Chapter Text
Lance’s leg shook as he waited to arrive at the next planet. The team was going to a place called Halloweera, as the neutral party in a rivalry occurring between the two types of aliens who lived there. Vampires and Werewolves. Yes, this planet had a name frighteningly close to “Halloween,” has vampires and werewolves, and they’re fighting. They've met so many other types of aliens and planets before, but maybe this time it felt odd because these aliens were seen as fictional creatures on Earth, Lance knew them as such his whole life up until this point, and so many aspects of the situation just hit scarily close to home.
The vampires and werewolves were having issues with one another regarding the full moon. They both needed to go out to hunt for animals each full moon, but kept getting in each other’s way. Running into each other on these hunting nights messed things up because of their scents. Werewolves and Vampires had strong scents which caused the other to lose track of their animal prey.
The team’s job was to bring peace and compromise between the two groups so they could both get what they needed without messing up their hunting plans. Their idea was to divide areas for each type of alien to hunt in. Vampires weren’t to trespass into werewolf hunting territory during the full moon and vice versa. It was a simple plan and the meeting was expected to be short and simple.
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The discussion went well, and while the two groups were still not quite fond of one another, they agreed on the plan Allura had explained. There was a party afterwards thrown in celebration and to thank the paladins. As Lance stood in a group with a few vampires and werewolves, his mind began to wander and he thought about the beings on this planet, hoped that one day soon they would get along much more peacefully. He watched as they bickered in front of him, and he knew they could achieve so much more if they just worked together.
He would usually be one to flirt at these types of gatherings but now he was in a relationship with Shiro. At the thought of his boyfriend, his attention turned to the black paladin. Shiro and Allura were talking with the leaders of the vampires and werewolves and it seemed to be going well, all of them smiling as they chatted. Lance wanted to be like Shiro, good communication skills and getting along well with all of the aliens they met. At this thought of admiration for his boyfriend, Lance decided to get this group some drink refills to help make a good impression. He asked for their empty cups and excused himself.
As Lance walked over to the refreshments table, he looked around the room at everyone. The werewolves and vampires were all very tall, nearly twice the size of Lance. The vampires had blue skin and red eyes, and the werewolves were furry and had yellow eyes. Very similar to Earth's idea of their appearances. Distracted from taking in all of the aliens, Lance nearly bumped into the small werewolf child standing in front of him. He stopped suddenly and crouched down closer after regaining his balance.
“I’m sorry about that! Wasn’t looking where I was going, huh?” The child said nothing but held out to him what looked to be a piece of candy, a small round shape inside of a shiny blue wrapper. Lance, having a soft spot for kids, accepted the gift and thanked the child. He unwrapped what looked to be red chocolate and put it in his mouth, making an exaggerated noise of approval. “Mmm this is delicious! Thanks!” The child smiled before hurrying away. He must’ve just been shy.
Lance completed his journey over to the drink table and poured the green juice into their cups. He was about to head back to the group when he suddenly began to feel uneasy. The lights and noise of the party were suddenly too much for him to handle. Lance spotted a nearby exit and hurried over to it. He just needed to leave for a moment, he would go back when he felt less dizzy. Lance sat down on the ground of the dim, quiet hallway, but light spots still danced across his vision. He was about to attempt to send a message to the others to let them know where he had gone, when the world suddenly began to turn and everything went black.
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Lance slowly woke up to the sound of people murmuring behind him. He tried to turn his head to see who it was, but found he couldn’t move. The anxiety this realization brought had made him more alert, and he glanced down to see his arms and legs tied down to a metal table with leather straps. Another glance to the side brought what seemed to be medical tools into his perspective.
Oh no.
A werewolf stepped into his view, smiling menacingly at him with pointy teeth and sounding unsympathetic as he spoke, “Ah, finally awake! I am so sorry we had to meet this way, blue paladin. But we are... unhappy, with the decisions you paladins have come to today. We will not stand to make amends with those vile, blood-sucking monsters. It is time you are shown our perspective.”
“Ya know, you’d be a lot more productive if you just worked together.” Lance tried to speak calmly but his voice came out shaky. He didn’t want to be afraid, but it was obvious that he was terrified. “And what do you want with me anyway?”
Those glowing yellow eyes easily saw right through him. The werewolf smiled deviously, turning to pick up a large needle. “Oh, you will learn soon enough.” He approached Lance with the needle in hand, and all Lance could do was call out for help as loud as possible.
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Shiro was worried. While the rest of the team has been accounted for, he hadn’t seen Lance recently and couldn’t find him anywhere in the celebration hall or in any of the surrounding hallways and rooms. When that group of aliens notified him of Lance’s disappearance after leaving to get them drinks, he started to internally panic. He was hoping Lance was only using the bathroom or making small talk. But when he checked the suit trackers, blue was the only one completely missing. Shiro sent a message to the rest of the team to meet outside for discussing a plan to find their beloved missing blue paladin.
They were deciding who should go where to check, when they heard two werewolves around the corner talking while walking back to the celebration hall. "I know this plan will work, just keep calm and don't say anything about it." one said to the other.
"And what plan is that?" Allura inquired, stepping towards then with her bayard in hand.
Caught off guard not thinking anyone was around to hear their conversation, the werewolves stood shocked and unsure of what to do. "It's just plans for a surprise party!" one of them blurted out, obviously lying by the change of pitch in their voice. "It's for our friend."
Luckily for the team, Keith wasn't afraid of scaring people into giving information.
The werewolves told them of the plan to turn Lance into one of them, so that the vampires would lose trust in the paladins. They had no reasonable end goal in this plan, they only wanted the paladins to suffer for not giving them what they had wanted. And with the information of Lance's location, they all rushed off to save their friend. The team could deal with the political consequences of what happened later, right now he needed them.
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It was a small, old building in a forest near the main werewolf territory. They snuck inside and ran to where they heard the sound of rough screaming. They found four werewolves in the room. One strapped to a table in the middle of the room, one injecting something into their arm with a big needle, and two off to the side observing.
The one on the table… it was Lance.
He was covered in fur, not recognizable at first glance. But Shiro would know those ocean blue eyes anywhere. Before they could do anymore harm to him, the paladins took them down and tied them with some nearby rope. It wasn't hard with the lack of security, they probably weren't expecting to be found out.
Shiro approached the table and took Lance's head between his hands while the others cut the straps from his arms and legs. He was crying, speaking quietly and mostly incoherently about the pain he was in. "You're gonna be okay, Lance. We're taking you back to the castle now and Coran will fix you up fast. It's okay, it's okay…" Shiro continued to whisper reassurances as he scooped him up into his arms and carried him out of the building.
"You're gonna be okay."