The Mechanic

Chapter 1

Lance woke with a loud thrumming in his head. Confusion and pain shot through him as he stretched, his palms sliding over what felt to be rough straw and a cold surface beneath. When he allowed his eyes to slowly peek open he found no light to speak of, well only a pale blue glow from his own armor illuminated what seemed to be a cell. Thick metal bars lined one wall and the other three were thick looking concrete riddled with deep claw marks and sharp grooves.
"You're... Human, right?" Lance jumped at this unfamiliar voice, but what terrified him the most was Lance knew what they just said had been in English. Lance's gaze darted around in the dark of his cell unable to find another being locked behind the bars with him.
"Yeah... And you're human too, I'm guessing?" Lance's gaze moved as he spoke, his lips quivered nervously but he wouldn't let it show in his own voice. Fear gripped the blue paladin but as his eyes scanned the room he found himself to glance to the cell across the hall.
Lance scooted to the bars and found a long thin hallway maybe his own arm length as it's width beyond the bars, but his attention was quickly turned.
A young man, his own age was sat across the hall, just barely visible in the glow of his own shackles. His face had cuts and bruises, his lips chapped and bleeding as he came closer to the metal. His hands were coated in thick blood and as he came more into the pale glow Lance could see the man's own rib cage through the thin clothing. This young man sat funny on his legs, kneeled down but his calves didn't sit correctly under his thighs.
"Yeah, at least I think." Lance watched the man smile, but it was the worst smile Lance had ever seen. It was a pathetic attempt at joy as if he could never or never felt it and it made Lance pale.
"How long have I been out cold?" Lance asked, scooting up against the bars himself to try and get a better look at the other captive trapped alone in the pitch black.
"Uh..." The man paused trying to think and then his hands slid down the bars smearing blood over the rusting metal. "I can't really tell time down here. So..." He then glanced at his wrist. "A hair past a freckle?" Lance would have laughed, at least if he hadn't realized the horror before.
No idea of time, forever trapped to never know what time it was to never understand what was going on. Lance began to wonder how long his cellmate had been here.
"What's your name?" Lance let the words slip on accident but the man stuck his arm through the bars and held out his calloused palm.
"Aron. You?" Lance took the hand and gave it a hefty shake.
"Lance. Nice to meet you." Lance gave Aron a smile and slipped his thin arm back through the bars cautiously. Aron did the same as he then slumped back and made his ribs protrude further from his body. Lance found it hard not to stare at it, the way he still had muscles along his biceps and thighs but his stomach was thin and starving.
Footsteps echoed down the hallway and Aron jammed himself against the bars trying to see who or what was coming, Lance decided it would be safer to scoot back. A blinding flash of light shot through the dark and Lance's eyes watered and he reeled back clamping his hands over his eyes and trying to rub the pain from them.
"Paladin of Blue." Lance rolled over to the bars, still rubbing his eyes as he tried to open them cloudy with tears.
"What's with trying to blind me?!" Lance snapped angrily rubbing his eyes hard trying to get them to stop stinging.
"He's too small." Lance finally opened his eyes and blinked the pain away for a few moments before his eyes fell to a flowing robe of regal purple and shimmering pearls. His eyes then came to a mask, feathers that shimmered from gold to silver with the shift of the light were used to crown the top of the purple plastic. The mask looked like one of those creepy white ones, dyed a glittery purple, you could buy on Earth for cheap at a craft store. The lips of it though had diamonds and streaks of silver as they bent down and examined the paladin.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," Lance sat up and covered his privates with one arm and used the other to cover his chest. "I am not something for you to look at." Two eyes were trained on him, a toxic green mixed with an alarming yellow, they sent chills down Lance's spine.
"I apologize, Paladin of Blue." They said politely but they way 'Paladin of Blue' rolled off their tongue was definitely not a pleasure to hear. It sounded almost possessive, and Lance didn't like that one bit.
"Excuse me, but where the hell am I?" Lance asked rotating himself, dragging his feet till he turned enough to where they at least couldn't see most of the front of him and figure stepped back and a hand gestured to Aron. Aron looked worse in the light, it was now that Lance could see most of Aron's face was swollen and so was one of his knees. Aron got to his knees clamping onto the bars as his legs wobbled.
"This is a Galra mine on planet 0778 in star system 233,456 , made to find precious metals to build weaponry for the armory." Aron spoke like a narrator for a TV show, Lance came to wonder how many times Aron had to recite that, since Aron didn't stumbled over words, which was strange.
"So why are you here?" Lance let it slip and quickly found to regret it.
"To die." Aron answered bluntly, he slumped now his hands slid back down the bars as the figure walked to the cell and slid a fragile hand through the bars into Aron's cell. Lance jumped thinking something bad was going to happen and found himself gripping onto the bars so hard his knuckles went white. He only met this guy a few minutes ago but... Lance didn't want him to get hurt, it was a strange feeling it was weird especially for Lance. (That's what he thinks)
Aron leaned into it calmly before he swiftly began violent and snapped down, grabbing the palm in his teeth and causing the soft flesh beneath to bleed. The person screamed ripping their hand away and stepping back a few paces as a Galra soldier stepped into view with a strange stick, with seemingly open circuits on one end and a grip on the other. They jabbed it into the cell hitting Aron on the shoulder, and soon he screamed out in agony ripping at his own skin beneath it before collapsing backwards, moaning in pain.
"He didn't deserve that!" Lance snapped snatching the person's hand angrily. "You piece of-!" Lance was cut off getting the same treatment from the soldier but this time it was jabbed into his thigh. Lance only felt a tingle before it felt like they were ripping his leg off very slowly. He gritted his teeth not wanting to scream out as he ripped his leg to his chest and rolled backwards, a good get away but his leg numbed.

"You should remember your actions lead to consequences, Paladin of Blue" The person growled pulling their hand to their chest and lovely caressing the wound. Lance spit at them, landing one on their robe.

"Leave me alone." He snapped trying to push himself up again but the now dead weight he had to work with wasn't helping.

They turned and left the paladin and soon the once brightly lit cells fell back into the black. Lance couldn't see as he dragged himself to the bars.

"Aron?" He called, gripping the bars to hold his body steady. The moans stopped and then Lance could hear the straw crackle and soon Aron came to meet him at the bars.

"Was the stabby stick nice?" Aron asked, his breath was labored and he slumped greatly, barely able to hold up his own weight.

"Define nice." Lance mused smugly, poking at the still limb that was needed to actually function. Aron tried to laugh, he let out a huff before he tried to chuckle or even make a noise, the result was a pathetic mused chuckle.

"Stop complaining," Aron muttered and then collapsed, hitting the ground with a loud thud and Lance's eyes widened. He couldn't see what was going on!

"Aron? You okay?!" That came out a lot more panicked than Lance would have wanted. He jammed his arm through the bars and tried to reach the other side to only come up a few inches short. Lance wasn't gonna give up there, he jammed his body against it trying to close the distance, only to still come up just barely an inch off. It was useless.

(Hoping to update this daily please comment and tell me how it is. Thank you guys... For taking the time to read it unless you do it cause you're just being mean and skimming then shame on you, cause I'm a good writer)