Chapter Text
Lance felt like everything was burning and that he was being torn apart inch by inch. All he could see were the warning signs and black smoke coming from Blue's control panels. The lion was doing everything in her power from keeping them being crushed by the distorted wormhole, but she too was feeling the agony of the strain. The paladin could barely even hear everything around him seemed to scream including Lance himself.
"I can't! I can't! I can't! IT HURTS!" Lance sobbed, contorting in his seat. Every twitch he made, every breath he took, and ever blink he did was agonizing for Lance. It was like he couldn't escape the searing hot pain and everything seemed just so close to him that he screeched for help. Blue also roaring for the pain her paladin was going through as they neared the exit of the wormhole.
"Blu-e! AAAHHHHH!!! I can't ta- Aaaahhhh!! ANYMORE!" Lance begged, finally wishing for death as he could no longer feel his legs and yet could still feel like he was being ripped apart from below.
A part of Lance mourned that he would die in this way. He wasn't going to die a hero, he wasn't going to die saving the day, or even dying of normal old age. He was going to die alone inside a wormhole in agony and no one would know. His family back on earth will never truly know the truth about what happened to him. His team and space family might get a notion of what could have happened, but then the tormenting mystery of his death would weigh on their minds.
Lance didn't want to die like this.
He didn't want to die.
But, even as these thoughts plagued his mind there was a numbness that started spreading around his body. It made his spasms stop and it caused the paladin to almost slump in his seat. His erratic heart no longer beating ten thousand miles a minute and instead, it was trying it's best to keep on pumping. It was sad how Lance welcomed the numbness and the lingering cold feeling as it slowly crept further inside him. Taking away his life as Blue screamed for Lance to stay alive and that they were almost there.
"I... can't... blue..." Lance whispered, his voice rasping as he slowly started closing his eyes.
The last thing last saw before darkness swallowed him was the color of Blue.
Blue roared, her eyes glowing as she emitted a glowing blue power from her core. It enveloped her just as she shot out of the wormhole and started making a crash course for the planet in front of her. But, the lion didn't care as she emitted as much power as she could and encased her cub in it. She could feel his life force slipping away and the critical damage was done to his body. There was a decision Blue made that she barely even thought on as she started healing her paladin.
Lance was her precious paladin. He was so much like her old paladin that it hurt something inside her and she refused to let Lance go. At least, not yet, not when he is still so young and had so many long years ahead of him. A part of her knew that doing this would only bring Lance more complications and would make him so very vulnerable.
But, she would not lose her paladin.
She would not lose her little ocean.
'....my little... ocean.... wake... up...'
"Blue?" Lance croaked, slowly almost with reluctance did Lance open his eyes. The human feared that he would wake to the searing pain and agony he was in before. He was afraid that he would wake to find himself in a critical situation or even worse. Lance was afraid that if he opened his eyes... he would find himself dead.
But, the reassuring rumble of Blue told him that everything was okay and the small wash of her energy over Lance urged him to fully open his ocean blues. For a moment it took Lance a few tries in order to blink away the blurry film that seemed to plague his eyes. A part of him panicking that he was blind until the blurry vision faded and a dimly lit room was all he could see.
Lance knew that something was off.
He knew that something was very wrong.
For one thing, everything was dark in the cockpit and the only light source was the few glowing emergency crystals that were floating around the room. Second thing was that everything looked just a little bigger than before, like... everything seemed almost twice his size. Which, was strange for Lance as he knew that the cockpit was rather spacious, but it wasn't really this spacious. In fact, the chair looked like a king's throne to him and it made Lance frown as he slowly got up from where he was laying.
His frown deepened when he noticed that he was laying on what looked to be tattered rags and that his armor was on the other side of the cockpit. The paladin was about to get up to investigate when he noticed that he was wearing the emergency gown that was stored in one of the medical panels. Which, didn't seem right because there were no gowns in the medical panels.
'Wait, this shirt shouldn't be this big.' Lance thought, clutching at the shirt and noticed... the tiny hand. The very tiny had that he controlled in order to clutch the shirt that was on him that he was again, controlling.
"AAAAAAHHHHH!!! BLUE! WHAT HAPPENED!" Lance cried, checking himself over trying to figure out if what he was seeing was actually real. He even grabbed one of the floating crystals in order to shine it onto the floor seeing the reflective surface and looking into the large eyes of a child staring back at him. Blue, who had been strangely silent, let out a soft rumble to Lance as he stared at the reflection shaking like a leaf on a windy autumn day.
'...I did... to.... ensure... you lived....' she pressed, exhaustion evident in her response. Lance pressed a hand on the controls of Blue and fretted as Blue pressed into his mind on what she had to do.
Lance's body was damaged in the corrupt wormhole and Blue had already used up so much energy to prevent them from being crushed. She had to revert him back to being a ten-year-old in order for his body, his soul, and his mind to survive. The act had depleted Blue of almost everything that she could barely keep the barrier, heating, and beacon up. She didn't care for the consequences... she only wanted Lance to live and she shows Lance all of the emotions she felt.
It made Lance almost fall to his knees at the intensity and small hot tears ran down his face. Blue gave out another weak rumble to reassure Lance that everything was okay, that the reversal in age wasn't permanent. But, Lance was more upset with the fact that Blue had essentially almost died in order to bring Lance back.
'I would.... gladly.. give life... for... you....' Blue pressed before she began to recede to the back of Lance's mind.
"Okay... okay... so I'm a kid again... I'm a kid again... OH SWEET QUIZNAK! DO I HAVE TO GO THROUGH PUBERTY AGAIN?!" Lance screeched, getting an amused snort from the lion as her tiny paladin started to panic about going through the phases and skin scare.
"Okay first, we have to figure out where we are," Lance whispered, calming down enough as he walked towards the exit. He growled when he noticed how his clothes didn't seem to fit and dragged on the floor almost like a gown. Which is fine, if it weren't the fact that it was making him trip all over the place. Lance eventually tied it up in the back a bit to allow some mobility before he trotted towards the exit of the cockpit.
He felt bad asking his lion to move even when she was so exhausted and in pain. But, Lance had to figure out and assess where they were along with what kind of situation they were into. He was expecting many things as soon as Blue opened her mouth. But, he didn't expect to see the barrier almost being blanketed by pounding snow, winds that deafened the sound and a world of white as far as... actually Lance couldn't really see that far.
'This is why she's trying to keep the heating system on.' Lance thought, shivering and curling up into a ball as soon as the cold hit him. His teeth chattered and his whole body quivered in sharp shudders as he looked around the area.
It was almost haunting looking only a few feet past the barriers. The light of the blue shield illuminating everything in a bright light to a certain point before the darkness that the snow gave shrouded everything else. Lance didn't know much about the blanket, but he knew it must have some sort of seasonal pull for the trees were large and buried with the wet ice covering its body. But, where there is usually plants there are always animals and Lance gulped as he tried to look in the darkness of the forest that was close by.
Many of the trees were hunched over and a few times Lance was startled in thinking he saw a figure. Honestly, Lance didn't want to imagine what could be lurking in the darkness and he quickly looked away from the scene. Without any prompting, Lance felt hot tears rolling down his cheeks making him curse as he rubbed them with his hands.
"Stop crying! Why am I crying?" Lance asked, fear gripping his heart and great discomfort from the cold.
'..... side.... effect... more... explained.... he will... explain...'
"Wait... side effects? He? Who's he?" Lance asked, confused about what was going on.
Suddenly, something caught his eye and Lance look over as he saw... what looked to be a massive black figure heading towards the barrier. His breath hitched and the small paladin scrambled back as he continued to watch the figure slowly making his way over to them. The closer he got the more details Lance was able to make out of the bulky being. It seemed that the huge person was carrying something or lugging something behind him as he continued to make his way.
Much of his person Lance couldn't see due to the thick cloak upon him. But, the closer he got the more he was able to see due to the light of the barrier. Once he caught the site of the large bat-like chinchilla ears, did Lance justifiably freaked out. He panicked even more and gaped in horror as the barrier opened just a bit to allow the other entry inside.
"BLUE! WHAT THE MAHOGANY TABLE ARE YOU DOING!?" Lance screeched, staring in terror as the massive figure continued to lug the huge dead creature before throwing it to the side. One clawed arm reaches up to pulled more of the cloak off and Lance was able to see the snarling face of the one person he didn't think he would ever see again.
"Blue! Blue! Close the mouth! Close it!" Lance cried, hearing only the soothing rumbles of Blue as he scrambled back into the cockpit. Watching in terror as the galran figure made it's way inside Blue and into the cockpit in order to stare him down.
"BLUE THAT'S SENDAK!"