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The paladins were finally on their way back home, and Shiro rode in the red lion with Lance once the passengers were finally decided. The two of them were in a relationship and needed to spend time together and talk after the whole clone thing, so it was best this way. Everyone was fine with it when they found out and nothing really changed after that, except for the newfound teasing from Hunk and Pidge.
They were playing a “space road trip game” as Lance had called it, when Allura picked up a distress signal from a nearby planet being attacked by a Galra fleet. It was a planet they visited a while ago for the coalition, which had very intelligent inhabitants and advanced technology.
Keith ordered Lance to go to the planet’s surface and take care of the sentries causing chaos in a city there. Lance hid Red in the tall alien trees and stood from his seat before the lion was even fully on the ground. Before Lance could leave the lion, Shiro pulled him into a quick kiss and told him to be safe.
The sentries were always easy to take out so Lance didn’t expect it to take too long. He was so wrong.
When Lance reached the village being attacked, he shot every sentry he spotted in the head, taking them down as fast as he could. He was looking around to check for more when it hit him. Literally. Lance noticed too late that there was a Galra soldier on the planet with the sentries, and a huge one at that. The soldier’s fist collided with Lance’s left side, sending him flying ten feet before hitting the ground hard .
Lance could have sworn he heard a cracking sound, and he wouldn’t be surprised since the hit caused a horrible pain to spread throughout his side. A pained moan escaped his lips as he tried to get up, raising his bayard to shoot at the Galra walking towards him. He fired a few times, but none of them seemed to do anything to the large soldier. He smiled wide with horrifying sharp teeth before letting out a loud laugh.
“That little gun of yours causes me little pain.” he said as he approached Lance.
Lance tried to get up and away despite the agonizing pain in his side, standing up and running as fast as he could with a limp back to Red. He was too slow, however, as the Galra caught up and tackled him to the ground. He grabbed both of Lance’s arms with one hand and pinned them to the ground above the Lance’s head, holding his bayard with the other.
As Lance looked up at the Galra above him, back pinned against the ground, he knew he definitely couldn’t get out of this alone. He activated his comms to call for help, “Guys, I really need some help! There’s a-” Before he could finish his sentence, the Galra snatched the helmet from his head and threw it aside along with his bayard.
“It’s too late for your team to help you now.” He said as he grasped Lance’s head in his oversized hand, lifting it from the ground and slamming it back into the ground. Lance yelled out in pain, getting no time to recover as the Galra soldier wrapped both of his hands around Lance’s neck, cutting off his air supply. He was talking then, saying something about humans being “weak and pathetic”, but it was muffled in Lance’s ears as it was getting harder and harder to stay awake.
The last thing Lance heard before he lost consciousness was desperate shouting coming from his abandoned helmet.
Lance woke up in excruciating pain.
His head was pounding, his neck was aching, his throat was sore, and worst of all was the sharp pain in his left side. Lance groaned as he sat up, taking in his surroundings. He was in what seemed to be a cell on a Galran ship and he was stripped of his armor, only wearing his black flight suit. There was also a long chain tight around his ankle that was connected to the wall. He tried pulling on it, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Alright, what would Shiro do?” Lance thought to himself. “He would probably check his injuries first, then look around and assess the situation.”
Lance brought a hand down to his side, flinching and ripping his hand away when that brought a wave of pain and nausea. “There might be some damage to my ribs.” he mumbled to himself. He reached to the back of his head where there was also a lot of pain, feeling something wet there. When he looked at his hand, there was blood on it. “Great, a head wound. Just perfect.”
He put the pieces together that he most likely had a concussion, as he had a headache, his vision was a bit blurry, and he felt like he was going to throw up any second. But that last part could also just be because of the severe pain and aches all over his body. Or the fact that he was captured and could be tortured any minute now.
Lance was starting to feel extremely nervous about the situation. He had some serious injuries and there was an incredibly low chance that the Galra would heal him in any way.
Just then, a loud creak sounded through the room as the large metal door to his cell was opened. A tall Galra soldier strided into the room, three others following behind. The last one through closed the door behind them and joined the others in standing in front of Lance. The four of them looked down at him with sadistic smiles, making Lance terrified of what they were going to do to him.
“Looks like he’s finally awake.”
“Perfect. Now we can have a little fun.” And with that, the soldier kicked Lance in the chest roughly, sending him to the floor.
Another Galra bent down to wrap a hand around Lance’s neck, pulling him up until his feet were dangling just above the ground and punching him in the face.
They took turns after that, punching and kicking him for a while. Lance didn’t know how long it lasted, though it felt like hours, and their Galra strength made it so much worse . On top of that, his ribs were injured. When one of them got a good hit in his side, Lance wailed in pain. They dropped him to the floor, giving him looks of disgust.
“Pathetic. Can’t even take a little beating.” one spoke, ending his insult with another kick to Lance’s ribs.
That was the breaking point. Lance couldn’t help it when tears began falling from his eyes, mixing with the blood dripping from his head. There was too much pain and he just couldn’t take it anymore. He was crying now in front of the enemy, and couldn’t help but think, “They’re right. I really am pathetic.” Lance rolled onto his back with a grunt, laying there with his chest heaving and breath rushed. To make matters worse, crying hurt due to his ribs being injured and possibly even worsened his condition.
Lance felt childish and vulnerable like this.
I really am the worst paladin.
Shiro has been through so much worse, I really shouldn’t be crying about this.
One of them eventually spoke again. “We should probably stop now before we really mess him up. The witch wants him alive. But there’s one more thing I want to try first.” He slowly brought a hand to his side, pulling a knife out of the sheath attached there.
Lance, despite being in severe pain, outnumbered, and chained to a wall, struggled to get away from the knife.
“What, scared of a little knife? I guess this defender of the universe isn’t so tough after all, huh?” He spoke in a taunting voice.
“Of course not. Didn’t put up much of a fight, it was easy to capture him.” one of the other Galra behind him said, and wow those words hurt .
The Galra with the knife bent over slowly, bringing it up to Lance’s neck. Lance’s shut his eyes tightly as he let out an involuntary whimper. And that seemed to be exactly the kind of reaction the Galra was looking for, because he stood up and laughed darkly. “Come on, let’s not waste anymore of our time here.” With that, he turned and made his way to the door, the other three Galra following him. The door closed and Lance was once again left alone in the dark with his thoughts and unbearable pain.
That Galra said the witch wanted him alive… Was he talking about Haggar? What was she going to do with him? Lance was terrified of what was to come, but all he could do for now was wait.
Lance must have fallen asleep, because the next time he opened his eyes was to the loud creaking of the cell door once more, feeling groggy and a bit numb all over.
The Galra soldier who had the knife before was back, with only one of the others this time. They said nothing as they approached Lance, cuffing his hands behind his back and unlocking the chain around his ankle. They pulled him up from the floor roughly and dragged him to the exit.
Their journey down the halls of the Galra cruiser felt long, mostly because Lance was in pain and terrified of where they were going, but also because the ship was huge. His injuries certainly didn’t help, making him stumble multiple times, which resulted in the Galra pushing forward in anger each time.
They finally stopped in front of a large door that gave of an ominous feeling. One of the soldiers stepped forward to place his hand against the panel beside the door. When it opened and he was led inside, Lance felt his stomach drop at the scene before him.
The room was big, the walls and floor a dark purple. The walls were lined with shelves of what seemed to be an assortment of medical supplies, and a chair stood in the center of it all. The chair looked like it was metal and somehow fused to the ground, with leather straps on the arms and legs of it. A small cart of needles and sharp tools was beside it, causing Lance to shiver.
The Galra soldiers brought him to the chair and sat him down, forcefully binding his arms and legs in the straps. Lance tried to fight against them, but it was no good as he was still very weak from his wounds.
They left the room after that, leaving Lance alone in the creepy room. Only a minute later, a hooded figure walked in with two druids trailing behind. Lance knew exactly who she was the moment he saw her.
Haggar.
She approached him at an agonizingly slow rate. “Blue paladin.” she spoke in a gravelly voice, “You are going to tell me all of the information I ask for, and if you do not… well, let’s just say you will regret it.” Lance couldn’t hold back the shiver that came across his body when she reached out to brush her finger against his cheek. “Let’s begin.”
She grabbed a syringe from the cart beside the chair, filled with some sort of purple liquid. Something told Lance he was going to despise the color purple after all of this was over.
Haggar stepped away with the syringe in hand to face him. “Where is Emperor Lotor?”
Lance groaned. “Everybody is asking us that, but we have no idea .”
“Do not lie to me.” Haggar said, raising the syringe up.
“I’m not! I swear, I don’t know!” If it wasn’t already noticeable, the slight screech in his voice probably gave away how afraid he truly was.
Haggar did not look amused. “He did not come back, but Voltron did. As a paladin, you must know where he was left.”
“I really don’t, though.” Lance assured.
“Liar!” she accused, stepping forward to rip the fabric of the flight suit covering his arm and piercing the skin of his bound arm.
Lance cried out in both pain and surprise as he watching the veins beneath his skin turn purple, a tingling feeling up his arm and in his chest soon after. “W-what did you do to me?” he gasped out, clenching his fists tightly.
“I gave you a poison which will give you pain that will become excruciating within one varga. I will give you the antidote when you tell me the truth. Now, what happened to Emperor Lotor? Is he dead?”
Lance really started to panic at that. “But I really don’t know!”
“Perhaps your memory will be refreshed after I name some of the side effects of this poison. There has been reports of blindness, hearing loss, some cases of both at the same time, swelling of the throat, hallucinations, memory loss… Need I go on?”
Haggar was trying to scare him into telling her the truth and he knew it. But that didn’t change the fact that he truly had no clue what had happened to Lotor. Besides, Lance trusted that his team would find and rescue him before any permanent damage could be done.
“I. Don’t. Know.”
“We have plenty more methods of gathering information that we can use while we wait for the poison to take effect.” Haggar explained to Lance as she turned to the druid on her right, saying something in what he assumed was Galran, before the druid nodded and went behind Lance.
Before he could say anything else, there was a sudden electric shock at the back of his neck. “Fuck!” Lance flinched hard and leaned forward to try and get away from the feeling.
Lance turned his gaze upwards to see Haggar smiling darkly. “This will be fun.”
The next half hour was filled with druid magic shocking Lance in several places across his body, and unanswered questions about Lotor, Voltron, the Blade of Marmora, rebels, and other members of the coalition. He was beginning to feel a sickening feeling inside of him, an ache that made him want to throw up. He assumed that was the poison starting to take effect.
Haggar must have noticed, because she put a hand up, signalling for the druid to stop the shocks. “I told you, I will give you the antidote once you start giving me answers.”
And… Lance had a feeling that the poison was starting to kick in faster than he thought it would, because Haggar’s voice was starting to sound faint and he was pretty sure the lights had just been dimmed.
Oh. That’s right. Blindness and hearing loss were some of the symptoms, weren’t they?
That was the last thought Lance had before he passed out in the uncomfortable metal chair, exhausted and defeated.
When Lance woke up again, he was back in the cell. Except… it was really dark now. He looked down at his hands, but could barely see the blurry outlines.
Lance groaned when the pulsing ache throughout his body worsened, but noticed that his own pained moan sounded muffled in his ears.
Maybe the team really won’t save me. Maybe they’ll find me too late.
It didn’t really matter much, anyway. He was obviously the worst person on the team, the most expendable.
Useless.
He just had to go and get himself captured, didn’t he?
It would be better if they just forgot about him. He was probably just a nuisance to the team, to Shiro.
I deserve to d-
Before Lance could finish that thought, he felt vibrations in the floor beneath him and the wall he was sat up against. He could barely see light shine into the room when the door opened and multiple figures walked in, but he couldn’t make out who it was.
They must have been Galra… right? But he caught sight of colors that weren’t very Galra-like. Yellow, red, green… it didn’t make sense.
They got closer to him and started talking. Lance tried to make out what they were saying, but it all sounded so far away.
Suddenly, there were hands on him, and he flinched away from them.
They’re back to hurt me again.
He didn’t want to hurt anymore. He couldn’t handle it, he wasn’t as strong as the others. Lance tried to move away from them, but grit his teeth when that caused a spike of pain to shoot down his side. He cried out, yelling, “No, please stop! Please !” He continued shouting, calling out for help from anyone who could hear him.
The hands left him then, and he passed out.
The paladins finally caught up with the Galra cruiser and they were now on their way to where the prisoners were held. Shiro went with the team despite their many protests against it.
“You’re still recovering.”
“Please, just stay here.”
“We know you two are close, but don’t worry. We’ll bring him back.”
“I’m going, and that’s final.” Shiro had said in a stern voice, leaving no room for argument. Everyone let it go after that, but they all still sent him concerned looks.
As the group raced through the ship trying to find Lance, Shiro’s heart sank more and more each time they found yet another cell either empty or with a prisoner other than Lance inside.
After what felt like forever, when Shiro was losing hope and thinking that maybe they were in the wrong ship , Hunk opened the door to a cell that revealed a dirty and beaten Lance chained to the wall.
“Lance!” someone had called his name out, but Shiro couldn’t tell who. All he was focused on at the moment was his injured boyfriend on the floor in front of him. He couldn’t believe the amount of blood he saw, the tear tracks on his face, and the utterly defeated look of it all. Because, honestly, who could hurt such a wonderful, innocent person?
Shiro rushed over and knelt to the floor. “Lance, baby, please talk to me.” Lanced groaned weakly, but said nothing. His eyes were open, but he seemed to not be looking at anything in particular. “Lance…?” Shiro asked again as he reached out his hand to cup Lance’s face. However, as soon as he made contact, Lance took in a sharp breath and flinched away from him. “Lance, it’s me, Shiro. You’re okay now, Kitten.”
The others approached then, Hunk kneeling next to Shiro and taking Lance’s hand in both of his while Pidge examined the chain connecting Lance’s ankle to the wall.
Shiro knew something must have been very wrong when Lance tried to move further towards the wall and away from them, despite being right up against it. When he moved, a shout escaped him and his eyes squeezed shut tight.
What happened next broke Shiro’s heart.
“No, please stop! Someone help me! Please! Oh, God, no. No, I can’t! No more, please!” Lance continued yelling and asking for help like he thought they were going to hurt him .
Everybody pulled away, trying to calm him down with gentle reassurances instead. But Lance didn’t seem to hear them, proceeding to pass out in the midst of his shouting.
Shiro knew the sound of Lance’s terrified cries would haunt them for a long time.
When Lance wakes up, the first thing he notices is a steady beeping sound coming from right beside him. He turns his head and realizes that- oh, he’s in a hospital.
The room was white and there was a heart monitor to the right of his bed, as well as a thin tube in his arm. He felt scratchy bandages wrapped around his chest, arms, and legs.
Lance looked down and saw that he was wearing a thin, light blue shirt and his legs were covered with a white blanket. He tried to sit up, but gasped as he felt a sharp pain in his side. “Hey, try not to move too much. You have some damaged ribs.” A voice said from his left as a hand was placed on his shoulder, gently guiding him to sit back against the pillows. Lance turned his head and saw Shiro there, sitting in a chair pulled up next to the bed. “Hey, how are you feeling?” Shiro asked as he took Lance’s hand in his own and gave it a little squeeze.
“I hurt everywhere.” Lance looked around the room then and noticed the only other person there was an alien nurse. “Where are the others?”
Shiro smiled sadly. “I wish we could do more, but we couldn’t use a healing pod. And everyone else should be sleeping, it’s night on this planet right now.”
Lance frowned. “I thought we had a healing pod with us, the one you stayed in.”
“Yes, but Coran scanned you and found poison in your system. You were temporarily blind for a while and your hearing was almost completely gone. It would have done more harm than good if we put you in there before fixing those problems first.
“That’s… scary to think about.” Lance sighed, looking down at his hands. “It looks like we’ll be getting back to Earth even later now because of me.”
Shiro’s brow creased. “Lance, none of this was your fault.”
Lance shook his head. “If I was stronger and a better paladin, I wouldn’t have gotten caught.”
“Lance, look at me.” Lance sighed and reluctantly looked up to meet Shiro’s eyes with his own. “When we went to help you, none of us were able to get a single hit on that big Galra soldier. The sentries dragged you back to their ship and none of us could stop them.”
“Seriously?” Lance asked in a small voice.
“Yes. You’re a great fighter, Lance. He was just too strong.”
Lance smiled for just a second before gasping and staring at Shiro with wide eyes and raised eyebrows. “Wait, you said ‘ we ’ and ‘ us ’. Did you leave Red to help me?”
“I had to. You were asking for help on the comms and then were suddenly cut off.”
“Shiro, you’re still recovering-”
“I couldn’t just sit around when you were in danger. Besides, you would’ve done the same for me.”
“That’s… true.”
Shiro brought Lance’s hand to his mouth and kissed it. “ Please , just try to be more careful next time. I don’t know what the team would do without our sharpshooter. I don’t know what I would do without you, I was so worried .”
Lance felt himself start to tear up at his boyfriend’s words. “Don’t worry, Kashi. You can’t get rid of me that easily.”
Shiro let out a breathy laugh at that, and then remembered something. “Oh, the doctor said you should try to drink a lot of water. Especially since you’re healing on your own without a pod.” He reached out and took the clear glass of water from the table beside Lance’s bed, handing it to him.
When Lance grasped the cup and Shiro let go, his hand started shaking slightly. Shiro placed his hand over Lance’s on the cup. “Here, let me help you.” Shiro said, guiding it slowly to Lance’s lips and tilting it for him to drink.
Once he was done and it was back on the table, Lance sighed in annoyance. “Can’t even drink water on my own.”
“You’re still healing and we only got you back here a few hours ago, give it some time.” Shiro said softly.
“How long was I gone for? What are my injuries?”
“You were held on a Galra cruiser for two days.” Shiro paused, watching Lance’s reaction for a moment before continuing. “Aside from being covered in bruises, scrapes and cuts, you have a couple of fractured ribs and your neck is really bruised. The back of your head was also hurt pretty badly and you have a concussion.” Shiro listed off. “Druid magic was used on you too. It… left a scar.” Shiro pointed to Lance’s midsection. Lance reached out to lift his shirt up, gasping when he saw it.
There were thin purple lines across his abdomen, spread out in different directions like lightning, all connected at a single point on his right side.
Shiro took Lance’s hand in his again. “I don’t know exactly what happened while you were gone, but I know spending time with the Galra, the druids especially, really affects a person both physically and mentally. You can always talk to me or any of the others.”
Lance frowned. “But I was only gone for two days. Shiro, you were with them longer and went through so much worse. I don’t have the right to complain-”
“Lance.” Shiro interrupted. “Please don’t compare your torture to mine. Because it’s exactly that. Torture. It’s hard on anyone, no matter how long you had to endure it for. Okay?”
Lance avoided his gaze, but nodded. “Okay. Thank you, Shiro.”
Shiro pulled him into a tight hug then, holding him close and kissing the top of his head. “I missed you so much, Kitten.”