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“Shiro, I’m sorry,” Keith said.
“Stay strong.”
Keith struggled within the arms of the Galra holding him, but it was no use. All he could do was be dragged toward certain death and reflect on his failure. “My fault,” was running on a loop through Keith’s head. His stomach felt as though it was eating itself in guilt. “If I just hadn’t rushed into the middle of the fleet, this never would have happened. I just got so pissed off.” Keith’s thoughts were racing so fast that he almost failed to notice when everyone had arrived at the cells they were to be held in.
The cells were constructed entirely out of glass with five wedges that formed a circle. I smaller circle was cut from the middle so that the paladins could all see each other from their separate cells.
Keith was violently tossed into one of the cells, join the rest of the paladins that were already carefully locked away in their own wedge.
Immediately, Keith ran up to the wall that he and Lance shared, trying to tell him he was sorry, but his words were choked to death by the thick glass. Lance attempted to say something to Keith as well, but sound simply could not pierce through the wall separating them.The group was forced to stare each other down in the cold, empty cells and ponder their upcoming fate.
After a few moments, five Galra soldiers entered Hunk’s cell, one of them carrying a large knife. The other four paladins were pleading from their cells not to hurt him, as though they could hear or even care. They could only watch helplessly.
That’s when the speakers turned on. Everyone could hear the noise from Hunk’s cell. Hunk sobbed frantically, told the Galra to leave his friends alone.
The Galra with the knife smiled, leaning over Hunk’s body that lay on the ground, being held down by each limb with the other four soldiers. Slowly and delicately, he traced the knife down Hunk’s face, leaving a small trail of blood.
Keith watched, disgusted. As much as he tried, he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the pain he had caused. The Galra had ripped open Hunk’s shirt, exposing his chest to the knife. With slow precision, the Galra carved a straight line down the middle of his chest. Hunk’s screams echoed throughout everyone’s cells.
While the Galra proceeded to break open Hunk’s chest by breaking his sternum, Lance banged on the glass with a tightly closed fist, and he looked to Keith like he was sobbing and screaming. Shiro had taken to staring blankly, and Pidge sat curled up in the corner with their hands over their ears, and eyes tightly shut.
The Galra wrapped his long, pointy fingers around Hunk’s now exposed heart. Hunk’s screaming had stopped. Keith wasn’t sure at first if he had died, but the beating heart held by the Galra only confirmed that he was unconscious due to the pain. With one fast, smooth motion, the Galra ripped Hunk’s heart from his body, and held it triumphantly in the air.
Keith’s howl of pain had cut through the air before he even realized he had made a noise. He had punched the glass wall so hard that he must have broken his hand, but he didn’t even notice.
Now that Hunk couldn’t offer them anymore fun, the soldiers moved onto the next cell: Pidge. They stood when they realized they were next. Quickly wiping the tears from their face, Pidge puffed out their chest and held their chin up. Keith noticed that they were also shaking violently.
The soldier that had murdered Hunk tossed the knife to one of the other Galra soldiers. The other four easily knocked Pidge down, slamming them into the ground. Pidge squirmed uselessly as the Galra with the knife grabbed a fistfull of Pidge’s hair and made a sloppy incision around their forehead. The wails coming from their tiny body pierced the speakers in the remaining paladins’ cells.
Shiro was still completely checked out of the situation. Joining Shiro in being dejected from society, Lance looked like all energy had drained from both his body and spirit. Slumping to the ground, Lance was so utterly defeated that he did not even have the will to stand.
Keith felt his own body begin to fail him. Pain fluttered into Keith’s hand, but he did his best to push it out of his mind.
Pidge’s shrill shriek continued to infiltrate the remaining paladins’ ears as Pidge’s head was sliced opened. Blood ran off in thick streams down the side of their face and pooled onto the floor. With a swift crack, a Galra hand smacked open Pidge’s head, revealing their brain. Finally, Pidge’s screaming ceased, and Keith assumed, along with their heartbeat.
The Galra soldier cackled as he poked at Pidge’s brain with a sharp fingernail. “This one’s brain looks weird compared to other ones we’ve had fun with,” he said.
Keith’s fingernails dug into the palm of his hand, trying to control the intense anger that threatened to bubble over.
The Galra soldiers continued their rounds of torture, and next was Shiro. Despite the definite pain to come, he still seemed to living outside of his body.
Holstering the knife, the Galra soldier held Shiro’s Galra arm almost with a gentle touch. Then suddenly, he ripped it out of Shiro’s shoulder. Shiro gritted his teeth and help back a scream. The rest of the soldiers held him down as one the soldiers ripped his arm out next. The power behind it would have been considered incredible if it wasn’t so gruesome. Shiro’s blood coated the Galras’ uniforms. After ripping out his leg, Shiro bled out. He never did let out a cry for help.
Lance looked at Keith, his eyes terror ridden. He was completely broken. He was also next.
Keith banged on the glass, screaming, “fuck you” from the top of his lungs, but it was pointless. The Galra soldier took out the knife, tossed it to another soldier, and he began carving. First, they took his hair, cutting into his scalp frequently, leaving a patchy mess on top.
“You like this face, don’t you? Probably the only thing about yourself that you don’t hate.” The soldiers laughed while holding Lance against the ground.
The one with the knife sat on Lance’s chest while holding open Lance’s right eye. With steady hands, he twisted the knife into his pupil slowly.
By this point, Keith was gone. He was not trying to find a way to escape or hold in his anger and be strong for his friends. There was only pure, unstoppable range. He punched and kicked the wall with any force he could muster, impervious to the pain it caused.
Of course, the Galra were quite amused by Keith’s spectacle, and pointed and laughed. Meanwhile, the Galra with the knife had moved onto Lance’s left eye, slowly working his knife through the middle.
“This boy has the softest lips of this group. Let’s fix it.” He sliced into the outline of Lance’s lips. Once finished, he tossed them at the glass wall that Lance and Keith shared, perfectly placing them at Keith’s eye-level.
Keith couldn’t bare to watch anymore. He cradled his head in his knees as he was forced to listen to Lance’s yelps and screams of pain.
Once the Galra had completely mutilated Lance’s face, they moved into Keith’s cell. As they approached, he blacked out.
~
Once he woke up, he discovered himself lying in the middle of the castle’s control room. This was odd all on it’s own, but the fact that his Galra dagger was in hand and he was covered in blood seemed to push that curiosity aside.
“What the fuck,” Keith muttered to himself. “Oh my god.”
Scrambling to his feet, Keith rushed to check on his team. First, he found Hunk and Pidge. Hunk’s chest had been cut opened along with Pidge’s head. “No, no, no, no…” Keith’s feet pounded through the ship until he came upon Shiro, torn limb from limb. Tears poured from Keith’s eyes, but his feet kept moving. Lance was in his room, his face slashed to pieces. Keith let out an anguished cry while cradling Lance’s body in his arms.
~
“Keith.” Lance shook Keith’s frozen body. “KEITH.”
This snapped him out it. “What…”
“Dude, you were screaming in your sleep. What the hell?” Lance’s eyes were wide with concern. He was leaning over Keith’s bed with a hand resting on his shoulder.
Keith was soaked in sweat, and when he reached up to touch his eyes, he found them wet with tears.
Lance asked what happened again, but he didn’t get to finish because Keith threw his arms around Lance’s midsection. “Please,” he gasped. “Stay here with me.”
Lance looked as though he was going to reply, but simply nodded his head and laid down next to Keith on his bed. They both lost track of how long they remained like that, but Keith was able to fall back asleep wrapped in Lance’s arms.