VOLTRON ONE-SHOTS

Keith - Hold Your Tongue

Word Count: 3,585

The cell was quiet, that much was obvious to all of them by now. Hardly any of them moved, no one spoke, and why would they? They'd just been taken prisoner after all, and none of them had even a glimpse of their captors yet. They could want anything from them, anything, and none of them even knew just who (or what) they were dealing with.

Of course, Keith wanted to assure himself that they could get out of this, they were the paladins of Voltron after all, nothing could stop them, but another part of him didn't even want to bother with lying to himself.

Another hum escaped Lance's mouth as he continued to scour the walls, Pidge close beside him as she started to tap here or there. It'd been hours since they started, after realizing Coran was their only hope of getting them out (they were undoubtedly doomed), and Keith didn't have the strength in him to tell them it was no use. He'd been in these cells before; there wasn't any escape.

Krolia was still standing by the door, stiff as he had ever seen her before, occasionally sending glances through the small sliver of a window that gave view of the hall of cells on the other side, along with the guard standing just within sight, but most of the time silent and still as a statue, staring at a spot on the wall in front of her.

Keith himself wasn't sure what to currently think about their situation. In one hand, he wanted to get up, get out; bust down that door and show the entire ship who's boss.

But another part of him, a much larger part, was too scared to even try. Don't get him wrong, he really did wish for an escape, but looking at how they had caught them so effortlessly, even after leading them on a wild goose chase; it had Keith wondering if they'd really get away if they tried in the first place.

"How long do you think it's been?" Romelle's voice sounded, and Keith caught Shiro's nearly whispered "I don't know."

He sounded so... defeated. Keith's heart lurched to his throat, and he swallowed. The Shiro he knew wouldn't resign to his fate so easily, but looking at him, really looking at him, some part of his head agreed with the emotion in the man's words. It was hard enough to escape from a Galra battle cruiser and even harder to actually leave.

He'd just have to hope that whoever they were showed them mercy.

"Look who's here, it's Voltron."

Everyone's head shot up as the cell door slid open, and Keith nearly choked on his breath when he actually recognized their captors. Even after being on a space whale for two years Keith could still remember the two of them. They weren't hard to forget, believe him on that.

The small one with fair pink skin- he was pretty sure her name was Ezor? –had one hand on her hip as she seemed to size them all up with a lethal smile, biting part of her lip as she did so.

Standing next to her stood a much larger figure, Keith remembered fighting her at one point, remembered almost losing his life. But, he noticed with a slight frown that one of her eyes were now a milky white, no longer a vibrant golden yellow of the Galra, but it didn't make her appear any less lethal as she stood there with her large arms crossed over her chest, fixing them all with a hard stare.

They were Lotor's former generals. Of- of all the beings in the universe, it had to be them?

Two guards appeared behind them, both had masks on, both with blasters in hand. They were blocking any chance of escape they had, and Keith watched as his mom slowly backed up towards the rest of their little group, a sharp look in their eyes as she stared at the two imposing figures and Keith caught her fingers curling to fists under her cuffs.