Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The ocean swayed lazily under the sky, the stars dusted like freckles on the mulberry hue of the night. Lance stroked the water contently, leaving little trails like the comets that flew high above. He smiled, soothed by the gentle rocking of his wooden boat as it floated upon the quiet, endless ocean. He gazed in the water, happy to ignore his reflection to watch the hazy image of the starry sky above. Two lights amongst the many, however, stole his attention. Two fireflies fluttered around his head, creating a colourful halo that glowed angelically. He looked up from the water towards his strange new companions, one the same fiery red colour as his boat, the other a colour that reminded him of home and rainy days. They glittered like fallen stars, longing to return to those high in the heavens. Lance smiled sadly, understanding their dilemma.

He watched them orbit him, stuck in his gravity yet lost all the same. They were like moths, fatally attracted to his light, unable to escape. Lance didn’t understand what they saw in him; his light was nothing like those that punctured the sky and ocean. He sunk into the boat wearily, the joy of the water forgotten, eyes lost in the blue and red lights that spun above him like a mobile. The stars far above died unceremoniously and faded away, leaving a blank darkness in their place. The boat shook with the motion of unseen waves, creaking with age and decay.

Lance stared tiredly at the fireflies, dutifully ignoring as the rest of the world fell away. He was scared if he turned away, they too would disappear and leave him alone in the encroaching darkness. Their uneasy trails of red and blue lulled him into an uneasy peace as black sand began to spill into the boat, pulling the vessel into the gloomy depths. As the boat sunk downwards, he saw the expanse around him. The ocean was gone, a dark desert having taken it’s place, greedy as it’s predecessor never was. He remained still when the sand scratched at his skin, and struggled to hide a whimper when it filled his mouth and vision, an all encompassing stranger dragging him down. The powdery veil of black dimmed the lights of the fireflies, and soon even their luminescence had disappeared as Lance sunk further and further down.

He closed his eyes and let himself fall through the bleak ocean of sand. Why keep his eyes open if there were no stars to brighten the abyss? Figures, he thought sullenly. The stars were too good for him anyhow.

“Lance. We ne-.....”

Allura’s voice echoed in the darkness, murky and distant but there nevertheless.

“Are y-……-ening?”

Her voice was like a untuned radio, struggling to remain clear. Lance clenched his fist in frustration. He couldn’t answer her, sand threatening to poison whatever was left of his oxygen. He couldn’t do anything. He was absolutely useless. Even in the cold oblivion, he felt the hot tears that fell from his closed eyes.

“Lance. Can you co-……-please?”

He screamed soundlessly into the abyss, sand flooding his lungs as he did, filling them like a hourglass awaiting the hour’s end. The mournful roars of far off creatures fell on deaf ears as Lance succumbed to the darkness.

“Lance!”

Lance opened his eyes and blinked drowsily, feeling the darkness violently fade away, both in sight and memory. The ceiling of his room filtered into his vision, hazy with sleep. He stared at it, wondering blearily what time it was? Does time even move at the same time in space as it does on Earth? He shook that thought away. It was way too early (or way too late) to think about physics. He still felt tired, a product of an uneasy rest. He must have had a bad dream again. He quirked his head, trying to remember it. All he got were vague images of red and blue stars. He wondered what was bad about that?

“Lance!”

He yawned as he rubbed his watery eyes, discarding easily his attempt to recall the evanescent dream, focusing instead on the immediate issue. As in, why was the Princess talking angrily about dancing? Do Alteans even dance? What kind of music was the more important question. He’d have to ask Coran about it some time. He pushed himself off his bed and stretched his long limbs out, feeling the kinks in his muscles ease out. He sighed in content.

“LANCE!” Allura shouted bluntly.

Lance jumped in surprise, alertness kicking his drowsiness right out the door.
“What!? P-princess! What’s happening? Are we being attacked?” he questioned hurriedly, pushing himself off the bed and stumbling into a standing position.

“No, no, we’re not being attacked,” her voice answered reassuringly over the comms.

Lance relaxed, letting out a relieved breath. He planted a cocky smile on his face.
“Phew. So, uh, what’s with the wake up call? I mean, my looks aren’t all genetics. I need beauty sleep just like the rest of us.....though maybe less so than the others.”

Even though he couldn’t see her, Lance knew her face was that of annoyance. He swore he could hear the accompanying sighs of Keith and Pidge in the background.
“I’ve been calling for you for three dobashes. We’ve arrived at the distress signal’s origin. The team is waiting for you.”

Lance wilted slightly.
“Oh...I’m sorry. I’ll be there in a tic,” he said sheepishly.

He didn’t listen for Allura’s reply as he rushed to get his armour on. He didn’t want to keep them waiting any longer than he had already. He had to hope they weren’t annoyed with him.

~~~~~~

They were annoyed with him.

“Seriously, Lance, one of these days your tardiness is going to get us killed,” Keith muttered when Lance arrived, the doors hissing loudly so as to announce his belated presence to everyone.

“‘Or worse, expelled’, yes I know, you’ve told me on numerous occasions,” Lance muttered as he headed beeline to his seat. Which incidentally was in the far right corner of the room due to his newfound status as the Red Paladin, which meant he had to pass by everyone’s gazes. How humiliating.

“It doesn’t matter now,” Allura said primly, despite the hint of annoyance that lingered in her eyes. She pointed to the holograms that glowed before her. “The distress signal seems to be coming from the far side of the planet. We should be there soon.”

Lance gazed around the flight deck’s window, searching for the planet. His eyes widened in utter surprise when he discovered it far to the right of the ship, a complete eyesore now he’d noticed it. He jumped off his seat and ran to the glass, staring bug eyed at the planet.

“You’ve got to be kidding me? That’s the planet the distress call came from?” he asked to no one in particular. He just wanted to make clear how absurd it was. Because, come on, what the hell.

He eyed the planet with a skeptical expression. It was about the size of Earth’s Moon, the horizons curving distinctly and glimmering with the light of the system’s far off star, but that was where the similarities ended. The planet’s surface was almost entirely water, save for the huge crystal spires that disrupted the endless ocean instead of continental land masses, jutting out towards the rims of the atmosphere. The poles of the planet seemed to be a strange mixture of ice and crystal, too hard to tell apart from a distance. Far off, the planet’s dwarfish moon could be seen, a purple-gray oval of rock and dust orbiting relatively close to the planet. But, no, those certain peculiarities weren’t what made the planet so weird.

It was the fact that the planet was entirely pink. The ocean, the ice, the crystals. All pink. The planet looked like a giant strawberry flavoured bubble. In space. Lance had seen a lot of weird crap, but this was the pink cherry on top. Pun so incredibly intended.

“Why is it pink?! Please tell me I’m not the only one bothered by that,” he said incredulously, looking around to the others.

Allura turned her head away from her hologram monitors, giving him a perplexed look.
“I don’t see what the problem is.”

“Yeah, well, uh, you’re an alien, so you’re probably used to space logic. I guess I should be as well, but...it’s just that the water. Is. Pink,” he replied, emphasising so to get his main concern across. He threw his hands up dramatically. “Water should not pink.”

“Well actually,” Pidge drawled from her chair, hand rubbing her chin evilly, “it is possible...”

“Oh, I bet there is some scientific explanation I’m too tired to understand that you were ‘bout to tell me about. Please don-”

“I'm glad you asked,” she interrupted, nudging her glasses as she smiled at her own intellectual prowess. Lance’s face fell, and he sighed sulkily, unwilling to experience the wrath of Pidge if he disturbed her science rant. She continued, eyes twinkling with cunning that even the best Slytherin would be jealous of.

“I suspect that with the large, presumably Rhodochrosite crystals that are littering the planet that there is huge deposits of manganese on the planet’s crust. The basic diagrams I’ve seen of the planet internal structure show it has a molten structure much like Earth, and seeing as there’s no land masses, I think there are loads of deep sea volcanoes. These are probably spewing out a bunch of chemicals that are eroding the manganese and mixing with it to make salts like manganese chloride and manganese sulfate that dissolve into water, therefore turning it a nice shade of pink. Sort of like potassium permanganate, the chemical they use to treat water on Earth, but like a natural version of that. It’s just a theory though, so don’t take my word for it.”

“I think I’m turning manganese, you said it that many times,” Lance murmured. Pidge gave him a cutting look.

“What if it’s bacteria?” Hunk chipped it. Lance facepalmed theatrically as the scientific discussion continued. Hunk ignored him as he voiced his theory. “I mean, your idea is great, and very thought out, seriously, have you been thinking about that all morning? It’s amazing. Buutt, just saying, it could be as simple as bacteria. There’s a few pink lakes on Earth, and that’s all because there’s halobacteria in them. What if it’s the same here?”

“I don’t know much about science, but it could be that the water is more translucent than normal water, and the pink we’re seeing is actually the surface of the crust,” Shiro mentioned offhandedly. He followed it with a shrug to show he was just throwing the idea out and wasn’t actually certain.

“Or, Lance chirped loudly, deciding he might as well get a word in, “maybe it’s not water at all. What if it’s some naturally pink liquid? Or, or!, it could be that there’s some sort of underwater plant that dyes it p-”

“Does it really matter?” Keith interrupted irritably, giving each of them the stink eye. “Right now, we need to focus on the mission.”

Pidge and Hunk frowned, but didn’t continue the discussion. Shiro, on the other hand, looked kind of proud, watching Keith with a fond smile. Meanwhile, Lance heaved a sigh to show he’d do what was asked but wasn’t exactly happy with it. A small part of him flared with annoyance at the fact that Keith had told them to shut up only when he’d been the one talking. A more prevalent part of him, however, knew that the Black Lion’s Paladin was stressed, and that his grumpiness was not directed towards any one individual. Lance wasn’t so narrow-minded as to think Keith had a vendetta against him; they were rivals, but they were not enemies. He let his annoyance fade almost as quickly as it had arose.

“There is a problem,” Allura interjected, bringing the attention back to herself. She frowned as she looked at Shiro. “Given the aquatic nature of the planet, and the absence of flat land, we’ll have to leave the Castle in orbit and take the Lions to the surface.”

Shiro nodded, hearing the subtext of her message, and shrugged his shoulders calmly.
“It’s fine, Allura, really. I’ll stick here with Coran and help work the Castle in case anything occurs.”

Coran perked up, fiddling with his moustache as he smiled cheerfully.
“Don’t worry Princess. We’ll be the best backup you could ask for. The Castle will be in good hands.”

Allura’s mouth twisted upwards.
“I never thought otherwise. Paladins,” she called out, looking to the four other members in the group, “to your Lions.”

~~~~~

The pink water was more unsettling up close, and Lance stared at it with a heated expression as Red flew over it, her vibrant red turned blushing pink in her reflection. The shade just seemed wrong on the liquid. Lance was used to the endless blue of Earth's ocean, glimmering with a lane of golden sunlight to the far horizon, only softening to a gray hue on cloudy days. This planet’s sky was blue as well, but the ocean contrasted startlingly against it. Rosy waves rose almost to where Red’s paws hovered in the air, and crashed back down in explosions of strawberry froth. The crystals arose like jagged spear tips from the ocean, conquering more of the blue with the planet’s ridiculous colouring. It was like a typical five year old girl’s fantasy, missing only the necessary unicorns and rainbows. Lance pouted.

“I don’t like it here,” he voiced petulantly as he drove Red towards the distress signal. Red seemed to dislike it too, her paws drawn close to her body, persistent in remaining dry and untouched by the waves.

“What, do you have a thing against pink or something?” Keith’s voice asked through the comms, smile evident in his tone.

Lance looked to the Black Lion that flew ahead, giving it a pointed expression, knowing Keith wouldn’t see it.
“No,” he droned. “Just not used to it, is all.”

“Glad to hear it,” Allura remarked from Blue, whose paws were tapping happily against the water as she soared forward. Lance offered a hasty yet sincere apology, remembering the colour the Princess had chosen to wear, and the significance of it. Lance nevertheless inwardly sighed at the irony of the situation: the colour he missed the most in the possession of the colour that was now the focus of his irritation.

“How long ‘til we get there?” he asked, trying to change the topic.

“Not long. The signal is coming from that mountain up ahead,” Pidge replied. “Wait, no, I think it’s coming from inside it. Uh, okay, might have to scan this.”

Lance let her do that, quietly observing the oncoming crystal peak. It was huge, greater in size than any he had passed already. The Lions seemed miniscule in it’s presence, far away as it was, it’s shadow painting all the water around it fuschia. It seemed to darken as it ascended, pink fading into a light red, with ribbons of white and magenta playing in the shimmering geometric structure. Even Lance could admit it was beautiful. Despite it being pink.

“Oh, that makes sense,” Pidge voice mumbled in the comms, more so to herself. “That’s actually brilliant.”

“Maybe tell us what it is and then we can agree with you,” Lance commented dryly.

“Oh, right! Sorry. Well, the scans show it’s not solid. It just looks like it is, so from a distance it seems uninhabitable. It’s actually more like ring of crystals that have grown from the crust and formed a mountainous structure. The internal structure seems to be kind of like an aquatic cave, with it being filled with both water and air. The entrance is hidden really far under the water, and leads into the water part, so if not for the distress signal, we probably would have flown right past this. I wonder if it’s natural. Or, maybe the inhabitants carved it out. Oh my gosh I can’t wait to ask.” Pidge began mumbling to herself but by the point Lance had stopped listening.

And it seemed so had everyone else.
“Okay guys, we're going to have to dive, but continue in formation. We don't know if it's a trap yet so until we're sure, we need to stay together,” Keith ordered.

Agreements chorused through the comms, and the Lions began to descend. Red seemed to whine in annoyance at the command, her paws twitching as they grew closer and closer to the tips of the dancing waves, but she didn’t alter Lance’s course despite her obvious discomfort. It was moments like these that made Lance wonder how he ended up in a Lion who hated water almost more than he loved it. Blue had shared that certain passion, but it wasn’t enough to keep them together, it seemed. Lance let out a quiet breath, before giving Red’s dash a reassuring pat, easing on the controls so that his descent was slower. He missed Blue and his bond with her a lot, but that was in the past now; Red shouldn’t be forced to adopt his interests just because she didn’t reflect his personality as much as Blue had. Opposites attract, right. He smirked when that thought gave him a grand idea.

“You can do it, Red. It’s just water. You’ll still be as hot as ever when we get out. I believe in you, you sexy beast you,” he said in the most flirtatious voice he could muster, struggling not to laugh when he got the response he’d been hoping for from Red’s former paladin.

“Are you flirting with Red?!” Keith asked incredulously. Lance imagined the hothead with an outraged expression, and exploded with laughter, no longer able to hold it. Keith’s dark mutterings made it all the worse.

“Nooo,” he said, biting down the remaining chuckles after a few moments had passed. “I’m just giving Red a pep talk. Aren’t I allowed to make her feel special?”

“Oh, Lance, you really have such a way with words,” Pidge intoned as her Lion sunk into in the water, sprays of pink exploding around the Green Lion. The other three Lions were also half-submerged, tails of froth following them as they continued to rush towards the crystal mountain. Red still seemed herself hesitant to plunge in, only her claws touching the pink liquid, cutting into the water surface. She really must be hydrophobic if she was being this cautious, Lance thought, having heard of - and seen - the many, many, reckless exploits she and Keith had gone and done. Still, he wasn’t going to force her to dive; he’d let her go at her own pace.

Keith, impatient as ever, seemed to disregard this.
“Lance, are you coming or not? Or do you wanna run into the mountain?”

“Hold your Lions, Keith. Red here isn’t a big fan of water, okay. You can lead a Lion to water but you can’t make it swim. I’m giving her free rein. Don’t get on your high Lion about it.”

“Okay, okay, stop with the horse idioms,” Keith replied acquiescently.

“I think you mean Lion idioms,” Lance replied cheekily, smiling triumphantly when he heard the weary sigh of the Black Paladin.

Red seemed to be calmed by the banter, her paws falling further into the ocean. With another soothing stroke from Lance, she finally dipped her body into the water and sunk into the cool pink depths, which Lance congratulated with loud praise, both sincere and purposefully flirty so as to annoy Keith. Soon, she and the others were all fully submerged, bubbles roaring behind them as they blasted down towards the entrance hidden deep under the water.

Red propelled herself forwards, racing ahead of the other Lions. Lance just shrugged and let her do it; he’d get to the signal sooner, so what was the point of arguing.

“Lance, what are you doing? Stay in formation,” Keith said sternly.

“Hey, man, you should know more than anyone that when Red decides to do something, nothing in the universe can stop her,” Lance replied airily. “At this point, I just go with it. I really don’t want to tick her off. Hell hath no fury like a Lion scorned.”

“Yeah, yeah, I agree with Lance,” Hunk readily agreed. “I’ve seen the Red Lion in battle and I’d rather not get on it’s bad side.”

The Yellow Paladin shuddered as he imagined the horrible scenario. Well, Lance assumed he had anyway. It sounded like something Hunk would do.

Lance peered back to the other Lions, and blinked when he had to look back further than he expected. They were waaaay back, tinted by the pink expanse that was growing between him and the others. He gave an approving nod.
“Wow, Red, you really are a speed demon. Gotta ask, though, what’s the rush?”

Red grumbled audibly, causing bubbles to float forth from her mouth. Even without their bond, Lance could tell she was disgruntled, and given how she had reacted to water, it wasn’t hard to guess why.

“You wanna get out the water quickly, huh?” A guttural hum answered him, and Lance took that as a yes. “Well, then, full steam ahead, buddy.”

“Lance, I advise against going on without us. We must stick together,” Allura warned, still way back with the others. Blue must be so jealous of Red right now. Lance knew if Allura let her loose in the water, she’d be faster than even Red. Blue was amazing in water. Lance buried his longing before it could grow, putting on a respectful smile.

“I’m sorry, Princess. I don’t want to make Red uncomfortable by making her stay in the water longer. I’ll wait for you guys when we’re out.”

Allura hummed thoughtfully.
“I understand.”

Lance smiled gratefully for her understanding. He went to reply, but an abrupt and loud roar interrupted him before he had even said a word. He looked back in confusion, and blinked in surprise when he saw Blue charging forward like a raging comet.

“Allura, what are you doing?” Pidge asked curiously, voicing what Lance had himself been wondering.

“The Red Lion is the Guardian of Fire, and therefore has every right to be unhappy with the aquatic situation. It does not however mean we should allow Lance to venture alone. As Blue is the only one capable of matching the Red Lion’s speed in this environment, I’ll accompany him.”

A moment passed as the others awaited their leader’s decision on the matter.

“Fine, but stick together,” Keith assented after a few tics. Lance and Allura agreed readily to his request.

“Aww, thanks, Princess,” Lance cooed when Allura and Blue arrived beside him. “Didn’t know you cared.”

“I care for your safety, but if you blather on, I might just rethink my decision,” the Altean replied curtly, Blue turning her head to give what Lance could only assume was the Lion version of the stink eye. Traiter. Allura was such a bad influence on her.

“I’ll be quiet, promise,” Lance vowed with a grin.

“That’s a first,” Pidge and Keith said simultaneously.

Lance scowled, but remained silent, more out of spite than anything. They could eat his bubbles along with their words. Red and Blue soared through the water, and soon the others disappeared out of view, forgotten in the imaginary race through the depths. They steadily descended deeper and deeper, the pink ocean darkening as the sunlight trickled away. Lance didn’t make a comment when Allura laughed happily, nor when he felt Blue distantly tickle his mind with the same emotion. He was content to just listen to them with a small smile, ignoring the occasional checkup by the others. Soon, the crystals of the mountain were imposing all of Lance’s view, glistening like underwater stars. Maybe this pink world wasn’t so bad after all.

That perception didn’t last long, however. The entrance to the mountain finally appeared in the veil of darkened pink, and the moment Lance saw it, he broke his fleeting silence.

“Guys, I think you need to hurry up and get here. Now.”

“Why? What’s wrong,” Hunk queried anxiously.

“Oh no….” Allura whispered in horror when she spotted what had caught Lance’s attention.

“What is it?” Keith asked apprehensively.

Silence lingered for several tics as Allura and Lance stared at the approaching destruction, unable to speak. The entrance was something Lance knew would have been beautiful once. Rhodochrosite arches lay broken on the uneven ground, creating a trail of rubble that ran towards the grand, carved archway. It was huge, dwarfing the Lions tenfold. The silver structure cut into the crystals around it, studded with pink orbs that matched the surrounding landscape. From a distance, however, cracks could be seen adorning the archway, some deep and some faint, all suggesting instability. Underneath the archway, the pink of the water faded in black as the interior disappeared beyond his vision, hiding with it untold secrets.

Even in the landscape of destroyed beauty, it was the blood, stained upon the pinks and silvers, that sent shivers down Lance’s body. It was splattered everywhere, painting much of the entrance in it’s dreadful red tones. The water itself seemed of a darker hue, seemingly deepened by the liquid. Lance felt guilty relief when he couldn’t find any bodies to which the blood belonged, happy that he didn’t have to see that. Not yet, anyway.

Lance hastily described the scene to the others, hearing their gasps and upset comments.

“Okay, we need for a plan. Allura, Lance, wait there for us. We don’t know what’s in there,” Keith instructed.

“No,” Allura argued sharply. “Whoever is in there is in danger, and they have requested our help. We mustn’t make them wait any longer.”

“Allu-”

“No, she’s right, Keith,” Lance interrupted. “We can’t waste time arguing. We’re going in.”

“Lance, we can't have you being reckless right now,” Keith stated irritatedly.

Lance’s anger flared. Seriously? Did Keith realise how hypocritical that was? How dare he think now he’s the leader that he was above being reckless. Keith had got them into countless situations due to his own rash decisions. Now, with lives at stake, he was telling them to not to be. Lance couldn’t stop the words the flew from his mouth in retaliation.

“I’m the Red Paladin now. It’s my job to be reckless. It’s also my job to save lives. So, here I am, doing my damn job. Don’t try to stop us. We’ll see you in there,” he answered heatedly, voice threatening to break into a shout.

He huffed a sullen sigh when he realised what he done, but his stubbornness refused to allow him to apologise. Not yet. He wasn’t exactly in the wrong, anyway. Still, he didn’t want to hear what the others had to say. He muted everyone’s comms save for Allura’s, cutting off the other's voices before he could listen to their replies.
“Come on, Princess.”

He pushed Red’s controls forward, feeling her begin to surge towards the entrance. He looked back to see Blue following behind, the inhabitant quiet until the entrance was just before them.

“....Lance,” Allura began softly.

“Princess, please, can we talk about what happened later? Now is really not the time.”

“I...,“ she answered with an uncertainty that Lance almost never heard from her, “I just wanted to say that was a very b-”

She never finished her sentence. A deep rumble echoed out from the cave, and the water around them trembled slightly. Not even a moment passed before the crystals began to shake madly around them. The already present cracks on the archway deepened as more darted across it, the crystals agitating the already weak structure with their quivering. Shards of debris began to fall from the archway as it began to tremble.

The entrance was collapsing, Lance realised. His eyes flicked around the entrance, assessing the structure. He didn’t have to look too hard to realise it had a matter of seconds before it fell, blocking the entry point into the cave. If they didn’t get into the mountain, they’d be shut out, unable to save the people inside. Lance didn’t hesitate at all as he pushed Red’s controls further, begging for her to increase her speed. Red seemed happy to comply, going even faster than before, the entrance zooming towards them viciously.

“QUICK, ALLURA! Before it falls!” he called out to his companion, hastily looking around to check she was following him.

“Don’t worry about me! Keep going!”

Lance gave a passing smile when he saw Blue, soaring towards the falling entrance right alongside him. He turned his focus back to the structure, now looming above him as they zoomed towards the darkness. Larger pieces of it were falling, plummeting down through the water. One such piece was heading right for Red.

Lance pulled the left control sharply, and he felt Red turn quickly, just missing the debris as it crashed into the ground. He easily dodged the smaller slivers that broke from the shivering doorway, noticing Allura doing it with as much ease as he did. Even with the archways plunging down towards them, the two Lions manoeuvred through the destruction gracefully, almost as if it were a game. Given Lance’s thudding heart, he couldn’t say he felt the same way.

Lance slowed when he realised he was outside of the falling archway’s path of destruction, turning Red’s head to watch the final moments of it’s life before it crashed into the ground. The seafloor exploded in a cloud of black sand, the debris disappearing into the smog.

The surrounding area didn’t seem done with breaking, however. The crystals, now without the structure to hold them up, decided to join the party. Lance pulled himself from his momentary pause to escape the rain of crystals the began to fall in a twisted imitation of loyalty towards the corpse of the archway that once had held them up. Allura and Blue were already ahead, wise enough to not stop for the show. He could still here the thuds of crystals meeting their demise when he caught up to her. Lance didn’t look back this time. He needed to stay focused.

Light spilled from Red and Blue’s eyes when the dark became impenetrable, the light tinged the same colour as the planet. The pink crystals danced under their newfound spotlights, casting the light so soon the whole cave was alight with the rosy colour. It was almost like a hallway, leading to something grand.

Or something terrible, Lance thought sombrely. They’d find out eventually what awaited them.

“I’ll tell the others what happened,” Allura said after a while, when the silence became suffocating.

“Go ahead, by all means. I really don’t want to hear Keith’s ‘I told you so’s right now,” Lance answered bitterly.

He listened distantly to Allura telling the others about what had happened, unwilling to join in. They were probably displeased with him. Given the state of the entry when he’d last seen it, Lance could assume that the entrance was no longer a viable way in. The others were stuck outside until the found a new entry point into the mountain.

Yeah, they wouldn’t be happy with that. Still, if Lance and Allura hadn’t gone ahead, none of them would be in the mountain. So, it was a win-lose situation, really.

The hallway began to widen, crystal walls withdrawing away from the Lions, until it abruptly ended, the floor dropping away just as suddenly, the sea floor hidden away in a veil of black. Red and Blue’s light weren’t strong enough to illuminate the whole area, but it was fair to say they’d reached the internal structure of the mountain. They continued at a horribly slow pace, unable to see where they were going, and unable to use Blue’s sonic cannon lest they disturb the already unstable crystals. Lance felt Keith-esque impatience as his hands twitched over the controls, desperate to speed ahead and help the inhabitants of the mountain.

Lance looked to his screen, seeing the little beeping dot on his map.
“The distress signal seems to be coming from the centre of the mountain. So, let’s just keeping going forward ‘til we spot something.”

Allura chuckled as if he’d something absurd.

“What?” Lance asked in confusion, a tinge of hurt scratching at his skin at her strange laughter. He replayed what he said in his head, trying to find the humour in his statement. “Did I say something stupid?”

“Oh, no, sorry, Lance, I wasn’t laughing at you,” she apologised soberly. “It’s just…..I grew up to be a leader. I was expected to lead my citizens, be their Queen. Now....well, it’s a new experience to be outranked. It is quite strange.”

Lance gave an awkward laugh.
“Look at it from my perspective; I’m the one commanding a Princess.”

She chuckled again, more naturally than before.
“It seems we’re all readjusting.”

Lance looked at Blue with despondent eyes.
“Yeah. I guess we are.”

He returned his gaze ahead of him, peering into the murkiness. Either they were really deep under the water or the crystals weren’t as translucent as he thought they’d be. Red’s eye-lights barely lit up anything. It was so freaking dark. He hoped whoever was in distress had some way of getting their attention.

The darkness quirked as a sudden flash of movement swept past Red, startling her pilot and causing him to squeak with surprise. The thing was huge, whatever it was, but Lance didn’t get much of a look, as it was gone as quickly as it had appeared. Lance twisted Red’s head to search for the anomaly, anxious as her lights gazed into the darkness. His body tightened with anticipation when he couldn’t find it.

“Did you see that?” he asked his companion, struggling to hide the high pitch sound of his voice.

“What?” Allura’s voice answered, confused.

“I think….“ he gulped, trying to return his voice to normal and absolutely failing, “I think I saw something in the water. And not the mermaid kind of something.”

“No, I’m sorry, I didn’t see anything.”

Lance nodded, letting out a shaky breath. Maybe he was just seeing things. Probably his mind tricking him into thinking something was hiding out there. He never was much a fan of the dark, or the quiet. Right now he was surrounded by both, and he was far from pleased. His fingers tapped nervously against the controls, the soft beat relaxing him as they ventured forward towards the distress signal's point of origin.

Red’s lights flickered, and Lance’s legs leaped into his chair as they darkness blinked in and out. It took of all his willpower not to wrap his arms around himself and assume a fetal position. For a second, there was no light at all, save for the red hue of the cockpit and the distant glimmer of Blue’s eye-lights that hid behind the thick layer of black. When Red’s lights returned from their stuttering absence, Lance’s shoulders were wound all the way up to his ears.

“N-not funny, Red,” he whimpered, looking around helplessly into the still dim environment. “Definitely not funny.”

Red mewled sadly, as if she was hurt. Lance relaxed slightly, ignoring his own fear to focus on Red. She sounded distressed, and he patted her console, eyes drawn sympathetically.

“You weren’t messing with me, were you?” he asked kindly, checking her systems as he did so. There seemed to be some malfunctioning, he noticed, with a few red bars popping up here and there. Red gave a weak yet somehow passionate hum, halfway between ashamed and furious.

Blue floated closer to Red, seeming to give the smaller Lion a quick look over. Lance picked up on a quick, faded feeling of worry from his old Lion before he heard her Paladin speak.

“Is the Red Lion okay?” Allura asked, her voice more so concerned than inquisitive. “Is it the water?”

“Yeah, I...I think so. Why, has this happened before?”

The quiet rustle of Allura’s nodding could be heard over the comms.
“The Red Lion has never reacted to water very well. It, as you are well aware of by now, has a great distaste for anything aquatic. My father realised this quite early on, and made sure to never make it endure an aquatic environment unless there was an emergency. Even then, it was never exposed to water for very long. The Red Lion has never been in water for as long as it has right now, and I am uncertain of what will happen if you remain underwater for any longer. If I had known we were to endeavour in water, and at such a period of time as we have, I would have advised against you joining us on this mission. Unfortunately, it is too late for us to change our decision. I'm sorry I didn't mention it sooner,” she finished in a remorseful tone.

Lance looked to his console with a contrite frown.
“Oh, Red, I’m so sorry. I thought you just didn’t like water. I should have known.”

“Lance, it’s not fault,” assured Allura. “It’s mine, if we are to place blame.”

“Princess, it’s not your fault at all! I’m the one who got us stuck in a giant mountain filled with water,” Lance answered in a bitter tone. “All because I was angry at Keith for being a hypocrite about recklessness. Looks like I’m the real hypocrite; I’m meant to keep everyone in check. Turns out I can’t even keep myself in check. Now Red’s in pain and the people who need us are no closer to being helped. So, yeah, it is my fault, Allura. Please don't think otherwise. You've done nothing wrong. It's all on me...”

The Princess went to reply, but Lance inadvertently interrupted her.
“Holy Crow, look at me, I’m wasting even more time whining about it. C’mon, we need to go.”

Allura gave a hesitant hum of agreement. Lance looked around Red's cockpit.
“Can you hang on for just a little bit longer, buddy?”

Red murmured an agreement. Lance grinned, thanking her through their bond. His grin fell instantly when movement graced the darkness once again. The sea monster was back, rustling swiftly in the darkness.

“Allura, Allura!, the thing, can you see it, it’s there!” he shouted hastily, trying to track the thing with Red’s lights. He only managed to showcase a long, insanely big, finned tail that flicked into view for barely a tic before it was back in the murky black. If there was something, it was playing with them. And not in the nice way.

Lance's heart began thudding in his chest, beating all the harder when he heard Allura speak, her own voice shocked.
“Yes, yes, I saw it.”

“Oh no, it’s real,” Lance moaned. “I was kind of hoping I was just seeing things.”

“That’s probably what's terrorising the citizens of this planet.”

Lance cheered grumpily. Wonderful. A giant monster in the dark. Just his cup of tea.

The sound of a roar, loud and all-consuming, stopped his sarcastic thoughts in their tracks. Lance’s stomach sunk when he realised it was the same rumble that had caused the entrance to fall. The darkness began to waver around him, and he felt Red begin to shake violently with the surrounding vibrations. A crystal stabbed down through the light in front of him, and then another.

“Lance!” Allura called desperately. “ We need to-”

Allura’s words were cut off by her anguished cry, and the pained roar of Blue.

“ALLURA!” Lance screamed into the darkness, sweeping Red’s light through the water, searching for a glimpse of blue in the black. “ALLURA!”

No answer. Lance breaths came in sharp and quick as his anxiety grew. Red spun and spun, but Blue never came into view. Red’s lights began flickering.

“No no no nononono, Red, please, you gotta hang on, please,” he pleaded hopelessly. The darkness was closing in.

Red let out a miserable, apologetic wail, before all her lights died, both in the cockpit and outside. Darkness flooded to replace it, and Lance was drowned in the pitch black. Before he could react, the cockpit dropped suddenly as Red’s dead weight was tugged down sharply by gravity. He gripped his seat tightly as the room shook, a sick feeling permeating in his gut as Red dropped heavily downwards. His shoulders tensed up, awaiting the inevitable crash into the sea floor.

It didn’t come for some time, but when it did, the jarring motion threw Lance off his chair, despite his tight grip, and right onto the floor, left side first. He flung his left arm out, but it crumpled when it awkwardly met the floor, sending a sharp pain throughout the limb. Without the arm to stop his fall, he plummeted, somehow managing to land head first, helmet thankfully taking the brunt of the hit. He hissed when his body landed on his injured arm, rolling over quickly to cradle it to his chest. A persistent twinge of pain lingered as he got up, grabbing at the pilot seat with his other hand and using it as a crutch to get up once he had located it in the dark. The room was on a tilt, enough to be obvious but not too bad as to hinder him standing on the floor, so once he was up, he adjusted his balance to compensate for the angle.

He tapped his right wrist, ignoring the lash of pain the movement caused for his left arm. At his touch, a small blue halo appeared. Not even a moment later, a concentrated beam of light shot out from his armour, providing him with a torch that only made the dark slightly more bearable, a blue tinge painting the shadows that swallowed most of the room. He looked around, hoping fervently for any sign of awareness by Red. His fruitless search turned up empty, with no console, system or anything seeming to be on. He knew though, before he even tried, that nothing would show up: he no longer felt Red in his head, those small ember-like thoughts extinguished, not even a smoulder left to fill Lance’s mind. Lance breaths began to pick up again as raw panic settled into his bones.

“Allura, are you there?” he asked quietly, his voice coming out small and afraid.

Nothing.

Lance swallowed. Okay, not good. But the others were probably still okay, right? Lance unmuted their comms, hoping silently that they weren’t annoyed with him for shutting them out. That could wait for later, after the situation was over.

“Guys, can you hear me? I think Allura's hurt, and Red’s not responding. We need you to get here really quickly.” He paused, awaiting their replies. He couldn't hear them. “Hello?”

Still nothing. Not even the near silent hum of white noise.

He tapped at his helmet, wondering if it was just playing up, but it remained eerily silent. It always had some crackle of noise lingering whenever it was on. There wasn't even the sound of the others breathing. He always felt comforted by that. It helped him know they were okay. But now....oh no. His heart fell in realisation. His fall must have damaged some wires somehow, and destroyed his communications. His friends couldn’t hear a word he was saying, and he couldn't hear them either. All he had was the quiet and the dark.

Lance began pacing up and down Red’s cockpit anxiously, awkward though it was with the slant of the room, thoughts firing away manically in his head. What was he going to do? The others were probably still stuck outside the mountain, Allura was hurt (he tried to avoid thinking about the horrible alternative) and Red was down for the count until he could manage to get her out of the water, which frankly wasn’t happening anytime soon. And the distress signal, though no longer blinking on his console, was still there and awaiting him. Along with the unseeable sea monster.

Lance stopped and let out a deep breath. Okay, he could work with this. He could. He just had to figure out how to make sure he could get to the beacon without Red guiding him or keeping him safe, and without being attacked by a monster, whilst also alerting his friends of Allura’s probable injury once he had somehow managed to fix his comms using his less than skillful knowledge in extraterrestrial electronics.

Yeah, okay, he had no idea what to do. He wrapped his right arm around his torso, below where his left was nestled, and he sunk to the floor, the torch becoming smothered by his legs as he drew them close to his torso, allowing the room to return to it’s original unlit state. He closed his eyes, to be greeted by much of the same nothingness. It was more to shut it out and retreat inwards than anything. There was nothing really to do except venture out into the dark ocean without Red and hope for the best, but even then he’d be lost, merely prey for the creature that lurked in the waters. He sighed wearily.

A gentle voice whispered in his mind, startling him from his thoughts. It was a soothing sound, like water gurgling in a stream. Though frantic, the noise was as beautiful as ever. Lance shot up from his dejected position, trying to locate the sound in his head once again, knowing all too well to whom it belonged. He’d missed that voice greatly, having only heard muffled caricatures of it for some time. She called to him again.

“Blue,” he sighed happily, a small grateful smile appearing on his face. It fell when he remembered what had happened to Blue when he last saw her. “Are you and Allura okay?”

Blue didn’t seem to hear him however, her calls becoming all the more desperate. Lance shut his eyes and tried to mentally connect with her, but all he met was a two-way mirror, his old Lion's feelings rushing through to him whilst his remained stagnant and out of view, trapped behind the barrier forged unwillingly between them. Lance eye’s began to sting as he tried to answer her, yelling her name and Allura’s, to no avail. It seemed she could no longer hear him, despite the fact he could hear her sorrowful pleas clearer than ever. Nobody could hear him.

He slammed his fist to the ground in frustration, the bang echoing out in the room. He couldn’t stay here. He couldn’t wait for the others to eventually find him. Blue, Allura, the denizens of this mountain, they all needed help. And he was all they had until the others arrived. He needed to do something.

He needed to go outside.

He took a forceful breath, and jumped up off the floor, eyes gleaming with newfound determination. He jogged uphill to the entry of the jaw ramp. The door was closed, barring his exit. He pulled at it, inserting his fingers in the indent and tugging, trying to separate it away from the wall. It didn’t budge, locked and unresponsive. That, or he was just not strong enough to pull it open. Though, seeing as he was down an arm, it wasn't all too humiliating. He huffed, wondering how he to get pass this measly obstacle. It usually slid open automatically, but then again, that was when the Lion was working. There must be so form of manual override somewhere. He began searching around the door, torch sweeping around to find anything that seemed like an override button. He’d never used it so he had no idea where exactly it was or what it looked like. He perked up in triumph when his torch found a bayard powered dial, much like the one in the cockpit, on the perpendicular wall from the door.

He summoned his bayard, the red light briefly illuminating the room as it materialised in his hand in it’s dormant form, and hovered it in front of the dial. He paused, remembering the conditions of the external environment, and clicked on his helmet’s full mask visor, hoping it still worked, and cheering quietly when it did. He pushed the bayard into the dial slot, and twisted.

The door unlocked, and hissed as it glided open. Water spilled lazily into the room, and Lance let a breath of relief, grateful that the water hadn’t rushed in and swamped the room, the air pocket protecting the interior from such an event from happening. Red would appreciate not having more water in her systems. He looked back in the direction of her cockpit, and gave a small smile as he patted the side of the door fondly.

“I’ll be back soon, Red. Don’t you worry. When I find Blue and Allura and save those people, I’m coming right back for you. I swear.”

He took a steadying breath and stepped onto the waterlogged ramp, and waded into the ocean. There was a sudden drop at the end of Red’s jaw, and Lance shone his light down, trying to find the ground. A pillar of smoke appeared in the spotlight, and with an observation of the surrounding area, Lance concluded it was from some sort of underwater vent. He smirked, remembering Pidge’s theory about manganese and underwater volcanoes. When he saw her again, he was going to tell her about his findings.

So, he was near the seafloor. That was good. It would help him know which way was up. He flew forward, jets blasting off muted fizzes of energy. When he was near the smoke column, he turned and danced his torch over Red. She had landed on a short crystal which had caught her in the crock of her armpit, holding her upper body at the opposite angle of her head, which was tilted down as if she was mourning. She looked really uncomfortable, but there was nothing Lance could do about it. Even though she wasn’t awake, Lance gave her a sad wave as he turned away and headed towards Blue.

Her call, still ringing in his head, was like a magnet, leading him straight to where she was, which thankfully wasn’t too great a distance. Probably about a mile or so. He had his jetpack on full blast, hasty to reach Blue and her paladin, and to have a working Lion who could locate the distress signal. His left arm remained cradled to his chest so not to jostle it, his other arm held up to guide his way, whilst his legs were kicking wildly as he tried to increase his speed. To an observer, the weird armless swimming would have looked ridiculous, but Lance managed to make it work, making steady progress towards his target. He kept his torch vigil, scouring his flank and what lay ahead of him, wary of whatever lay past the light’s reach. He knew it was a risk to have the light on in the first place, but without he’d wouldn’t be able to see if there was any obstacles in his way. Though, admittedly, it made him feel a little safer to have something guiding him through the dark.

He manoeuvred through the billows of smoke, short turns here and there, but continued on a pretty much straight course towards Blue. He felt a relieved smile begin to form on his mouth when he saw the distant star of Blue’s eyes, glowing strongly in the dark. He kicked his legs even faster than before.

Something brushed against his leg.

Lance flinched as his stomach burned with fright, and pulled his legs towards himself, swinging his light behind him, eyes roving the area frantically. There was nothing to be seen, and he hesitantly withdrew his legs away from his body, and began kicking again, more frantically than before. He looked to Blue’s lights longingly, wishing he was there already. He stifled a whimper when he felt the water tremble beside him, not even attempting to shine the light on the creature. It was too fast, and it would waste time. He was so close. He could see Blue’s outline far ahead on the ocean floor, her eyes staring into the distance. She wasn’t moving, and Lance bit his lip as horrible images of Allura bloody and bruised in Blue’s cockpit began tormenting him. Maybe that’s why she was calling so desperately.

Exhaustion and fear played with his breath, causing it to come in heavy pants. His visor fogged up, and the dim world became even more obscured, blurry with moisture. He squinted, trying to compete with the newfound hindrance, unable to wipe if off until he took off his helmet.

A shadow flitted to the left of his light, and only seconds later to the right. Lance gritted his teeth. It was playing, of that he was certain, and he was the game. He willed his jets to work faster somehow, despairingly wishing the monster would stop. He had no way of stopping the creature until he had reached Blue.

A sickening growl ripped through the quiet, and Lance felt his eyes burn in absolute dread. The monster was bored with it’s little fun.

It was going in for the kill now.

Lance threw away any restraint he had held onto, and began using all his limbs to pulls himself through the water. His left arm whined painfully at the movement, and the torch beam on his other arm swung erratically around into the darkness like a child operated spotlight. He beat at the water viciously, his determination burning as brightly as the jets on his back. Blue was nearly completely in view, her body distinct and clear, shards of broken crystals visibly digging into her head and back. She was only a few hundred feet away. He just had to keep up his speed and he’d reach her in less than a minute. Then he’d be okay.

He never made it too her, though. She never even saw him, or heard his fraught breaths as he struggled towards her.

The monster got to him first. Lance never even saw it coming, only the impact of it’s enormous hand as it met his left side. He screeched in pain as the impact sent him flying through the water, away from Allura and Blue. The water slowed his unwilling flight through it, until he came to a stop. He hung in the water like a broken puppet, half his body burning with agony, his own harsh gasps echoing in his ears. His eyes fluttered as unconsciousness beckoned him towards it’s warm clutches. It seemed so tempting.

The torch’s light descended towards the ground as his arm lay limp at his side, showering the nearby crystals with a limelight the darkness had denied them, the pink structures shimmering with what the pale beam provided to them. Lance didn’t have the strength to admire them, eyeing them tiredly as he watched the creature dance in the shadows around the light.

He whimpered as he watched the weaving movements of the hidden creature as it circled around him, still unable to make out it's appearance no matter how hard he tried. He began batting the water weakly with his right arm and leg, struggling towards the safety of the crystals. It hurt to move - it hurt so much - but it was his only hope of getting away from the monster.

When he finally did see the creature, it was for only a moment. But that moment was enough to see it’s great, piercing yellow eye, gleaming iridescently in the light and slitted like that of a cat. It eyed him greedily as it swept past him. Lance didn’t have time to react before it’s hand slammed into his back, knocking the air from his lungs, and began dragging him through the water, scaly fingers constricted around his body.

He couldn’t breath, the clawed hand tightening its grip around him as the creature twisted through the water. Lance squirmed pathetically, pushing his whole body feebly against the entwined fingers, stoically ignoring the pain the wracked every part of him. The hand tightened all the more around his figure, and the world flickered as he felt his ribs crack under the pressure. For some time, everything was merely vignettes of pain and darkness, and everlasting roar of water as it rushed passed him.

The creature came to a stop after a few minutes, seeming to have finally tired, and for a moment Lance thought the worse was over. But when he felt the fingers tense around him, the hope withered away like a sunflower on Pluto. The monster’s arm shot forward forcefully. Lance’s eyes widened when he saw the oncoming crystal, unable to stop it’s rapid approach.

Lance’s visor met the jagged corner of the crystal, then again and again. Each strike sent collateral force through his helmet, causing a headache to peal in his head, worsening each time he met the crystal. Faint cracks began to appear, deepening with each hit against the surface. Drips of water leaked through, and Lance eyed them in horror, watching them trail down the interior of his vial.

The monster kept beating his head head against the crystal’s edge, showing no sign of stopping. Lance knew that it would though, eventually, not because it was going to tire, but because he’d be dead. The cracks would not held out for much longer.

When it did break, Lance felt only a cacophony of pain. The crystal edge pierced his forehead and brushed against his skull, and stray shards of glass cut into his skin. He screamed miserably, only to be silenced by the water that flooded into his throat. The grievous infliction caused his head to roar in torment, his lungs singing along with it’s own anguished tune. Lance felt his body start to shut down, unable to stand the pain and unwilling to endure it any longer. Lance couldn’t fight unconsciousness anymore, oblivion eating everything away. He didn't struggle against it. He welcomed it, desiring it's promise of painlessness. Yellow eyes faded along with everything else as he fell away into unconsciousness.

The last thing he heard before true darkness consumed him was Blue’s doleful call, howling into the dark ocean under the mountain for it's Paladin.

Chapter Text

Pidge wasn’t having the best day. She’s stayed up all night (accidentally) and was incredibly tired, and therefore irritated by everything and everyone. She knew she’d should’ve gone to sleep with the upcoming mission, but she’d ended up analyzing the clip of Matt escaping for what was probably the thousandth time. The failure of that task once again had been detrimental to her mood. And then the crystal mountain’s entrance had to go and collapse on her, shutting her outside it and leaving her spending several long minutes searching for a way in.

Her company hadn’t exactly helped. And by company, she meant Keith. The Black Paladin had been raring for a heated conversation (read: argument) with the former Blue Paladin after the ‘stunt’ he pulled, but both Pidge and Hunk had reasoned with him that Lance’s - and Allura’s, seeing as she had been an abetting accomplice - actions had actually been beneficial. Keith thankfully had realised the truth of his statement, but, being the hothead he was, was still fuming, however silently, throughout the rest of their search. Pidge could practically feel his growing irritation through the comms as time went on.

So when they found an entry point, Pidge thought things were looking up. They’d catch up to Lance and Allura and help the citizens on the mountain. They’d save the day, help the civilians, bingo bongo, everyone would be okay and everything would turn out fine. Just another day at work.

It seemed that the Universe wanted to mess with them though, because the moment they found an entry point, they heard Allura scream. And not a happy, ‘oh my god, new shoes’ scream. A scream of pain, the kind of pain that was so sudden that you couldn’t stifle your cry.

Everything had been chaos, following that. Keith had shouted orders left, right and centre. Hunk had been calling for Allura, hoping for a reply. Shiro and Coran, noticing something was wrong, had tried to find out what had happened. But among all the many voices ringing in her ears, there was one that Pidge didn’t hear. One that she hadn’t heard for some time, actually. She shushed the others harshly, and they quietened abruptly, awaiting her inevitable input. She bit her lip, wondering if she should inform them of her discovery. But, to hide it from them could lead to something terrible. With a scowl, knowing her words would worry them all the more, she spoke.

“Where’s Lance?”

~~~~~

Allura felt consciousness return slowly to her, awareness leaking into the darkness. Familiar voices played in her ears, and she strained to listen to them. It was difficult, her head stinging with residues of pain and a strange noise she couldn’t figure the origin of, but she managed to distinguish what was being said.

“Do any of you see Allura or Lance?” It was Keith, she determined, sounding surprisingly anxious.

“No. And I don’t see any inhabitants either. I...I think maybe it was a trap.” was Pidge’s hesitant reply.

“.....all of you, divert you focus on finding Lance and Allura. We’ll figure what’s happening once we’ve found them.”

Allura blinked her eyes open, and rubbed at her head, feeling the tender flesh of the forming bruise. She let out a loud and pained groan as Blue’s cockpit filtered into view, blurry lines slowly defining themselves. She didn’t have much time to adjust before she heard excited yelling over the comms.

“Oh my gosh, Allura! Is that you? I heard a groan, guys! Allura! Can you hear us?” Hunk’s voice shouted, louder than any of his companions.

“Yes, I hear you,” Allura replied placatingly. Their cheers were immediate, but she ignored them to try and focus.

She peered out into the dark ocean, a thin fog of confusion smudging her memories. She could not recall the circumstances that had led to her being here, the recollection hidden in a haze she had yet to be rid of. She rearranged her attention to the strange noise that had been blaring in her head. Her eye’s widened when she realised it was Blue, the Lion’s distress finally reaching her ears.

She shot up, ignoring her headache. Blue was screaming into the dark, desperation evident in the frantic sound of her call. Though there were no words, Allura knew that Blue was crying. Allura sent her comforting thoughts, hoping to sooth her Lion. Blue calmed down, though barely, still whining with utter misery and yearning. Allura asked her silently what had happened, and Blue hastily answered.

All Allura saw was images, but they were more helpful than words could ever have been. Blue showed her images of an arch collapsing, images of Red struggling in the water as her pilot tried to encourage her to keep going whilst scrambling to mollify his own fears. Images of a monster in the dark twisting around in the water with agility that it should not be capable of. Images of Red being left behind to fend for herself in the dark as Blue plunged to the depths, damaged by the rain of crystals that forced her down and injured her systems.

The last thought was not an image, but a familiar voice, screaming Allura’s name with absolute terror.

She gasped as her own memory returned along with it.

“Lance! We must find Lance!” she called urgently to the others, her voice wavering with fear for her fellow Paladin. She pushed on Blue’s controls, and the Lion slowly got up, weak though she was. She would need time to repair once they got to the Castle. For now, it seemed Blue’s determination to find Lance was what kept her from falling back to the sea floor. Allura maneuvered her Lion’s head to and fro, the light painting the dark with a pink tint as it swept around the vicinity. Allura tightened her grip around the controls when she couldn’t see Lance or Red. In her heart, though, she knew that if he were near, and if he were okay, he would have responded to her by now.

“Allura, what happened? Where are you? Is he near you?” Hunk questioned, sounding much like a mother who couldn’t find their child.

Allura leaned forward and turned on Blue’s tracking beacon so the others could locate her.
“I’m at this location….I’m not sure where Lance is. But we must find him. The Red Lion was malfunctioning, and I....wait,” Allura paused. Maybe she could reach Red through her connection she shared with all the Lions. It had helped her find them before when she’d first woken from her cryosleep. Surely she could do it again.

She took a deep breath, and shut her eyes, blocking the world and focusing on nothing but the lithe quintessence that her body harboured. Flickers of quintessences that weren’t her own dwelled within hers, and she ignored her own quintessence in favour of theirs. She felt Blue above all the others, the connection stronger than when the Paladins first arrived at the Castle of the Lions. Becoming the Lion’s Paladin had increased the connection they shared greatly, and in a better situation, she would have smiled at the bond she and her new companion shared. But, as it was, joy at the moment would be misplaced. The Lion’s quintessence, normally playful and calming, was now woebegone and dolorous. Allura surrounded her with her love, and comfort twitched faintly in Blue’s quintessence. Not happiness though. The Lion would not be truly happy until her former pilot was safe. Allura sighed sadly before she looked past Blue, towards the fainter yet still distinct presences of the other Lions.

Red’s connection was the faintest of them all, almost nonexistence. Her quintessence was pale and unlively, not at all like the fiery state it usually was. Allura knew Red enough to know it could only reach the subdued state if the Lion had shut down. Allura’s focus stuttered when fear plagued her, knowing that meant Lance was completely vulnerable. Allura pushed her emotions down and focused entirely on Red. The connection, though feeble, was there all the same, tying the Princess to the fallen Lion. She opened her eyes and looked to her left, feeling drawn in that direction.

She clicked Blue’s controls forward, and stared in the darkness determinedly.
“I know where the Red Lion is.”

~~~~~

Pidge was fine, she was. Lance would be fine too. They’d find him and he’d be his usual cocky and puerile self. He was probably playing a huge prank on them. Pidge would be extremely annoyed with him, but it’d be something to laugh about eventually (after many retaliations on her behalf). Lance was absolutely fine, and so was she.

Okay, in all honesty, Pidge was freaking out. Not panic attack worthy, but definitely up there. She didn’t tell the others that however. She had to keep up with her image as the science nerd who was way too intelligent for such things as anxiousness. Yeah, okay, an absolute lie that. She was an emotional as everyone else, maybe even a tad bit more. She cried like a baby when she watched ‘Rogue One’ for the first time. It still made her heart swell with emotion when the character met their sadly inevitable demises, though nowadays she determined that to her wanting to see her dad again, seeing as he was that watched the classic sci-fi series alongside her…..She missed him so much.

Nope, nope! Not helping! Pidge shook the thoughts away. Lance, she needed to focus on Lance right now. Allura was leading them to Red, and then they’d help the Lion and her pilot back to the ship. From there, they’d check to see if he was injured and figure out what to do about the possibly false distress signal. Yes, everything would be fine and go just as she has planned it to in her head.

Plans don’t always go the way you want, it seems. The universe really wanted to make this one of the worst days of her life.

The Lions’ eye-lights founded upon their kin, in a state that sent Pidge’s heart plummeting as deep as they were under the ocean. Red was lying like a crippled toy that had been cast aside and forgotten. Her eyes were possessed by nothingness, the usual yellow glow completely gone, and her maw was hanging open in a unheard scream. Shivers wracked Pidge’s body as she eyed the haunting image of the fallen lion.

“Oh no…” Allura’s voice murmured in Pidge’s ear, the others singing their own fearful whispers. Pidge was too shocked to say anything. Seeing Red like this….it hurt.

“We…” Keith began, for once lost for words, “We need to...to check if Lance is in there.”

“I’ll do it,” Allura answered without hesitation, her façade of determination only broken by the tremble of worry that plagued her words. The collective to which she spoke didn’t mention it, themselves awash with concern.

Blue opened her jaw, and Pidge watched Allura shot out, pink bubbles trailing behind them and up towards the unseeable surface. The Blue Paladin soared through the water towards Red, her approach illuminated by the other Lions’ lights as they stared sadly at their sister Lion. Allura disappeared into Red’s mouth, her voice the only thing keeping from stressing.

“The entry seems to be open, but the systems are down, so it shouldn’t be…” Allura commented as she entered the Lion. “All the lights are powered down too. Hmm….Lance! Lance, can you hear me?! Are you here? Lan-”

Allura’s voice cut off so suddenly that for a second Pidge thought the comms system had failed abruptly. Before she could even begin fretting over that, she heard Allura gasp. Pidge and the other’s asked in chorus what was wrong. Was Lance okay? Was he hurt?

“...He’s not here,” the Blue Paladin murmured emptily, answering all their questions with those three, terrible words.

A heavy silence lingered as the statement sunk in for each Paladin. Lance had left Red. He was somewhere in the dark, alone and defenceless. Images of Lance swimming in the labyrinth of crystals, struggling to find his way back to them and trapped in the darkness, plagued Pidge’s mind. Allura’s voice helped her push the thoughts away.

“We must find him, Paladins. He is not safe out there with the creature. I-”

“CREATURE?!” Hunk screamed in horror, voice incredibly high pitched. “There’s a creature out there?! Ohmigosh ohmigosh, where is it? Is it watching us?”

Hunk began muttering fearful questions and statements, and Pidge would have rolled her eyes at seeing the Yellow Lion swing it’s head to and fro in perfect imitation of her anxious Paladin if she wasn’t herself freaking out. She hadn’t seen anything. Her sensors hadn’t picked up anything at all. And yet, Allura’s words made her stare at the shadows suspiciously. The creature Allura spoke of could be just beyond their view, hiding in the shadows. Pidge managed to tear her eyes away from the darkness, knowing that assessing it wouldn’t do her any good.

“Are you sure there’s a creature?” Keith asked, sounding almost rational. Then again, right now, he was in a crowd of worried people, trying to find their lost and possibly hurt friend. It wasn’t hard to sound confident with that kind of competition.

“Yes, I’ve seen it. If it finds Lance, he is doomed,” Allura answered solemnly.

Pidge took a shaky breath. Allura wasn’t making her feel any better right now. If anything, she felt even more stressed. Lance could die!? She….she didn’t even want to imagine that as a possibility.

“How are we going to find Lance?” Keith queried.

“I believe I know who can.”

Allura’s mysterious words made Pidge frown. She cast an appraising glance to her fellow Paladins in their Lions. Did one of them have special tracking skills she didn’t know about? Because she sure as hell didn’t know how’d they’d find Lance. His comms were off, so asking him was out. As was sonic mapping, digital tracking and visual searching. Well, the latter they could do, but given the size of this mountain, and the dark nature of it, it could take hours to find Lance, and by then, it could be too late.

A strange glow pulled Pidge from her thoughts, and she frowned. It was a faint red light, differing from the pink of the lit water around them. Pidge turned her eyes to the light, and blinked in surprise when she discovered it was the Red Lion emitting it.

Her body was a lifeless as ever, but her eyes were alight, not with their usual yellow, but with a red paler in hue than the surrounding metal. Pidge quirked her head in confusion. That was, well, that was just plain unusual. That had never happened before. Her friends seemed just as perplexed as her.

“Allura, what are doing to Red?” Hunk questioned flurriedly.

The Princess didn’t answer, and Red’s eyes glowed brighter. It was haunting to see the blood red tint in the Lion’s eyes, and Pidge shivered at the sight. The light, though, seemed to finally reach it’s peak, as it stopped growing in brightness, plateauing at a level that was enough to coat Green’s muzzle with a layer of red hue. It didn’t last very long however. A moment passed before the red began to rapidly fade, it’s glow dimming as the colour shifted towards the original state of darkness, until Red’s eyes were black and dead again. Pidge heard Allura take a sharp breath.

“I know where he is,” she said tiredly, her voice tinted with exhaustion.

“What did you do?” Pidge asked curiously.

“I connected to Red. I couldn’t restart all her systems, but I was able to reach her consciousness. The Red Lion, like all the Lions, has a innate and profound bond with their Paladin. They always know where their Paladin is, and if they are in need of their help. I used this bond to find Lance, and I have located his general area. I’ll be able to find him.”

Pidge nodded. Okay, this was good. They had a lead. She watched impatiently as Allura exited the Red Lion to return to Blue. The Lion shifted weakly as her Paladin regained control, and made an audible whimper as she looked to the Red Lion.

“We’ll come back for Red once we find Lance. Don’t worry, my Lion,” Pidge overheard Allura whisper to Blue. Pidge brushed Green’s controls fondly to silently assure her Lion of the same thing.

Blue turned away from Red hesitantly, and pushed off towards Lance’s location. Green, Yellow and Black followed, and together with Blue, the four Lions sped as fast as they could manage through the dark realm of water. They headed upwards, towards the surface. Pidge knew that normally that would be a good thing, but in this place, it could just mean Lance was somewhere on a high up crystal in the ocean. It didn’t necessarily mean he was out of the water, away from the creature that lurked in the depths. Pidge stomach knotted up further when she calculated they’d traveled 3 kilometres already, which for the Lions was barely a 5 minute swim. For a human, though, with jetpacks, that’d be about a half hour or swim, maybe even longer. That meant that Lance had been in the water, by himself, with a sea monster, for almost 30 minutes. Pidge clenched her hands around Green’s controls in apprehension, trying to avoid the tumultuous thoughts that threatened to send her spinning.

Thankfully, their ascent allowed the water to lightened as they reached the lighter tones of the upper ocean, and her fear lessened as the shadows retreated away. A glimmer of hope made a faint crack in her dark thoughts when she saw the surface of the water, rays of light dancing at the rim of the pink sea. When Green exploded out the water, Pidge let out a breath she felt she’d been holding for the last hour. Lance must be safe if he was up here.

Blue and Allura led them through the columns of crystals with restless ease. Pidge, if the situation wasn’t so dire, would have loved to examine the enormous cavern they were in. The mountain seemed to be not entirely hollow, with great crystals here and there soaring up towards the distant vertex of the peak that hung far above. It was beautiful, and scientifically marvellous. Maybe later, after they’d found Lance, she’d be allowed to come back to study it. Somehow....The creature in the ocean didn’t sound like a welcoming host, and Pidge was beginning to suspect that the only reason it hadn’t attack them was because it prefered lone prey - the straggler - as Lance and Red had been. Yeah, maybe coming back to analyse the crystal structure was a little too much to hope for.

Blue began to slow as they reached a large crystal that bordered the ocean’s surface, turning her body to manoeuvre around it.

“Lance is beyond this crystal,” Allura murmured. Her tone was strange, the good news sounding strained on her tongue. Pidge contributed it to Allura being nervous. Lance would be okay. He was probably sitting on the crystal shore, annoyed that they’d taken so long to find, flippantly ignoring the fact that him leaving Red was the main reason they’d had trouble finding him, and the fact he hadn’t unmuted his comms. Pidge let that fantasy give her hope, and as she passed the great crystal to see a piece of land made of a horizontal Rhodochrosite formation, she made herself expect the best.

So, when she saw Lance’s lifeless body lying bloody on the ground, her heart broke as reality impaled it, tearing away her hope and joy.

“Lance!” she screamed miserably, hearing her friends call for the Paladin along with her.

The Lions descended towards the Red Paladin, and Pidge tried not to be sick as his injuries became more visible at close range. His hair was thick with blood, turned black with the substance that had not yet dried, still oozing heavily from a deep wound on the left side of his forehead. She couldn’t distinguish how large the wound even was, the injury hiding in a sea of blood that stained Lance’s face. The moment Green’s paws touched the ground, she was rushing to the door and down towards Lance, still screaming his name.

She was the first to reach him, and it took all her strength not to shake him awake. Up close, she could see everything. Cuts all across his face, some more severe than others. Some held shards of glass, turned red by his excessive bleeding. His skin was sickly, his lips pale, a thin and pale trail of what seemed to be blood leaking out of his mouth. But worst of all, he was completely motionless, his usual restless energy now non-existent. Pidge’s lips trembled as she fell down to her knees beside him.

He looked dead. Absolutely, terrifyingly dead. She held her hand out towards his neck, and placed her fingers on his jugular, hoping it would deny her assumption.

“Please don’t be dead. Don’t you dare be dead,” she whispered angrily as she awaited any sign of life.

She slumped in relief when she felt the faint, but present, beat of Lance’s heart. She left her hand on his neck, feeling comforted by the soft beat. It was slow, weak, but it was steady. He’d be okay. The discovery allowed the blur of fear to lessen, and for her to realise something she’d forgotten about.

Lance’s helmet was gone. Pidge glanced around, trying to locate it. She saw it several metres away, lying perfectly upright, facing towards them. It’s glass screen was gone, save for several persistent shards the clung to the edges passionately. Blood coloured the blue a dark, melancholy red. She pointed towards it, looking back to her approaching friends.

“He’s alive. Someone get his helmet.”

Each of them seemed to relax slightly at her first words, and Hunk complied with Pidge’s request. Keith rushed forward to Lance, crouching beside him. His eyes flicked across Lance’s face, glittering with anxiousness. Pidge knew why he was so troubled; Keith was the leader, and just like Shiro, he thought he was responsible for everyone. If they got hurt, he thought it was on him. Pidge knew she would have to comfort him after this was over.

Keith, however, had nothing on the Princess. Allura was absolutely distressed. Her hands rubbed fretfully together as she eyed Lance with a guilty expression, her eyes swimming with a thin veil of tears the Princess dare not shed in the presence of the younger Paladins. She looked like she was struggling between staying a distance away from the hurt Paladin and running straight to his side. Allura seemed to decide on the former, remaining in her position, watching Pidge and Keith’s interaction with Lance with worried eyes. Hunk returned and gave the helmet to Pidge, and as the Yellow Paladin checked on Lance with a sorrowful look, Pidge assessed the helmet.

It’s been damaged by blunt force, that much she could tell. Dents littered the upper part of the front, and the damaged glass helped her determine that it’d been a frontal assault. How, though, escaped her. The creature maybe? But Lance wasn’t in the water, and he definitely would not have been in any state to swim to the surface after being injured the way he had been. So, there must of been some other cause, somehow. The helmet was damaged incredibly, so whatever video feed it could have had was probably useless, even if she managed to fix it enough to obtain it. Pidge would just have to ask Lance once he was healed. Speaking of, he needed a healing pod, stat.

Hunk was already shifting Lance into his arms before Pidge went to ask him too. The Yellow Paladin lifted the smaller boy with ease, and the movement emphasised Lance’s condition all the more. He looked exanimate in Hunk’s arms, his limbs hanging loosely towards the ground, head lolling to the side weightlessly. The only visible motions from the older teenager were the miniscule rise and fall of his chest, and the faint fluttering of his lips with his faint breaths.

Hunk raced towards Yellow, and Pidge watched Lance in the larger boy’s arms until both had disappeared in the great Lion. Pidge took a deep breath to steady herself as she rushed towards her own Lion. Allura, with Lance out of view, seemed to finally be capable of movement again. Even so, Pidge didn’t miss the pained eyes of the Princess as she hurried towards Blue.

“Shiro, Coran, prepare a healing pod. Lance needs one, ASAP,” Pidge instructed as she gripped Green’s controls. If they were quick, they’d make it to the Castle-ship in under half an hour. She hoped that Lance wouldn’t deteriorate somehow during the trip. For now he was stable, but she didn’t want to risk any problems by expecting the best and deciding to go it slow. She’d already expected too many good things today, and barely any of them had delivered.

The four working Lions rose off the ground, leaving behind the place where they’d found Lance. His blood marked the spot like a depraved pirate map hiding a secret treasure. The Paladin’s footsteps littered the ground like fingerprints on glass, accompanying the faint, inhuman steps that lightly smirched the crystal surface, having gone unnoticed by Lance’s friends. They left the site as fast as they had arrived, and the Lions disappeared under the water in order to escape the mountain, distant purple eyes watching the ocean settle once more as the mechanical beasts’ hurt passenger was taken away to be healed.

Chapter Text

Hunk looked back anxiously at Lance, who lay unconscious on the bench of the cockpit, chest rising with thin and wafty breaths. He stared at him, hoping irrationally Lance would somehow sense his eyes on him, and wake up to tell him he was fine, all the while laughing away the pain. He really wanted that to happen. The sound of a crystal scraping against Yellow’s muzzle startled Hunk out his one-sided staring contest. Right, he was flying through a cavern. He murmured apologies to his Lion as she grumbled in annoyance. Okay, yeah, that was his fault. He really needed to look where he was going. Nevertheless, Hunk couldn’t stop his eyes from straying to Lance. The Red Paladin didn’t look too good. And that was an impressive understatement.

Hunk's gaze roved over Lance, once, twice, three times more. Hunk managed to maintain his fretful attention ahead of him when he needed to, just in time to see the brilliant sky crash into view as Yellow exploded out of the ocean and, wow, was it nice to see it after having been shrouded in a dark ocean for so long. All those hydrothermal vents (damn it, Pidge had been right, and Hunk probably owed her some ‘You Were Right’ alien cupcakes) that had littered the sea floor had covered the relatively shallow cavern in a thick, black shroud that would been found naturally at far, far deeper depths only found on planets like Earth. Seeing the sky after being stuck in that horrid landscape was absolutely great, and Hunk breathed in the blue. If not for Yellow and the chance of hurting her feelings, he’d be weeping praises for the glorious colour and pronounce it his favourite.

The feeling didn’t last, but the sky sure did. Time was passing like pitch on a lazy day. It was like they were gaining no ground at all, just hovering uselessly. The Castle felt like a distant star that they’d never reach. Hunk pushed harder against the controls, pleading to Yellow for her to go a little bit faster. Lance - maybe even his life, Hunk thought morosely- was depending on him. The Yellow Lion listened, hearing every ache of her Paladin’s distress. The Lion, bulky though she was, pushed herself just a little harder. She would do anything for her Paladin. Hunk brushed the controls with grateful hands, sending his thanks through the gesture. The Castle finally seemed to be heading towards them and Hunk smiled in relief when he reached Yellow’s Hangar.

By the time Yellow had planted her paws onto the floor, Hunk was already holding Lance in his arms and running down the jaw ramp. His feet blurred as he sprinted to the door and out of the hangar, somehow managing to keep Lance steady in his hands. He raced through the hallways, knowing the route to Medical Wing without really consciously thinking about it. It was a good thing too, because he was utterly focused on Lance, checking every possible thing he could think of. Pupil dilation, skin temperature, breathing, pulse, anything he could do on the fly.

It was no wonder he didn’t notice the other Paladins until they called to him. He stifled his flinch, before glaring at them half-heartedly.. He knew they didn’t mean to startle him, but he was more stressed out than usual, and Stressed Hunk means Jumpy Hunk, which means Dropped Lance. It was a miracle that hadn’t happened. Lance was still in his arms, in both the best and worst sense of the term. Lance had yet to stir, and Hunk was getting worried. Well, more worried. Hopefully whatever had happened could be fixed in a Healing Pod.

“Is he still breathing,” Keith asked as he ran beside Hunk, leaning forward to gaze at his unconscious friend. Surprisingly, the agile teenager was struggling to keep up with the larger Paladin, whose great and highly motivated strides were making Keith widen his gait, and Pidge chase him desperately. Allura was lagging behind, but not because she was unable to keep up. Her face, unlike Keith’s, couldn’t hide her devastation, burdened eyes dragged down to the floor. He gave her a reassuring smile, one she didn’t even see, before turning to Keith.

“Yes, he’s still alive,” he said, answering Keith’s unsaid question. “But we need to hurry our butts to the pods, because that could change any minute.”

Hunk wasn’t a paramedic or anything, but he knew that whatever had happened to Lance wasn’t just the superficial wounds on his face. Something had happened, something that caused him to be on the crystal shore, looking like Death’s second cousin. Hunk needed to figure out what had caused this. Unfortunately, the only one who would know was Lance. Finding out the answers would have to wait until the Red Paladin was awake and healed.

When the Medical Wing came into view, he could have cried. His legs and lungs burned, but he didn’t care. Shiro rushed towards them the moment he saw them coming, ushering them hastily into the wing. Hunk didn’t miss the shudder of horror that passed through the former Black Paladin when he saw Lance bloody and unmoving in Hunk’s arms. The group flooded into the room. Coran was setting up a pod, stabbing commands into it with fervent haste. The Altean stole an anxious look towards them.

“It won’t be a tic, I swear,” Coran assured them, before focusing on Hunk and the boy in his arms. “Get out as much glass as you can from his cuts. The pod won’t be able to heal him with them still in the skin.” Coran lingered on looking to Lance, before shaking his head and returning to jiggling with the buttons beside the pod. The others watched the process with tense faces. Hunk, instead, turned his eyes to Lance, and began picking at the glass. Shards of glass were embedded everywhere, and from the star-like glints that shone across his face when the light hit it just right, he knew that even smaller pieces had made themselves at home in his skin. Hunk did the best he could. The red shards were placed unceremoniously on the ground, and when the cuts bled harder in their absence, Hunk wiped his fingers across them, not even caring if it turned the white armour to rust. He wished he had something to stop the bleeding, make the cuts look less aggressive, but right now, all he had at his disposal was the Healing Pod. This was the best he could do while that was being set up.

When he was done, Hunk cradled his fallen friend closer, feeling the last hour or however long it’d been since this had started fall heavily on his shoulders. It was all too much, way too much to handle. In any other situation, he would have curled up in a ball and weeped at his point. But he couldn’t break down, not when Lance was the one who’d been hurt, who was suffering. After, he vowed. After Lance was safe in the pod and healing up, maybe then he’d let it all out. He had a feeling that maybe he wasn’t the only one struggling to keep it together, the faces around him distraught and tight.

He tried to distract himself from his own demons with Lance, checking on his wounds and breathing before he would be lost in the cold of the Healing Pod. Up until this point, he hadn’t really looked at him, not really. Because really looking at him made Hunk’s stomach turn. The sickly skin hid under a mask of red, layers of red having painted itself around the cuts that littered his face. Hunk saw a deep cut trailing down from the right of Lance’s mouth down to his chin, but it wasn’t the cut that made him frown. It was the dark pink liquid that dribbled beside it, leaking out from Lance's mouth. It was definitely not blood; it didn’t even have the same quality to it. Hunk adjusted his grip of Lance so he could hold him with one arm, and brushed his friend’s chin with his thumb, inspecting the liquid closely. It was watery and sticky, like someone had mixed saliva and honey together and then dyed it pink.

He jerked his thumb out towards Keith, who was the only one looking his way, watching Lance with a mouth downturned. The smaller boy blinked perplexedly at it, before raising his own thumb hesitantly. Hunk would have sighed if he had the will to be exasperated, or even the breath to sigh, having used it all up when he was running.

“The pink stuff,” Hunk said, emphasising his thumb by waggling it. Keith squinted at it, finally noticing the liquid. He shook his head with furrowed brows, unsure what to make of it. Pidge looked away from the pod, which Coran seemed nearly done with, to look back at Hunk in one parts confusion and one parts curiosity.

“Pink stuff?”

Before Hunk could answer, Coran rushed towards him, pushing him and his cargo towards the pod. It was finally ready, bleeding smoke onto the ground and turning the air to frost.

“Quickly, put him in the pod. It’s set to heal any possible injury that may be causing him to be in such a state.”

Hunk didn’t argue, lifting Lance towards the pod. He ignored the chill of the air, gently placing his friend upright, making sure he would be comfortable, before retreating away. Hunk solemnly watched the pod swallow his friend into it’s cold yet loving grasp. The still face became all the more motionless, his breath no longer ruining his façade of lifelessness.

“I’ll watch over him,” Coran comforted, placing a hand on Hunk shoulder. Hunk smiled as strong as he could manage at the sweet gesture. It felt way to forced, but Hunk didn't think he'dd be able to really smile until Lance was walking and talking again.

“How long will he be in there for?” Shiro asked, stepping towards the icy glass. Tight lines engraved themselves between his eyebrows, and Hunk could feel the former-leader falling back into the old habit of caring all too much for his fellow Paladins. Then again, it never really had left. Keith seemed to have a similar expression, and Hunk couldn’t help but think how overjoyed Lance would be if he knew how much all his friends cared for him.

“He should be good in a day or two. Though….” Coran trailed off, sighing deeply.

“What? What is it?” Pidge questioned.

“Well...the Healing Pods can heal a wound, but it can’t remove it in entirely. It merely speeds up the natural process. Some of his cuts are quite deep, some severely so. Not even a balm would ever remove their mark entirely. They….they will scar.”

The words hung in the air, and everyone collectively processed what that meant. Hunk felt his head fall without his bidding, and his mouth begin to tremble. Out of everything that had happened today, that was something that would hurt Lance the most. Those wounds would stay a permanent reminder, and Lance would have to live with them every day; he, who cared so much about how others saw him, would hate for others to pity him, to see scars and think ‘broken’. Hunk knew that Lance would see them and think the same thing.

“Go, sleep, eat. You’ve had a long day, all of you. Coran and I will stay here,” Shiro commanded softly.

“Are you sure, Shiro?” Keith asked, a flicker of uncertainty appearing on his face at the idea of leaving.

Shiro nodded, giving the younger boy a small, but overly fond smile. Nothing was said aloud, but Hunk could see the silent conversation between them. Eventually, Keith sighed, finally relenting to Shiro's wishes. With one last look to Lance, he walked to the door and left. Pidge followed after, albeit reluctantly, leaving Hunk and Allura behind in the Medical Wing, both who had yet to budge. Shiro turned to Hunk.

“You did good today. You’ve done your part. He’ll be fine without you.”

Hunk rubbed his hands together fretfully. It didn’t feel right, to leave Lance like this. Even with Shiro and Coran staying behind to watch him, it felt like he was abandoning his friend. But, rationally, Hunk knew Shiro was right. Lance wouldn’t heal any faster with him. Besides, he needed to destress with some hardcore baking. Letting out a deep breath, Hunk bowed his head and turned towards the door.

“You too, Princess,” he heard Shiro say to Allura.

Hunk turned to see her look at Shiro with wide eyes. He could see the screams of anger and guilt and frustration, screams of every kind, trying to make themselves known in her eyes, trying to escape when her mouth wouldn’t let them. But it did very little, and she said nothing, just blinked and nodded, before leaving, rushing past Hunk and away from sight. When Lance was better, he would talk to her. A really good talk.

Hunk reached the door, pausing before the hallway. He returned his gaze to Lance, just to know for certain that he would be absolutely alright. If anything, it actually made Hunk all the more worried. Lance didn’t look content like the other times he’d been in the pod. Under the veil of blue, Hunk finally saw pass the cuts, pass the paleness that didn’t belong, pass the dried marks of blood. Instead, he saw the troubled brows, the mouth frozen in its descent, the eyelids drawn tight. It wasn’t pain. It was something else.

It was fear.

Chapter Text

The first thing that Lance noticed when he awoke, abruptly and without much warning, was the cold, and the fact he couldn’t move his body. He couldn’t even open his eyes. Not at all a pleasant way to wake up, and Lance felt his insides squirm with discomfort. His limbs itched with the need to run, to get as far away as possible, to escape the chilly grasp that was restraining him. But he couldn’t. He was trapped.

Then there was a click, vague as it was, but there nevertheless. As if it had been awaiting this very click, the atmosphere shifted quite distinctly. Air began hissing around Lance’s ears viciously. It was quickly accompanied by a rush of warmth which spread across his skin as the cold mist that had enveloped him fled. Sensation returned to his limbs, and Lance smiled, silently cheerful to be able to move again. He didn’t have very long to take it all in, however, as his legs punctually collapsed beneath him. His eyes snapped open just in time to see the ground zooming towards him. He flinched in surprise, having expected a more cordial welcome back to the world, and flung out his hands to prevent a painful landing. Well, he attempted to anyway. Unfortunately, his arms were being as mutinous as his legs, and he continued his ungraceful descent. What a wonderful way to wake up, he mused.

Arms swooped in just before he shared a painful kiss with the ground. He was jerked back with deft precision and pulled into a standing position. His legs wobbled in defiance, unable to remain upright, and the hands loosened their grip, letting him sink gently to the ground. They let go once he was seated. Lance remained upon the ground, not daring to risk another eventful fall like that. He let out several harsh breaths, his heart beating like a marching drum band playing dubstep. He released one last rattling puff of air before turning his eyes back to his saviour. He blinked.

“Keith?” he gasped.

The Black Paladin kneeled down and placed a reassuring, if somewhat awkward, hand on Lance’s shoulder. Lance was too tired to poke fun at the gesture, instead giving the other boy a questioning look.

“Are you alright?” Keith asked, not noticing Lance’s expression. He seemed to actively avoiding looking at Lance’s face at all. Which was weird. Keith wasn’t the best at lots of social etiquette, but he at least knew that eye contact was important. Keith was missing out, anyhow, because Lance was one handsome devil. A handsome devil that felt like he’d got hit by a space truck going over the Universal speed limit. His body was sore all over, but in a distant, it-happened-a-few-days-ago-I’ll-be-fine kind of way. But then there was his head, which felt like marshmallows that had ate too much pillow stuffing.

“I don’t know,” Lance muttered. He looked past Keith, and finally realised where they were. The Medical Wing. He eyed the room, until he found the lone pod that was raised above ground, swathed with the remnants of mist. He must have been in there, then. Well, the weird feeling in his head made sense now. The pods always did leave him like that. Question was, why had he been in one anyway? He looked down at himself to see if there was any evidence of injury, and upon doing so, promptly realised that A) he was still in his Paladin armour, and B) it was splattered with red. Okay, unless that was that aftermath of a cherry eating spree, that wasn’t good news.

“What happened?” he asked, gesturing to his armour and its state of appearance.

Keith squinted at him.  “You don’t remember?”

Lance frowned. He closed his eyes, and sorted through his mind. He took stock of his memories, or what seemed to be memories, of the events leading up to his time in the pod. There was lots of images in his head that made no sense, or were just so distorted and blurry that he couldn’t figure out if they were products of reality or a crazy dream. Amongst the probably-not-real memories of pink aliens and a watery voice speaking garbled words, the one recurring thing that kept popping up, clear as a bell, were yellow eyes, large and gleaming. A shiver flickered absently across his skin as he felt the eyes stare right into the depths of his soul. He shook the images away. If he couldn’t make sense of them, then Keith would have no idea what he was going on about.

Before the bunch of the twisted up images, there were some distinct memories that he could comprehend.  

“Bits and pieces,” he said, answering Keith’s question. “Uh, we were going to a planet to save some people, and me and Allura went ahead, and then, uh, the...the, pink walls, well, they fell and you and the others got stuck outside. And then we got attacked-”

The moment he said those words, an image of Blue spiralling downwards flashed abruptly in front of his eyes. Oh god, no. He snapped his head around to each of the pods, but he found no one else. His heart began beating hard once again. She was still down there, still stuck in the mountain with the creature. Lance gripped Keith’s sleeve as he was slammed with Allura’s last moments. Keith’s mouth was moving before him in a worried fashion, but all Lance heard was screaming.

“Allura! She got hurt! She’s still down there. I need to get to her. She could be in danger. They need us to get rid of the creature. Allura won’t be safe with it, and Blue could get really hurt, and, and, AND we left them, we left them down there Keith, with that thing ,” Lance jabbered, tightening his grip around the sleeve the longer he went on.

Keith tugged his sleeve out of Lance’s grasp, and moved his hands away, raising them instead towards Lance’s shoulders. Lance batted them away, only distantly recognising Keith was trying to be comforting. He couldn’t stay here, not while Allura was stuck with the yellow-eyed creature. Lance frantically pushed away from Keith and stood up. His head retaliated at the sudden change, but he ignored it. He stumbled towards the door with awkward steps, only to fall before it. He hissed as his knees collided with the floor, and the world spun around him. This was the worse the pod had ever left him. The door swung to and fro like a pendulum, and Lance could only watch as it do so. He didn’t want to risk walking into a wall with Keith still there. If he couldn’t manage anything else right now, he would at least maintain a smidge of his dignity that remained.

The door began to cant to the side as Lance drooped down towards the ground that seemed oh so clingy today, but Keith steadied him before he could topple over.

“Hey, hey, calm down, it’s okay,” his voice said. The blatant uncertainty of his tone did nothing to sooth Lance. He squirmed out of the Black Paladin’s hands.

“No, Keith, it’s not. Allura got hurt. Please, I need to-”

“Lance, she’s okay. She and the Blue Lion are here, at the Castle.”

Lance whipped around to stare at Keith, or at least the one that seemed the most defined amongst the red kaleidoscope. The multitude of Keiths were all conveying sincerity. Lance could only sit there in shock. Allura was okay? But he saw her go down and then...and then the twist of images that made no sense….Oh. He was missing time. Of course he was. He’d been in a pod, for crying out loud. The most important thing was that at least Allura hadn’t been in one as well. It didn’t matter if he’d been hurt. The others would have managed just fine without him. Besides, he was okay (if you ignored his foggy thoughts, what seemed to be a full-body bruise, and less than graceful coordination). But if Allura had been hurt, they could have been in real trouble. Not only was she a great leader necessary in keeping the others from doing something stupid (with ‘others’ meaning Keith), but she also was needed in order for the Castleship to wormhole away in case the Galra showed up. Thank God it’d been him and not her. He felt his heart slow down as utter gladness filled him.

“Can I see her?” he asked.

Keith’s jaw hardened, and his eyebrows dug into his skin. Lance could only take that as a bad sign, because that sure as hell was not Keith’s happy face.

“I’m not sure that’s such a great idea,” Keith said.

“Why not?” Lance barked irritably.

“Well, you’re obviously tired and you need to sleep, and it’s late, and she and the others are busy so...” the boy began, but the tapping of his fingers betrayed his nervousness. His eyes flicked across Lance’s face for a moment, before snapping down to the ground, which seemed to be getting all the attention today.

Lance glowered. “Keith, the last time I saw Allura she was screaming. I don’t care if I’m tired. I don’t care if it’s late. I doubt she’d care if I interrupted whatever she’s doing. I need to see her and make sure she’s okay.”

“She is okay,” Keith assured hastily, “I swear she is. It’s just, ...ermm…”

His eyes trailed across Lance’s face again, an ashamed frown stitched onto his face as he did so. Lance raised an eyebrow, ignoring the vague sting the movement caused.

“What? Why do you keep looking at me like that? Is there something on my face? Wait…,” he paused, smirking as realisation struck him, “is that why you’re stopping me from seeing Allura. Oooh, you don’t want me showing up looking ridiculous. I get it. But, dude, you could have just told me. I’ll just go wipe it off.”

Before Keith could answer, Lance pushed himself up. He did it slowly enough so not to cause another head rush, but at a speed that would stop Keith from grabbing him. Lance managed to walk like a sober person for the first time since waking up, and he could not help but smile smugly to himself at that achievement, however measly it was. See, he wasn’t tired. He would able to see Allura. Just needed to clean himself up. He marched steadily towards the pod he’d came from, ignoring Keith scrambling upwards behind him.

“Wait, Lance, don’t!”

Lance didn’t hear a word, lost as they were to his ears. All he saw was someone else in the pod he was standing before. He approached them warily, and they became more defined as he neared. They were staring at him, eyes as wide as his, and just as horrified. When he gulped, they did too. For all intents and purposes, the boy in the pod was an exact copy of him. Same armour, same tan skin and ruffled hair, same tired blue eyes. They were identical, save for several important things.

The boy in the pod had scars speckled across its face. They weren’t hard to notice, in fact, they drew Lance’s eyes quite easily. The scars were a mark of wounds seemingly inflicted long ago, having healed to the point where each was a faded and shiny pink, though they all were still startling prominent against the tan skin. All the scars were distinct, and some were products of worse things than others were. The most terrible was found on the boy’s right eyebrow, which was marred by a harsh, pale track that went halfway up his forehead from just above the eyelid. The scar mangled the skin around it, pulling the flesh down into its sunken form, and with it the attention of onlookers.

Another scar, curved upwards and fainter than the other, adorned the skin just under the left eye, like a thin crescent moon. And on the right cheek, just below the cheekbone, two scars marked the skin as if they were whiskers, though they were in no way cute. Surrounding these, and upon the other cheek, there was a smattering of finer scars like stars across the surface, unseeable unless one looked hard enough. The final scar that drew Lance’s attention was a short yet noticeable line that formed near the left corner of the boy’s lips, and shot down to just above the beginning of the chin. It was like the scar had drooled from his mouth, and had since stained the skin forevermore a shimmering pink.

Lance retreated frantically, and the boy disappeared. The forlorn pod remained, having not moved to let anyone out, or to suggest anyone having been within it at all. The pod was empty. There was no one in there. All it had been was a reflection. A reflection of him, for there was not another person it could have been. Lance sunk to the ground, and stared numbly towards the pod before it was swept away from sight by the darkness of his own thoughts. He didn’t feel the silence that pressed so oppressively against him, or the trembling of his hands upon his lap. The heaviness of tears sheltering in his eyes went forgotten also. He didn’t wipe them away, to lost in his own head to mind them. It was not his own visage that haunted him, however, no matter how much that had shocked him. It was the faint recollection of the event that had caused the wounds that had stolen his attention, and most particularly, the one that had caused them. All Lance knew was yellow eyes. He couldn’t escape their spotlight, bleeding as they were with glee and malice. He couldn’t get away. He couldn’t breath. He couldn’t breath.

A hand gripped his shoulder, and Lance jerked away. The sudden touch brought with it the rest of the world that he for the last few moments had been devoid of. As it flooded back in, so did the air, and he took desperate breaths to replenish his empty lungs. When the weight upon his chest had waned slightly, Lance peered at the red shape that was crouched before him. Ever so slowly, it manifested into Keith. Lance didn’t have time to be relieved, however. Keith’s eyes were the same putrid yellow of the creature. Lance yelped, and weakly tried to escape Keith’s hands. It was to no avail, for the Black Paladin was just as determined to hold onto him as he was to break free.

“Calm down, Lance, please,” Keith soothed with as much skill as an English Professor teaching Maths. “It’s okay, it’s fine, please, don’t pass out of me. That’d be bad.”

The statement, though not in the least comforting, was amusing. And somehow, that’s what broke fear’s hold on Lance. He blinked, and the yellow was gone. Instead, purple eyes were watching him with uncertainty, and were not so subtly suggesting the owner of them was completely out of his depth. Lance felt his mouth quiver, but not from his fear. A smile was threatening to displace his lips upwards, which in the context seemed a strange thing to do. But, surprising even himself, Lance let them. It was a gentle smile, nothing like his usual grin, but nevertheless, it prevailed over the panic and shock that still lingered within him.

“I’ll calm down, but only because you asked so nicely,” Lance said cheekily. It helped that the waver in his voice was only mild.

Keith’s eyebrows flatlined, and he gave Lance an annoyed expression. He humphed.  “I can’t believe you. I’m trying to be supportive.”

Lance sobered immediately upon hearing that. That was true. It wasn’t Keith’s fault. He wasn’t equipped to deal with panic attacks, or any sort of emotional breakdown. Lance’s brows furrowed at that thought. Was that what had just happened? Had he just had a panic attack? Sure, he could be nervous or depressed sometimes, but not enough to sanction any sort of attack. This was a first. And hopefully the last, he deliberated resolutely. The aftermath of the attack had yet to fade. Lance could still feel the cold shiver of fear across his skin, and how it made his stomach rage and his heart impatient to reach the next beat. It was the worst feeling ever.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured.

“No, it’s okay,” Keith said, giving him another pat on the shoulder. “I’m not very good at this. I wish the others were here, or at least that you had Hunk or Coran on shift instead of me. I just don’t what to say to make you feel better.”

Lance sighed. He didn’t know what he wanted to hear. He raised a hand to his face, and began brushing his fingers across the scars there. Some were smooth, some were raised ever so slightly above the skin, and the one above his left eye was like a river had corroded away his skin and created a canyon in his flesh. He trailed his fingers down through it, feeling the skin bend and collapse under his fingertips. He pulled his hands away. They were real. The scars were a perfect reflection of what he had seen. And they weren’t going away. The truth of his situation finally planted itself firmly in his soul. He closed his eyes, and finally let the tears that had hung wretchedly there fall. The scars on his cheeks tingled faintly as the tears ambled downwards. They weren’t narcissistic tears, born from wounded ego. They were homesick tears, spilling forth as the image of his Mum’s face appeared in his mind, scrunched up in pity at seeing her son damaged. He’d hoped he would have returned to his family as the same person that left, just with a few more tales and exploits to tell them. That had been idealistic. No matter what happened in the future, Lance knew with morose resignation that his mother would not be returned the boy she recognised as her son.

For every mission he’d been on, he’d been warned there was a chance he could get hurt, or in worse cases, killed. The first injury he ever got was from the blast of the explosion that night long ago when the Galra had tried to steal the Castle, but even that had left him unharmed in the end, with the pod fixing him right up. After that, he’d mostly ignored the warning, because with a team like his, he would always be okay. He had Red to protect him too, and Voltron to always win the day. Nothing would happen to him, or the others. Retrospectively, that had been prideful, to think he was above injury, above scars and unhealable ailments. But the realisation of those proved to him the severity of the dangers out here in space that he had up till now disregarded. It was only immutable reality that allowed him to realise the permanence of some wounds. He was no longer invincible, but then again, he never had been. None of them were.

No. His fist clenched. No, this was useless, all this regret. Feeling sorry for himself would help no one. The others needed him to form Voltron, and he wouldn’t be a good teammate if he was absorbed with his own problems. Yes, it sucked, and yes, it would be hard to get used to, but it was all superficial. He could still function perfectly well as a Paladin. The Universe wasn’t worth losing over some scars. He wasn’t one to lament (in a sincere fashion anyway; he’d done his fair share of dramatic complaining), and he sure as hell wasn’t going to start now. Shiro had scars, had a missing arm too, but he still managed fine. Lance would be fine too. He was still as handsome as ever, just with a few chinks in his skin. Maybe girls would think he was more of a badass now. And his mum, well, he knew she would love him no matter what. She was always the one saying to him that it was not the body that made a person. He was still Lance, and he would make sure the other Paladins knew that. He didn’t need anyone’s pity. All he needed was answers.

“Keith, you have to tell me what happened,” he demanded.

The Black Paladin shook his head sadly.  “We don’t know. None of us do. We didn’t have time to investigate when we were down there, because we needed to get you out. What we do know is that Allura and the Blue Lion got attacked by the monster, and that you left Red, and ended up on that shore. We’re hoping when we go back down there we might be able to find some more clues.”

Lance froze. The idea of returning to the home of that horrid beast didn’t sit well in his stomach. Frankly, he’d hoped to avoid ever seeing that planet again.  “Why are we going back?”

Keith gave Lance a solemn look, a hint of shame hanging on to his frown. He gave a long, drawn out sigh before he spoke, straight to the point as always.

“We left Red. She’s still down there.”

Chapter Text

Allura pressed her head back into her pillow, and released a weary sigh. She tossed herself onto her side, and resettled her limbs around her. Moments passed, and she found herself upon her other side. Vargas and vargas of just staring at the ceiling were beginning to wear on her, but the walls offered her no more comfort. The subdued glow of the curtains at the end of her bed were not as calming as they so often were, their ruffled rivulets of blue acting more like a grim reminder of events not long passed. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from them, though. They were mesmerising and precarious and venomous, and she was stuck, lost in them and her own head. Her mind wouldn’t shut off, no matter how heavy her eyes were. Sleep had been evading her, and she couldn’t find herself able to succumb to it. Her mind was writhing with thoughts, hissing and spitting in her ears terrible, heinous things. She couldn’t sleep while they blared, but she couldn’t leave her bed either. Coran had expressed - quite passionately in fact - that she required rest. To be seen out of bed would send him in a flurry.

Three quintants. It’d been three quintants. She rolled over. Three quintants since Lance went into the pods, three quintants since they’d landed the Castle on the moon of the planet, and three quintants since Blue had responded to her. The pillow received a huff of air. How many more quintants like this? This sleepless, silent, solemn passing of time without a smile nor a laugh. The others had busied themselves with orbiting around Lance, but Allura hadn’t found herself able. The idea of watching over Lance’s lifeless body - of protecting wounds she’d let happen - had fought against her will. In the end, guilt had bordered her off from visiting him. She wanted to see him, but not like that. When he was awake, she promised herself. And when she was ready, whenever that would be. She couldn’t bear the thought of losing the boy over her own foolishness, but she knew he had ever right to be angry at her. Lance would hate her, she knew that, but she wasn’t ready for that, no matter how much she wished to see him.

She yawned deeply, tired as she was in so many ways. It’d also been three quintants since last she slept, and yet here she was, unable to welcome that peaceful reverie. All she had were her own thoughts. Just her’s, for the first time in a long time. Blue had shut herself down, and wouldn’t talk or move no matter how harsh or desperately Allura had called for her. Blue’s quiet was a gaping wound in her mind, the abyss of it so obvious that she couldn't believe she ever lived her life without the Lion. Somehow though, she could no longer find herself able to cry, about the emptiness or the events on the planet. Her tears had fled, and left nothing for her. The grief lingered, without release or freedom, pent up, until it would inevitably erupt. Maybe if she stayed here, and let it find the will to revolt, the collateral would be little. She didn’t deserve to push her own guilt onto the others, not when Lance was wounded. He deserved all the care the others had to give. She could manage on her own.

A series of squeaks reverberated through Allura’s room. She quirked her head up, peering out the door. The mice were racing into the room, their little feet scratching against the floor as they besieged the bed and leapt onto the covers. They patted at her frantically, nibbling the covers in an attempt to pull it off her.

“ Allura, Allura! Blue! Awake! Come see, come see,” Chuchule cheered. 

The Princess blinked down at the mice. That was impossible. She couldn’t feel the Lion’s thoughts at all. The chasm where Blue fit perfectly remained empty, not a glimpse of awareness to be found. But the mice seemed so genuine in their excitement.
“Are you sure?” she asked, pushing herself up from the bed.

“ Quickly, Allura. Come, follow,” instructed Plachu as he pointed to the door. Chulatt and Chuchule pointed as well, hopping as they did so, making the gesture seem like part of some strange dance. Platt ruined it by sitting beside them with his mouth full of fabric, green cheeks bulging as he smiled.

Allura gave the door a wary look. Was Blue mad at her? Was that why she wasn’t speaking to her? Did Blue even want to even see her? Allura gripped the sheet, and her eyes pinched at the thought of staying here, in this apathetic bed. But maybe she deserved it. Blue had earned the right to anger; her Paladin had lead her into a dangerous situation, and had allowed the Lion’s former pilot to be injured quite severely. Allura had been negligent, and others had suffered.

“ Not mad ,” assured Chuchule, hearing Allura’s fretful thoughts, “Confused, damaged. Wants to see you. Missing Red Lion.”

Allura nodded. Blue had been through an ordeal, and she had lost her sister Lion. Of course she would be frightened. Maybe her silence was a product of confusion, and an inability to find Allura’s mind in a mass of pain and fear. Blue had been suffering just before she shut herself down, and not just because of her wounds. Allura would be cruel to not see her.

She pulled herself off the bed, letting the mice jump off before she pulled the cover off herself. She peer down at herself, giving her state of appearance an appraising look. She was in her night wear, and her hair was exploding out in every direction. She tugged a few strands behind her ears merely to lessen the annoyance of the wayward design her restlessness had created, but disregarded her formal dress as she exited the room. It didn’t matter how she was dressed. Blue wouldn’t mind.

Mice in tow, she traversed the halls, heading determinedly to Blue’s hangar. It was quicker to walk there than to take the zipline, but it made her no less impatient to arrive. She missed her conversations with Blue, even if those conversation were more or less merely feelings and vague thoughts. It was freeing, just knowing what Blue wanted to say, to hear every word the Lion never said aloud. She longed for that again. Without her, it was like being in a dark room, unable to find the candle she knew dwelt somewhere within the four walls. If Lance was awake, she knew he would be feeling that mighty loneliness as well. In a way, she was glad he wasn’t awake to experience it. He didn’t deserve any more torment.

Allura and the others had spent the last few days hoping Blue would awaken before the fallen Paladin so as to expand their numbers to four in order to return to the planet and safely fetch Red, and allow Lance to return to awareness with his Lion there to comfort him and help him through the harrowing events that had transpired. After bonding with Blue, Allura had found time with the Lions was not only the most acute sense of belonging a being could ever feel, but it was also cathartic; one could express all their pain without having to delve into it, and find shelter in the acceptance of their Lion. Allura had discovered Blue liked to use joy as her form of therapy to remind her Paladins of the impermanence of misery and pain. Happiness dappled every moment, if only one could find it. Lance had always seemed more cheerful after his visits with Blue, and now Allura knew why. Of course, Lance no longer had Blue to give him that serenity, but he did have the Red Lion. Her method most certainly differed, though the exact form of comfort the Lion provided, Allura could not be sure of. She just hoped it was as effective as Blue’s was. She had almost reached the hangar, without any interruption or unplanned meeting with Coran or one of the Paladins, when the mice squeaked.

“ Blue! Red! Round corner!” Chulatt exclaimed, nodding up towards the upcoming offshoot of the main corridor that lead to the Hangar.

Allura frowned. Red? That couldn’t be right. They had yet to retrieve her, and the others certainly would not have gone to get her - just the three of them - whilst the creature lurked. ‘Safety in numbers’, she recalled Pidge saying. A most fitting human expression. Not that Allura would be angry if they had retrieved the fallen Lion. It felt like the worst betrayal leaving Red in an environment the Lion found most repulsive, in the presence of a creature that could easily attack her while she was shut down. If not for the creature, Allura would have rushed to retrieve Red as soon as they had placed Lance in the pod. As it was, Red remained on the planet, alone and unprotected. It was because of that that Allura found Chulatt’s statement most confusing, and she went to ask, only to interrupted by Platt, who was looking positively shifty.

“ Yes, Blue. He’s round corner…..Yes, ” the mouse commented, in a somewhat sly manner.

“He?” Allura echoed. 

“ Platt!” the others chastised.  

Allura halted and gave them each assessing looks. Save for Platt, they all looked rueful, much like that time she had found them stealing goo-kies (Hunk’s invention; absolutely divine of course) from the kitchen. When she thought about it, the four of them had been looking quite devious throughout the walk, and right now, it seemed downright obvious that they were up to something. Platt, however, didn’t look the least perturbed that he'd let her catch on. He just gave her a smile and hopped off, presumably to find some food. The other three watched him go with betrayed looks. Allura narrowed her eyes at them. 

“What did Platt mean by that?” she asked sternly. The mice glanced between themselves. Chulatt and Plachu nudged Chuchule forward, and gave her a reassuring nod. The pink mouse gave them each a flat look before looking up at Allura with contrite eyes.

“ Blue Lion….sleeping, but Blue awake. Approaching, with Red,” Chuchule answered.

Allura released a breath as it all clicked into place. They meant Lance. Of course they did. They always called the Lion’s by their full title, never as just their nicknames. They often referred to the Paladins by their colour of their clothing (or in ‘Orange’s case, the most distinctive colour present). She was such a fool, to be tricked so easily. Her tiredness was making her reasoning feeble. She could not just blame her weary mind, though. Her longing to see Blue again was eating away at her logic, and at this point, if she was told she had to jump into space to be able to hear Blue speak to her again, she would do it, probably accepting that to be the most reasonable course of action. Allura wiped a hand down her face.

“Why didn’t you just tell me Lance was awake? I would have come.”

“.... No. You wouldn’t have, “ Chuchule said sadly, her ears drooping down along her back.

Allura flinched away from her, and stared at Chuchule as if the mouse had struck her. How dare she say Allura wouldn’t see Lance. She…..she would. She would have. Chuchule wasn’t alone in her thoughts. Plachu and Chulatt nodded along to the pink mouse’s words, clearly supporting her views. Allura clenched her fists defiantly. No matter how much she knew it to be true, she didn’t want them to think that about her. It was weak. Pathetic. She went to argue, her ears kindling anger and shame as her mouth wished to express the falseness of their beliefs, but voices interrupted any hollow words she would’ve said.

“Can you walk?”

“You see this thing I’m doing with my legs. It’s called walking . So yes, I can do it. Really, Keith, I’m fine, just lemme go. Your mother henning is slowing me down.” The voice, for all it’s forced humour, sounded incredibly tired.

“Well, I’m sorry for caring,” Keith hissed.

“Oh, so you do care,” the other boy remarked.  “As much as you care about Red? Because by the looks of it, that’s not a lot.”

“Lance, seriously ?!” Keith admonished severely. Allura heard their footsteps stop suddenly at Keith’s outburst, and a drawn out moment of silence followed. Lance was the first to speak, his tone dramatically changed, shifting from caustic to ashamed.

“I’m sorry….I…..that was mean. Uh…really, I can walk. Just let me walk. Please.”

Keith sighed.   “Fine. Just, be careful, okay?”

Lance must have nodded, because their footsteps started up again. Allura listened intently, unable to pull herself away. She was frozen in place, hearing each step of their approach distinctly as they neared the intersection. Every part of her wished fervently that the two Paladins would continue to walk along the hall, and never look up her lane. She was some distance away from the intersection, but if they were to by chance look or turn in her direction, they would notice her almost instantly. She wasn’t prepared for any form of confrontation, and she didn’t want to be caught having been eavesdropping. Maybe they would just pass without event, if she kept quiet and still. However, her silence was all for naught when Plachu raced down to the crossing into Lance and Keith’s line of sign. Allura gritted her teeth.

“Hey, look, it’s one of Allura’s….pet hamsters,” Lance noted. His voice was getting closer. Allura felt invisible strings tug at her limbs, pleading uselessly for her to retreat.

“It’s a mouse” was Keith’s deadpan reply.

“Ah,” - the sound of Lance clicking his fingers reverberated down the halls - “that’s the word I was looking for. Hm. Why is it squeaking?”

“Because that’s what mice do.”

“Wow. You learn something new everyday,” Lance quipped in return. He made a bemused sound. “…..I think it’s trying to tell us something.”

“Well, maybe the others noticed the pod was empty and sent the mice to find you. Because you should be seeing them instead of racing to have a look at your old Lion. Just so you know, if you’re planning on stealing her to go get Red back, you won’t be getting past the hangar. I don’t care if you’re injured; I and the others will stop you. None of us are going back down there alone. We don't want to have a repeat of the first time. Besides, you are in no state to go down there. You can barely walk.”

“I can walk,” Lance argued in a petulant tone. “And if you didn’t want me to see her, you wouldn’t have let me get this far. Besides, you said the others would be asleep. I’ll….I’ll talk to them tomorrow…..Okay, seriously, that mouse means business. It’s giving me a look.”

Allura froze as she saw Lance come into view. He was so intently focused on Plachu, kneeling ever so slightly to meet the small mouse, that he didn’t note Allura staring at him, studying his every feature in horror. His hair was shooting out in ever direction, unpolished and forgotten, lacking the care that usually tamed it.The mussed hair complemented Lance’s eyes, draped as they were with skin bruised by tiredness and rimmed red with recent misery. The pupil’s themselves seemed less bright than usual, the blue flat and jaded. Even his confused smile seemed on the edge of falling, a borderline frown. Blood covered his armour still, dried into the blues and whites, and from where she stood, Allura could see the glitter of steadfast shards of glass that had yet to be removed from the metal. The armour didn’t hide the tremble in his hands or his legs, and Allura finally understood why Keith was so worried about Lance’s walking. He looked like he was about to buckle over. And the scars….well, those made boulders fill up Allura’s lungs until no air could thrive.

Keith appeared not to shortly after, giving Lance a displeased look, arms crossed over his chest.   “Uh huh. What kind of look?”

“I don’t know, but it’s staring at me,” Lance said. His smile finally fell as he tried to discern Plachu’s expression, which from where Allura was standing, seemed to be on the intense side. Then again, Plachu always did look like that. Pidge had often referred to his unyielding expression as a ‘resting bitch face’, whatever that meant.

The mouse gave Allura a surreptitious glance. She shook her head, pleading silently for him to not tell them she was down the hall. Plachu’s ears twitched as he briefly assessed her expression, but he acquiesced, instead looking overtly along the hall that Lance and Keith were walking down. The hangar lay only a few more twists and turns away. Lance followed Plachu’s gaze, before returning to look at the blue mouse with a smile.

“Oh, you want me to see Blue? Is that right?”

Plachu nodded, and produced a squeak. He flicked his ears, beckoning for the humans to follow. Lance's face turned away from Allura's sight towards Keith, so she couldn’t see his face, but from his body posture, Allura could only assume that he had given the Black Paladin a smug smile.

“I believe the mouse has given me permission to see Blue.”

Hearing that, Plachu nodded again, and began to race down the hall, towards Blue’s hangar. Lance huffed a small laugh as he followed, as if he was pleasantly amused to be tagging along behind the mouse. Lance struggled to keep up, his legs still wobbly, but he gave it all he got, and soon vanished out of view, his stumbling footsteps echoing down towards Allura. She gulped, letting the ball of anxiety in her throat settle every so slightly. Their confrontation could wait for another day. She was just glad he was okay. At least, mostly okay. She could see a burden that wasn't there before on his shoulders, and how he was struggling under its new weight. But he still seemed himself, but then again, everything looked better at a distance.

Allura lingered in the hallway, waiting for Keith to leave before she made her escape back to the comfort of her room. Observing with practiced quiet, she saw Keith roll his eyes longsufferingly and make to follow behind his wayward friend. Allura could feel a sigh on her lips, ready to release her pent up apprehension, but it turned into a quiet gasp when she suddenly found Keith’s eyes on her.

He stared at her, his eyebrows drawn together with sympathy, and mouth downturned in a similar fashion. It only lasted a moment; a long, drawn out moment in which Allura’s insides squirmed under Keith’s knowing gaze. His eyes didn’t find her by chance, that she certainly construed, for it was too deliberate and planned. He'd been waiting, just as she had, for the perfect moment. Of course he’d known she was there, watching noiselessly, willingly isolated from the interaction. He always knew, always so spatially aware of his surrounding and any enemy that could be hiding within it. Allura couldn’t help but feel vulnerable under his violet eyes. Keith said nothing, and did not once make any movement towards her. He just paused, for barely a tic, before he passed out of sight, having conveyed everything he needed to without a word.

Allura stumbled back breathless, her heart a racket in her chest. A chorus of startled squeaks made her flinch, and she twisted to see Chuchule and Chulatt darting away from her feet. Allura held a hand to her mouth as she kneeled down towards them.

“Oh quiznak! I-...my apologies. Are...are you okay?” she stammered.

“ Okay. Not you. You miss Blue. You are sad . Your heart is hurting, ” Chuchule said, bowing her head, mournful and sombre.

“That is not an issue at the time being,” Allura remarked indifferently, waving her concern off.

“ Why? ” Chulatt queried. The little blue mouse seemed confused by Allura’s reaction, her eyes wide and glittering. Allura looked between the two mice, feeling a spark of annoyance. Why were they so fixed on her and her emotions? It was insignificant and irrelevant to the mission, and would help nobody.

“Because it’s not important. We must focus solely on Blue and Lance’s recovery, the retrieval of Red, and the investigation of what occurred on the planet. I will speak to Lance in my own time. For now, I would greatly appreciate if you were to take Coran to the Medical Wing. He needs to turn off the pod and make sure it has done all it can do. I will go inform the others of Lance’s condition.”

Chuchule and Chulatt shared a look, whiskers flicking with unspoken communication that not even Allura could understand. The Princess watched them with pursed lips. She dearly hoped hey weren’t planning anything else. She had enough stressful situations lately, and she wouldn’t be able to cope with duplicitous mice. Chulatt and Chuchule eventually nodded, and darted off down the hallway, quickly disappearing and leaving Allura alone. She rose and look back towards the intersection, now quiet and empty. She had no need of going down to the hangar anymore. Blue still was unresponsive, and Lance and Keith were in there now as well. Lance was perhaps seeing the Lion for solace and sentimentality. She didn’t want to disturb that.

She began to make her way down the halls, in the complete opposite direction of Blue’s hangar, in the direction of the Green Lion’s hangar. A makeshift lab had found it’s permanent home there, and as much as Allura and Coran told Pidge and Hunk that there was a proper one in the Castle, they had yet to vacate the hangar in favour of it. It seemed the two preferred to work in the environment the hangar provided. Allura knew she would find them both there, both so intensely focused on their task. Pidge, after she had done all she could to try wake Blue, had joined Hunk in his study of the liquid they had found on Lance, trying to discern its properties. As of yet, the two had yet to find anything promising, save for the fact that it was a biological substance of some sort, akin to that of a fruit. Allura didn't know what to make of that, and neither could they. She would ask about any new developments once she arrived.

Allura walked through the halls resolutely, hoping that she would not encounter anyone on the way. Unfortunately, it was not to be. It seemed the running theme today. She had only made some progress before she unexpectedly met with Shiro. He was dressed in his sleep wear, his tuft of white hair unruly across his forehead. A thin sheen of sweat covered his features, and his eyes had a strange concoction of manic wakefulness and tiredness equivalent to Allura’s. The former Black Paladin blinked at her, more surprised with her sudden appearance than she was with his.

“Allura, what are you doing up? You should be sleeping,” he said.

Allura gave him a solemn smile.  “I did try, but a matter came up.”

“I thought I told you to stop making excuses, Princess. The mission shouldn’t come at the sake of your wellbeing. You need rest. Lan-”

“Lance,” Allura interrupted, before Shiro could talk further on the subject, “is awake. He is with Keith.”

Shiro gaped, astounded.  “He’s awake? Is he okay?”

“You would have to ask Lance that.”

“You didn’t talk to him?” Shiro questioned.

“No. He...he was busy. But I will speak to him tomo-”

Her final word fell away on her tongue when a sudden pang in her head made itself known. It hurt, but not like physical pain. More so in a way similar to seeing an old friend after a long time, and seeing how they’ve aged and grown and gathered new burdens. Allura wavered where she stood, blinking as the lights of the halls began to burn in her retina, and everything was smudged by dizziness. Shiro split into two before her.  Each Shiro wore a concerned face, and she flicked her eyes between them, struggling to conclude which one was real. The Shiros’ mouths were moving, but all that they said was drowned out by the rush of a waterfall, loud and all-consuming. Pain and guilt and longing and desperation all glinted brightly in the depths of what was pouring strenuously into Allura’s mind, but she didn’t try to fight it. Under the fierce rapids of emotions, she felt the love, joy, comfort and frivolousness that she had so missed. The river of awareness met with the lake of dead water that had lingered patiently for its return, and when the two waters met, euphoria sent Allura’s mouth into a smile. 

There was a distant roar, and Allura noticed detachedly Shiro bark out in alarm to the noise. But she was already running by the time she heard it, knowing all too well the presence that dwelled once more in her bones. She had been closed off from it for only three days, but it had felt like forever, and forever was long enough. She jetted down the halls she had not long since passed through, back to the place she had been so close to reaching only minutes before.

“Allura!”

The Princess looked back to Shiro, who had easily caught up to her despite her lead, running just behind her. His nose was scrunched up, his scar teetering with confusion and trepidation.  

“What’s going on?” Shiro called.

“It’s Blue,” Allura answered with a watery smile. “She’s awake, Shiro. I don’t know what Lance did, but she’s awake.”

Chapter Text

The pitter patter of the mouse’s tiny feet played like a whimsical xylophone in the Castle halls. Lance’s footsteps, meanwhile, sounded like a güiro played by a drunkard who couldn’t figure how to make music. His feet were dragging along the ground, wobbling with each step, but he kept up with the mouse’s quick steps reasonably well, and Keith - with his absolutely soundless footsteps - didn't look too impatient, so that meant he was doing relatively okay in terms of what qualified for Keith as 'fast'. Or at least, 'not slow'. But they were making progress, believe or not. Lance knew the way to Blue’s hangar - knew it instinctively - and he could have walked on alone if not for his legs, which were too tired to surpass the blue rodent, which was all kinds of sad because it was freaking tiny. By the state of his body alone, he knew he should be going to bed to sleep in order to rejuvenate what the pod could not and, hell, maybe actually get round to processing everything that happened to him, like any reasonable person would. Lance huffed an amused breath. Yeah, that didn’t sound like him, or anyone else on this ship, for that matter. They always did seem to take the path of most resistance when it came to dealing with their own problems, didn’t they. Well, right now was no exception.

He wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway, not while the image of Blue - hurt and wounded and screaming - plagued him. Sure, Keith said she was alright, that everything was fine, but Lance had never been very good at taking someone’s word for something. His older siblings had always gone on about their absent father throughout his youth, like the man was some legendary hero who had always done right, but it was only after Veronica had shown him a picture - tattered, old, but real - that Lance had actually believed he existed. Didn’t mean he believed the guy was all he was cracked up to be. Until he met the douche, he wasn’t believing a word his older siblings said. Hell, if Lance wasn’t here at the Castle right now, he would never had believed a word about Voltron. It was one of those ‘you had to be there’ experiences. So, yes, Keith could reassure him all he liked, but Lance was not going to sleep peacefully until he knew Blue was absolutely okay, and until she knew he was too. If he couldn’t see if Red was alright, then he could make sure Blue was.

Lance continued onwards, Blue, Blue, Blue playing in his mind like a weird parody of the Bill Nye theme song. He really needed to see her. Physically, he knew she would be fine, but she’d been so scared for him on the planet. He wanted to reassure her he was okay. Even if she was shutdown, maybe she would sense him, and it would help her wake up. Okay, so maybe some selfish part of him wanted to have her take him down to the planet to get Red, but a greater part of him - the anxious, scared part he always tried to bury- knew that going back down there alone would probably bring nothing but more pain, for him and Blue. A growl whispered in his ear, and coldness seeped down Lance’s spine, sending goosebumps across his skin, and a feeling like starvation in his stomach.

“Lance? Are you alright?” Keith’s voice asked.

Lance blinked, and the darkness receded. Keith’s words replayed in his head. He sounded worried. No, he wasn’t allowed to be. Lance was fine. He wasn’t on the planet anymore. Shaking away the chill, he turned back to Keith, a smile planted on his face.

“Yeah, ‘course. I get to see my girl!” he chirped gleefully. Yeah, because that sounded genuine.

“Heh, more like your ex,” Keith said. If he was trying for smug, he failed miserably, a soft smile instead displacing his lips.

Lance sent the smaller boy a half-hearted glower. He knew Keith was trying to lighten the mood, but the quip stung. He never wanted to leave Blue, or be her former Paladin. He loved her, dearly. They had a connection, profound and unconditional. She’d chosen him. She could have had anyone else, but she chose him to pilot her the first time. And when he was unsuited for any of the other Lions, she kept him, allowing him a place in Voltron. But then Shiro disappeared, and Lotor arrived on the scene, and adaptations had to be made in order for Voltron to survive. She’d let him go. Without a word. Without closure. Without any means of moving on. Just a gaping hole where an ocean used to be. Red filled that void somewhat, and he loved her for that. It was different though, their connection. It was forged by circumstance, by necessity. They were both made to leave someone they loved behind. Blue had been someone to which Lance could talk to, someone to which he could bear his very soul to and know she would cherish it. And Red had adored Keith; the guy could get a papercut and Red would be out seeking vengeance. Lance and Blue, Red and Keith. That was how it was, how it seemed like it was always going to be. And then, it wasn’t.

But Lance never let himself feel bitter, because in a way, he wasn’t. He knew why it had to be, why he and Red were paired together. And it wasn’t some hollow bond. They had found solace in one another, and that gave way to a deep companionship between a boy and his Lion. The hurt in his heart, that sincere longing to get Red back, that wasn’t necessary. And his loyalty to Blue wasn’t either; she didn’t need him to look after her. The fact that she was shut down was something that shouldn’t bother him anymore, but he couldn’t help it. For both of his Lions, there was a bond, so vastly different from the other, yet somehow so strong. He was a puppet, tugged back and forth by red and blue strings, by affection and devotion. The strain had left his heart a mass of frayed seams. Right now, he needed Blue, to see her, to make sure that she was going to be fine. But he also needed Red, and Blue was the only reason the others hadn’t gone back to get her. His head was a concoction of chaos, unable to differentiate between his desire to hug Blue and take away her injuries, and his desire to yell at her until she woke up and got her ass in gear. It was beyond confusing. It was like being in some weird ass love triangle. Or maybe a love pentagon, if you included Keith and Allura. Ha, yeah, that worked. Blue had eloped with Allura and they were happy together, and Keith pined after Red like the Lion freaking sparkled in the sunlight. Oh! Lance quirked his head as the amused thought brought forward a memory of something he had wanted to bring up for a while. Well, now was as good a time as any.

“Well,” Lance drawled, rubbing the bottom of his chin with exaggerated wickedness, “I recall you once had a secretive meeting with my girl Red after you became the Black Paladin. Isn’t this kind of the same thing?”

Keith gave Lance a baffled look.“...I never did that.”

“Oh really? ‘Red, you gotta look out for Lance, okay,’” Lance quoted, donning Keith’s perpetually vexed tones.

Keith stopped abruptly, and his eyes slid to Lance in horror. Lance turned around to face him and continued, keeping the Black Paladin’s iconic scowl fixed on his face, for, you know, Dramatic Effect ™.

“‘He’s your Paladin now, not me. You can’t keep throwing you and Lance in the way of danger. It’s not your job anymore. Maybe when Shiro gets back, I can come back to you. But until then, just be a good kitty and don’t get yourself hurt.’”

Keith stared at him as he finished saying pretty much line to line what the former Red Paladin had said not so long ago. The smaller boy's eyes were comically wide, and a tinge of irate embarrassment coloured his cheeks. “T-that was private! Did you eavesdrop on me?”

“Not by choice, I can tell you that,” Lance comforted smoothly, sure to convey his sincerity. He didn’t want to mess this conversation up by ticking Keith off. Again. Though, being Lance, he couldn’t help but add a little bit of humour. “Maybe next time you try to chat up Red you should check if the cockpit is empty. You went on about your first meeting for, like, an hour. I think I tuned out after a while, honestly. Gotta admit though, I never figured you to be the Secret Mom Friend.”

“I’m not a,” Keith started, throwing his hands up in indignation, before his eyebrows firmly knitted themselves together in befuddlement and his arms fell unceremoniously, “a….what? What’s a ‘mom friend’?”

Lance chuckled.  “Ask Shiro. He’s an expert on the subject.”

“You’re impossible, you know that,” Keith declared, and oh look at that, there was his perpetually vexed tones. Thankfully, it wasn’t full blown anger. Success.

“I do my best,” Lance answered charmingly.

Keith’s hand crept down his face. He sighed. “Let’s just get to Blue and get this over with.”

“Fine…..Mom.”

Keith growled in frustration, and with a shake of his head, he stormed off towards the hangar, right pass the blue mouse. Lance watched his wayward friend disappear around the corner, before he turned to look at the rodent, only to blink in surprise when he found it staring up at him with the much the same expression as Keith, with crossed arms and tapping paws to boot. So, yeah, okay, maybe now wasn’t the best time to bring up Keith’s emotional conversation with Red. It’s been on Lance’s mind for a while, actually, but he’d never found a nice way of expressing the fact he was there to hear it. 'Hey buddy, do you remember that time you unpacked all your feelings onto your old Lion. Well, hey, I was there. Surprise.' Yeah, it was in no means an easy thing to bring up out of the blue. Lance had been waiting for the perfect conversation to slide it into, hoping fervently that it wouldn't piss Keith off. It was a heavy matter, and heavy matters with Keith always seem to end with anger. Okay, actually, most things ended with anger for Keith, but Keith’s anger was like ice cream. There was different flavours. Some had less bitter aftertastes than others. By merely grazing the subject in a light-hearted manner, Lance had gotten ‘I Can’t Believe You’re So Annoying’ flavour, not the ‘I Don’t Want To Talk About It And I Hate You’ flavour, which was by far one of the worse. Though, of course, Keith was not the only who had different flavours of anger. The mouse, for example, was giving him the ‘Why Did I Have To Sit Through That’ variety. Yeah, he was used to that one. Lance gave it a bashful smile before proceeding forward. The xylophone steps followed after him.

Keith was leaning calmly against the door frame when he arrived to the hangar entrance. Normally, Lance would get nothing but sharp remarks and bitter glares from the guy for a few hours until eventually it dissolved into merely good-natured ribbing, which in turn would then evolve into heated conversation that would then lead back into sharp remarks, and so on and so forth they went. It was their cycle, and Lance was comfortable with it. But nothing left Keith’s mouth. No ‘if I’m the Mom, does that mean I can send you to your room without supper’ or ‘shall I sing you Rock-a-bye Baby because I freaking cradled you in my arms you ass’. Well, that’s what Lance imagined Keith saying. In reality, the guy probably wouldn't be so original. 

Keith didn’t say a word. He didn’t even glare. All there was was a faint smile, and soft eyes. Lance did a double take as he approached. Who was this, and what had they done with Keith? This was far from normal behaviour. See, if Keith was acting normal, Lance might’ve listened to his barbs, laughed, and moved on. Blue would probably enjoy listening to them bicker; she always had found it funny. But Keith wasn’t acting like that, and so Lance didn’t do that. He stopped before the Black Paladin, and gave him an assessing look. There was only reason Lance could think of that would actually make Keith miss the opportunity to mock him. One reason that would make Keith so quick to move on.

Lance’s scars. Those new defining marks that everyone else could see save him. He could almost forget they were there, if not for the hint of sorrow that had been in Keith’s eyes ever since Lance had woken up. So far, Lance had ignored it, trying to act like usual self in order for Keith to do the same. But Keith wasn’t taking the hint. He kept acting like if he retaliated to harshly Lance would fall to pieces. The Red Paladin scowled. Sure, it was nice to have the hothead be less temperamental, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to allow that to happen just because he got damaged. Nope nopity nope-nope. Not going to happen. He wasn’t freaking delicate. He wasn’t going to let himself be treated like he was.

“Sorry, did I keep you waiting, mullet?” he snapped sullenly. There, maybe that would provoke some reaction.

Keith’s smile fell as he rolled his eyes, but his voice remained calm.  “Enough with the hair already. I don’t get what your problem is with it.”

“It’s like 60 years out of style!” Maybe shouting would help.

Keith narrowed his eyes. “Well, yeah, so are your pop culture references. No one ever understands what you’re going on about!”

Okay, this was more like it! Lance grinned. “So you want me to stop?”

“Yes!”

Lance straightened up, and adopted a robotic voice. “‘I’m sorry, Keith. I’m afraid I can’t do that’.”

Keith’s eye twitched.  “Just go talk to the Blue Lion. Or I swear, I will carry you to your room.”

Well, it actually did sound pretty tempting, Lance’s legs were killing him. Getting a piggyback would be awesome. Keith must have seen him considering it, because he sighed. His scowl fell into a non-threatening smile. Back to gentle, Lance thought miserably. Okay, fine, screw it, he was just going to talk to Blue. She wouldn’t be so cautious with him. It seemed it would take a little bit longer to get Keith to stop treating him like he was some sort of cracked snow globe. He went to ask if Keith wanted to come in with him to see Blue, but the other boy spoke first.

“Lance, not be rude, but I feel like you’re trying to delay seeing Blue,” Keith said softly. 

Lance blanched, and the easy atmosphere changed dramatically around him. What? What?! No, that actually wasn’t what was happening. Seriously, just because he couldn’t walk very well and he was deciding to have a conversation, that meant he was trying to be slow on purpose. What the hell? Heat rose to Lance’s cheeks and his eyebrows met in a firm line.

“I’m not doing that.”

“Well, how I see it,” Keith mused in a rueful tone, mistaking Lance’s anger for embarrassment, “is that you’re scared that you’re not going to like what you see. You want to see the Blue Lion, but you don’t want to see her damaged....or scarred.”

Lance felt his jaw tighten, and he growled lowly. Deranged anger seethed under his skin, like lava spilling out and turning everything inside of him to obsidian. It was a sickness Lance was not accustomed to. He couldn’t restrain it. So, for the first time in a long time, he exploded.

“That is not what I’m doing! Do you think I’m projecting or something? Blue can’t scar; she’s a freaking magical Lion, Keith! Am I not allowed to talk to you? Is that wrong now? ‘Sorry, Lance, no talking, just walking, because that’s all you’re capable of doing right now’! I’m out of the pod for what, 30 minutes, and you’re already treating me like I’m....like I’m....”

He bared his teeth in annoyance. What was the stupid word again?! They put it on boxes. This way up his memories sang mockingly, laughing at his incapability. The silence was oppressive, demanding Lance to say something, to finish what he had started. So Lance chose the closest word he could think of.  “Like I’m....breakable.”

Keith stared at him soundlessly, utterly shocked. Breakable, breakable the halls whispered, like a rumour it wanted everyone to hear. Lance let his words hang in the air, keeping his eyes fixed on the other boy, not once softening his eyes. Keith stared back, but his eyes were alight with a different emotion that Lance was too blinded by anger to recognise. The palpable silence squirmed through the air and twisted around Lance’s limbs, constricting and forcing his anger to become dense and all-consuming. His skin couldn’t hold it, and his hands shook at his sides. It hurt, to feel all the goodness inside him crumble away under the pressure. To feel like someone else in his own body. He hated it. Finally, the torture ended when Keith whispered:

“I’m sorry.”

That was all he said. Somehow, though, it was enough. It was all Lance wanted to hear. No flourishes, no excuses, just an apology that stood on its own. The silence was gone, and Lance could breathe again. I’m sorry, his mind echoed, as if it was also apologising for letting him feel such intense anger. He felt his fury dwindle away as it accepted the apology, and the fire returned to a humble flicker, faint enough to be forgotten. He had said what he wanted to say and Keith had understood; there was no reason to let his displeasure fester. He didn’t enjoy that kind of anger that just controlled him, that pure fury that dragged him down to the worse version of himself; it always left him with a feeling of wrongness, like he’d corrupted himself in order to be understood.

“It’s fine,” he intoned.

“No it’s-” Keith began, but Lance silenced him with a hand. The anger had burned through his reserves, and the only reason he was still here - shivering, weak and tired - was because he was too stubborn to give up. Blue was right behind that door, and she needed him. He didn’t want to linger here any further by discussing this issue with Keith.

“I don’t want to talk about it. I just want to see Blue. Come in or not, I don't care. It’s your choice”

Keith eyes flicked down, but he kept his lips firmly together. Lance didn’t want a repeat of that awful silence that had reigned before, so he approached the door without preamble. It opened with a hiss, and he stood there waiting for only a moment to see what the Black Paladin would do. Keith didn’t move. Lance walked forward alone, keeping his head down. He’d taken a few steps when he heard the door shut behind him, cutting him off from the halls. Keith was not there when he glanced back. Neither was the blue mouse. Lance sighed. That was fine. He wanted to do this alone anyway. He turned around, and let his eyes sweep up to Blue.

Dull black eyes met him from across the room, all energy absent. Blue was lying down, her maw sitting between her paws, head facing the door like a pet awaiting its owners return. Her face, though looking as it always did, seemed to radiate sorrow. As Lance had said to Keith, there were no scars on Blue’s metal. Cars on Earth had nothing on Altean paint and transdimensional comet metal, which both seemed to take damage in their stride. Lance was glad for that. Only he would have to serve as a reminder for what happened on the planet. He approached her, his footsteps ringing through the hangar that was too quiet and too empty. The hollow Lion did not shift from her position, and so he continued forward, closer than he had done in the last few weeks. Her shielding was down, so there was nothing to stop him. He reached her muzzle, and gave her a sad smile.

“Hey Blue. You awake in there?”

She remained still.

“It was very scary on the planet wasn’t it?" he said, trying to sound casual. He leaned forward conspiratorially. "Don’t tell anyone this, but it’s the scariest thing that ever happened to me in my whole life. Worse even than that time I nearly got sucked into space.”

Lance laughed bitterly. Yeah, that definitely wasn’t a fond memory. Couldn't even go near the air lock anymore. Blue didn’t react, however, to the secret that in reality was nothing new to her. Lance felt his smile fall, and tears prick at his eyes.  

“Please, Blue. Allura needs you. Red needs you. Voltron needs you. I....I need you. You gotta wake up. I’m okay now. You don’t have to worry anymore.”

Black eyes stared listlessly forwards. Words weren’t working. Lance bowed his head forwards, letting out a tired breath. He needed to connect to her, to make her know he was here and he was okay. Maybe...maybe he could try use his quintessence? That might do something. He gave her black eyes another glance. He would try anything to make them return to normal. Rolling his shoulders back, he reached a hand forward, placing his fingertips on the cool metal of Blue’s chin. It felt lifeless under his hand. The Red Paladin closed his eyes, letting the world fall away, until all he was left with was himself and the touch of metal on his skin. Breathing in deep, he sought the corners of his quintessence. It was quiet and subdued, echoing his exhausted energy, but it was there, and he tugged. It acquiesced easily, and he pulled the energy to his fingers. The quintessence brushed Blue’s metal tenderly, remembering the bond that once had existed so profoundly between him and the Lion.

“Please.”

A tickle of blue danced along Lance’s skin, and he blinked, almost withdrawing his hand back. There was something there. He closed his eyes again, and let his quintessence swirl and spin through his hand with a greater vivacity. He brushed his fingers against the metal and smiled, letting all his love flood through him.

“I’m okay. You can wake up now.”

A spark shot through Lance's fingers as yellow stars exploded in Blue’s eyes. Lance jumped back in surprise, but that quickly turned to unadulterated joy. He couldn’t help the grin that broke out of his face and the laughter that bubbled out of his lips. She was awake. It had worked! They could get Red and Lance was going to okay and it was going to work out fine. Everything was alright.

But then it wasn’t. Blue awareness began to rise up, and trickles of pain began to seep through their hourglass bond. Lance groaned as twinges of discomfort shot through his head. Vague images of the pink planet sent his heart into an unruly beat. He tried to shut her out, to stop her unbidden thoughts from engulfing his, but his mind faltered as Blue’s consciousness flooded into his head with a sudden intensity. Her pain, her fear, her anger, her joy, her happiness. Everything. He fell back, feeling the rush of memories - pink and black water, yellow eyes, crystals, darkness - clog his brain and his throat and he couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t breathe . He was on the floor - when had he fallen? - and he was arching as his nerves blazed with pain that seared like frostbite. He tried to talk, to tell her to stop, pleasepleaseplease, but all that came out was a strangled scream. Stop stop stop , his thoughts wailed instead, as he clutched his head, trying to escape the agony. But Blue didn’t stop. She couldn’t hear his silent pleas, and her waking quintessence could not be repressed. The waterfall of senses devoured everything, and Lance was back on the planet, back in the grasp of the creature. Water and yellow eyes and a growl that meant death and too much too much TOO MUCH!!!

The torrent of sensations faded away as Lance let himself fall into peaceful nothingness.

Chapter Text

Hunk startled awake with a snort.

“Hnn-what?!” he shouted, startled from his sudden shift from sleep to wakefulness. Always a horrible way to wake. It was only made worse when he found his chair tilt sickeningly backwards underneath him. He yelped and swung his arms out to find something to grab onto and stop his fall. His hands found nothing but air and he continued downwards towards his doom. He could do nothing to stop it, and his life flashed before his eyes. So this is how it would end? Not by Zarkon, not by some alien monster, not even by getting stuck on a planet. Noooo, he had to die by a chair. For shame. His main regret was for all those hugs he didn't give to his friends. He would have to come back as a ghost just so he could make sure all his friends and family got awesome ghost hugs. Yeah, that sounded good. He could die happy knowing that.

Pidge wandered pass and gently pushed the chair back up without even looking. It lurched forwards and Hunk began to fear for a forward facing descent, which was frankly far more scaring. The chair, however, stabilised and remained upright. Hunk blinked in relief from his near-death experience, and let out a soothing huff of air. He shot Pidge a grateful grin.

“You fell asleep. Again,” she muttered absently, not once looking his way, too busy working, nose brushing the screens of the computers as she peered at the data. It was strings and strings of biological compounds and chemicals, but nothing that pointed them in the right direction. Out of the two of them, Hunk had better knowledge when it came to biological processes, but he wasn’t exactly as great in that field of science like he was with physics and chemistry. Even if he was, it wouldn't have been very helpful here anyway. See, the thing about alien substances is that they were really hard to identify when you only had human knowledge to help you, along with a 10 000 year old and thus extremely outdated Altean data system that had never actually seen the planet from which this stuff was from. The fact they had no idea why or even how Lance had the liquid in his mouth in the first place didn’t help. At this point they were just throwing ideas around hoping something would stick and make sense.

Pidge pouted when not even tilting her head and squinting helped her figure the data out. She sat down on her chair and pulled out her space phone. If she wasn’t such a focused little worker, Hunk would have thought she was playing some sort of mobile game. Hunk wouldn’t mind doing that right now. Maybe play a bit of good ol' classic Snake. Or at least it’s intergalactic equivalent. Hmm, ‘Weblum’, perhaps? That actually sounded awesome. If that didn’t exist, he could totally make that. Hunk shook his head. Right, no, he already had a job to do. He needed to stop getting off track. But, damn, was he zonked.

Hunk rubbed at his eyes and scowled half-heartedly in Pidge's direction. "I'm all scienced out. I can't focus anymore."

Pidge looked up from her device, the orange light gleaming across her glasses.  "You can go to bed, y'know. You've worked on this longer than me. Maybe I can do it by myself for a bit."

"Nuh-ope!" Hunk chirped stubbornly (despite really liking that idea), leaping from his chair. "I can't give up. Not until I figure out what this pink stuff is."

He jabbed an accusing finger at said liquid, giving it the stink eye as he did. He had placed the small amount he'd got from Lance's chin into a test tube, and now the stuff was haunting his dreams. Literally. He was having pink goo nightmares, and he was pretty certain he had just had one when he’d dozed off earlier. He’d been studying it too long. Stupid, innocent looking goo. Looked like freaking liquid cotton candy, which was wrong on so many levels, because cotton candy was good as it was, thank you very much. The goo was his enemy now, and he would defeat it, no matter what. At this point Hunk was tempted to just use himself as a test subject in order to figure out it's effects.

....Wait.

Hunk stroked his chin. That actually wasn’t a bad idea. He could totally do that. The stuff obviously wasn't poison because Lance was still alive, so it wouldn't kill him. Lance had been in the state he was because of the severeness of his wounds, and the pod hadn't screeched at the team about any hazardous substances. And it would certainly help them along with figuring the stuff out. Hunk waited for some inner voice to tell him 'no, wait, stop', which it usually did when he was about to do some rare act of recklessness. Instead he got a mental shrug from his instincts. Okay, so that wasn’t a no. Then again, his instincts were probably as sick of this stuff as him, and just wanted to get it over and done with, no matter the means. Even if it meant eating some weird, unknown substance. Granted, Hunk had tried his fair share of Coran's weird and incredibly unknown dishes, and he'd lived to tell the tale, albeit a horrible one at that because Coran's dishes were definitely not for the light of heart. This goo was probably no different. But if it meant one step closer to getting answers, than so be it. Hunk wandered over to the test tube and plucked it from its stand. The goo swirled lazily in the glass with the movement. He held it out eye level, assessing the amount. He only needed about half to get a relatively substantial amount, and that would leave just enough for further study in case his taste investigation failed.

"Hunk. What are you doing?" Pidge asked from across the room, eyebrow raised. "I don't think glaring at it will do anything."

"I'm gonna to be the guinea pig," Hunk replied matter-of-factly.

"What?!" Pidge all but shouted, startled. "Hunk, you can't be serious. That's a terrible idea. It could hurt you."

"Pidge, we have to," Hunk replied seriously. Pidge reeled back with wide eyes, surprised to hear that tone in Hunk's voice. Hunk continued on, solemnly looking at the test tube. "Lance is my best friend and I need to do whatever I can to help him."

"No, wait, we don't have to do it this way." 

"Yeah, because the computers are really helping," Hunk replied bitterly. "It's been three days, Pidge, and we're not getting anywhere."

Pidge's mouth snapped shut and she scowled, unable to argue with that. She bowed her head and sighed, loudly. "Yeah, I guess you're right. But if you die-"

"I'll be fine," Hunk said as cheerfully as he could. "I hope," he added as an bitter aside to himself.

Pidge gritted her teeth, but didn't argue further. With a steadying exhale of air, Hunk poked his finger into the tube, and drew a good amount of goo out with his finger. The liquid drooled down his skin, and he tilted his hand to keep the stuff from dripping to the ground. He held it to his nose and sniffed it. Though it wasn’t a particularly strong smell, the scent was somewhat like if rotten eggs and strawberry jam had been mixed up and blended until the stinkiest sweet smell was made. Hunk cringe in disgust at the odour.

"You sure about this?" Pidge said. "I could do it if you want?"

Hunk shook his head sombrely. “No, it's my idea. I'll do it. I want to do it. For Lance.”

“For Lance,” echoed Pidge with hooded eyes. They shared an affirming nod. 

Before he could think otherwise, Hunk licked the liquid off his hand and swallowed it down. He gagged when he felt it slide down along his tongue, but he managed to keep it in. It was bitter beyond belief, and his face shrivelled as he groaned in disgust as it went down his throat. This was definitely going on his 'Top Five Worse Unidentified Substances I Have Accidentally Eaten' list, right below Number two: Ice Cream on My Shoulder That Turned Out to be Bird Poo. He placed the tube back and wiped his mouth in order to remove any traces from his lips. He definitely didn't want any more of the stuff, that he was sure of. The liquid thankfully didn't leave a strong aftertaste once it was gone, so that was an upside.

Pidge inched closer, narrowing her eyes as they trailed up and down Hunk in curious trepidation, as if waiting for some alien to explode out of his chest or to him to start turning violet. "So, uh, how do you feel?"

Hunk peered down at his body, checking for said aliens and violet skin just to make sure neither had happen. He was physically unchanged, and his innards weren't sending him any 'crap help something is wrong' messages to his brain. He didn't feel any different, and he waited about half a minute for any noticeable reaction, but nothing happened. He sighed.
"I guess it didn't do anything after all. Well this was pointless. We're back to freaking squa-"

Boom! Hunk jolted violently as a deluge of energy flooded through him without warning, and the world exploded with colours of every kind around him. Firework exploded inside of him, and every part of him was alight with sparks and power. He perked up, ramrod straight, his emotions and thoughts wild inside his normally well ordered mind. He couldn't tell if he was blinking really fast or not at all. Holy Crow! He spun around on his feet giddily and flicked his eyes all around the Green Lion's hangar. Wow wow wow. Everything was so defined and clear. He could see every particle of space dust that floated in the air, and all the open panels high up on the Green Lion’s back where Pidge had not finished adding improvements. Hunk's body quivered uncontrollably and he couldn't stop himself jumping up and down with utter glee. Why he was so happy, he couldn't tell. He just was. He couldn't process any of his thoughts because there were so so so sooo many, every thought like an olive stuffed and tangled up in a tight jar. Pidge, must tell Pidge was the loudest voice in his head. Tell her what? Tell her she’s short. No. Really smart? No. Oh. Oh! Tell her the feeling. The feeling of the liquid.

Boom boom, his heart went, and his hairs danced like shrimpfish along his arms. Every part of him was awake. It was like he had too many cups of coffee and had overloaded himself, leaving himself on the brink of living so brightly and vibrantly that he would break down suddenly and die, like a fire that ravenously ate away all its wood. Oh gosh, he could actually die. Break apart under the strain of this explosion. His usually tamable stress hit peak levels inside his chest, and it was suffocating. His heart was already too fast to quicken anymore with his anxious thoughts, but the boom seemed to get louder in his ears. This time it was serious. His heart shouldn't be beating this fast. This was bad, this was really bad. He did his best to calm himself, but the energy rushed over and over, and oh god, he could feel everything and all to much. Wait. Nonono, even before the healing pod, Lance heart had been beating. It had been slow, in fact. And he'd had more of the stuff then Hunk did, and he had less muscle mass than Hunk did. If Lance hadn't died, then Hunk wouldn't. Yes, okay, that was good. He could focus on the outside world again. Pidge was watching him, alarmed and frantic. He fixed his shaking eyes on her, only distantly noticing Pidge’s fearful eyes as he leapt towards her. His mouth was already moving as he flew, speaking at a speed that would baffle even the best of auctioneers.

"Pidgeohmygodwow,everythingissodefinedandIthinkthisissomekindofdrugorsomethingandholycrowIneverknewyouhadafrecklethereonyourfacelikerightthere,oooh,andyouhavesuchniceeyestooand-"

"Hunk, slow down. I have no idea what you're saying," Pidge interrupted, placing firm hands on her friend's shoulders in an ineffective attempt to hold him still. Hunk continued on like a unmanned train. The energy was making it really hard to focus on one thing and one thing alone, but he tried his best to tell her what was happening.

"Sorrysorry,allmythoughtsarelikebouncyballsrightnowsobearwithme.Ithinkthismightbespacecaffeinebutlikeover9000timesstronger,okaysomaybethat'sanexaggeration,andwowmyheartislikearabbit'srightnow.AlsoIthinkI'mgoingtovomitnow."

Pidge took her hands away hastily when she saw Hunk pale, and she skipped backwards, out of the way of the spew that came up and landed ungracefully on the ground. She eyed the subsequent puddle with disgust. There was a hint of pink swirled in the amongst the green of previously eaten food goo, creating a repugnant mockery of Neapolitan ice cream. 
"That doesn't look good. Okay,” she began, nudging her glasses upwards. Hunk tried to focus on her words, knowing she did that motion when she was going to explain something sciencey and important. “I heard caffeine somewhere in that jumble. Is that what it feels like?"

Hunk nodded vibrantly, head blurring with the movement. Pidge nestled her chin in her palm, and stroked the skin, humming thoughtfully. Hunk danced around her, because standing still hurt too much. He watched her, waiting for her smart and undrugged brain to figure something out. His brain for some reason started conjuring up images of the Balmera eating a giant bowl of space strawberries and turning the beast and it's crystals into a lovely shade of pink, and Shay turning pink, and basically a lot of pink. Pink pinky pinkity pink. He giggled without meaning too. His brain on caffeine was a weird thing. When his brain starting singing the Pinky and the Brain theme tune, he couldn't help but hum along.

“Hunk, shh, please. I need to think. We need to figure this out while it the effects are happening. Wow, if this is you on space caffeine, just imagine Lance,” Pidge lamented.

Hunk jumped up and down on the balls on his feet whilst nodding. 
“Yes, yes, he would have been like a rocket on metallic hydrogen fuel.”

“Hey, I actually understood that. And I totally agree.” Her face fell into a frown, her eyebrows furrowing deeply under her bangs. “So why was he asleep when we got there? And why did he eat this stuff in the first place?”

“For epinephrine,” Hunk hollered, because that was exactly what was shooting right through him now. He'd been in enough fights to recognise the feeling. This, however, was like he'd been injected with pure adrenaline, it was that intense. If the sea creature showed up right now, he would have enough energy to fight it for days, or run away from it really, really fast. As the monster didn’t appear, he instead contented himself by pressing all the buttons in the vicinity.  

Pidge, meanwhile, clicked her fingers, grinning. “Yes, of course! Caffeine stimulates the adrenal glands! And your intense reaction makes it seems like it’s waaay stronger than Earth caffeine, so I’m going to say your epinephrine levels are beyond reasonable. If Lance ingested this, it must have been to send his body into overdrive.....maybe in order to counteract some sort of internal failure?”

Hunk nodded along, but stopped when he felt nauseous again, but with a vengeance this time. He swallowed down the vomit that threatened to pass his lips. The world - still so colourful and bright - was becoming blurry, and he rubbed at his eyes. A headache began to peal in his head and a sweep of exhaustion passed through him. That didn't feel so nice. Hunk wavered where he stood and placed a hand against his forehead, kneading the skin between his finger . The energy that had filled him so passionately had all but left him, and he miserably realised what that meant. This stuff certainly didn’t last very long. He had a feeling the aftermath, however, would not be as short nor as fun.

He closed his eyes and groaned.
“Uh, yeah, Pidge? You know that saying ‘the bigger they come, the harder they fall’?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I went all the way up, and now I think I’m about to crash hard.”

As if to emphasise that fact, his legs fell out from underneath him and he plummeted to the ground, landing with a loud thump. Pidge cursed, and ran to his side. She nudged him experimentally on the shoulder.

“Hunk, you still with me?”

“Crap,” he returned groggily. He thought he was tired before he had ingested the pink stuff, but now he realised it was nothing in comparison to this. He felt like he hadn't slept for days, hell, weeks even.

Pidge hummed thoughtfully beside him. “That was extremely short-lived.”

Hunk groaned. “You think?”

“Obviously this space caffeine has a shorter half-life than Earth caffeine. You only lasted three minutes, I think. Four, tops."

“I want to sleep for 10 000 years, Pidge. This is horrible.” It really was. All his cells were screaming for him to sleep, and his incredibly slow heartbeat was making his head feel heavy with cotton wool. He could barely move, every limb a piece of steel attached to his body. Pidge rubbed his back in a soothing manner. Well, it wasn't helping him keep his eyes open, but it certainly felt nice. Hunk almost didn't hear the hiss of a door opening not to far away.

“Number Five, what’s Number Two doing on the ground?”

Pidge pulled her hand away in surprise. Hunk made a sad noise at the loss. With a weary sigh, he rolled over to see where she was looking. Coran was standing at the door, the picture of befuddlement as he assessed the scene before him. Which, yeah, was understandable. Hunk was sprawled on the ground, probably looking like a zombie extra from a movie, and Pidge had been petting his back. Hunk could only imagine Coran thinking 'weird humans'. High-pitched squeaks reverberated through the hangar, and Hunk found the source of the noise to be the two space mice perched on Coran's left shoulder. Strange; they normally hanged out with Allura. They quirked their heads, ears twitching as they did.

"Is he okay?" the Altean adviser asked Pidge in regards to Hunk. I'm right here you know, Hunk was tempted to say, but he chose to keep his mouth shut and listen. It was less effort.

“Hunk had some of the pink liquid. Turns out it's space caffeine,” Pidge explained. At Coran’s uncomprehending look at the human term, she elaborated further. “Caffeine’s an Earth drug that stimulates the body and give you a hit of energy and adrenaline. We have a beverage called coffee that most people drink that has it in it.”

“Ooh, yes, we had something like that back on Altea. Vybuucill, it was called. Alfor always did enjoy a cup of it; drank it faster than an angry klanmüirl, he did. I myself preferred juniberill, as did the Princess. Oh and of course, can’t forget nunvill. Just divine,” Coran smiled wistfully. Hunk, meanwhile, tried to conjure up in his mind what horrible flavours those Altean beverages possibly had, seeing how Keith and Lance had reacted to the so called 'nectar of the gods'. No offence to the Alteans, but they needed to learn a thing or two from Earth cuisine.

Coran's smile fell as his eyes shadowed in memory of the more horrible things of the past, and he sobered up hastily. He took in a deep breath, all humour and nostalgia forgotten. He regarded Pidge and Hunk seriously. “Are you two busy? I need to talk with you.”

“Does trying not to faint count as busy?” Hunk joked, trying to bring the light atmosphere back. He never liked to see Coran sad. “Because then sorry, my timetable is all taken up.”

“Well, the mice here took me to check up on the pod, and I merely wanted to come here with to inform you of my checkup.”

“And?” Pidge prompted. A hint of fear broke out in her eyes. “Is something wrong?”

Coran held up placating hands. “Oh no, everything is fine. There did seem to be some peculiarities in Lance's brain that the pod picked up on and couldn't manage to heal, but from what I read of the data, I believe Lance will eventually make a full recovery. Granted, he was not actually in the pod for me to validate that.”

Pidge, and even Hunk, jerked in alarm. “WHAT?!” they chorused together in the exact scandalised tone.

Coran looked between the shocked Paladins, and stroked his moustache thoughtfully. “I suppose I should have begun with that, shouldn’t I?”

“Uh, yeah!" Pidge yelled. She rushed towards Coran and looked up him with desperate eyes, a flood of questions emptying out of her mouth. "So he’s healed? Is he okay? Do you think he's still awake? Can we see him? Where is he?”

“He would be with Keith, I would say," Coran said, answering the only question he could.

“And where exactly could Keith be?”

Before Coran could respond, a loud roar filled the Castle, and the three looked up in surprise. It was distant, from the far flung side of the Castle, but they each heard it all the same. The trio glanced between themselves with knowing looks. It didn’t take a fool for them to realise what that was.

“Okay, am I having caffeine crash hallucinations or did I just hear the Blue Lion?” Hunk asked from the ground.

“No, that was real,” Pidge answered quietly. She stared, motionless, in the direction of the faraway corner of the Castle from whence the roar had came from. Hunk had been her friend long enough to know that despite her lack of outward movement, her mind was vibrant and alive, thoughts firing away in her mind. She blinked, and she was back in reality. Rolling her shoulders back, and taking a steadying breath, Hunk watched in awe as a look of determination spread across his young friend's face. She looked to Hunk and Coran, taking command of the situation. “We need to go check it out. Hunk? Can you stand?”

Hunk's lips fell in a hard line. The request, reasonable in most circumstances, sounded impossible right at the moment. His whole body screamed for him to shut down and rest, and his head kept sending the world spinning around him. He wouldn't mind just sleeping here on this hard floor. But this was Lance they were talking about. Hunk would always be there for his buddy, no matter what. Screw fatigue. He’d done all-nighters with Lance back at the Garrison pretty much once every second month and got through those fine; he could make it to the Blue Lion’s Hangar. On the other side of the ship. Whilst suffering from a caffeine crash. He laughed bitterly, but resolutely shook the thoughts away. Thinking about those wouldn't help him. Hunk took a deep breath in. He could do this.

He slid his arms underneath him and began to push himself off the ground, the limbs trembling violently under him. It took all he had, but he managed to do it, with a little help from Coran and Pidge. He gently pushed them away once he was upright, stumbling forwards just a bit when his vision twirled nauseously. Pidge and Coran shared worried looks, but let him figure out his balance alone. Once the world remained still, and his limbs finally stopped yelling at him to get back on that floor young man and go the hell to sleep, Hunk shot them a soft smile and a thumbs up, to assure them he was okay. Sure, he was definitely going to faint in what he guessed would be about 30 minutes, but until then, he would manage.

“Okay. Let’s go,” Hunk said. He began making his way to the Blue Lion's hangar, one leaden step in front of the other, Pidge and Coran all the while right behind him.

Chapter Text

The door closed with a hiss, and Lance was gone.

Keith stared forward with wide eyes. The door remained shut, waiting for him to approach. All he had to do was take a single step forward and it would open, and he could join Lance once again, to heal the wound he had just made before it could fester. But he couldn’t find himself able to move forward, stuck with his emotions swirling like a hurricane under his skin. So instead he did the only thing that he could think of.

He turned and kicked the wall behind him. Hard. Pain sprung in his toes and he bit back a hiss of pain. Good. He did it again. After three kicks, he let loose an angered growl and slid down to the ground. He hugged his knees to his chest and folded his head down.

He could feel his nails digging into his skin of his palm, fists as tightly curled up as his body. His eyelids trembled as he scrunched them up, refusing to let even a single frustrated tear down his cheek no matter how much he just wanted to let down his walls and just break. Today had been....well it had been a very long day. He’d spent most of it watching Lance lifeless for hours and hours, quietly and alone, with only a few checkups here and there by the others. His fault of course; he hadn’t let any of the others do their shifts, not while they had important things to do. It was haunting seeing Lance float in the void of blue, face devoid of any emotion. Lance was a upbeat guy, always twittering with excitement, and ready to do anything. But then he’d woken up, and he had been quivering but not with excitement; it had been nerves and fear and tiredness and anger. Having been around Shiro, Keith knew what those meant. Something terrible happened on that planet, and Lance was its only witness and victim, scarred in more ways than one. It was horrible to see the boy so shaken. Keith felt like he’d been walking on eggshells, watching every word he said, keeping himself collected and comforting so not to set the Lance off. Turns out doing that was the worst thing he could have done. 

So here he was, sitting miserable on the floor, because he assumed his friend had some sort of ulterior motive for conversing with him. He shouldn’t have said anything. Why couldn’t he keep his stupid mouth shut? He’d done more harm than good.

Lance never shouted like that. Sure, he would raise his voice, make a few heated remarks every so often, but he had never once yelled at Keith or any of the others like he had just then. Keith still couldn’t get the image out of his head; Lance with his shoulders drawn tight and eyes blackened by exhaustion, screaming in pure frustration and worse of all, hurt.The scars never stopped gleaming their dull, persistent pale colour as the Lance in his mind burned away.

Keith knew he should ignore the scars, but he couldn’t. Shiro’s scar didn’t bother him at all. Shiro had gained that mark on a far off planet on a forgotten day that Keith was never a part of. It was just something that happened, and no one - not even Shiro - knew its significance, and so no one made a big deal out of it. Just an unpleasant and vague reminder of a terrible year. Keith didn’t even notice the scar that marked the former Black Paladin’s nose and cheeks sometimes, it had become so part of the man’s appearance, just as his cybernetic arm had. But with Lance, his scars weren’t from some forgotten event that Keith wasn’t responsible for. They were the result of a mission Keith had been leading. Rationally, he knew that it wasn’t his fault. He didn’t personally slice into Lance’s face with glass and leave him for dead on the crystal shore.

But, the last three days of sitting around and moving like clockwork as they watched Lance’s cold body had allowed Keith to really think about what happen that day. There was so many things he could have done to change what happened. If he had only gone along with Lance and Allura. If only he had ordered them to stay in formation. If only he hadn’t been annoyed with Lance. If only he had told Allura to say sorry for him so Lance would turn his comms back on. If only Keith had done better. If only if only if only. Too many if’s, and too many things that wouldn’t stop leaching onto his thoughts. And now, he had added insult to injury he was partially responsible for.

A tiny touch on his ankle startled him from his thoughts. Keith peered down. It was the mouse that had been leading them, and from the looks of it it had been squeaking at him for some time. He obviously hadn’t heard it, too lost in his own mind. The mouse’s eyes were drawn wide as it stared towards the hangar door, ears twitching. It seemed quite frantic as it tapped his leg, but maybe Keith was misreading this situation too. He just kept doing that, didn’t he? Jumping to the wrong conclusions and making messes. He sighed.

“Still here, huh?” Keith asked it despondently.

“Squeak squeak!” the mouse replied.

“Yeah, I have no idea what you’re saying.”

The mouse tapped his leg a little harder, and began pointing at the door. Keith look from it to the door and back, utterly confused. He remained still, not sure what the rodent wanted him to do. The mouse huffed. Then it scratched his leg.

“Hey!” Keith barked, pulling his leg away. A thin tear was visible in his jeans, under which was an even thinner line of red. It didn't hurt, but the fact the mouse had done it kind of stung. He gave the mouse a scandalised look. “What was that for?!”

It pointed at the door even more vehemently. Unless it was really passionate about doors, Keith could only assume that meant one thing.

‘You want me to go see Lance?”

The mouse nodded. “Squeak!”

Keith bowed his head, letting out a breath. “I don’t think he’s all too happy with me right now. I think it’d be better to leave him alone with Red.”

Annoyed, and frankly, distressed eyes met him. The little rodent jumped up and down and pointed - with both paws now - towards the door. Keith cocked his head to the side.

“Is something wrong?” he asked, pushing himself off the ground so that he was kneeling. His instincts - quiet up until now - were demanding him to listen to the mouse, so he did.

The mouse nodded desperately. Keith narrowed his eyes. It wouldn’t act like this if it was merely trying to be a mediator. No, nobody acted like that unless something was really wrong. Maybe this wasn’t about soothing Lance’s anger. Maybe it was about something much worse.

Keith tensed up at the thought and his eyes shot to the door. The mouse ran over it and scratched at it, making distraught noises as it did. Okay, that definitely wasn’t good. Keith’s instincts were going crazy. He didn’t even hesitate as he sprung up and ran to the door. It opened with a low whistle, just as a roar echoed out through the Castle. Keith didn’t let surprise stop him as he ran forward into the hangar.

Keith only distantly noticed the Blue Lion standing, eyes alight with energy and mouth agape. If he had time to really process that, he would have be ecstatic that it was awake. As it so happens, his attention was focused wholeheartedly on the prone form of Lance, sprawled on the ground at the Blue Lion’s feet. Keith heart jumped in his chest.

“Lance!” Keith screamed as he surged forwards. The boy didn’t even stir at his voice. Oh no oh no ohnonono. This wasn’t good.

Keith slid to Lance’s side, and pulled him easily into his arms. Lance’s mouth was slack, but he was breathing. Keith felt his heart soften with relief. If Lance had been...no, he wasn’t even going to go down that train of thought. Every part of him wanted to shake the younger boy awake, but he knew enough about unconsciousness to know that would have little effect. Apart from making sure he was alive, Keith wasn’t sure what to do. Did Lance need a pod again? Was this something to do with what happened on the planet? Should he get someone?

A torrent of cold air blew across Keith’s back suddenly, and he hunched his shoulders defensively. What the hell? He snapped his head back to identify the cause, only to find himself face to face with the Blue Lion, its nose tipped towards him so it’s doleful eyes could look down at its old Paladin. He blinked up at it, not used to being so near to the other Lions. Its sunk it’s head further until it could go no further, its chin just brushing the ground not to far from Lance’s feet, just between its paws. Keith stilled. It felt wrong to be this close to the Lion, to have its huge presence gaze down on him. And when it nudged Lance’s foot gently with its immense chin, Keith could only watch in awe. 

It - Blue, he corrected - pulled her head away, and opened her jaw. A keen echoed out, and she stared towards the entwined humans sorrowfully. She blew another cold breath other them, blanketing them in the fresh chill.

Lance shivered in Keith’s arms. The Black Paladin fixed his eyes on the younger boy, unsure if he was imagining things. But no, he wasn’t. Lance’s eyes were dancing under the skin of his eyelids, seeking out consciousness, and despite knowing better, Keith shook him gently, rocking him side to side in his arms. Lance let out a groan as he nuzzled his face into Keith’s chest, sighing as he found the warmth he sought. Keith quirked an eyebrow, but did not let go, watching silently as the Red Paladin slowly but surely roused from his unconsciousness.

Lance twisted his head slowly upwards, still nestled up against the crook of Keith’s red jacket. If there was a bit of drool on the fabric, Keith paid it not mind, too busy checking Lance's pupils were normal and that he hadn’t managed to get a concussion or something in the minutes he had been alone. Given the fact Lance had done that once when he had run head first into a door frame without his helmet on, Keith wasn’t taking any chances. Groggy blue eyes blinked up at him, thankfully not blown wide with any sort of concussion. Lance stared up at him with half-lidded and uncomprehending eyes. They drifted over to Blue, who had quirked her head, interested. Keith couldn’t hear her voice in his head, but he suspected it would be that of gladness that Lance was okay. That same gladness could not be found in her old Paladin, however. Lance stared back at her with widening eyes, the cloud of unconsciousness not yet gone from them. It merely found companionship with fear. Keith felt Lance tense in his arms and his breaths come to a stop.

“Lance? What’s wrong?” Keith implored, shaking his friend a little more in hopes of gaining his attention.

Blue’s yellow eyes lit up Lance’s face as her face lowered once more, a confused rumble reverbing from her jaw. Lance drew in a sharp gasp, and began to squirm violently in Keith arms.

“Nononono,” Lance babbled deliriously as he struggled, boots hitting against the ground with repeated thuds as he kicked out every which way. Lance twisted his body to and fro, attempting to shake Keith’s persistent grip, and he swung his head between Keith’s arms and chest, using it as a weapon in order to remove the restrictive presence. Anyone could have mistaken the struggle as an act of desperation, but the viciousness of Lance’s expression made it clear that it was not just distress but also anger that drove the boy to escape. Keith knew all to well that anger and fear was not a great combination.

“Lance, stop, please. You’re going to hurt yourself,” Keith said in a soothing manner. Lance didn’t seem to hear him, or the wretched cry from the Lion who watched from above. He continued to grapple against Keith, eyes devoid of rationality. Keith did the only thing he could think of that might help.

He pulled Lance up towards him and wrapped his arms around the taller boy’s torso, effectively locking the struggling arms under his firm hold. Keith could feel Lance’s frantic heart beat, and the sudden expansion of air that filled out Lance’s chest. Keith kept the hug somewhere between tight - to keep Lance from struggling - and affectionate, in hopes it would inspire Lance to escape from whatever delusion that had trapped him in its clutches. Lance didn't sink into the hug like he expected, but instead lurched forward. 

A sudden and sharp pain in Keith’s right shoulder sent him reeling back with a strangled yelp of pain. He fell to the ground, letting go of Lance in the process. He landed on his back, and he gasped as the landing caused his shoulder to burn. His left hand flew to the shoulder before he could think of the consequences of that movement. He hissed as his hand met tender flesh, left exposed under the torn fabric of his clothes. His fingers came away warm. Keith held his hand above him and stared in horror at it. Blood.

Lance had hurt him. Had done it just so he could escape Keith's embrace, without qualms or hesitation. Keith sucked in a breath as the reality of that hit him. He knew he should be angry,  like any sane person who had just been attacked would be. Normally, Keith would be ready to deal a far more gruesome blow in retaliation. But despite everything, Keith didn’t feel any resentment towards Lance whatsoever. He’d seen that same blind desperation in Shiro’s eyes more than once, the same willingness to defend one’s self - even if it meant hurting another - in order to survive whatever their brain was telling them was dangerous. The only real thing Lance was feeling right now was distress and fury. Reality was a stranger to him, isolated as he was in his own mind’s creations. Keith just needed to talk him out of his hallucination, to be his anchor to the real world. If it worked with Shiro, maybe it would work with Lance.

“Lance, it’s me, Keith. Your friend,” he called out to the room. He couldn’t see Lance from this angle, still stuck lying on the floor with his shoulder stinging horribly, but he knew Lance was still there. He could hear the younger boy’s breathing. It was strained, too quick and shallow to satiate his need for air. But the breaths, pathetic though they were, were greedy and desperate, the sound of atrophying lungs longing for oxygen. Keith’s eyes widened as he listened. It sounded like Lance was drowning.

“Whatever you’re seeing, it’s not real!” Keith yelled. “You’re in the Castle. You’re not on the planet anymore. There’s air. Just breathe. In and out.”

Lance’s breathing didn’t change, remaining lost in an illusive ocean, never quite reaching the surface to take in air. Keith tried to raise his head, but the movement sent another wave of pain through his shoulder, hot with pain and blood. He bit back a hiss. It was far from the worse pain he had ever felt, but it wasn’t exactly pleasant. But he needed to get up. It would take more than just talking to get to Lance, it seemed. Gritting his teeth, he shifted his elbow under him, pointedly ignoring the sharp sting that resonated from the wound, he managed to push himself up a bit. Just enough to see Lance startle at the movement.

He heard a snarl, and a sudden flash of red light exploded out from Lance’s waist as he summoned his bayard. Keith didn’t have time to process that before he was kicked back down to the ground. He scrunched his eyes tight as the impact jarred his shoulder. He breathed out a groan. When he opened his eyes, he found Lance standing over him, one foot firmly place down on his chest. His bayard was poised down towards Keith’s neck, the tips of it a fingerbreadth away from piercing the skin.

Keith stilled, gaping at the weapon that held him at bay in shocked awe. Three prongs, shaped quite similarly to kukri knives, were arranged in a triangle formation, each glowing electric blue and sizzling with energy. The prongs were spaced apart by stems, never meeting as they made their way out from the shaft. At the base of the prongs, an small orb of light awaited flight from within a shallow muzzle. The shaft of the weapon was a mixture of red and white, with blue orbs of lights spaced evenly apart like jewels, each inside a diamond of black. Keith couldn’t help but eye it in awe, despite his position under its glowing blades. It was like a storm: as dangerous as it was beautiful. Lance, all the while, held the weapon in both of his hands, one gripped at the front and one at the back, keeping it steady and ready to descend when necessary.

Lance didn’t seemed at all interested by the new form his bayard had taken, too focused edging the trident down towards his foe, glaring down at Keith yet never seeing him. Lance’s teeth were bared, painted red with blood that wasn’t his, wild like an animal trapped in a corner and surrounded by imagined daggers. The skin under his eyes was bruised with exhaustion, lines of stress and anger finding their home between his brows. Keith saw no recognition in those blue eyes. 

Keith gulped, eyeing the prongs. He needed to dispel Lance’s delusions and fast, lest he incur another - more fatal - wound. Keith clenched his jaw, trying to think as quickly as he could on what to do. With Shiro, he normally tried to adopt the former Black Paladin’s language, using motivation and wise words to keep him in the real world. But Lance was different, and he would need something else. Something that Lance understood very well. Keith smiled as an idea came to his mind. If there anything Lance understood, it was humour. Keith cleared his throat, silently praying that this would work.

“So,” Keith began, trying to make his tone as casual as he could while he had a trident hovering at his throat, “is this revenge for me never getting your 'I say Vol, you say Tron' chant?”

After a beat, Lance’s teeth disappeared behind his lips. The trident remained, however, at Keith’s throat. He didn’t give up though, plowing on with his ridiculous one-sided conversation. He kept his eye locked with Lance's, never once looking anywhere else.

“It’s not like you ever used it though,” Keith commented, stifling a grunt of pain when another wave of burning pulsed out from his shoulder. When it subsided, he continued. “Maybe you should work on a new one. Any ideas? Hmm, uh, what about....’Keith is the best!’ Yeah. You could be the cheerleader, and say that before every battle. Sound good?”

Lance’s grip faltered, and the trident withdrew away ever so slightly from Keith’s neck, at a distance that no longer felt as opposing. The Black Paladin let out a breath of relief. Okay, just a little bit more. He put on his most sly grin he could manage, mimicking the one that he saw so commonly on the boy before him. “I see the offer intrigues you. You and Red could carry a pom-pom into battle, and chant it as we fight. Do you remember who you have to say is the best?”

Lance canted his head, confusion creeping into his features and replacing the unbridled wrath from before. The trident became slack in his hands, and his eyelids fluttered. When they became still once more, the look he sent Keith was that of complete and utter befuddlement.
“Keith?”

“That’s right,” Keith said gently, happy to see his friend in those eyes again.

Lance blinked down at the trident, as if seeing it for the first time. “What...?”

He looked between it and Keith, and then to bloodstained bite mark on Keith’s shoulder. Keith could see his dazed mind processing the details, and the terrible moment that realisation hit. Lance’s eyes widened in horror, and he stumbled back with a sharp gasp. The trident clattered to the ground beside Keith, glowing red as it returned to its dormant form. Keith, now without the weapon holding him down, pushed himself into a sitting position, smothering a groan under a tight frown. He glanced to his friend. Even in his armour, Lance looked small where he stood, arms hugged tightly around himself. He was muttering quietly as he stared down at the ground, pointedly looking away from both Keith and the Blue Lion. In the frantic string of words, Keith heard the phrases ‘I hurt Keith’ and ‘I’m sorry’ repeated over and over again.

“Lance, I’m fine,” he assured. He really was. He'd had a few weapons at his throat in his lifetime so it was really nothing new. Barring the injury, he was unscathed, and Lance needed to know that. “I swear, I’m fine.”

Lance’s ramblings petered out, and he peered at the Keith from the corner of his eyes, assessing the shorter boy’s wound and the sincere expression on his face. The Red Paladin lowered his head.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t m-...I don’t know what just happened,” he mumbled disheartenedly. He released a shuddering breath, and turned to Keith, far too young to look as afraid as he did. “I just....I keep seeing that....that thing. And the ocean and the dark water and the...crystals. My head....something’s wrong.”

Keith swallowed at hearing the extent of Lance’s hallucination. “Maybe...maybe it’s because of sleep deprivation. You just need to sleep.”

It wasn’t an absolute lie, but it was certainly not the truth. Keith knew that lack of sleep wasn’t the sole reason for what had just happened, but he didn’t want to frighten Lance with the prospect that the demons that had began to haunt him would not be leaving anytime soon. Lance deflated, but nodded his head in agreement.

“Yeah...maybe,” he intoned quietly.

Keith finally managed to get himself up off the ground and on his feet. He walked over to Lance, making sure not to place his hand onto his wound in order to staunch the blood flow. He needed to downplay the pain as best as he could.

“Do you want me to help you to your room?” Keith asked. He went to place a soothing hand on Lance’s shoulder, but the taller boy pulled away, and took a step back.

“No, it’s okay,” Lance replied, never looking into Keith’s eyes. “You need to go to the Medical Wing, anyway.”

“I told you I was fine.”

“Humans bites can get infected pretty easily,” Lance said mechanically. “It’d be better for you now if you stopped trying to hide how much it hurts and got it looked at. We can’t have you out of commission too.”

Keith gazed wordlessly at his friend, surprised. He often forgot how perceptive Lance could be. Or, Keith wasn’t as good at acting as he thought.

“Okay. I’ll go get this fixed up, I guess. Are you sure you can make it to your room by yourself?”

Lance nodded, looking to the far door of the hangar longingly.

“Okay,” Keith repeated again, unsure what else to say. The silence didn’t last long. Lance lips quirked, but he didn't say a word as he turned away, the sound of his boots ringing out inside the hangar as he headed towards the far door. Keith watched him go, feeling a strong need to run after him and demand to be allowed to accompany him in order to make sure he was okay. But he didn’t know what he would say to fill in the quiet. Words just weren’t Keith’s expertise. As it was though, he didn’t think he was welcome to join anyway. Lance had made that clear enough. Keith understood it was not because Lance was angry at him. Not anymore, anyway. Keith knew self-hatred well enough to recognise it in Lance's countenance. Shame, too, hung heavily on the slope of Lance’s shoulder, dragging down his whole body as he wandered towards the door 

The door wheezed as it opened, and the hallway came into view. Lance hesitated before it, and tilted his head back to face Keith. He opened his mouth, about to say something, but Keith never found out what it could have been. Lance’s eyes flickered to the discarded bayard that lay not to far from Keith’s feet, and he snapped his lips together immediately, killing anything he would have said. He pivoted his head away before Keith could read his expression, and promptly disappeared behind the set of doors.

Keith rubbed a hand down his face, and sighed. That hadn’t gone how he thought it would. He turned to look at the Blue Lion, whose yellow eyes were glaring towards the door through which Lance had vanished behind. At least she was awake now. With the four Lions operational, they could get Red safely and with less of a chance of repeating the disaster of their first trip down. Four against one was good odds, so if the creature did pop up, they would be able to fend it off. Keith trailed over to the red bayard, and picked it up. It jittered in excitement under his hand, awaiting to transform into a sword at Keith's whim. The Black Paladin, instead, tucked it into his belt for safekeeping. The movement made his shoulder throb. Keith rubbed around the sore area. It didn’t hurt as bad now, but it still stung noticeably. He'd be able to fly with it, but it was going to be a nuisance. Maybe getting it checked wasn't such a bad idea. One problem though: how was he going to explain it to Coran? 

“Squeak.”

Keith twisted around to see the mouse from before appear at his feet. It must have run off during the encounter. Sensible. It could have been hurt if it had stayed close. Keith smiled down at it, glad it was okay, and thankful that it had made him aware about Lance’s condition in the first place. The mouse looked away, ears twitching. Keith followed its eyes to the main hangar door without question, knowing that what this mouse did always seem to have a purpose. It opened not even a second later, revealing Shiro and Allura running into the hangar.

“Keith!” Shiro called, running over to him, observing every part of the hangar as he did. “Where’s Lance? Wait....is that blood?!”

Shiro stopped before him,staring down at the wound with wide and worried eyes. Allura, meanwhile, headed beeline to the Blue Lion.

“Blue," she called, gazing up at her Lion with glittering eyes. Blue turned her head away from the door, and looked down to her Altean Princess. The Lion let out a soft purr, and Allura beamed. “Oh thank the Ancients. I didn’t know if you would ever wake up. I’m so glad you’re back.”

Allura watched her Lion for a short while, mesmerised, before swivelling round to face Keith.
“What happened?”

Keith looked between Shiro and Allura, their expressions equally concerned and interrogative.

“I don’t know," Keith answered, "I wasn’t in here when Lance woke up Blue. But...he was unconscious when I came in. Blue and I managed to wake him up. He's gone to his room to sleep."

“Obviously that’s not all what happened” Shiro critiqued, pointing at Keith’s bloody right shoulder and to the bayard that was no longer his.

“I fell,” Keith lied. He knew it was stupid to even try to hide the truth from Shiro, but he didn’t want Lance to get blamed for something he didn’t mean to do.

Shiro raised an eyebrow.
“And bit yourself?”

Keith worried his lip, and looked away. Saying yes to that would be a bare faced lie, so he remained silent. Shiro was not a fool though, and it didn’t take him long to put it together.  

“Did....did Lance do this?”

Keith winced, but gave a nod. There was no point in denying it, no matter how bad it felt to tell the others that. There was no one else here who could have done it. But neither Allura or Shiro had seen Lance. They hadn’t seen his hollow eyes that saw only the creature and the darkness in which it dwelled, or the shock that had flooded his eyes when he realised he had made Keith bleed.

“He was hallucinating, and he thought I was an enemy, so he attacked. I think it was because of sleep deprivation,” he explained before they could jump to the wrong conclusions. He hoped fervently that the half truth would go undetected, just as it had done with Lance. The younger boy didn’t want to be treated like he was breakable, so Keith wasn’t going to go round making the team believe they needed to treat him like he was That was up to Lance to do, if he found that he needed more support than he already had.

Shiro and Allura looked between themselves, and though they appeared concerned, neither had a hint of blame or anger towards Lance. Shiro nodded, accepting Keith’s account of the events.

“Well, we’ll ask Coran if he can set you up a pod, or atleast have it cleaned,” Shiro said in regards to the bite.

Keith nodded, glad that that conversation was over. He looked up to the Blue Lion. “So...what’s the plan now? How are we going to get Red?”

Shiro went to speak, but was interrupted by Coran, Hunk and Pidge, who chose that exact moment to barge into the room. They looked around the room in confusion.

“What did we miss?” Coran asked.

“Where’s Lance?” was Hunk’s question, tone sounding irritated when he didn't find any sign of his friend. 

And finally there was Pidge, who squeaked in surprise. “Oh my god, Keith, are you bleeding?”

Keith sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, looking to the door through which Lance had left.

It was going to be a long night. 

Chapter Text

The halls were empty, completely devoid of anyone.

Lance couldn’t have been more glad of that fact. He didn't want anyone seeing him right now.

He could barely feel his steps on the ground - could barely hear the sound of them either - as he walked towards his room. The foggy static in his brain was too loud, too confusing, too.... crazy . It was like being on the brink of the hurricane’s eye, caught between the eerie calm of the centre and the chaos of the storm around him. He was stuck, forced to see all the horror of the last few days battle away in the corners of mind. Instead of the roll of thunder, it was the distant growls of the creature, and in the place of lightning, there was flashes of yellow eyes.

The worst image of them all, though, was Keith’s injured shoulder. Red and oozing, the jacket shredded by an assault Lance couldn’t truly remember committing. All he could recall was being woken to see yellow eyes staring down at him, and a force wrapped around his body. And then there was nothing but fear and anger, until he had found a trident in his hands and Keith trapped under its blades. He had let himself shatter, and Keith had been hurt as a result.

The foul taste of blood that lingered in his mouth didn’t help erase the wound from his memory. Lance wiped furiously at his lips, but the tang of iron wouldn’t leave his tongue. Bile threatened to join the horrid taste. Lance groaned. Another problem to add to his ever growing list. He couldn’t focus on keeping his nausea at bay and keeping his thoughts in check. It was too much.

He stumbled over to the wall, and sagged against it. Just breathe, he commanded his body. Keep it together. Don’t be sick. Don’t make the others worry. The storm raged on, batting away the reassurances with ease. Pathetic, it whispered. Weak. Broken.

Lance rested his head against the cold wall and closed his eyes, in hopes of calming the turmoil in his head. He was used to hearing thoughts like that, but he didn’t exactly enjoy it, and he certainly didn’t feel up to listening to them right now. The coolness of the wall did very little to quell his mind, but the moment of rest helped ease his nausea. Well, it was better than nothing. He pushed himself off the wall, and stumbled the rest of the way to his room.

It took some time - longer than he would have liked - but he finally found himself at the door to his room. The lights lit up as he entered, and he gazed around wearily. It was just the way he had left it. The perfect kind of mess, with his belongings placed haphazardly around the room. He wandered towards his bed, manoeuvring through the towers and blocks that made up Mercury Gameflux Two City as he did. He was glad that he knew the safe route to his bed, because his legs were barely holding him up at this point, and he really didn’t want to be found on the ground by the other because he tripped over his stuff and broke his leg or something. That would be humiliating.

He eyed the bed longingly as he approached it, all too eager to fall into its arms. Sleep sounded so good right now. After today, Lance just wanted to lie down and forget about all his problems. Once he reached the bed, though, he realised there was one minor issue hindering him.

He still had his armour on. The armour that he had put on four days ago, and had yet to get out of. And that was ignoring that fact it was still covered in glass and blood, which was pretty disgusting. Lance studied the gory features. The glass was from his helmet as it shattered under the creature’s attack, and the blood was from the wounds that were now scarred on his face. They were mementos of something he would love with all his heart to forget. The idea that he had walked around in this blood-stained suit made his skin itch with discomfort. He had been in the armour long enough. Lance eased if off, feeling some tension release as he did so. Hopefully, he could get it cleaned up soon. He would rather his armour not to be contaminated with the memories of that creature, not when he needed to wear it pretty much everyday.

Lance threw his armour into a pile beside the Mercury Gameflux Two. He was too tired to put pyjamas on at this point, so he let himself collapse of the bed with his black undersuit still on. It wouldn’t be the first time he slept in it, and it would certainly not be the last. Besides, the undersuit was damn comfortable.

Lance scooted around on the mattress until his head was on the pillow, letting himself just sink into the fabric. It was so satisfying to finally lie down. He never thought he’d miss this bed - it was nothing compared to his one at home - but after the last few days he had, he was just glad to finally get some proper rest. He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling, keeping his mind strictly on happy thoughts. He didn’t want to be dreaming about Keith’s wound or the monster. There was an article he once read that said the things people did or thought before bed influenced what they dreamed about. So, maybe if he thought really hard about home, he would be allowed to have pleasant dreams about his family. That would be a bittersweet end to a horrible day. Lance let out a tired breath, and finally let his eyelids droop down.

Sensing he was about to rest, the lights in the room dimmed down until the room was completely dark, like an artificial sun descending and making way for the night. Lance’s breath caught in his throat as the images of his sister and brothers disappeared in the wake of the gloom that seeped under his eyelids like poison. All there was darkness, and the eerie quiet. All he could hear was the thud of his heart, and the frantic chant of thoughts that told him he was in danger. But he wasn’t. He knew he wasn’t. The Castle always did this, to help him sleep, but for once, it was doing the complete opposite. Lance pulled his covers in close and wrapped himself up in them, making a fabric cocoon. It was somewhat comforting, but it did little to ease his stress. He scrunched his eyes up tight. Sleep, just sleep, everything is fine, this is what the Castle is meant to do, don’t freak out other this.

For a time, there was nothing, and Lance could only lie down in his cocoon of safety and hope his heart would not break through his rib cage. It was just the dark. Why was he getting so upset over this? He’d never been afraid of it. Why was he now? He just wanted to sleep, god damn it, was it that much of an ask just to have this one thing? He was too tired to handle this right now.

But then the neon glow of yellow tangled itself up in the darkness and Lance could not take any more.

Lance’s eyes snapped open, and he sprung up with a gasp. The yellow eye stared down at him, pupil a shard of greedy black. Lance felt all the air leave his lungs as the pupil flicked towards him. It glared down at him, never wavering or blinking. Lance flailed - sending the covers flying around him like the waves of an ocean - and leapt from his bed, running blindly towards one of the corners of his room. He never managed to make it that far, tripping over some unseen component of the set up for his gaming console and landing on the floor. He hissed as he knees hit the unseeable ground. A growl echoed through the room, and Lance felt a shiver run cold through his body.

He crumpled down to the ground, and curled himself into a tight ball. His thoughts jeered at the pathetic display. The yellow eye undulated through the darkness, never turning its pupil away from him. Memories of pain that burned swept through Lance’s mind, and he whimpered. Why couldn’t it just leave him alone? He ducked his head down into his chest when the eye was right before him, not wanting to see it look at him with such hunger. A part of him wished his friends were here, to help him through it. But, in a way, he was glad they weren’t. He didn’t want them to see him like this, trembling on the ground over something that didn’t exist. He knew the monster wasn’t there, that it wasn’t real, but that didn’t stop the fear that burned through his blood and rotted his lungs. He couldn’t breathe with that thing lurking in the darkness. He needed to get rid of it.

“C-computer, uh, turn the..turn the, ermm....,” he pleaded incomprehensibly to his knees, words completely failing him. That seemed to be happening a lot today, and it was really starting to get annoying. He swallowed and tried again. “Get rid of the dark! Damn it! Uh, t-turn the, the,...lights?..the lights! Turn them back on. Turn the lights on, now !”

Even with his limbs tightly wound around his head, Lance saw the room light up around him at the desperate request. The growls faded away. The Red Paladin let go on his legs and slumped down onto the ground in relief, drawing in great and calming breaths as he took in his surroundings. The yellow eye was gone, and all he was left with was himself, and the distinct and familiar walls of his room. He was safe. Nothing here would hurt him.

“Computer, keep the lights on for the rest of the night,” he asked the emptiness. The Castle didn’t make any sound to assure him that the instruction had been implemented, but Lance knew it had heard him.

“....And maybe for the next few nights, too, if that’s..um, okay with you,” he added sheepishly. There was no one here who would judge him about that, but he couldn’t help but feel embarrassed. It was childish, to be so afraid of something as trivial as the dark, all because a monster haunted his mind. Shiro had a whole year of torture and never ending fighting, and he still was a functioning human despite it. What had happened to Lance was nothing in comparison.

When he found himself able to, Lance crawled over to his bed, and rolled himself onto the mattress. He closed his eyes once more, the light of the room keeping the inside of his eyelids are buzzing red. He let out a breath, and relaxed into the bed, feeling himself already on the edge of sleep. How long had it been since he had actually slept.? Four days? Sure, three of those had been in the healing pods, but those always left him feeling like he was on 10% battery. They were good at healing, but sucky at pretty much everything else.

Maybe Keith was right; maybe all the problems he’d been having today were just because of sleep deprivation. Yeah, yeah, that must be it. Definitely. Well, then a good night’s rest would fix everything. Tomorrow morning he would be as fit as a fiddle. The others wouldn’t have to worry about him falling to pieces, and no one else would get hurt because of him. Save for the scars, it would be like nothing had ever happened. Everything would be okay.

Wouldn’t it?