Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Lance woke up hoping for an easy day of being a defender of the universe, a large ask but one he keeps trying for. At first it seemed like his prayers had been answered since they needed a few days to fully repair the lions. The last fight caused some concerning damage to most of the lions, nothing that would stop them from forming Voltron luckily. Though there was still work that Coran told them needed to be done.

During last night’s debriefing it was decided that they would go to some far off planet that had a nice atmosphere and oceans that humans could swim in. Coran had managed to find one that he remembered from his childhood, somewhere his family used to visit every other year apparently. He seemed overly excited to see something from his childhood and to share this place with the others on the ship, even Allura had never been.

Unfortunately after ten thousand years, the planet and its solar system was no longer like that. The star seemed to be going through the end of its life, instead of a yellow dwarf it was now a red giant. Luckily the planet Coran knew about wasn’t absorbed into the slowly expanding dying star, though now it was almost unrecognizable to the old Altean. 

Coran’s face fell the moment they came out of the warp, staring at the dying star and different looking planets. No one said anything as they all watched the planets move around the large red star, one of which was so close to the star that it was becoming egg shaped. The planet that Coran wanted to go to was luckily still far enough away for them to be safe to be near.

While that was very upsetting to the man, he tried to hide it by performing tests to see if they could at least land on the huge planet. When Lance managed to look at the numbers he saw that it was almost twice the size of Jupiter but the mass was way too low for a rocky planet that size. 

“I am sorry Coran but it seems like after our time in the pods this entire solar system has changed drastically.” Allura said as she put a hand on the older man’s shoulder.

“It’s fine Princess,” Coran said softly, grief clear in his voice, “it’s just a planet.”

There was an uneasy silence before Lance raised his hand, he was curious about the planet mass. He didn’t make it into the garrison because he didn’t question anything after all. And maybe they could find something on this planet for Coran to help him remember all the good times instead of what it is now.

When everyone ignored Lance he decided to just ask his question without being called on, “Coran, was the planet’s mass that low when you used to visit it?”

Everyone snapped their heads to look at him with differing faces of anger, though Hunk was more contemplative. Lance didn’t see the big deal, Coran was sad and Lance would be there for him but right now he was too curious. This could help him create new memories for a planet that didn’t even look the same apparently. 

“Lance!” Allura exclaimed in a scolding tone, clearly enraged at his question.

He threw his hands into the air, looking around the room for support and finding none. They must not have seen what he did during the scans, there was no way the science duo wouldn’t comment about it.

“What!” Lance exclaimed, “the planet is like twice the size of Jupiter with almost half the mass! That’s insane for a gas giant, let alone a rocky planet!”

Lance watched as the team blinked before huddling around Coran to get a look at the specs that the castle was outputting. He hears gasps of surprise and the muttering of Pidge and Hunk, even Coran was surprised by what Lance asked about.

“Woah Lance,” Pidge mocked, “using all your brain cells early huh?”

Lance just rolled his eyes before snapping back, “we went to the same school, one that was based around space ya dingus.”

There was a long silence before Shiro coughed and turned to the Alteans, “I’m assuming from the surprise from everyone that this was not how it was the last time you were here.”

Coran jumped in surprise before making an exuberant movement to face Shiro, “Oh no! This was just a normal planet the last time I was here, no weird mass problems at all!”

The older man put a hand to his chin as he began to think about the planet, clearly lost in memories of a planet long gone. Everyone nodded and for a moment just stewed in their own thoughts, theorizing how the planet could have changed so much. 

Lance was sure it had something to do with the clearly dying star, obviously. Though how the planet lost so much mass but didn’t collapse was astounding. It should just be debris or at least a misshapen lump of a planet. This place didn’t make any sense

“Could we go down and look around?” Pidge asked, “I know you wanted to work on the lions but I think this would be really fun.”

There was a glance passed between Allura and Coran before Coran sighed and nodded, with a smile Allura turned and clapped. “Yes! We will put off the work on some of the lions and you may go down to see what this planet has in store.”

Everyone cheered, excited to get to explore somewhere without the fear of a Galra presence, exploring for the sake of science. It was decided that Blue and Green would be the lions going down since they were the least banged up in the last fight.

Normally they would only take one lion but for once they weren’t sure if they wanted to take some kind of samples. Having two lions meant more ground covered and since Green was so small it would be easy to get into some place Blue could never.

Lance was ecstatic that Blue got to come with them for once, she was also purring in his mind in excitement. She didn’t really understand why he was so excited but if it made him happy then she was supportive. He wasn’t super excited that he kept getting called cub but then again it was kind of sweet that she cared about him that much.

This was going to be awesome, just a day of exploring a dangerous planet that they chose to go to. Not one overrun or about to explode or anything! Each person ran off to go collect the things they needed before meeting up in the hangers to finally leave for the planet. Lance couldn’t wait to see what they found.

Chapter Text

Coran briefed them many many times about not opening their visors once they left the ship, not even in their lions if they could help it. Something about the atmosphere on this once beautiful planet being filled with microscopic quartz crystals that could coat their lungs and kill them. Not a very fun way to go Lance would assume.

But even the thought of slowly choking to death didn’t deter everyone’s excitement to explore with no threat of Galra. Something Lance never thought would happen, even if it was because repairs needed to be done. Even Allura decided to join them, realizing that if something happened there would be two lions to get back to the ship with.

For once in Lance’s life he made sure to fly slower than he really wanted to, Blue told him it was better to be safe and who was he to argue with his beautiful lion. So instead of zipping through the sky while Keith and Shiro yelled behind him, Lance flew as gently as possible and just watched, mesmerized by the new planet.

The clouds floating in the sky looked like large white quartz clusters, crystalline in structure but nothing for them to be growing out of. The planet's atmosphere had to be extremely thin for this to happen but somehow it just wasn’t, they were even on fire during the entry from space. There was no vegetation they could see and the tides of this planet were insane. Each high and low tide had miles of difference and there never seemed to be a calm moment from the waves, the scans from Green showed the water was also superheated and filled with silica.

Much like everything else on this planet, the ground was a harsh waste land too. Jagged rocks poking out of the ground at random angles, different types of quartz from what Lance could see. Though there also seemed to be the remnants of long dead volcanic activity on this side of the planet too, maybe there were active volcanoes somewhere else on the planet. 

Everywhere they flew was amazing to look at, the planet was filled with crazy features. Coran was quiet in their ears, due to him being too focused on the task of fixing the lions. Lance thought that it was probably also due to the fact that this used to be somewhere Coran loved to go. That the idea the planet he once knew was gone forever still hurt just a little too much.

Shaking his head, Lance tried to look around outside again. This time he started really staring at the crevices in the land, trying to find somewhere they could get Green into. Then something happened, just a quick thing that made him pause.

Lance knew everyone was talking around him, discussing theories and the like, but something caught his eye and made him ignore them. Far down on the planet’s surface, there was movement. At first he thought he was mistaken, there was no way this place had any living creatures with how it was. But there it was again, something skittering across the ground across the jagged rocks of the surface. 

He stopped flying his lion forwards, instead angling her so they could stare at the ground better. Ignoring Keith’s demanding questions to run scan after scan to try and find out what was skittering around beneath them. Lance knew it was there and so did Blue, she tried running her own scans just for all of them to end up clear.

“I don’t know Blue,” Lance said aloud, forgetting the other occupants for a moment, “We both saw those things running around down there. How come nothing’s coming up on the scans!”

The blue lion sent some confused feelings to him and turned her head to look at Green, clearly talking in their secret lion wavelengths. Blue sent waves of humor at him, clearly amused at his annoyance of not being able to hear her talk to Green.

“You talk to your lion like that?” Keith asked, scaring Lance so bad he banged his knee.

He could hear Blue laughing as he rubbed the quickly forming bruise, “Uh, yeah. How else is she gonna know what I’m thinking.”

Keith blinked at him before responding, “They can read your mind Lance.”

 “Yeah I know,” Lance snarked, “But actually talking lets her know that I am actually thinking those things at her. Plus she likes when I talk outloud, she told me.”

Lance all but preened as Blue sent waves of happiness at him, purring at his words. Their moment was cut short by Pidge, talking about how the green lion started running scans on its own after Blue stopped.

“Yeah,” Keith responded a little miffed, “Lance was talking to the blue lion about seeing something on the ground of the planet.”

Before Lance could sass Keith back for talking about him in an aggravated tone, Shiro gave them both a look that could curdle milk. Instead Lance crossed his arms and slouched in his pilot's seat. Mumbling to himself about how stupid Keith’s mullet is and how ugly it is.

“Well did the scans turn up anything?” Shiro asked as he continued to stare at them, making sure neither boy did anything he deemed unnecessary or unpleasant.

Pidge hummed while Allura and Hunk talked in the background, “Nothing really, but Green does want to land really badly.”

Blue sent the feeling of warmth, it must have been her trying to get Green to agree. He was ecstatic that someone supported him when he needed it. Even if that person was a sentient robot lion that bonded to him forever. A win was always a win for Lance.

“Thanks girl.” Lance whispered while sitting up and getting ready to pilot her down to the surface of the rocky planet.

“Well then,” Allura spoke into the connected line, “if the lions want to land then we should land. Prepare yourselves for ground exploration.”

Chapter Text

It took some time for them to find a place close enough to where Lance saw the movement that could also hold the weight of the lions. But soon enough they managed to land and began the tedious procedure of readying everyone and everything for their ground exploration, less time than normal since Coran made them gear up completely in the castle.

As everyone gathered in front of the two lions, carefully looking around at the new alien environment. Blue kept sending him waves of excitement and support, clearly not sure why he would want to explore the planet's surface but happy to be a part of his day outside of battle. Lance tried to hang out with her in the hangers but it was different to just go somewhere without the threat of death, he wishes they could do this more often.

“Alright paladins,” Allura spoke, breaking Lance’s musings, “we need to be careful. The few scans the green lion managed to successfully gather showed that there are many thin sections of earth that could break if too much weight is applied. Mind your step as we walk.”

Lance bounced from foot to foot, waiting to walk the mile or so to where he and Blue saw the movement. Out of the corner of his eye, Lance saw Keith shooting him looks that he dutifully ignored. No reason to fight with him when there were mysteries and Blue supporting him!

In less than twenty minutes, they found themselves approaching a beautiful outcropping of large white quartz crystals. There were smaller clusters of different colors but the whole area was covered in almost perfect crystals, each jutting out in an almost perfect way to create little crevices to hide in.

Lance leaned into an outcropping, just enough to cover his head in the darkness when something blinked at him from the darkness. Eight neon green eyes blinked at different times at him as he screamed and jumped backwards, flailing away from the creature hiding in the little crevice. 

A small voice screamed inside Lance’s head as the creature skittered away from him with just as much fear, making him scream even louder. Lance felt himself being lifted up and away from the creature by the back of his suit and watched as Keith sprinted forwards to stand between him and the opening.

The voice began speaking in a frantic tone, “please don’t hurt me! I’m sorry for scaring you, please” 

They sounded young, like barely out of toddler years young. Though Lance wished they weren’t speaking through his mind, there was no way he was going to let something happen to a baby.

“Wait,” Lance yelled out, wriggling free from Shiro’s grasp, “I think it’s a kid in there.”

Keith turned his head slightly to yell back, “What! You screamed because a kid scared you!”

“Oh I’m sorry mullet brain,” Lance sassed as he pushed the other boy out of his way with great resistance, “you poke your head into a small space and have eyes blinking back at you.”

He pushed Keith towards Shiro and the rest of the paladins before slowly leaning back into the crevice. Lance looked around for a moment, staring around the small space for the glowing eyes again. 

“Hello?” He called out quietly, trying to keep his voice gentle. “We’re not gonna hurt you, you just spooked me and they wanted to make sure I was safe.”

There was skittering above him, the sound of rocks grinding together made Lance wince. Slowly raising his head to look up and seeing the small eight neon green eyes looking back at him, there was just enough light for him to see the face of some kind of rock scorpion, except made of actual minerals. 

“You won’t hurt?” the kid asked quietly in Lance’s mind, they were clearly scared of him.

“No kiddo,” Lance said gently, “We won’t hurt you, just got a little scared.”

They seemed to be in some kind of stale mate for a while, just staring at each other and waiting for the other to move. That was until Shiro grabbed his shoulder and made Lance jump a little, scaring the little scorpion child into skittering back into the depths. With careful movements, Shiro pushed Lance just far enough over to look into the crevice too. 

“Hello?” He called out, jumping immediately after and looking around before the kid blinked their eyes open.

“Oh,” he whispered, “you talk telepathically.”

Lance snapped his head over to stare at Shiro incredulously, “Did you think I just lost my mind?”

“Yes.” Everyone answered at the same time, making Lance huff in annoyance.

A small laugh echoed in his head and the sound of clinking rock mandibles were the only thing stopping Lance from making a scene. The little kid  crawled out of the little crevice and somehow managed to stand on two legs, wrapping the rest around Lance’s leg. Their head was only about hip height on him but looking down and seeing a large quartz scorpion was not the most fun in the world.

The kid had the exact shape of a normal rock scorpion but with the eyes more placed for bipedal movement, two sets on the back, one set on the top, and the last two were on the front of their head. Each set blinked independently of each other and now that they were in the light, Lance saw they were a solid black instead of that neon green from before.

They were a milky yellow color body that ended in white stone at their feet and the stinger. The large claws and mandibles were a spotted black color. Their coloring wasn’t the best for where they were but with all the other small splotches of color around Lance was sure they were fine.

“Can you help?” The kid asked in a small voice, looking around before tilting their head to look at Lance.

Before Lance could get a word out the sound of more scuttling echoed around them, the same as when the kid was trying to move away. It was more than just one coming their way but Lance wasn’t worried because of how calm the kid on his leg was acting.

In no time at all there were four new Scorpions surrounding them, one blue, two a similar yellow, and one red. Each one had the same white tail and feet and spotted black claws and mandibles, probably something the whole species had. 

“Rutile!” The red one exclaimed, clearly able to talk to more than just one person at a time since the other paladins jumped when they talked.

The kid, Rutile, ignored the other scorpions and asked Lance again, “You help?” 

“Yeah kid,” Lance said with a small smile, “I’ll help.”

The sound of excitement from the kid was endearing and hair raising, with the sound of grinding rocks and breaking gravel coming from their throat. They hugged his leg hard then scuttered off on all six legs to the others, chittering alone with them and pointing at Lance.

“What did you agree to?” Keith asked, suddenly right next to him. Lance jumped in surprise before looking into his stupid pretty purple eyes.

“That I would help,” Lance spit out through his blushing, “duh.”

“But what did you agree to help about?” Keith pressed.

“I don’t know man!” Lance exclaimed, “The kid needed help and was so scared in that cave that I couldn’t say no!”

Keith hummed as he watched the scorpions talk before turning to look at Lance with a critical eye. Staring deep into Lance’s eyes and making him shift from foot to foot, his own eyes darting around.

“You say you can help?” A deep voice asked, the blue one it seemed like.

Shiro and Allura stepped forwards, nodding in sync. With a single glance between each other, there was a silent conversation. The next moment led to Shiro taking just a half step back and Allura one forward.

“Yes we may be able to help.” Allura said in her diplomatic voice, “I am Princess Allura of Altea and we are the paladins of Voltron, defenders of the universe.”

The blue scorpion didn’t say anything and just looked from each person to the next before landing back on Allura. It was hard to really tell what they were thinking because of the whole being a scorpion thing but Lance spent his time just staring at how cool they were. 

“Rutile’s parents went missing in the caves over yonder," the blue one explained, pointing down the hill to a large opening in the rocks. “Can you find them or at least what could have taken their lives?”

“Of course.” Allura said gravely, not waiting for anyone else’s input.

“I am Kyanite, the eldest of us.” The blue scorpion explained, “if you find them alive let them know we have Rutile. They know where to go.”

Without another word the entire group dropped to the ground and skittered away, easily traversing the rocky landscape. They all just watched the unit leave, both amazed and a little confused. Kyanite told them both so much and nothing at all, maybe Rutile’s parents would tell them more.

There was a small discussion about whether the lions should be moved closer to the cave they were about to enter but ultimately it was decided not to. Each lion could move on their own if the need arises and on top of that they weren’t that far away compared to some missions. It would be easier to just walk down into the cave and do some reconnaissance and maybe get the two scorpions out.

It wasn’t an easy walk there, the side of the hill they were on was a mix of large and small gravel making it hard to stay steady. Each person was too focused on not falling down the entire thing face first to hold any kind of conversation. Other than a few quips here and there it was mostly a silent affair getting into the cave itself.

The silence kept up for a long time, each person lost in their own thoughts. Lance was listening to Blue’s feelings of sass about whatever the other lions were saying, not that he really understood her in words but he knew what drama sounded like in every language. 

“These look like old sewers,” Pidge suddenly called out, looking around at the walls. “They’re a little different than the ones on Earth but they seem to have had the same function.”

Everyone made the same disgusted noise before Hunk started gagging in his helmet. Lance took a few steps closer to the wall, dancing away from the potential muck.

“If these are sewers then why didn’t the people of this planet know what they were,” Lance exclaimed, still pressing closer to the wall, “and they don’t even have the infrastructure for toilets.”

“Maybe the original people here died and this is the new species that evolved. It would make sense that the castle’s database would be wrong after ten thousand years.” Hunk theorized, he stopped walking and looked around before jogging to catch up with the rest of them.

“Coran did stay here for summers when he was kid, maybe there was an entire civilization of people he knew.”

Everyone went silent as they walked after that, the two people left in the castle had nothing of the universe they once knew. Even something as small as a vacation spot was gone forever and what was left was bound to die as well. The world around them changed without them and now they were being forced to find out so long after no one could help them.

Luckily for them, the single tunnel split into three forcing them to stop. Lance shuddered at the idea of what happened to the Alteans and would like anything else to be happening right now, even talking to Keith was better.

Shiro shined a light down each path, looking at everything methodically before turning back to look at them. Hunk and Pidge were huddled close together theorizing something for the lions while Lance was still trying to get Keith to understand his team chant. It could be that hard to just say ‘tron’ once he said ‘vol!’

“We’ll split up and search each tunnel in pairs,” Shiro announced, “we will meet back up here when you find the end of your tunnel or an hour passes, whichever comes first. Do not engage with anything and do not go down any splits in your tunnel, this is just for us to do some reconnaissance. When we meet back up we will discuss our next steps.”

Lance elbowed Keith in the arm, snickering as the other stumbled. “Hear that mullet head, don’t engage with the first thing you see.”

Keith whipped around and took a breath to yell back when Shiro cleared his throat to get their attention. The two made long intense eye contact for a while before Keith turned back to wait for Shiro’s instructions, whispering under his breath about revenge later.

“Keith, you and Lance will take the first tunnel.” Shiro pointed at them and then the tunnel farthest to the left, “Pidge and Hunk will take the last tunnel and I’ll take the middle.”

“Hey, wait!” Lance and Keith yelled at the same time, pushing at each other to try and get Shiro’s attention first.

Keith pushed Lance’s face away, “Shiro why do I have to babysit Lance.” the boy almost whined.

“Babysit!” 

Shiro sighed and put his hand on his visor since he couldn’t pinch the bridge of his nose, “suck it up boys, you need to learn to trust each other. This is a simple mission and I trust the two of you to keep each other safe.”

From beside them Lance could hear Hunk and Pidge laughing, their little snickers getting on Lance’s nerves. Before he could yell at them the two of them ran towards their own tunnel, clearly able to tell Lance was on to them.

“Ugh,” Lance whined, “fine, I’ll go with Keith.”

Chapter Text

They had been walking down the tunnel for a while, not really talking or anything but the air was still comfortable. Lance didn’t want to break the nice quiet with the other boy, he didn’t get to have these quiet moments and not feel bad very often. It was nice to not feel the weight of a need to hold a conversation alone, to lead social interaction for once.

Suddenly there was just a whisper of something in Lance’s mind, a voice he didn't know. He jumped before looking around, trying to see if there was anything nearby that could be talking. When he didn’t see anything, Lance looked to Keith trying to gauge his reaction to their surroundings.

The other boy wasn’t acting any different so maybe it was like with Rutile and only Lance could hear them. Then another whisper joined the first, then another, then another, more and more until they became an amorphous glob of nonsense.

“Do you hear that?” Lance whispered, shaking his head to try and make his head clear. Instead he just made himself more dizzy than before, the voices getting louder for a moment before quieting down.

“Hear what?”

“The whispers?”

“I think the cave is getting to you, Lover Boy.” Keith snarked back, ignoring Lance’s concerns while he walked ahead of him slightly.

Lance tried to ignore the whispers echoing in his ears and follow behind the red paladin but they wouldn’t stop calling to him. Anytime he tried to get away from them in his mind they would find a way to get louder and louder until he couldn’t ignore them. He didn’t want to talk to Keith about them again since it didn’t look like the other boy could hear them and the last thing he needed to be was a burden on this mission.

They walked in silence for a while again, this time the air was more tense. Keith slowed down, letting Lance catch up while shooting glances at him from time to time. No matter how hard he tried to ignore it, the whispers were there, nothing he could understand but hair raising nonetheless. Lance tried to hide it but he kept looking around the tunnel for something that could be causing the whispers, even if it was something terrible.

There was a sudden moment where the whispers turned to screams, making Lance stop and put his hands on his helmet. It hurt as they screamed at him, he couldn't stop the pain. In a desperate attempt to get them to quiet, Lance started taking small steps back. He was afraid to turn around or run with how dizzy his head was becoming. 

Slowly the screams stopped but when Lance tried to walk forwards again the whispers got louder. Instead he began looking around the room, clearly there was something here making this happen. But what could it be?

Something in the wall next to him stood out in the dim lighting. There was a small offshoot of the main tunnel they were walking, a crack in the wall that looked like it went nowhere. But something about it called to him, the whispers seemed happier with every step he took nearer. 

Lance jumped as a hand landed on his shoulder, the sudden touch making him snap his head around to look at Keith. The two made a long amount of eye contact before Keith spoke.

“What are you doing?” He asked in a harsh but confused tone. He sounded annoyed, his eyes narrowed as he looked at Lance.

Lance almost didn’t want to tell him, just wanted Keith to keep walking so he could go into this tunnel alone. Then he remembered that was how people die in horror movies and that was not going to happen to Lance McClain thank you so much.

“There’s something over here.” He whispered, glancing around paranoid that something was watching them. The hair on his arms went up as the whispers got louder for a second, almost drowning Keith out.

“Why didn’t you tell me instead of just going?” Keith’s hand squeezed Lance’s shoulder as he tilted his head like a dog. It almost made Lance laugh, he probably didn’t even realize he was doing it.

Lance was left reeling a little when he realized he couldn’t answer why he didn’t just tell Keith what he was going to do. “I don’t know.” He mumbled out, brows furrowing as he thought.

The whispers started again, pushing all of the thoughts out of Lance’s head. They were calling for help, asking for him to find them. The people here were telepathic so maybe in reality it was the missing teenagers and they were just too weak to broadcast to Keith too.

Lance glanced back at the other paladin just to watch as Keith gave Lance an indecipherable face. Without thinking he shook the other boy’s arm off and turned to walk into the small outshoot cave. He just wanted to look, it might be important. Plus they were looking for someone and this could be where they went if he was right.

“Look,” Lance called behind him, “there’s another tunnel here.”

Keith sounded far away with how loud the whispers were getting. “Lance, we shouldn’t leave the main tunnel, remember.”

“The kids could have gone over here though!” Lance called back, looking around as he talked. With the help of the flashlight in his visor, Lance could make out distributions in the dust that looked recent. “Plus look, there are signs of someone being here recently!”

The whispers got quieter for a moment, letting Lance take a deep breath. Keith was right, they shouldn’t go into this tunnel. Why was he trying to go into this spooky tunnel without backup?

Before he could think much harder on it, the whispers started up again. They pushed into the depths of his mind and told him to go forward. The task could be beyond the tunnel he just needed to go farther, the teens were in trouble and Lance could help them.

The path wasn’t very far, just a small turn keeping the large cave chamber from view. It was about the size of a banquet room in a hotel. The footsteps lead to some kind of hole in the middle of the room. Lance tried to pull his eyes away from the pit but the whispers began overlapping before rising in volume every time.

Eventually he got tired and just decided to really look at the hole. Lance’s vision narrowed to the pit in front of him, the world around him fading into darkness. Whispers began drifting to his ears as he felt himself take a step forward, then another, then another. His body dragging itself to the abyss calling his name in a sweet tone.

Never enough

Seventh wheel

Failure 

The whispers grew louder, drowning out the ambient sounds of the cave. Each word hissed into his ears, everything he thought of himself repeated by whatever was in this cave.

Useless

No one with miss you

Jump, it’ll be better for everyone

Lance’s eyes went blurry with tears, he wanted to refute the whispers but he couldn’t. These were all thoughts he’s had before and hearing them from something else seemed to make them stick more. If some eldritch being on another planet was telling him this it must be true.

Kill yourself

Jump

Everyone hates you

For a moment his body stopped just at the ledge of the gaping pit, a quiet scream in the back of his mind telling him to not do it. His feet teetered on the edge, close enough for a strong wind to be able to push him in.

He didn’t really want to jump, Lance didn’t want to maybe die. He just wanted the voices to stop and people to be happy.

You make everyone worse

They all hate you

JUMP

The whispers became screams now that he was so close, giving him a splitting headache. Lance leaned forwards slightly, just staring at the darkness in front of him. The voices told him of comfort and peace if he joined them, all he had to do was jump.

Without another thought Lance leaned just far enough to lose his balance. For just a moment Lance felt dread as he finally started to free fall. Clarity rushed forwards as the whisper quieted, he really didn’t want to die. His body finally leaned too far forward to save himself.

Then something started choking him as it held the back of his armor, the neck guard pulled taught against his throat. The whispers became screams as they yelled incomprehensible words of rage as Lance dangled helplessly, teetering off the ledge. 

All that fight to break free of the whispers fell apart and Lance was dragged back under their influence. His tears pooled on the visor of his helmet as he stared into the abyss he so badly wanted to join. No wonder everyone hated him, he couldn’t even jump into a pit right.

The pressure on his neck increased as whatever was holding him ripped him back over the ledge, dragging him a few feet away before stopping. Lance laid motionless on the floor, listening to the whispers lower in volume until he could barely hear them.

Just as he let out a breath of relief, Keith’s voice screamed next to him. “What were you thinking!”

“I don’t know,” Lance breathed out, a sob breaking through his attempt at calm, “I just-”

“You could have died,” Keith screamed, “you were going to kill youself!”

Whispers began to call to him again, rising in volume until they drowned Keith out again.

Your fault

Worthless

End it

JUMP

Lance felt his body scramble to rise again, he pulled against Keith’s grasp desperately. It felt like someone else piloting his skin, like the real him was being pushed deep down to make room for this suicidal version.

He hates you

No one really cares about you

You’re too annoying to be around

JUMP

He thrashed in Keith’s grasp, writhing around uselessly. Lance didn’t want to hurt him, he just needed to jump into the pit so the voices stopped and people would be happier. It made so much sense when he thought about it, why didn’t he kill himself sooner. He was so selfish.

“Stop it Lance!” Keith screamed into his ear, just for a moment being louder than the pit.

The voices screamed in rage at Lance, drowning out whatever else Keith was trying to say. They were enraged that he wasn’t following their plan.

USELESS

WORTHLESS

JUMP INTO THE PIT

Lance cried out in pain, tears streaming down his face. Without thinking he went to open his visor just for his hand to be ripped away by a new set of hands. He could feel Keith still holding him, wrestling to keep him in place but now someone else was here to see how much of a disappointment Lance was.

PATHETIC 

WORTHLESS

JUMP

JUMP INTO THE PIT

The new set of hands were joined by another as Lance continued to fight Keith, even managing to smash his helmet into the other boys a few times before they could stop him. The voices were screaming at him so loud he couldn't understand them anymore and they drowned out the noise around him. He could barely feel his surroundings really with how much of his focus the voices took. 

There was a rumbling in the ground that Lance could barely feel, though it was still strong enough to get past the voices screaming in his head. Somehow as the rumbles got worse so did the voices, drowning Lance’s thoughts away. There was nothing but the voices, the screams of those before him. He was going to die here because of something he didn’t know.

Something picked him up and he was flopping slightly in its grip, not that he could really think past whatever was screaming at him. Lance could only hope with his soul that what didn’t die on this random planet to these voices yelling at him.