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Chapter Text

The team had returned to the castle ship hours ago and yet Lance hadn’t moved a muscle since he landed Red in her hangar, everything ached, especially his back. He didn’t know why because he refused to check, he just died and didn’t want to see the damage he may have from it. The soft hum of Red’s presence filtered through his mind, obviously being the only reason that he wasn’t panicking. All he could do was stare at her control board in front of him, that was until he was startled from the back of his mind and from Red’s warm comforting aura. Looking up lazily he saw Allura standing out in his hangar, a worried look across her face.

“Lance! Please come out, we need to talk”, her tone was so matter of fact that he wondered if she even remembered earlier events. Staying quiet, he just watched, hoping she thought he was just asleep. “I know you can hear me, Lance.”

Groaning to nobody but himself and Red he sat up, hissing as a fiery pain shot up his spine and across his back. Biting his tongue, he placed a hand on the arm of his seat and pushed himself up. He wanted to cry. Red tried convincing him to just tell her the truth about how he couldn’t move properly but he ignored her with a quiet mumble of an apology. Lance stumbled as he walked, leaning on things to stay standing before he reached the ramp out. Forcing himself to stand without something to help him instantly caused him to feel light-headed.

“Hey Allura! What’s up?”, a strained smile spread across his face to try be seen as welcoming. He knew that she would already feel guilty for what happened and didn’t want her knowing he was still in immense pain.

“You know ‘what’s up’ Lance, we need to talk about how you…”, she slowly cut herself off before the word left her mouth, making a distasteful face at the thought of it.

“Died?”, he struggled to say the word himself without sounding like it was choked out of him, suddenly feeling distant he continued. “Don’t worry about it, just feels like I woke up from oversleeping!”

Liar. Red angrily echoed through his mind; she was right. It was the exact opposite, he felt as though he hadn’t slept or had something to drink for years.

“Well… I’m glad you’re okay. Tell me if you feel any leftover pains, can’t have any Paladins unable to fight.”, objective as always, although her tone gave away that she didn’t completely believe his lie, she turned to leave and only made it a few steps before glancing back at him, “Don’t tell the others. They don’t know and shouldn’t need to.”

Then she was gone within a second, and his heart panged with guilt. Keep this from the others? Hunk would be heartbroken if he found out I kept this secret, Pidge would be furious, Coran would force him to do a full examination, Shiro would scold him and Allura. Keith would… Lance doesn’t know how he’d react; they’ve been closer since he encouraged Keith to be the black paladin, but he doesn’t know if he’d be angry or worried.

Using his helmet to check the time, he learnt everyone would be asleep by now – well except maybe Pidge, which gave him the chance to grab some things from the med bay just in case. Staggering through the halls, leaning on the walls for support and stopping every now and then to make sure he didn’t throw up his breakfast, Lance eventually made it to the med bay. Making his way around the room slowly he simply grabbed a few things; a weird alien numbing cream called ‘Smeel’, some bandages and a few tablet-like medicines that he didn’t know the name of but knew they’d help him fall asleep tonight.

After another painful and fatiguing walk, the castle hallways eventually led him to his room, opening the door and walking through the messy room to the bathroom. It took all his mental strength to resist the urge to lunge onto his bed and just lay there for the rest of his existence. Locking the bathroom door and sitting on the counter of his sink he sighed. Standing was too tiring but after a short while of delaying the inevitable he had to stand up again, everything was too tiring, so he just needed to get it over with. Slowly he pulled off his armour, followed by slowly peeling the under suit off, nearly crying at the sting it caused. Lance stood in the middle of his bathroom in just boxers now, closing his eyes he turned so his back was facing the mirror as he prepared himself to look. He opened them and hesitantly turned his head to look at the mirror and gagged violently at the sight, his heart dropping at the horrid sight covering his backside.

Blood stained his back and lower side of his neck, deep wounds spread across his back like lightning, forcing himself to look closer he saw how some parts here and there were deeper or more jagged. He finally let out a small sob, the first sign of him breaking down since the mission. Glancing over to the shower it dawned on him, he needed to wash it before bandaging or his back would get repulsive, sticky and infected.

Slowly Lance got completely undressed and made his way to the shower and leaned on the door, if he was quick than he could be done sooner. Standing under the shower head he swayed, like at any moment he’ll pass out onto the floor. Raising his left hand to his mouth he bit into it, then using his free hand to turn on the shower and he immediately set it to a hot setting. He never knew much about first aid, but he knew fully well that to avoid infection with an injury it needed hot water.

Once the water hit his skin he screamed into his hand, biting down harder and harder with every tick that passed by. Water ran down his face, whether it was tears or the shower water he didn’t know or care. The screams of pain eventually stopped as his throat became scratchy and dry, turning his head to look over at his back he saw most of the blood had been washed off and immediately took the chance to turn off the shower.

Once he stepped out he dried off parts of his body the wounds didn’t reach and put some cleaner boxers on. Using the mirror to look at the damage again Lance saw how raw the flesh looked, skin around it obviously irritated from all the movement and water. He winced as he slouched slightly, shuddering as he felt the damage rubbing against itself.

After what felt like hours of hesitantly and excruciatingly applying the ‘Smeel’ cream and the bandages, Lance stumbled out of the bathroom. Flopping on his bed face first he let out a groan as the bandages moved against his back, this weird alien numbing cream better start working soon. He grumbled to himself, angry at no one.

Lance waited hours before he finally started to fall asleep, his body deciding the pain was enough to overpower the exhaustion. Right as he was about to slip away from reality and into his own little world the alarm that indicates a meeting went off, startling him to sit up right away out of instinct. Gasping at the sting that the swift motion left; he forced himself up and back to the bathroom where his armour was tossed to the side.

His under suit had dried up blood all over it but he still had to slip into it, followed by putting on his armour. Usually the tunnels they take to the lions would quickly put their armour on for them but Lance, obviously, was yet to clean his and put it away. He felt gross, his dried-up blood was harsh against any skin it touched that wasn’t covered by bandages. Grabbing his helmet on the way out and making his way to the control room, running at a slower pace than he usually would to avoid spilling his stomach out onto the floor.

He doesn’t know how long he took to finally arrive at the main control room but the looks on everyone’s faces told him it was long enough. Coran looked like he was ready to play a power point presentation to teach Lance of how to not be late, not that he’d know what one is though – or understand the joke. Pidge just had a bored look on her face while hunched over her laptop, Shiro looked somewhat disappointed. Hunk on the other hand; compared to the rest looked worried, they both knew fully well that Hunk had noticed how Lance was more tense than usual but said nothing.

“Lance. How many more times do you need to be told to get ready quicker? You’re somehow arriving later than before.” She scolded him, a look in her eyes told him that she really moved on from the last mission quickly, that didn’t hurt Lance at all. “I understand we may be tired from all the work we’re doing but there are more important things.”

More important than dying? He bitterly thought, he had to bite his tongue from saying it out loud. Not only will he refuse to take such a tone with the Princess just yet, but she had specifically said not to let anyone else know, maybe she just didn’t want any distractions from taking down the Galra.

“Sorry, sorry! I was asleep when the alarm went off and I hadn’t put my armour away yet!” He awkwardly smiled; it wasn’t an exact lie but also wasn’t the whole truth of why he took so long. “You can lecture me for the next thousand doboshes later, what’s the meeting about this time?”

He purposefully used the current issue as a distraction, so he didn’t have to be lectured, and it worked. They all turned back to the screen and he relaxed immensely, looking over to Hunk though caused him to be given a ‘we’ll talk later’ stare.

“Well, if you were here on time,” Pidge waved a hand towards to screen, “then you know that we’re nearly back to Lotor’s main ship, how he wants Allura’s help with the ship more and we may get more information on how the alliance will work.”

Oh, Lotor. Lance still didn’t trust the prince, and not just because he was Galran. Looking past the screen and out to the ships front window he saw the fleet surrounding Lotor’s ship, he doesn’t think he’ll ever get used to flying through a fleet that large with the lions, peace or not.

“Any word from Keith?” He let the slight sound of care slip into his voice, for a while now he’s felt closer to the other, and he liked him a lot and not in the friend way. He doubted Keith felt the same but it was fine, they weren’t soulmates anyways so nothing could happen between them if they wanted.

“Nothing yet, we’ve been informed by the Blade of Marmora that he should be back in contact in a few more quintants” Coran spoke this time, voice as energetic as usual. The rest of the meeting didn’t continue for long as they reached their destination, everyone made their way off except for Hunk who pulled Lance to the side in the Castle’s main hall. After making sure they were alone Hunk finally spoke.

“You okay Lance? You’ve been tense and apparently nobody has really talked to or seen you since the last mission.” Of course, he’d check to see if the others had talked to him, Lance only smiled at Hunk and gave him a pat on the shoulder.

“I’m fine buddy, just really tired, haven’t gotten a lot of sleep just yet”, Hunk nodded at that and didn’t push further even though his face clearly showed he wanted to, “Now, let’s go catch up to the others! Thanks for checking on me though Hunk.”

The rest of the quintant went by way too slowly for Lance’s liking, he stayed out of conversations a bit more than usual. He just wanted to sleep, and it didn’t seem like it was ever going to happen, what didn’t help his mood is how close Allura and Lotor were getting. To outsiders it might seems like he’s jealous, but it wasn’t that at all, something about Lotor didn’t sit right and he couldn’t call it out because he didn’t know what it is. I mean how does the son of an evil emperor just be all good suddenly, he was raised to be merciless and be the next Emperor if that day ever came, which it has.

When he and the team finally returned to the Castle of Lions, it was quite late – by Earth standards at least – and they were all exhausted. Which, while he’d never say to their faces, Lance counted it as a win because then Shiro can’t lecture him if he’s too tired to do the lecturing. Lance himself had reached a level of exhaustion and pain where he constantly felt like he was being dragged to through hell, and after making his way to his room he stood beside his bed.

Sighing with relief as he took his uncomfortable armour and under suit off and getting changed into much more comfortable clothes. His back ached as he reached his arms up when getting changed but he was too drained to care if he irritates it further, crouching down he picked up his discarded armour and under suit and threw them into a chute outside his room that led straight to the laundry room. I’ll just put them in the actual wash tomorrow.

Sitting down on the edge of his bed he grabbed the weird looking tablets he grabbed from the med bay the other night and swallowed them, regretting that he didn’t drink anything with them but he dealt with it. It took only a few seconds before he threw them and anything he’s eaten back up, right beside his bed with no warning from his body. He slid off the bed and crouched on the floor and he continued to cough and choke out the bile, sobbing whenever he got the short chances between to breath. Lance doesn’t know when he closed his eyes so tightly but after it stopped and he could shakily breathe again, he opened his eyes.

Looking at the mess in front of him was of course his previous meals but also blood. Lance felt sick all over again and used his bed to push himself up, the world swayed at the rather fast movement, and he flopped back first on his bed. Letting out a hiss at the action he just laid there, slowly passing out, but unable to ignore the fact he felt gross and horrid. Red filled his mind with distant reassurances he’d be okay, if only he could believe her. Eventually though he promised to her that if this happened again, he’d go to Coran the tick he could. A million thoughts moved through his mind, each one fading more and more as he fell in and out of consciousness.

One thought though didn’t fade one bit, didn’t quiet down, didn’t go away. In fact, it got louder and louder. Like a broken record, playing on repeat before he finally closed his eyes and passed out.

He may be alive, but he still felt dead.

Chapter Text

Unlike how he hoped, sleep did not bring him peace. Memories of death stuck with him the whole time, how he died and what it was like. Lance felt as though he was going through it all over again – the terrifying feeling of being electrified until his body could no longer handle it. The calm quiet afterwards, the darkness after the bright explosion. He regrets to admit he accepted he was dead rather quickly, if not me, then it would’ve been Allura. He told himself repeatedly to avoid thinking of his family, his friends, his lion and… himself. He was officially gone.

At least that was until a pulling feeling tugged at him. The feeling became painful as he was suddenly thrusted out of the darkness and was back in his lion’s cockpit, too out of it to acknowledge anything but Allura’s face. He’d thank her for saving him and then the memory would be repeated. Not once stopping, not once giving him a break. Just torture. His own mind was tormenting him.

He shot up from his bed in a panic. The nightmare of his own memories causing him to shake and grip onto his bed sheets tightly. Lance was angry and hurt, turns out having a nice ‘I passed out after violently choking out my own blood’ nap doesn’t help with anything. Especially when you wake up in a pool of your own sweat. He groaned and took off the shirt sticking to his skin, after doing so he got up from his bed and made his way through his room. Stepping around the mess from yesterday, of course.

It took Lance a few ticks to process that it was still night, although he was too tired to care. Making his way to his wardrobe, Lance changed into some clean training clothes. After grabbing some cleaning supplies from a closet down the hall just a bit he slowly cleaned up his mess beside his bed, he headed to the training room. Only stopping when he passed the med bay. He stood at the door and eyed the room, his view landing on the healing pods.

What if I just hopped in now? The others are asleep, and I could delete the pod data…, he stood there for a good few minutes before making his way in and turning on a pod. The sound of air being released filled the room as a pod slowly rose from the ground, a digital screen loaded beside it and Lance moved to the side. Looking down at the screen he added a timer to the pod, making sure it would get him out in a Varga – the last thing he needed was to be found in the pod by his friends.

After all the information loaded, he stepped into the cold, enclosed space. Taking a deep breath as it slowly sent him into a deep sleep. Oh, how he regretted this choice.

The nightmares continued.

Lance blinked; something was different with this one. The excruciating feeling of being pulled back to life didn’t come this time, instead the sounds of cries echoed around him. At first, there were just the echoes of only one crying, which then became what sounded like hundreds crying out. Every single voice calling for help, some even begging for their suffering to end.

The originally empty void was now filled with people, all a transparent dull blue. These… souls¸ cried at Lance, wailing about being unable to rest. Being trapped in a void between life and death. One thing stood out to him though. All of them, their cheeks were glowing, more specifically the marks on their cheeks were glowing.

They were dead Altean’s.

Hundreds of them.

Before he could even try to ask what was going on, yet again he was painfully torn from the void and the original nightmares continued yet again.

Lance stumbled out of the pod soon after he woke up, taking a seat on the floor as the fuzzy feeling in his head faded away. He yawned and stretched, forgetting of his injury but quickly being reminded as a sharp jabbing pain filled his back. Groaning, he quickly leaned forward and curled in on himself slightly, knuckles aching from the grip he had on his own shirt whilst taking a shaky breath.

After a while of sitting on the floor, waiting for the pain to subside slightly, he forced himself off the ground and slowly walked back over to the pod, not even checking what the data said before deleting any signs he used it today, not even looking to see what it identified the injury as. After doing so he carefully made his way to a desk near the corner of the med bay, leaning on it as he grabbed a tablet from a desk in the corner of the room and choked it down, from what he knows it should be able to numb the pain throughout the day. He stood there, unmoving for a few ticks until he was sure he wouldn’t be throwing up this as well.

It took Lance what felt like hours to make his way to training, he knew from their schedule they had a team training session that would start soon, and he might as well get used to dealing with the injury ahead of time. He made his way into the room and started up the simulation they used a while back where he could stay up behind some rocks to act as cover, then he wouldn’t need to irritate his injury further. The climb up was a struggle to say the least. Having to stop and breath heavily while hanging off the side of the rocky simulation was causing blisters in his hands and scrapes on his knees when he slipped every now and then.

Usually, Lance was agile and moved quickly, but he was too worn out, the numbing medicine was working, and he only noticed when he made it to the top and realised, he couldn’t feel half his body. His back and left arm were nearly completely numb, he moved his arm to test, and it still worked fine but simply didn’t feel like it. He nearly yelled in joy when he stood up quickly and didn’t suddenly double over in pain. The only reason he didn’t was due to the training doors opening, with Allura walking in. She stood there, confused for a second about why it was turned on before she noticed Lance up in his corner.

“Lance! You’re here early!” She smiled up at him, “I see you’ve already picked what you want to train on today?”

“Uh, Yeah- If that’s okay with everyone else, I want to practice my ranged shooting!” He yelled down at her, putting on a smile and a slight determination filtered into his voice.

“Well, we can, good to see you taking initiative on your training” She nodded approvingly and started to set up the difficulty of the training while waiting for the rest of the team to arrive.

First was Shiro, next was Coran – so he could view their progress, then come Pidge and finally came Hunk. They all got into positions and commenced training. Everything was going great, Lance was getting good practice in his shooting and got so in the zone he forgot all about his problems with the help of the numbing. That was until the exhaustion washed over him near the end. His body was tiring quickly, and it was harder to shoot with his numb arm, trying to shake it off only caused his head to hurt and to hear his head as if it was in his head. His vision wavered and he started missing shots. Lucky for him they ended soon after that as everyone was getting tired from training, but this was hitting Lance hard. Was it the tablets?

He sat there for only a few seconds before a hand waved in his face, after what probably sounded like an idiotic ‘huh?’. He looked up and saw Hunk staring at him concernedly. Glancing around he realised the others were long gone, wasn’t I only zoned out for a little bit?

“Lance. What’s going on? You’ve been acting weird.” Hunk crouched down and looked at him with worry, noticing Lance was only half there mentally, “Lance?”

“What? Sorry Hunk, I’m a bit tired…” He mumbled out, slurring the last part slightly, ready to pass out at any moment, he lifted an arm to pat his buddy’s shoulder, “I’m fin-”

He was cut off by the same sharp burning feeling and he pulled his arm down with a groan, this reaction instantly caused Hunk to move to the right of him, hands hovering like he wanted to help but not knowing how.

“Lance! What’s wrong?? Where does it hurt?” His voice was filled with worry for his friend and the look he was giving Lance was proof enough that he was not leaving Lance until he learnt what was going on, sadly Lance was horrible at lying to Hunk so he could only hope his half-lies would work.

“Ah- Sorry Hunk- Don’t worry, on my climb up here I scraped my back, it just stings, no need for medical attention though! I’ll be fine, I guess I’m just tired.” For the first time since he’s known Hunk he efficiently lied. Maybe sprinkling in some of the truth here and there helped but other than that it worked. He watched as Hunk visibly relaxed and backed away to stand properly again.

“Okay... Okay. Good! Go get some rest Lance… you look horrible” Hunk flashed Lance and awkward smile, still obviously worried even though he was relaxed his voice was still strained.

“Yeah, thanks for checking up on me but I think I’ll chill for a bit before climbing down.” He smiled at Hunk thoughtfully, taking all his mental strength to not break down and tell this person – this teammate – his friend. His family.

Nodding understandingly, Hunk turned and made his way down, eventually leaving the room like everyone else had before. From what he could tell he spent an hour or so falling in and out of consciousness, and it felt like hell. Every time he started to pass out a pain woke him again and, every time he tried to get down, he felt dizzy and sick. Eventually pushing through he started to climb down, legs aching but he refused to procrastinate any more.

Within seconds his legs gave in, and he fell the rest of the way down, which wasn’t far but unlucky for him, Lance landed back first. He yelled out in pain, tears welling in his eyes as he flipped onto his stomach and held himself up from the ground slightly. Lifting a hand to his face he coughed violently into it, a metallic taste filled his mouth, sobbing between coughs. Once he finally caught a break to breath it felt as though his lungs were on fire and he lifted himself into a sitting position, looking down at his hand his heart dropped.

Blood.

He coughed up blood.

And his hand was covered in it.

He only made it to his room later that night because he just wanted to lay in bed, relaxed slightly more by then and he felt lucky he hadn’t run into anyone else yet again as he stumbled through the halls. Forcing himself through the same process he did on previous nights of undressing, having a shower and wrapping his wound again. Leaning against his bathroom sink he washed his face with cold water, simply wishing he wouldn’t have a mission anytime soon.

He left his bathroom, just as he was about to lay in bed a comforting feeling tugged at his brain, urging him towards it. Red wanted him to come to her, so he did. His mind was too tired to fight her pulling him through their bond. As he entered her cockpit minutes later, he tried to take a seat but as soon and he touched it he panicked and stumbled away.

“I- I can’t sit in that chair Red.” He mumbled out a small apology to her, he died there, what if he dies again, what if this time he isn’t lucky to be alive again. Instead, he moved to a room near the back where there was a small make-shift bed for when they needed to be out in the lions for days and he laid down on his side, the whole time Red rumbled comfortingly in his mind. As he dozed off, he thanked his lion for always being there; She then promised that she’d always be there.

Chapter Text

Lance that night found himself in another torturous dream, dealing with his death over and over in his own mind. Once again, at some point he ended back in that creepy void filled with dead Altean’s. This time though, souls were no longer begging but instead staring at him. They were malnourished and sickly looking, cheeks hollowed out and hair thinning while the glow of their marks slowly became dull and weak.

He glanced around, realising this time he could move his own body, not knowing what else he could do, Lance walked through the sludge-like void. He passed by multiple souls who began to speak horrible words of someone they called ‘The Prince’. He stopped when he felt a tug on his pants, looking down to find a young Altean child. His heart felt crushed seeing such a young child was dead, just like he had been.

“He hurt Papa.” The little girl muttered with such a hateful tone that Lance never thought he’d have to hear from a child. The next words she spoke had a pained shake to her voice. “Prince Lotor hurt my Papa.”

Just as Lance was about to ask what the child meant, she sunk into the void as if melting. The others followed one-by-one, he felt horrified and sick watching this, stumbling back a few steps. His breathing quickly grew shallow and panicked, as he felt dizzy, Lance took a single step forward before collapsing and falling through the murky and water-like ground. He tried to scream but the his voice was quickly muffled as the sludge filled his lungs, he couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t breathe.

Lance shot up in his makeshift bed with a scream, panting heavily with sweat beading down his forehead. He started rubbing his forehead as if to numb the head-splitting ache he felt. Slightly disorientated and realising he was awake; Lance was disoriented and out of it. Lance swayed slightly, vision blurring and when his vision cleared, he was walking down a castle hallway. He ignored the red lions muddled calls in his mind and slowly made his way to his bedroom only to fall back asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow.

The next few days seemed to drag on, there were no missions and luckily, there was less training than usual, everyone just was relaxing – even Allura. Coran had even taught a few of them an odd game called ‘Monsters & Mana,’ at first, he just wanted to sleep but he ended up being dragged into the fantasy game and he ended up relaxing the most he has in days. No stress of injuring himself further, of the others finding out, of future battles and no worries about when he will next pass out. Once the game was over, they all had a quick dinner and went back to doing their own thing.

He wanted to say he was healing great, but he wasn’t. It was slow and tiring, he’d been vomiting and coughing up blood nearly every day and the medicines he took worked for a little while before they’d suddenly stop, and he ended up feeling worse than before. His nightmares also continued; every single night felt like torture.

Ever since he freaked out in Red’s cockpit from just trying to sit in the seat, he has avoided her, which in hindsight was a bad idea because every time she tries getting him to at least respond to her he has pushed it to the back of his mind, eventually causing her to roar angrily at him through their bond. She was furious with him, because he wouldn’t tell anyone, or that he kept coughing up blood and didn’t tell Coran like promised, in addition she was extremely angry that he was ignoring her. She reminded him of his mother, scolding him for when he used to sneak out at night, but larger and more likely to eat him if he has an attitude.

His mind was soon brought back to reality as the others talked about their anxieties for the current mission, Allura and Lotor were about to enter the quintessence field and the team was split. Some, like Pidge, found it exciting to learn new things about the universe while others, like Coran, were worried for the safety of the two. Lance hated to admit it but deep down he knew he did not care if Lotor was safe or not, no matter how much Lance tried to trust him the Galran prince felt too merciful for an evil emperor’s son. He hoped that didn’t sound like he disliked Galran’s altogether because he didn’t. But Prince Lotor is the son of an evil emperor. What didn’t help was his nightmare from a few nights ago, Lance became extra paranoid when it came to Lotor, his hand itching to grab his Bayard every time Lotor was around.

“Good luck.” He mumbled through comms, his voice barely as whisper as he watched the two disappear into the quintessence field. Everyone went quiet, as if expecting everything to suddenly blow up or for a black hole to form in reaction and drag them all in.

Nobody spoke. Nobody moved. Everyone just stared for what felt like thousands of years.

What broke the silence wasn’t a voice but the sound of a communication signal coming through, Lance hid the way his mood brightened when Coran answered the signal and Keith’s face appeared on screen. It had been weeks since he last saw Keith.

Lance felt a heat rise to his cheeks at the sight of him, Keith had somehow looked older and more ragged than usual. Not that he was complaining. What caused Lance to refocus was Pidge giving him a sharp elbow into the side and shooting him a knowing grin. He glared at the shorter paladin before focusing back on the communication screen, Keith started asking about Lotor as Coran opened the ships landing docks for him.

When they went and welcomed him, Lance noticed Keith look at him and pull a face. Moving his attention back to the others as he greeted them, he couldn’t help but feel a small pang of sadness, had he said something to offend Keith when he left a few weeks ago? He hoped not, Keith can hold grudges.

Soon enough, they were all quiet after Keith, a Galran woman who was apparently his mother, and an Altean girl – called Romelle, had explained everything they found out. After Keith had introduced everyone and revealed the Altean girl everyone burst into loud conversation; asking questions and arguing what to do about the Prince. He wouldn’t be exaggerating when he says that everyone was absolutely horrified and sickened, especially Coran.

The sound of hissing air filled the room and Lotor and Allura entered the room, Lance wasn’t the only one to grab his weapon, swiftly moving his arm it shifted into a gun and it aimed right at Lotor.

“Princess, step away from Lotor,” Shiro’s voice said firmly, holding his own Bayard, “he’s not who you think he is.”

“What is the meaning of this?!” Allura yelled, putting an arm in front of Lotor defensively and her tone showed she demanded answers immediately. As she looked around her eyes landed on Romelle, Allura froze, her breath catching in her throat. Lotor seemed to recognise the girl, before he could say anything she stepped forward.

“Prince Lotor killed my brother. Using hundreds of Alteans and draining them of their quintessence until they died.” Romelle hissed out angrily, her glare was cold and directed at Lotor. “He’s a monster.”

Allura was silent, Lance could see her hands clenching into fists as she processed the information just thrown at her. Her shock turned to hurt, and her hurt turned to anger, she’s never looked so angry before and it’s not like anybody would blame her. Lotor reached out for Allura desperately. Gently touching the side of her arm.

“Allura… you must try to understand, it was a necessary evil—” Lotor spoke softly but was cut off when Allura grabbed his arm, swung him forward and slammed him into the ground. Successfully knocking him out. Her breathing was heavy, eyes watering as she stared at his unconscious body.

After Lotor was out, everything went wrong in a matter of seconds. Alarms blared as Hagger and Lotor’s ex-generals attacked the castle and once they split up, Shiro started acting weird and attacked them before running off with Lotor.

Lance’s vision blacked out and when he snapped out of it, he found himself of the ground, looking out the door and seeing the blurry and distant form of Shiro disappearing down the hall with Lotor thrown over his shoulder. He groaned weakly pushing himself off the ground and looking around, he struggled to stand and stumbled after Shiro slowly. His mind spun, body swaying with each step as he made his way to the ship bay.

He fixed his grip on his Bayard, slowly grounding himself and bringing himself back to reality. By the time he made it the ship bay Shiro, Haggar and the generals had already gotten away and with Keith having followed them in the black lion. Leaving everyone else to scramble and get their bearings or understanding of the situation. Soon his vision blurred yet again and when he came back to reality he was back in the control room, listening to Allura ramble on about what to do next.

Currently the plan was to find Keith, learn what came over Shiro and then figure out what Haggar was planning on doing next before the woman could make a move they wouldn’t be able to defend against. Hours seemed to pass in seconds for Lance, after being knocked out he felt like his grasp on time had started slipping out of his hands.

Coran set the castle to track the black lion, Pidge hovering over his shoulder to watch how he did so. Allura was basically interrogating Romelle with how many things she was asking the poor woman and Hunk rambled on about how worried he was for Keith and Shiro. Lance stood beside Hunk, tiredly reassuring him that everything would turn out fine like usual.

That everything would go back to ‘normal’ and they could get back home soon enough like they desperately wanted to after officially dealing with the Galra. His head ached and his injury stung like usual but the adrenaline was currently keeping him going and as focused as he could be on the current situation.