here, he had no one. He had nothing except for the plip, plip, plip that wouldn’t go away.He couldn’t tune it out. He couldn’t do anything not even stop some water from hitting the top of his cage.In the distance, he heard a clang of metal against metal. That would be his captors coming with his daily soggy bread. He was beginning to worry that he wouldn’t have the strength to tear through the crust anymore. It just took too much effort. How sad would that be? A once-great paladin of Voltron starves to death because he couldn’t chew his food.There was another clang, this time closer to him and he cringed internally. Whenever the door opened, it always brought a wave of cold air with it that chilled him to the bone. He didn’t have it in him to shiver anymore. Wasn’t it a bad thing when hypothermia victims stopped shivering? He thought he had read that somewhere.The door opened, and the cold rushed in to greet him just like always, only this time it was accompanied by a worried voice. “Keith? Keith are you here?” Shiro His brain supplied helpfully.Keith tried to call out, but his voice wasn’t working like it should. Wet coughs wracked his body once more. His fingers curled uselessly at his sides; he didn’t even bring them up to his mouth anymore.“Oh, Keith.” Shiro breathed. His prosthetic fingers curled against the roof of the cage he was in and pulled it upwards. The metal groaned high-pitched, and the former black paladin would have covered his ears if he had the strength. The bars gave way under Shiro’s strength, and if Keith weren’t halfway to delirium, he would have been incredibly turned on.The current black paladin gingerly reached into the cage and pulled the other from it. Keith tucked his head into the warmth under Shiro’s chin. He ignored the stubble that tickled his forehead in favor of the natural heat that was radiating off of every place that Shiro held him.“It’ll be okay, Keith,” Shiro whispered. He pressed a chaste kiss into the other’s hair, ignoring how damp it was. “I’ve got you, babe.”A smile curled his lips upward, and in Shiro’s arms, Keith shivered, and let sleep overtake him.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Red.There was so much red.Pidge was covered in it.It covered her vision when Matt had been hit by the Galra soldier. It flew through the air just as she had to get to her brother before that bullet. It covered her hands as she pressed them into her chest basking in that glorious white that flew fleetingly through her vision.She coughed because something was tickling the back of her throat and more red splattered out on the floor. Matt moved behind her, startlingly fast. Or maybe she was just startlingly slow.A blast of blue light flashed in her peripheral vision, and the Galra soldier’s body thumped to the ground next to her. Matt was by her side just as fast as he moved earlier. “Are you, okay, Pidge?”No. She wasn’t okay. Everything hurt so much. Her chest was throbbing, throbbing, throbbing and she felt tears spring to her eyes. It hurt so much, she couldn’t move.That was ten minutes ago.Matt had contacted the others. Atlas was on its way, but Pidge was smart. She knew it wasn’t going to make it in time. That wasn’t going to stop her from trying to hang on that long.Her brother had taken her paladin armor off, and when he had seen the red mess that her chest had become, he threw up. She almost made fun of him for it. Almost. Now, he was pressing the cloth that he had torn from his shirt into the wound. He had cut it directly off his shirt not even bothering to take it off, so now it looked like he was wearing a choppy crop top.“It’s the new fashion in the resistance, you know.” He had choked over his words when she pointed it out. “It’s how I’m going to get all the girls.” Somehow Pidge didn’t think he would be in the market after this. “I take offense to that, you know.” Matt chuckled wetly; his smile didn’t quite reach his eyes.Pidge blinked slowly up at him. She had said that?“Yeah. Yeah, you did.” Matt squeezed her shoulder comfortingly, but she couldn’t feel it. She couldn’t feel anything that wasn’t that burning, aching, stabbing in her chest.“Wanna…” She tried to say, but it came out as less than a whisper. “Wanna tell you something, Matt. An’ Shiro, an’ Lance, an’ Keith, an’ Hunk… ‘Lura, an’... an’ Lance, an’ Hunk, an’ Shiro… Coran… ‘Lura.”Matt shook his head, and tiny drops of water fell on to her glasses. “You, don’t need to tell me anything, Pidge. Not right now at least.” His fingers curled more tightly around his shirt, pressing it closer into her chest.She blinked up at him. “‘T’s important…” She trailed off and yawned. Vicious coughs wracked her body, and there was more red. More red in the air. More red freckles on Matt’s face.Her brother broke then. “Hey, Katie.” She hummed her acknowledgment and let her eyes drift closed. “Will you look at me? I have something important to tell you too.” She opened her eyes a crack and Matt was hit by the pure innocence that radiated from her soft brown eyes. He was reminded that she was just a kid. She was only a kid in this universe that she had tried to protect. She was only a kid who was dying for a universe that she could never see all of.“Me first.” She said softly. Her lips were red with blood that she had coughed up. A trail went from the corner of her mouth down her chin. Matt nodded his head. His throat was too tight to try and contradict her. “When. ‘m gone…” Matt tried to glare at her, tried to stop her. More tears spilled from his eyes and landed on her face. She didn’t even flinch this time. “Want… wan’ you t’take Green. She’ll… she’ll take you.”“I- You’re going to be fine, Katie.” He squeezed her shoulder again as if it would cement his words into reality. It sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than her.“No.” The word was so soft, even compared to her almost-whispers. Matt hoped he hadn’t really heard the word until she continued. “‘M not. Not gon’ be fine.” She tried to raise her hand to place it on her brother’s arm, but it fell short. She wanted to tell him that he would be fine. She wanted to thank him for being so strong. She wanted to tell him everything. But she couldn’t. She was just so tired. Black spots were covering her vision, and she could see less and less of Matt.That was the most terrifying.“Love you.” Pidge whispered. “Love you so much.” Her eyes drifted closed. It wouldn’t have mattered.She couldn’t see anything.The Atlas was too late.“I love you.” And with those words, the Green paladin of Voltron drifted away in her brother’s embrace.“Pidge? Little Pidgeon?” Matt’s eyes widened, more tears spilled and splattered on his sister’s lax and unmoving face. “No, no, no. Hey, you just need to hold on just a bit longer.” His voice broke half-way through, but he didn’t care. All he wanted was for his little sister to be okay.The blood had stopped gushing out of her chest.There was no pulse to push it out.“Katie.” He whispered and pulled her body closer to him so that she was laying in his lap. “It’s okay. It’s okay. Your big brother’s got you. Everything’s going to be okay.”He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her temple.“You’re going to be fine.” He choked out, ignoring the too-pale pallor of her skin. “I’ve got you. Everything will be fine.”“I’ve got you.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Honestly, Keith needed to stop getting himself into situations like this.The Galra occupying this planet had spent no time in surrounding the lone paladin who was grounded when his Lion was shot down. Fire from their guns decimated the ground around him, sending up clouds of dust, making him cough. Taking cover behind a boulder, he lowered his visor so that he could see the rest of the field. There were 12… 13… 15 bodies spread around the field.Seeing no way out of this situation other than through the chaos, Keith readied his bayard. “Anyone out there who can hear me?” He spoke into his comms, hoping that there was at least one other person who would hear him.His answer came in incomprehensible static that sounded like Shiro; he took it as a yes. “Alright then. I don’t know if you can understand me, but I’m pinned down here, and it looks like they’re starting to close in on my location.” He paused for a moment to recover his thoughts which were going over thousands of strategies on how to escape.He sighed heavily. “I’m going to try my best, but… there’s quite a lot of them, and only one of me.” He chuckled softly to himself. “I’m literally bringing a knife to a gun fight.”There was silence on the other end; maybe that was a good thing then, they wouldn’t have to listen to him probably dying. Struck by instinct, he tapped a few buttons on his arm panel to open a private channel with the black paladin.“Hey, Shiro?” He spoke quietly, maybe hoping that Shiro wouldn’t hear him, maybe hoping he would. “I just… I wanted to say, that if you’re hearing this, I’m sorry.” Something exploded near his head, causing dust and debris to fall on him. “I think I bit off more than I could chew as you would say. I want you to know that-” He cut himself off as the Black Lion flew overhead, darkening the field for the briefest of seconds and causing a lull in the gunfire.“Save the rest until we’re back at the Castle, Keith.” His voice came in through the comms. It took all of Keith’s willpower not to jump from where he was now.Black landed on the other side of the field, shaking the ground with the force of the impact. There was a split second of silence across everything, no one moved or shot as the Galra turned towards their new adversary.Keith took that as his time to move. He ran to the nearest soldier, the heat signature evident on his visor, and thrust his sword into its back, severing the spine. He already had another dead by the time they realized they had to pay attention to the rogue figure.Shiro had taken out one of his own, but he was quickly overrun by six more soldiers that made their way to block the two paladins from each other. “How are you doing, Keith?” He asked over their private comm link. “I’ve got a few guys on me, but I can’t see you.”“I’m doing good. I’ve also got a few guys on me, but nothing I can’t handle.” He brought his sword in a wide arc around him, slicing through the chest plate of one and letting the Galra blood flow free. “I’ve even taken out three guys on my own.”“Too slow, I’ve got four out by now.” Keith could practically hear the smile in his voice.“Are we going to count now?” Keith teased, ducking low under a blast from a vantage point he couldn’t see.“I don’t know, all I know is that I’ve got five and I don’t think you’ve improved much.”Keith rolled his eyes and turned to face a soldier behind him, sprinting to take it by surprise.Mistake.The soldier from a vantage point he couldn’t see had made its second move.Keith found himself being pushed forward like he had been hit with a large hammer. It caused him to stumble, but when he somersaulted backward to set up a defensive position, he left a bloody imprint where his back had hit the ground. “Shiro,” he breathed heavily into his mic. “I… I think something’s wrong.”He raised his shield against another blast from the same point, the energy sending a jolt down his arms. He grit his teeth as a similar impact hit his right shoulder.Panic was evident in Shiro’s voice. “What sort of wrong? Are you okay?”“For now.”The words didn’t exactly inspire confidence in either of them, but Keith continued to fight the soldiers until they were literally surrounding him. Were there more? He had only counted 15, and he had killed at least five.Or was it six?Four?One of the soldiers got too close, and Keith swung his sword, expecting to feel the catch of the blade as it bit into flesh or armor or something, but there was nothing. He… he missed.His head was pounding, but he couldn’t drop his sword or his shield. He allowed himself a slight reprieve by closing his eyes, but when they opened again, not all of the darkness left his vision.Damn.He blinked away the spots, but he couldn’t get them to leave. There was something else too, some tiredness that sunk into his bones and made his bayard feel heavy in his arms.Blood loss. He thought to himself unhelpfully.“Maybe not so good now.” He spoke, and as something tickled the back of his throat, he coughed wetly, splattering the inside of his helmet with red. “Think, I’ve…” He trailed off, losing his train of thought for a moment. “Think I’ve got a… a problem.”“Can you hold out for another dobosh or two?” Shiro asked, a strain in his own voice as he took care of soldiers on his own end.“Try.” Keith coughed again, letting his bayard revert to its resting form before hefting his shield in front of him. The sword would do him no use now. He pushed himself into a somewhat sheltered corner, placing the shield in front of him, and hoping that Shiro could get there faster.He could see the rest of the Galra coalescing through the blue tint. Then they started firing. The first ten blasts didn’t do much; then it started to flicker. The last defense for his life was flickering in front of his eyes.The first blast to break through hit his chest, the force of it knocking the air from his lungs. The second blast hit his arm, ensuring that he couldn’t lift his shield again, even if he had the strength. The third blast his shin with enough force to shatter the bone.The fourth blast hit, and he stopped caring.---Shiro found him after.After he had cut his way through the ranks of soldiers.After he was bloodied with far more than just his own blood.After it was over.He found the alcove that the red paladin had attempted to hide himself in, and he found the red paladin.If it hadn’t been for the trademark white paladin armor standing out against the sandy planet, he never would have found the other.“Shiro?” Allura’s voice echoed in his head. That was funny; it was like she was speaking to him from the end of a long hallway. “Shiro, do you copy?”“Yeah.” He answered, but his voice didn’t sound like his own. It sounded like a different man who wasn’t staring at the broken body of someone he loved more than the universe. It sounded like a different man who still had his life ahead of him.“Did you find him?”“Yeah.” Again, it was so much like his voice, but it wasn’t; it couldn’t be.“We’ll send a healing pod down to you immediately, relay your coordinates.”“There’s no need.”“Shiro, relay your coordinates.”“There’s no point.” Shiro shut his comms off immediately after as he fell to his knees before Keith’s broken body.“There’s nothing left.” He said to no one.
Of either of us.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Keith!”His own name echoed in his head as he was brought out of his holding cell. For three days, he had had nothing but stale bread and coppery water given to him through a slot on the floor. Treated like an animal, this was the first time he had seen any sort of light since he had been captured.They had been betrayed. Someone inside the Blades had sold them out; it was the only explanation. The base they had infiltrated was supposed to have been abandoned; no one should have been around for a hundred light years at least. Instead, on the other side of a sun undergoing massive solar flares, a Galra cruiser had been lying in wait.Everyone else on his team had been killed in front of him. Their purple ichor splattered against his face and the floor, creating grisly designs. His head had been swung into the wall, causing his vision to spin and eyes to water.Then he had been brought here as some kind of bargaining chip with the paladins of Voltron.But that didn’t matter now.What mattered was the petite figure hefting a glowing green bayard at the Galra soldier. Her unruly hair was mussed more than usual, the curls wrapping around the frames of her glasses. When he looked closer, her pupils were dilated to tiny pinpricks, and her teeth were bared. She looked downright feral, and Keith had never been so happy to see her.“Get away from him!” She practically growled as her bayard was raised above her head in a challenge. Her feet were planted wide, and Keith had never seen her so angry in his life. Not even when he had accidentally tripped over the charger for her computer, unplugging it when she had been in the middle of a crucial download.Then she had been angry.Now… Now she was livid.“Don’t.” He begged her. His throat was dry, and his lips were chapped, splitting and letting the blood run down down his chin. “Don’t make them angry.” He tried again, but his words trailed off into a barely audible whisper.Her eyes narrowed, and she took a step forward. The green bayard was humming with energy. “How can you say that, Keith? Look at what they did to you!”I can feel it. Keith thought. The ache in his head hadn’t disappeared since his beating three days ago, and some way or another, his ankle had been twisted. It was probably when he had been tossed in his cell, but there was no way for him to be sure.“It’s what he deserves.” One of his captors sneered. “A half-blood like him? He’s less than Galra! He’s less-” He was suddenly cut off with a wet gurgle.The front of Pidge’s weapon soared through the air and caught the man who had been speaking in the neck, the purple ichor spraying through the air. She yanked it back, and the ichor sizzled on the energy blade. The soldier lurched forward; his head tossed back so that the white of his spine was visible. More ichor sprayed from a severed artery, splashing Pidge in the purple substance.She didn’t flinch.No one else moved.“I didn’t come here to negotiate.” She said, wiping the ichor from right above her eye, which only caused it to smear in a poor imitation of war paint. “You told me to come alone. I came alone. Now you’re going to release my friend and let us go on our way.”“I don’t think I am.” The Galra who had pulled Keith from his cell said. He reached his hand down and gripped Keith by the jaw, pulling him to his feet. “It seems that I’m down a soldier, so maybe this half-breed should pay for the loss.” The soldier began to squeeze his fingers together, digging the dirty claws into his cheeks, and forcing Keith’s mouth open.Keith’s eyes widened in considerably, his hands grappling with the Galra’s arm, trying to get the hand to release him. He ground his teeth together, feeling one in the back of his mouth crack, the white-hot pain shooting straight to the nerve, but he didn’t stop. Fresh blood was pouring from scratches in his cheeks where the soldier’s nails cut jagged lines in his skin. He pursed his lips shut so tightly that they split again.Pidge was furious; she stepped forward, her bayard prepared to slice through this soldier’s neck as easily as it had done the last one.“Careful.” He taunted. “If you kill me, my men will kill your friend and then you.” There was a slight strain in his voice from the effort he was putting into Keith’s jaw. “And if your friend,” he said, looking pointedly into Keith’s eyes, and squeezing his fingers together more tightly. “Doesn’t open his mouth, my men will kill you and then him.”Violet eyes flitted to Pidge’s, just long enough to see her shake her head. There was real fear there. He glanced to the soldiers behind him who all held their weapons at the ready.Keith reluctantly allowed his mouth to be forced the rest of the way open, knowing it was a mistake. Lightning fast, the Galra took a larger vial from his pocket, popped the lid, and poured a clear liquid into Keith’s mouth.The first thought that popped into Keith’s head was relief that he was being given more water.The second thought was that he had been very, very wrong.The liquid was sour as it hit his tongue, so incredibly sour that he couldn’t help but try and spit it out. That was when a large, calloused hand was clapped over his mouth, forcing his lips shut. Then it started to burn.It started to burn its way through his tongue, the coppery taste of blood filling his mouth.It was like his tongue was on fire. He could feel a cough forming itself in the back of his throat, causing his eyes to water as he just prayed that the hand would disappear, disappear and let him spit it out. Against his will, he felt some of it trickle its way down his throat, burning red hot all the way.Then, the hand was gone, and he was being shoved to the ground, his knees buckling underneath him against his will. Instantly, the liquid was out of his mouth and on the ground, only now it was dark red against the floor. Desperately, he coughed, sending more droplets of red through the air.Despite the fact that he was on the ground, his arm stretched out for balance; the room was spinning around him. Up was down, down was left, right was backward, and Pidge… Pidge was right in front of him.Her bayard was right in front of his eyes, giving him something to focus on other than the burning hot in his mouth and his throat. That glowing green that blacked out the rest of his vision, but he knew that green. That green was safe.Not for long though.He felt his gut roil and desperately pushed her to the side to empty his stomach on the ground beside her.It was tinged with blood.Distantly, he felt her small familiar hands on his shoulders, and he heard her voice saying… something. He thought he heard his name in all the sounds, but he couldn’t be sure.Not when he was shaking from just the effort of keeping himself up.Not when he tried to breathe and almost couldn’t.Not when the room was still spinning out of control, and he was there to watch it.His stomach lurched again, clenching uncomfortably as he heaved and nothing but red spittle came out. Small hands gripped his shoulders, trying to keep him upright, but he couldn’t… couldn’t…The world was going dark at the edges of his vision, but he was trying to keep his eyes on the green, that glowing green.It was the last thing he saw.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Lance wasn’t going to make it.He was going to be too slow, and Pidge was going to die because of it.Too slow to shoot the sniper aiming at her heart.  Too slow to push her out of the way.  Too slow to warn her.  Just fast enough to step between her and the bullet.  You won’t take her.He heard the crack in the air an instant before his body covered hers.  He felt the impact, pushing him forward into her.  He saw the angry look in her eyes, the fire at being interrupted.He saw the way her eyes widened when she looked at his chest, anger gone and replaced with fear.  No, don’t be afraid, please don’t be afraid.  He fell forward on his knees, thrown off balance from the impact.Her hands were on his shoulders, lowering him to the ground before shooting her bayard behind him, killing the sniper.  He coughed, a metallic taste on the back of his tongue.And then the pain hit him.The bullet must have gone through his lung because he couldn’t breathe, but there was fire trapped in him.  He wanted to scream, but he couldn’t.Pidge’s face was right in front of his, and she was saying something, and there were tears in her eyes.His hand lifted up.  In his mind, he was reaching to ruffle her hair, but it fell short.  Comically short, thudding into the growing crimson puddle around.  He blinked tears out of his eyes as he stared at the limp fingers.  Move, move, move!They twitched at his insistence, but nothing else.Her small hand wrapped around his, holding it, even as her fingers were stained red.  She held it to her face, his palm against her cheek.  A tear fell from her eyes and mixed with the blood.It was the last thing he saw.