Chapter Text
Lance spat the toothpaste foam out in the sink, and blearily reached for the edge of the sink. His hand met smooth space-ceramic, and he squinted at the spot for a minute before remembering. Right, his pills were back on Earth, along with everything he owned that hadn’t been in his pockets or on his person when he was planning to just sneak out and grab some pizza with Hunk and Pidge. He sighed, and raked a hand through his hair. Thankfully the only side effect had been some killer headaches for a few days, but it still made his stomach churn.
He hadn’t experienced a blackout in years, thanks to the prescription Dr. Martinez had given him, and yet he couldn’t remember waking up to shoot Sendak. It could be a normal thing, like how he’d read once somewhere that your brain didn’t record waking up if you nodded back off a few minutes later, but the sinking feeling in his gut told him otherwise. He had no clue what caused the blackouts, he’d only been ten when he stopped having them and it was no longer relevant information, and he really didn’t want to have to find out again.
He shuddered, and grabbed the brush to start on his still-damp hair. He didn’t want to go back to that, missing hours of his life at a time, sometimes even a whole day. There were movies he couldn’t remember going to see, small scars which he didn’t know the origins of, stories Salome and his sisters told which he couldn’t for the life of him recall. Lance shook his head, settling his hair into place, and smiled at his reflection. He’d be careful. That would have to be enough.
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Lance shouted as Blue was flung out of the castle, instinctively curling forward to protect his head. Purple lightning raced across the controls, and he shot up towards the ceiling as his Lion suddenly shut down, gravity and inertial dampeners turning off in the blink of an eye. His last thought as he flew towards the ceiling was “fuck why doesn’t Blue have a seatbelt?”
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Lance groaned and slumped forward, struggling to open his eyes against the clinging grip of sleep. He had to make sure Blue was okay, that they hadn’t crashed into anything galran while he was out. The smell of something rotting reached his nose, and he gagged as his eyes flew open. Opening his eyes turned out to be a mistake. Directly in front of him was a small, dead animal. It had been partially dissected, its skin and muscles peeled away and pinned to the ground to reveal its internal organs and a whole lot of congealed teal-ish blood.
Lance felt his stomach turn, and only barely got onto his hands and knees before retching. There wasn’t much in his stomach to bring up, but he still dry-heaved a few times before it settled. He staggered to his feet, and glanced around. He was on an alien planet, low leafy plants covered the ground instead of grass and the sky was an ugly yellow, like a bruise. Blue’s head was visible over the top of a hill, and Lance threw up in his mouth a little as he examined his immediate surroundings a little more closely.
He was in a small valley between two hills, and every few yards another animal was staked out. Birds, scaly thing that were probably lizards, fuzzy animals like the one he’d woken up in front of. It was a veritable menagerie of death, and the dark teal stains on his gloves could only mean that he’d done it. Lance gasped for air, and scrambled backwards, up the hill towards Blue. He’d killed those animals, cut them open and staked them out and watched them die, but he couldn’t remember a second of it. It was a blank, like all those times when he was a kid.
He staggered back into Blue and took a deep, grateful breath of the recycled air. Something blinked on the windshield display, and Lance collapsed into the pilot’s seat with a groan. He felt gross, like he hadn’t showered in ages, and the sick feeling of seeing so many butchered animals definitely didn’t help. Blue obligingly brought up the blinking icon, and Lance winced at the number of missed calls he had from Allura. He couldn’t tell her the truth, she’d feel obliged to tell the others and that would destroy their ability to form Voltron.
Another video link flashed in the corner, and Lance opened it. Allura’s face filled the screen, and he tried for a charming smile. “Hey, Princess.”
“Lance! Thank goodness you’re alright.” Allura beamed. “We’ve been trying to reach you for over half a skip, what happened?”
A skip was about ten days, if he remembered rightly. A chill ran through him at the realization that he couldn’t possibly have been unconscious that whole time. He’d never had a blackout that long before, not even close. “I, uh, got lost.” he chuckled weakly. “Only just got back to Blue.”
“Well, at least you’re alright.” Allura sighed. “I’ll open a wormhole for you just beyond the planet’s moon, and you can join us back at the castle.” she lifted her hand to turn off the link.
“Uh, Princess?” Lance said quickly. Allura paused, looking back at him, and his question about medicine died in his throat. He didn’t even know what chemicals were in the ones he’d been taking, or how much of the dosage had been filler, and for all he knew altean brain chemistry was completely different from that of humans. Their D.I.D. medicine could be useless at best, and toxic at worst. “Am I the last one back?” he asked instead, and Allura smiled at him.
“No. Keith’s Lion was badly damaged in battle, and needs another few hours now to repair herself before she will survive a trip through the atmosphere at escape velocity.”
Lance grinned. At least he’d be able to tease Keith for getting back last. “Cool. See you soon.”
Allura ended the call, and Lance urged Blue to her feet. He had no idea how he was going to explain the blood on his armour, or hide the sight of those dissected animals from the team in mental bonding exercises, but he’d figure it out.