Chapter Text
“Shit.”
Lance was crouching, cornered under a table on this unfamiliar spaceship.
He was bruised, wounded, and in pain.
Blood stained his Paladin armor, sharp pain pulsing through his right arm because of the long cut he had in it. His head ached from how many times he was thrown against the wall, from how many times he hit the ground way too hard. He felt his strength fading, his legs shaking, his whole body trembling. He was breathing heavily, realizing how he was getting weaker with every blow he got.
This was unbelievably hard. It shouldn’t have been like this. This mission was supposed to be okay.
Well… He did have a bad feeling about Keith’s plan. But Keith protested. It wasn’t that Lance would exactly believe in what he said, but he didn’t want to lose to Keith. He didn’t want to show himself off as a coward. Not to himself, not to Keith. That was why he decided to stop resisting and run blindly into the action.
But now… oh god, did he regret it.
He lost Keith a long time ago, left to fight on his own. Unfortunately, his opponent was not one. There was five of the aliens. And they weren’t friendly, at all.
He managed to run away, but he wasn’t that naive to think that he’d shake them off forever. He was tired of fighting, and he wasn’t sure how much more he can stand. He was fully aware that he won’t last for much longer.
He knew that inside this ship, there was important information regarding the Galra Empire, which was why they decided to infiltrate. But no one expected it to be like this. It was not supposed to be dangerous. Not like that.
This is all Keith’s fault.
So there Lance was, curled up in a corner, having exactly zero ideas how the heck could he proceed next.
Stupid Keith. Stupid, stupid Keith. I shouldn’t have trusted him.
What will happen next? What am I gonna do? This sucks, this is so bad, oh my god…
He heard a faint noise, footsteps from relatively far away. They were getting closer.
They were going his direction, accompanied by muffled voices.
He held his breath, praying. Please, please, let them go away…
Footsteps got closer. Voices grew stronger. They were near. Lance felt like he’d start crying at any moment.
Please…
BANG!
Loud sound resounded above Lance’s head, followed by the table he was hiding under crashing onto him. It hit him hard and he screamed, falling face front onto the ground. He looked up and saw faces of the aliens. Neon green pupils that seemed to emit their own light, pale blue skin and an ominous grin.
Lance tried to get back on his feet as fast as he could, gasping for air after the blow he received. He activated his Bayard and wanted to strike back, but he was too slow. Weakened by the long, uneven fight, he didn’t react fast enough and one of the aliens kicked the Bayard out of his hands. Followed by another kick, Lance was once again set flying against the wall. A painful shriek escaped his mouth, blackness forming in front of his eyes for a second. He got up again nonetheless, panting.
I can’t give up.
He run towards the aliens with bare hands, with not much of a hope to actually do some damage. But he was too proud to just stop and let them win without him trying until the very last breath.
He was aiming to punch the nearest one, without thinking, but before he even got close, clawed hand appeared in front of him face and slashed over his face.
It was followed by a sharp pain and bloodcurdling scream. Lance fell to the ground. Blood was pouring from his face and his eyes and he could only see red. Pulsing pain paralyzed him as he tried to back off, gasping for air, not able to think about anything else but how much he wished everything would just stop.
Taking advantage of Lance’s shock and injury, the aliens delivered some more hits to make sure he wasn’t a threat to them anymore, before moving along to find the rest of the crew.
Lance heard them talking and leaving the room, laughing and all satisfied, before he blacked out.
“Why do I have to be paired with your ugly mullet again, dammit.” Lance was pouting since he and Keith were sent off by the rest of the team.
Keith pretended not to hear it as they sneaked through the ship, crouching by a wall. He peeked around the corner.
“There’s too many…” He frowned. “This will take forever.”
“Okay so, why not just turn around and try-”
“Shh! I’m thinking.”
“Wow, really.”
“Shut up, Lance.”
“Or wha-” Keith put his hand over Lance’s mouth, because bunch of aliens just passed though the hallway on their left. Luckily, not noticing them.
Keith bit his lip as he looked around, wondering what would the best plan be. He noticed an open door on the other side of the hallway and headed there. Lance followed him.
The room behind the door was small and empty, with only few mechanical spare parts on a lone table. Under it, there was a ventilation opening. Keith went in without hesitation. He ignored Lance’s chafed muttering as they crawled through.
“No way, we reached the control room! Perfect!” Keith said excitingly when he looked outside.
Lance frowned at what he saw. Not that far away from there, there was a huge computer with a control panel, with no one on it. However, next to it, there was a doorframe with no door in it. In the room beyond it, a bunch of aliens were... being, aliens? Some standing, armed, chatting nonchalantly; some sitting behind their desks, working.
Keith was apparently not bothered by that.
“We’ve got the flashdrive-like thing Pidge gave us, now we just have to get to the computer...”
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Lance mumbled, peeking over Keith’s shoulder. “They’re right there. What if they spot us?”
Keith ignored him. “I will download the data and you’ll guard the entrance. Then, we get out of here through this vent again as fast as possible.”
“Keith, are you serious?”
“What?” Keith asked with a genuine confusion.
“Do you seriously want to risk that?” A bit of fear was apparent in Lance’s voice.
Keith didn’t understand why Lance would be against it. “But this will be the easiest way!”
Lance couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “No matter how you look at it, this won’t work!” he snapped at Keith.
“Of course it will! If we’re quiet enough, they won’t notice us!” Keith protested.
“We’re basically offering ourselves to them! Hey, some dumb defenders of the universe just came in, they’re fresh and tasty!”
“Lance, what the–”
“You know what, fine, if you want to, so be it. But I’m going back, this is too dangerous.” He wanted to back off when Keith sneered.
“Oh, come on. Don’t tell me you’re scared?” He smirked. “This will be a piece of cake.”
“What?!” That pissed Lance off. Is he challenging me?! Fine then! “I’m not scared, mullet head. Let’s go!” He pushed Keith aside, grabbing on his Bayard and angrily headed to the entrance.
“Don’t call me that, Casanova-wannabe!” Keith hissed after him. He frowned, muttered few curses under his breath and went to the computer.
“Look, there he is!”
Lance was woken up by a bunch of familiar noises. He didn’t realize where he was or why he was there at first. His every part was in pain and it was hard to move. He tried to open his eyes, but even that hurt unbelievably badly. Before he could even comprehend what happened, the Paladins reached him.
“Lance!”
“Lance, oh my god, are you okay?”
“That’s the stupidest question to ask at this moment, Hunk!”
“Keith, there’s no time for this!” Shiro shut him. “Lance, can you hear me?” A cold hand touched Lance’s shoulder as everyone assembled around him.
With a deep breath and a lot of effort, Lance managed to say: “Yeah.”
Everyone had a deeply worried look on their faces as they looked at Lance; all beaten up and bloody, with his Paladin armor all tore and three long cuts going horizontally over his face and eyes.
Especially Keith looked worried. He was staring at Lance, deadly pale, with terror in his face.
Lance tried to open his eyes once again, but when he got through the pain, there was nothing; just black. It confused him for a second, but then he remembered that the last thing he saw was him being hit into face. So maybe, that was the reason.
He tensed all his muscles and sat up, hissing painfully. “What… happened?” he asked, his mind still cloudy and dizzy. “Nghhh…” Pain stroke through his head and he grabbed it in his hands in a desperate attempt to ease it.
Everyone looked at each other.
“We’re retreating. The mission was a failure,” Shiro said in a calming tone.
“It’s not safe here, we have to leave as fast as possible.” Hunk looked behind his shoulder, frightened of what may find them at any moment.
“Lance, can you stand?”
Lance nodded. Shiro helped him to his feet, Lance keeping one hand on his shoulder for support. He was shaking and almost fell over, but Keith rushed to his other side, putting Lance’s arm over his shoulder.
Lance let go of Shiro and rubbed his eyes. He hissed when his fingers touched the fresh wounds. He gulped and gathered all his strength to ask: “And is… is everyone alright?”
“Yeah,” said Shiro with a slight smile.
“Is… is Keith alright?”
“I am.” As much as he was trying not to let it show, his voice was obviously shaking.
Lance smiled. “Thank… god.”
With that, he blacked out and collapsed.
“LANCE!”
Keith caught him before he could fall on the floor.
Shiro frowned. “We have to get out of here. Now.”
“Yeah, let’s go.” Pidge run to the door and peeked outside, then nodded to imply that the coast is clear.
Keith looked at Lance in his arms. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, before picking him up and following rest of the Paladins.