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Lance fixed the crosshairs on the alien’s head and held his gun steady. “Are you ready?” he asked into his helmet.
Allura’s voice filled his ears. “Fire at will.”
The blue-skinned Velqi standing front and center on the stage dropped without warning and screams bounced off the amphitheater walls in a disorienting cacophony of noise. Keith charged, sword hacking in destructive arcs, and Pidge followed him in. Allura and Hunk crashed through side doors, stopping a rush of blue-skinned, maroon-horned Velqi from escaping that direction.
Lance took a deep breath, feeling his stomach press against the ground, and sniped the soldiers around the glass cage of prisoners. One. Two. Three. Brilliant flashes of light from Hunk’s cannon flared at the edges of Lance’s sights, but Lance kept his eye relaxed. Four. Five. Six.
“Prisoners clear,” Lance said.
“Roger,” Pidge responded, firing her bayard into the rafting. It dug into a metal beam and she retracted the green cord, launching herself over the stacked rows of seating and up onto the stage. Lance fired at the Velqi trying to climb up the front of the stage and the Velqi teetered limply off the stage’s edge.
Pidge dropped onto the stage with a roll and bolted to the panel on the glass cage. “Cover me, Lance,” she said.
“Sharpshooter on duty,” Lance said with a grin.
“Hunk!” Allura warned.
Lance jerked his gun over to focus the scope near Hunk just as Hunk spun around and open fired on the Velqi charging him. Lance released a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. “Good shot, man,” Lance said.
“Thanks!” Hunk said.
“Lance!” Pidge called. Lance jumped and shifted his gun back to the stage. “They can take care of themselves. I have to know you’re covering me.”
“I am,” Lance said. “The sharpshooter covers everybody.” If he couldn’t be directly in the fight then he had to use his position to make sure no one got hurt. No one shot or stabbed. No man down. No cryopods.
“Prisoners free,” Pidge announced as a door cracked out of the glass wall. Nervous aliens in filthy clothes staggered free. Pidge waved for them to move faster. “We’re Voltron and we’re here to help! Hurry!”
“Keith, is the escape route clear?” Allura asked.
“Almost,” Keith panted.
“Lance!” Hunk yelled, making Lance wince as Hunk’s voice reached his ears without any interference. “Behind you!”
Lance yanked his head back from the bayard’s scope and rolled onto his back. A Velqi scowled down at him with sharp yellow teeth and cobalt eyes as she finished twisting the lid off a small glass container.
Lance lifted his gun to fire, but a sucking sensation yanked him up off the ground. His bayard slipped from his hand and he tried to scream, but suffocating pressure pushed him in from every direction. His suit squeezed against him and his eyes watered from the pain of—what felt like—collapsing in on himself. Lance crashed into something, one arm pinned beneath him and the air knocked out of lungs completely. His head spun too badly for him to grasp what he’d crashed into.
Lance rolled onto his side and struggled to force air into his stiff, aching chest. His ears rang from impact and he fumbled with shaking fingers to pull his helmet off, but his eyelids flickered and everything went dark. He only stayed unconscious for a second before light began creeping back into his vision in painful splotches. He sucked in a huge breath and barely stopped the answering swell of vomit in his throat.
The ground beneath him shook and it sent him slipping across the floor. Lance finally forced himself onto his elbow, chest still heaving for breath, and his helmet rolled in front of him over—over glass?
Massive blue fingers curled around the glass surrounding Lance. The finger pads pressed flat in places, and the force of the grip made the skin lighter blue.
“H-hey!” Lance gasped. Where was he? Who had a hand that big?
Lance was thrown sideways and sent tumbling and slipping. He struggled to keep his arms over his head as his armor clacked loudly against the glass surrounding him. His head snapped back.
Blackness.
Hunk knelt at the counter. A glass container, about the size of a standard Mason jar, stood on the table and somehow—somehow—his best friend was unconscious inside of it. Lance sagged limply against the side of the jar, his head drooping and his hands open beside him.
Two inches tall. Lance was two inches tall.
Lance groaned faintly and his fingers twitched.
“Lance! Lance, man, are you okay?”
Lance’s eyelids fluttered before going still again.
Hunk’s eyes flicked to Allura, who had leaned in closer, and he reached out to touch the glass. Keith pushed his hand off course.
“Dude, don’t tap the glass,” he reprimanded.
Allura gripped the edge of the table. “Stay awake, Lance. We must make sure you’re all right.”
Lance opened his eyes but his shoulders tensed and he closed them again. He moved his feet in slightly to gain some footing but did not move again. His breathing hitched.
Hunk leaned in closer. The backs of his shoulders ached with tension. “Lance? Buddy? You’re scaring me. Say something.”
Lance groaned and forced his eyes open again, slower this time. His brow furrowed as he tried to take in just how big Hunk, Allura, and Keith were. He gave up and closed his eyes. “I think...I hit my head.”
Allura stiffened. “Are you in pain?”
“Y-yeah. A bit. Like...I got bulldozed.” He took in a deep breath, opened his eyes again, blinked, and rubbed his face. “What happened?”
Hunk’s fingers tensed into fists but he kept his voice gentle. “Lance, we’ve got you, so don’t panic, okay?” Lance blinked at him. “You remember how the Velqi are able to capture and transport large amounts of people?”
Lance’s eyes widened slowly and he pressed his hands to the glass beneath him.
“Well, they kind of managed to shrink you and trap you inside this...jar.”
Lance tipped his head back to see the gray lid looming above him. His breathing sped up and Hunk saw Keith tensing out of the corner of his eye as Lance whimpered.
Words tumbled out of Hunk’s mouth as he rushed to console his best friend. “Pidge and Coran are researching right now and we’ll have you out in no time, okay? I promise, man, you’ll be fine.”
Lance forced himself to his knees and scooted forward, knocking against his helmet and sending it skittering across the glass. No one missed the winces as he moved. He pressed his hand to the clear barrier, spreading his fingers over its smoothness. His breaths began coming in shallow gasps.
“Lance, don’t hyperventilate,” Hunk said. “Look at me. Look at me. Okay. Slow in. Slow out. Do it with me. In. Out. In. Out.”
Lance couldn’t breathe in and out for as long as Hunk could, but he got the message and made a valiant effort to control his breathing. Hunk’s chest ached.
He pushed his own concern aside. “Good,” he encouraged softly.
“I’m getting Pidge and Coran,” Keith said, taking off without waiting for a response.
Lance’s eyes focused again and his hands shifted on the glass. “Do you know how to get me out?”
Hunk glanced at Allura and she took over. “This is some of the latest, most advanced science and nothing we’ve ever come across before. We’re not going to be brash about getting you out.”
“So you haven’t tried just taking the lid off,” Lance joked, but his voice caught and his forced smile faltered.
Allura shook her head. “No. We’ve contacted the Olkari for help and they are also researching.”
Lance’s expression started to fall, but just then, Pidge and Coran burst through the doorway and raced up to the table. Lance straightened up and his fingers slipped away from the glass.
“Lance?” Pidge said, panting. “How are you feeling?”
“All things considered? Pretty good.” He put on a broad smile but Hunk recognized the force behind it. Someone less familiar with him might be convinced, but Hunk sure wasn’t. He frowned at his best friend.
“In a different situation, I might be elated to have an incredible example of perfectly shrunk, undamaged, living mass,” Pidge said, tripping over her words awkwardly. “But I don’t like you this small.”
“Thanks?” Lance answered, squinting questioningly.
Pidge rushed on. “We just heard back from the Olkari and they said simply removing the lid should work.”
“Should work?” Keith repeated, frowning suspiciously. Or it was probably a suspicious frown. Most of his frowns looked the exact same. “I want to know if it will work.”
“If we want something that will definitely work, we’re going to have to speak to the Velqi themselves,” Coran said. “They guard their secrets quite well.”
“Then let’s go,” Keith said. “Everybody suit up.”
Lance slammed his fist onto the glass. “No!”
Even though his voice wasn’t nearly as loud as usual, everyone froze.
“No one’s putting themselves in danger for me. I can’t help you from in here and I can’t just—I can’t just let you all go in without cover.”
For a tick, no one spoke. The Hunk said, “Lance, we’re not gonna leave you like this. Let us help you.”
Lance looked down and sat back. The muscle in his jaw worked. After what seemed like years, Lance sighed in defeat. “Okay. Okay. But if it gets bad, promise me you’ll abandon the mission. No matter what.”
“We’re not abandoning the mission until you’re out of that jar, Lance,” Keith said.
“Then you’re not going!” Lance said. The irony of the fact that he, all two inches of him, was telling everyone else what to do when he couldn’t even walk a yard wasn’t lost on him, but he wasn’t backing down. “You can’t risk yourselves for me! What about Voltron?”
“You’re part of Voltron,” Keith snapped, his hands balling into fists.
Hunk stepped between them. “We promise, Lance. Okay, man? We promise.”
Lance studied the faces of his friends. None of them argued even though they didn’t look happy. “Okay,” Lance agreed. “Let’s do it.”
Hunk refused to let anyone else carry Lance. Through the entire infiltration, Hunk kept his grip steady on the jar and did his best not to shake Lance around. Hunk was so focused on keeping Lance safe and getting him out that he didn’t even reprimand Keith when he threatened a Velqi with a blade to her throat.
“Tell us how to get him out!” Keith yelled.
The Velqi remained quiet.
Keith growled and kicked her feet out from under her, sending her crashing to the floor. Lance winced. Keith spoke again, slower this time, like a dam holding back frothing water. “Tell us how.”
The Velqi coughed, trying to get air back into her lungs after having all the air forced out. She smiled as she coughed. “We knew you’d come back.”
Hunk stiffened and Lance pounded his hand against the glass. “No! We have to get out!”
“They led us into a trap,” Pidge breathed.
Allura activated her bayard and Keith pulled the Velqi to her feet. “One more chance or you’re dead.”
The Velqi eyed the whip but said nothing. A door crashed in and Allura and Pidge immediately turned to fend off a swarm of Velqi with harsh, cobalt eyes. Allura’s whip cracked as it broke the sound barrier and the electricity from Pidge’s bayard lit up the room and cast harsh shadows. Keith’s eyes flashed as he glanced between the fight, Hunk and Lance, and the Velqi.
Hunk stepped forward, doing his best to block out Lance’s growing panic (“You promised! You all promised!”). “Look, miss, I don’t know if you’ve heard the stories, but Voltron means business and we’re here to defend the universe. You’re currently in our way. We can go get our lions—” The Velqi’s eyes widened. “—but we’d both be happier if I didn’t have to do that. Tell us how to get my friend here out of this jar and we’ll leave.”
The Velqi looked to the others trying—and failing—to fight Allura and Pidge. Her face lost some color. “The...the jar is fingerprint sensitive.”
“To whose fingers?” Keith demanded.
“Mine.”
Hunk’s eyes narrowed. “Then open the jar.”
“And don’t try anything,” Keith warned, moving his blade closer to her neck.
“Hunk!” Lance through the coms in his helmet. “She could be lying, she could be trying to trick you into staying. It’s a trap, Hunk, you guys can’t stay. Don’t stay. Don’t do this for me. It’s not worth it.”
“We don’t have time for this,” Keith said, working the fingers on his free hand.
Hunk lifted the jar so he could look at Lance, who blinked furiously at brimming tears. “Lance, you gotta trust us. You always cover us. Let us help you.”
Lance’s shoulders sagged and he nodded. “Okay.”
Hunk offered the jar to the Velqi with his most irritated glare. She took the jar slowly, eyeing Keith the whole time. Hunk tried not to look behind himself to add visuals to the sound of the fight going on behind him. Allura and Pidge could handle it.
The Velqi twisted the lid off and it released with a loud pop. Lance flew out of the jar, rapidly changing size and getting bigger as he hit the ground and tumbled across the floor. Hunk raced over to him and dropped to his knees. “Lance? Lance, man, are you okay?”
Lance’s eyes struggled to focus. “Dizzy.”
“Okay. Take it easy. I’m getting you out of here.”
“Allura, Pidge, we’re falling back. Lance is free,” Keith said, stepping away from the Velqi but keeping his sword extended in warning.
“Roger!” Pidge said, electrocuting one more Velqi before retracting her bayard.
Hunk helped Lance sit up and then turned around. Lance wrapped his arms around Hunk’s neck as Hunk looped his wrists under Lance’s knees. “We got you, buddy,” Hunk said as he stood.
“I know,” Lance said softly.