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Lance
"Any ideas?" Lance asked Keith as they sat in cover. Keith summoned his bayard and raised an eyebrow. Lance narrowed his eyes. "We can't just run in there and kill all of the sentries without: A. getting murdered or B. getting one of them murdered." Lance gestured behind them to the Genopians who were mining away, none the wiser to the two of them.
"You have a better plan?" Keith asked snippily. Lance felt a growl in the back of his throat as his frustration rose.
Keith always did this to him. He just charged in without thinking and got them both into trouble and then he would turn around and do it again. i.e. today chasing after those flyers; though Lance had been the one who had gone after them first. But that wasn't the point, because when Lance saw that it wasn't worth it to chase them anymore Keith kept going.
Arg!
Lance really did think that Keith was an amazing fighter and an incredible friend but he was about to explode. It was like he never learned from his mistakes and had it stuck in his head how things needed to go.
He missed earth. He missed his family. He missed having conversations with them in Spanish and even though Keith was putting forth effort and starting to learn his language, Lance really hadn't gotten far with him. Keith didn't even know what an alphabet was because the Galra used characters like the Chinese and Japanese and a whole slew of other earth languages. Keith knew a few words but not enough to form a sentence and it would be a while before he could.
Lance was really just so homesick that every little thing felt like it was the end of the world.
"Fine. You wanna do it your way then we will. You go out there and swing your little sword around and I'll cover you from back here but once we get caught or killed there will be no one to blame but you." Lance knew he was being harsh. In the back of his mind he could almost feel Keith's own frustration and even a little bit of hurt, but he couldn't stop.
"Lance, I don't think there is anything else we can do. I don't see any towers or anything around here other than mines and slaves." Lance sighed. They were in a pinch.
He let himself lay back against the cave wall and breathe.
"We can't do it your way Keith. It won't work." Keith frowned, taking a second before he nodded and slouched against the wall beside Lance.
"I know."
Lance stopped slouching and gave him a hard look. "If you know then why do you keep doing it?!"
Keith spun his blade around in his hand. "I don't know. I just... I just don't really know any other way. Sneak in, steal something, get out. There were never any crazy huge unplanned missions when I was in the blade and now we don't have any clue where we are or how things work and I'm..." He trailed off. Lance waited for him to continue but he didn't.
"You're what? Stupid?" Lance baited him.
"I'm not stupid!" Hook. "I just get..." Line. "Impatient." Sinker.
"Impatient?" Lance raised an eyebrow. Keith looked away.
"Look, it doesn't matter. Let's just figure something out." He didn't elaborate.
"No, no. If you keep on diving into dangerous things head first because you don't want to stop and think for ten seconds it does matter." Lance pushed himself off the wall to stand in front of Keith.
"Fine." Keith said but then shut his mouth. Lance rolled his eyes.
"Fine. Don't tell me. But please think a little bit harder next time. At this point it isn't just you that you're looking out for. What you do is going to affect everyone in this room, cave, whatever it is- got it?" Keith bit the inside of his cheek and frowned, looking away stubbornly.
Lance gave up. He left Keith standing there by himself so that he could scout the area. He peeked his head around the corner and took note of what was before him. There were still hundreds of Genopians mining away at those strange crystals. Sentries watched over them, stationed about every 30 feet up on slightly higher platforms. The platforms had space under them that could probably hide either Lance or Keith, but not both. There was no way to get to them without crossing open ground though.
He scanned further, looking up the walls. They were deep in the cavern, the glow from the city above was faint and hard to make out. Some of the walls had deep crevices in them that could become make-shift handholds, but there was still the issue of being seen.
They really were stuck. They needed the rest of the team.
But they aren't here so suck it up. His inner voice shouted at him.
Suddenly there was a hand on his shoulder. He wanted to deny that he jumped but... Well he jumped.
"Hey. Sorry." Keith said softly. Whether he was apologizing for scaring him or fighting with him Lance couldn't tell.
"What is it?" He tried to keep his voice level but he was having trouble. This whole situation was stressful.
"I think I have an idea." He pointed towards one side of the cave where there were about twenty workers mining away at a large vein of crystal that trailed up into the cavern wall. Lance looked at them, trying to figure out what Keith was talking about. He squinted after a moment and then shook his head, not understanding.
"What are you trying to say?" He asked.
Keith didn't answer in words, instead he pointed up higher and Lance followed the direction of his finger. It lead his gaze to an overhang where big, bright orange crystals drooped down. Stalactites. Or was it a Stalagmite? Lance didn't know and he didn't care. There were large crystals hanging from the ceiling just asking to crash to the floor. It was perfect.
Almost.
"What about the workers underneath?" Lance pointed their way.
Keith shrugged. "I don't know." He glanced at the sentries standing watch. His gaze slowly making its way back to the Genopians. "If you shoot a warning shot it might get them out of the way."
"If I shoot more than once they might recognize the sound as gunfire instead of breaking rock."
They had been so close to finding a way out of this.
"Damn it." Keith huffed, he tapped his fingers against the side of the armor where his crystal was, making a quiet, persistent, annoying sound.
Lance was about to tell him to stop when he caught sight of one of the closest Genopians looking around curiously. He stopped working and did a full 360 degree turn, hands hovering over the chute that other Genopians were putting crystals in.
"Keith." Lance pinned his hand against his armor to prevent the sound from continuing and watched for the Genopian's reaction.
He looked a bit harder before seeming to give up and go back to work, dumping his crystals in the chute.
"What are you doing Lance?" Keith pushed Lance's hand away from his thigh and stepped back slightly.
"I think they can hear you tapping the crystal."
"What?"
"Watch! Do it again." Lance pulled his hand back and waited. Keith narrowed his eyes but listened and began to tap the crystal again, louder this time.
Now three Genopians were looking around and the first one was even more anxious in his search, going as far as to look under the chute.
"They can." Keith muttered under his breath. Lance pursed his lips as he thought. They had a way to warn them now. Lance stepped out of the cover as far as he dared and tried to get their attention. One of them caught sight of him and it's two narrow eyes went wide, turning to the others to make sure they were seeing him too.
Lance pointed towards the large overhang and made eye contact with the others to make sure that they were watching. When he knew they were he pointed at the overhang again and then made an explosion movement with his hands. They looked at each other and then back at him, nodding in understanding.
They dispersed, one of them going towards the crew under the overhang and spreading the word while the others did the same in other areas of the mine. Soon the air was tense and the sentries were getting antsy, sensing something was wrong as they watched the Genopians go about their business.
After about a minute the group of Genopians working under the over hang began to edge away slowly so as not to raise suspicion.
When they reached a safe distance Lance summoned his bayard and took aim, firing off one quick shot at a weak point in the crystal. The instantaneous crack of the crystal disguised the sound of Lance's shot and sent the giant orange rock crashing to the ground.
Sentries began flooding towards the downed crystal, shouting at each other about staying alert and pushing the workers back. The ones stationed further away stood guard, raising their weapons as they scanned around. Once about seven of them had gathered around the fallen rock, Lance crouched and took aim from his cover.
Keith had crept up behind the group, using their guard stands as cover and once he was close enough he began his attack. He slashed his blade through two sentries, Lance giving him cover fire for the sentries that raised their blasters on him. He was wild and Lance watched, mesmerized, at the way he fought. It was almost feral and honestly... Insanely attractive. The way his muscles worked and the fact that he was doing this to protect these people... Yeah, it made Lance's heart pound.
The sentries in the immediate vicinity had been taken down. When the two paladins turned to see what the distant sentries were doing they were pleasantly surprised to find them overcome by the Genopian miners.
The Genopians let out a happy cry and two of the closest aliens approached the paladins. One of them might have been the first Genopian to see them, but Lance couldn't really tell. They all looked pretty similar after all.
"Thank you. We've been waiting to the chance to fight back." His voice was deep and rough as he bowed his head.
Lance smiled. "It was nothing. We came here to free you from Galra control. We're with Voltron." The Genopian's head snapped up and he smiled almost freightingly with razor sharp yellow teeth.
"Voltron you say? Where are the rest of you?" He looked around, head snapping from side to side in a way that the human neck couldn't handle.
"We were separated from the group." Keith spoke up. "We were hoping you would be able to help us actually. Our lions are stuck- we were pulled in through the sand and can't get back out." The alien narrowed his eyes at Keith, scanning his face and looking especially hard at Keith's Galra eye, though it was obscured by his paladin helmet.
The other Genopian shook his (her?) head and gestured to a few others of their race. "Did you mark the way to your lions?" It was definitely a girl. Her sharp hissing voice confirmed that.
"Yes, we made an 'x' with some of the crystals along the way." Keith made an x with his fingers and as Lance watched him he noticed movement in a tunnel out of the corner of his eye. It looked like a retreating sentry.
"We'll be right back." Lance grabbed Keith's arm and pulled him after him for a few steps before summoning his bayard and marching towards the tunnel.
"What are you doing Lance? Where are we going?" Keith whispered, pulling his own bayard out.
"I think one of them got away." Keith didn't say anything after that, following along behind him silently.
A few twists and turns later they found themselves in some sort of control room with other passages leading off of it. The sentry that Lance had seen earlier was at the control panel and before Lance could shoot it set off a blaring alarm.
"Dammit." Lance shot the sentry and raced towards the control panel with Keith by his side. "How do we turn it off?" Lance shouted over the noise. Keith just started smashing buttons and Lance followed his lead. After a moment Keith slammed his hand down on a scanner that flashed for a moment before the alarm cut out.
"Well that was lou-" Keith was cut off when a laser hit the back of his helmet, sending him crashing into the control panel unconscious. Lance whipped around with his bayard raised but only managed to take out two sentries before the rest overwhelmed him.
"Let me go! Keith!" He shouted but one of the sentries had both of his arms pinned behind his back and was pushing his hands up towards the top of his spine at a painful angle.
"Take the two of them to a holding cell. I will be there in a dobash." An obviously irritated Galra voice said.
No. No, not again. They can't be caught by the Galra again.
Lance could feel himself panicking. He tried to keep a cool composure. This was no time to get worked up but every time he took a breath and attempted to focus on the situation and think of a way out his mind went elsewhere.
The beatings.
The starving.
The carvings.
The attempted rape.
He still had nightmares about his time under Galra imprisonment and sometimes he wanted to give up being a defender of the universe altogether when the crippling fear took over. He had been getting better.
And now he was right back in the arms of his fears.
His breathing was erratic and he struggled against the sentry's hold, shouting for help. The sentry yanked his arms up further and he felt his right shoulder pop out of place. He screamed in pain and the sentry shoved him forwards into a room with no windows and a door that locked. Keith's limp body was thrown in behind him and the door was clicked into place.
Whimpering, Lance crawled over towards Keith in the midst of a panic attack. He pulled Keith closer with his left arm but his right arm hung limply. It was dislocated and Lance didn't even want to think about the pain that popping it back into place would cause.
Once he was resting Keith's head in his lap he pulled off Keith's helmet as carefully as he could with one hand. There was a hole in the back that had almost burned all the way through the Altean armor. The helmet had saved his life, but the impact of the shot had knocked him out and it probably didn't help that he had been concussed earlier.
"Keith?" Lance hated how shaky his voice was. The panic attack wouldn't hold off much longer and he needed to be alert when that Galra soldier came back to 'handle' them. His bayard was still in the control room but once Keith woke up they could use his. See, they had a plan, he could calm down they would get out of this just fine.
Keith just had to wake up.
"Come on Keith, please." Lance lightly shook his shoulder but tried not to jostle his head too much. Flash backs to the crash not two hours ago plagued his mind.
Breaking into the red lion and finding Keith lifeless on the floor. Feeling the warm blood from his head wound seeping out of his helmet. Pulling his helmet off before carrying him out of Red as best as he could.
Wait.
The crystal. It healed him earlier, so where did Keith put it? He poked around in Keith's belt pockets until he found the crystal in the left side pocket. It was still slightly purple and glowed softly in Lance's gloved hand.
He placed it gently on Keith's cheek, which brightened his skin. Slowly Keith's eyes fluttered open and Lance felt his stomach flip just a bit when he met the bright yellow eyes. Keith's dark yellow irises moved slowly across Lance's face.
"What's... Happening?" He asked, his voice groggy. Lance smiled and tried to calm his breathing as the panic attack began to take hold.
"We got captured and we're stuck in a cell." Lance tried to laugh but the tears running down his face and the painful pounding of his heart wouldn't let him. Instead he let out a sob while wearing a watered-down smile.
Keith sat up immediately and looked around the cell for a moment before focusing his attention back on Lance. His skin had turned purple again and Lance would bet that he didn't notice.
"Lance. What's happening to you?" Keith put his hand on Lance's dislocated shoulder and Lance cried out, jerking away in pain. Keith's eyes went wide and his ears snapped forwards. He leaned in closer to Lance but didn't touch him this time.
"One of the sentries dislocated my shoulder." He said through panting uneven breathes as he sobbed uncontrollably. Fucking panic attack.
Keith stared hard at Lance's shoulder for a moment. "I have to put it back." Lance sobbed harder.
"No..." his breathing was uneven and he was taking gasping breaths. "Please- I can't." He spoke quickly and begged Keith. Keith paid no mind to him and grabbed the muscular junction of shoulder and neck and then Lance's arm. Lance didn't move, knowing it would hurt worse if he tried to get away.
"On three," Keith said. Once Lance nodded his head Keith took a breath and shoved his shoulder back into place without ceremony.
Lance screamed.
"What the hell happened to one, two, and three?" He cried out. Keith said nothing. Lance pushed himself away from the Red paladin. He knew that Keith was only doing what had to be done but in his panicked mind all he could think when he saw him was 'betrayal.'
"Lance you need to calm down."
Lance was beginning to feel nauseous and he knew that if he didn't chill out soon he would be losing his lunch.
"Breathe with me. Come on follow me, you can do it." Keith kept his distance as he coached him. "You don't have to say anything just focus here." He pointed to his armor-clad chest. It rose and fell with his exaggerated breaths. It was mesmerizing and soon Lance found himself matching him. He focused on the feeling the breathing brought him and in the back of his mind he felt a calming presence. He didn't look Keith in the face the whole time, just watched his chest rise and fall until he wasn't crying anymore and his mind wasn't clouded.
"Lance?" Keith said softly, testing the waters. Lance swallowed.
"Sorry. I don't know if you've ever had a panic attack but..." Lance didn't feel like finishing the sentence so he trailed off. Keith nodded and inched closer. When Lance didn't flinch away he sat by Lance's side.
"Does your shoulder hurt?" Keith asked. Lance snorted as he lazily let his head roll to the side to meet Keith's yellow gaze.
"What do you think?" Lance asked sassily. In all honesty it didn't hurt as bad as it had before but there was still a bone deep ache throbbing away within him.
"Here." Keith held out his crystal to Lance.
He didn't want it. When Lance pushed the crystal away Keith gave him a puzzled look. "It's still purple and it made you turn Galra."
As soon as Lance said it Keith set down the crystal and opened his mouth, feeling his fangs with his fingers and tongue before looking down at his body, which was stretching and straining in his armor.
"Oh." Lance rolled his eyes and pulled his helmet off with his good arm, letting it fall to the ground gracelessly.
"You have your bayard, we can use that when they come back." Lance stated matter-of-factly as he stared at the wall in front of him.
There was some quiet shuffling and then Keith was standing before the door summoning his bayard. Lance watched curiously.
Keith raised his blade over his head and Lance thought that he was going to start wailing it against the door, but he paused, turning back to Lance.
"I think that I could cut it open. Are you with me?"
Was this his way of running an idea by Lance?
Well, progress was progress. Even if it was slow and vague.
"Yeah, let me get over there first." Lance pushed himself up and pulled his injured arm in close once he was standing. Keith gave him a nod and brought his blade down about where the locking mechanism would be.
It dented the metal, which was definitely more than Lance thought would happen. After a few more focused blows and some clumsy prying the door opened.
The air inside and outside of the cell was the exact same, but Lance decided that the air outside was definitely sweeter. Something about freedom he guessed.
Keith gave him a quick glance and started to run in the direction they came from. However, he had no clue where he was going. He was knocked out on his way here. There was no way he would be able to get them back to the freed Genopians.
Lance caught up to him, grabbing his shoulder and pulling him back. He pointed to himself and then in front of them.
"I'll lead the way."
Keith frowned but nodded. They pushed forewords and soon came across a horde of sentries. They froze in place and held their breath, moving back slowly but it was too late. They had been spotted. Fire came at them in heavy waves and they were forced to retreat from the twenty or so sentries in pursuit.
As they sprinted back through the tunnels the way they had come they passed by the cell they had been in. A quick glimpse in showed Lance that the galra soldier had come by while they were gone and he was scooping something up from the floor. He turned it over in his hand but Lance had passed by before he could figure out what it was.
They got maybe three steps before Keith froze in place.
Lance skidded to a stop and yelled at him.
"What are you doing Keith!" He screamed. Keith didn't move, he was looking at Lance but he wasn't really seeing him. The sentries had stopped firing and stood before the door to the cell. The galra soldier who had been inside sauntered out with a sickening smirk on his face. In his hand he held Keith's crystal like a trophy, brandishing it clearly in Lance's view. Keith must have left it in the cell.
"Paladins. Or rather paladin. The other one isn't really here right now." Lance sneered at him.
"What did you do to him?!"
"You obviously didn't come to this planet very informed. Do you even know what this is?" He waved the crystal back and forth.
Lance grit his teeth but said nothing. He took a step closer to Keith, who was still motionless.
"Ah-ah-ah." The sentries pulled their laser rifles to attention. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." Lance stopped moving.
"Sentries, stand down. Go and quell that little rebellion that the Genopians think they can get away with." He dismissed the sentries, leaving Lance even more confused and on edge than before.
"You may have noticed," he started as the sentry's footfalls faded away into the distance. "That the Genopians never touched these crystals with their bare skin while mining."
Lance had seen the gloves. So, what?
"These crystals are special. They have healing properties and bind themselves to an owner-"
Great. This dude was about to ramble on about some evil plan or another and expect Lance to listen. Well he had another thing coming.
Lance lunged over towards Keith and pulled him off to a nearby passage out of sight. He didn't know what was wrong with him but he would be crazy to leave him vulnerable like that.
Once Keith was in the hallway he collapsed, eyes still staring blankly forwards. Lance waved his hand in front of his face but got no reaction.
"Keith come on." He whispered.
"You're not going to be able to speak to him. He can't hear you." The galra walked calmly around the corner.
Lance yanked Keith's bayard from his tense hold and pointed it at the galra who continued approaching.
"You fix him right now!" Lance yelled, standing in front of Keith protectively. The galra laughed. Laughed! Lance stood steady but his emotions were wavering.
What was going on?
"Now why would I do that?" The galra smiled and Lance wanted to retch. "I think I'll just..." The galra raised Keith's crystal and Lance noticed that he wasn't wearing any gloves. He was touching it with his bare skin... Or... scales? It didn't matter, he was touching it without a layer of protection. He brought a claw up and scraped it down the side of the purple rock.
Keith let out a guttural scream and curled in on himself.
"Stop! What are you doing!" Lance's head snapped between the two of them rapidly, not knowing who to focus on.
"I'm showing you what these crystals are capable of." He stopped cutting into the crystal and Keith was reduced to a ball of pained gasps.
Lance didn't know what to do. He didn't... What should he do!?
He took an aggressive step towards the galra who simply scraped his claw down the crystal again until he stopped.
"This isn't even the best part." The galra stated sadistically. He pulled the crystal into his palm and folded his fingers over it until it was completely covered. After a moment Lance heard movement behind him. He turned just in time to see Keith running at him with a speed he had never before seen.
Before he knew it, Keith had tackled him to the ground and was growling down at him menacingly, siting on his stomach so he couldn't get up.
When Lance squirmed, trying to get out of his hold, Keith grabbed his arms and pinned them above his head. His injured shoulder snapped again and Lance screamed. Keith stared down at him with pupil-less yellow eyes that had never scared him more than in this moment.
This wasn't his Keith.
"You see. The crystals bind to a person like a mate is bound to a Kalan." He took a step closer, obviously feeling in control of the situation. "You look pretty dense so I'll explain."
Lance could feel an angry embarrassed flush on his cheeks at those words. Keith was staring down at him in his full galra form and Lance realized that he had never actually seen him like this other than a handful of times.
He was... he was scared of this Keith.
"When I hold this crystal, I can tell the bonded to do something and they will do it. No ifs ands or buts. It's amazing really. And just like a Kalan I don't even have to speak out loud. I just think something and then It's happening. Perfect for uncooperative races." From the corner of his eye Lance sees the galra toss the crystal into the air and catch it with a smile on his face.
"Keith," He called Keith's name but he showed no signs of understanding him.
"I told you he can't hear you. Anyways. I'm getting bored so I think I'll move this along." He gripped the crystal in his hand again and Keith was still. After a moment the Red Paladin moved but it was stutter-y and lacked smoothness.
"Come on now," The galra squeezed his fist tighter until his knuckles were turning a lighter color.
Keith released his hold on Lance's hands and one of them found its way to his neck, the other braced against the floor by his shoulder. At first there was no pressure, just the warmth of his hand. Then it moved off of his neck completely and Keith's face sank down into the juncture of his neck and shoulder.
There was a warm sensation on his neck as Keith licked and mouthed at the fabric there. Then there was a harder feeling as teeth ran over the same spot. They never sank in but Lance could feel them grazing against him.
"Keith," Lance was close to tears. He didn't know what was going on. He thought he was about to die but then Keith started doing these... almost sexual things to him. Keith pushed his teeth down a bit harder against his suit's fabric and Lance couldn't tell if he whimpered or moaned at the feeling. "Keith! This isn't you..." He whispered. Distantly he could hear the galra cursing.
Slowly Lance pulled his left arm down from where Keith had pinned it and tried to push Keith off of him gently. The resulting growl made his blood chill as Keith tensed and slowly pulled himself out of Lance's shoulder and into his view.
He looked furious. But he also looked hurt, like someone had just delivered the worst news he had ever heard and he wasn't taking it well. In the blink of an eye Keith's hand was back on Lance's throat while his other trailed down his body and pinned his hips down.
"Finally," the galra muttered. So, it wasn't him who was making Keith do these strange things. He obviously just wanted Lance dead.
Keith's hand began to tighten around his throat and Lance tried to wrap his hand around his wrist to pull him off but his fingers didn't even fit all the way around. Keith was so much bigger as a galra and he was definitely stronger this way too.
He tried to speak but all that came out was a gurgling mess as his air way was completely closed off. He slapped at Keith's arm uselessly until the edges of his vison were blurring and he felt drool running out of his mouth and down his chin.
He stared into Keith's eyes, pleading with him. He tried to tell him to let him go. To show him how scared he was. How badly Keith frightened him. He pushed with every ounce of energy he had left until suddenly the hand was no longer blocking his air way and he was hacking and heaving. Trying to get air into his quivering lungs as quickly as he could while simultaneously coughing up those lungs. Keith's weight disappeared and he rolled over onto his side in a weak attempt to take it more air.
"What are you doing! Kill him! You had it, just a few seconds longer and he would be dead!" The galra was shouting angrily. Lance forced himself to stand, grabbing Keith's discarded bayard on the way up. "Oh no you don't." Keith's pained screams returned to Lance's ears as the galra dragged his claws down the crystal even harder than the first time.
Sorry Keith. Tough it out a little longer.
Lance charged the galra, swinging Keith's sword with a ferociousness that he hadn't been expecting. The galra brought his own blade up just in time to block Lance's attack, but he dropped Keith's crystal on the ground in the process. At least his screams had stopped.
Lance pushed down against the galra's blade before deflecting it to the right. His initial attack had been strong but that was mostly because he had charged and used the momentum to his advantage, but now he was in trouble. He was fighting with his weak arm and he couldn't hold his other arm out for balance or defense. In hind sight, this wasn't a very good plan, but he couldn't back down now.
"You piece of- oof!" the galra only got out a few words before he was suddenly gone. No longer standing before him.
Lance gaped down at the ground where Keith had tackled the man but that was all he did. He wasn't punching him or attacking him any further. He was just sitting on top of the man blankly.
The man had grabbed his crystal from the ground.
Lance wasn't thinking when he swung Keith's sword around a few times to gain momentum before slamming it down on the galra's outstretched arm. The sword didn't slice all the way through, it got stuck in the galra's hard bone, but it did sever multiple tendons that controlled his fingers. His hand fell open like his mouth as he screamed in agony.
Lance snatched the crystal from him and tried not to think about what he had just done. He refused to remember the feeling of the sword sinking through the flesh before coming to a stop with a clack. He refused to let himself remember the sight of the meat and tendons and blood.
Dios there was so much blood.
He held the crystal and willed Keith to snap out of it. It didn't work at first and then Lance remembered that he needed to touch it to bare skin. He placed it on his cheek and tried to wake him up again. The feeling of the action was familiar, like he had done it once in a dream.
Keith was standing and pushing himself away from the screaming man within seconds and Lance pushed his bayard back into Keith's arms before pulling him away.
They needed to get out of there.
The moment Lance turned the corner he collided with something.
A yellow something.
"Lance, Keith!" Hunk shouted pushing himself off of the wall he had been shoved into.
"Hunk." Lance refused to cry. But he did allow himself to hug the big man. Hunk carefully pried Lance off of him. Very aware that they were in a dangerous battle and didn't have a lot of time for emotional reunions. The screaming in the background didn't help.
"What's happening over there?" Hunk asked Lance as he pointed back the way they had come from. Lance shook his head and refused to answer. He pointed to the way back to the main cavern.
"Is everyone else back there?" He asked. Hunk nodded.
"Where are your helmets?" He pointed to his own helmet.
"I'll get them. Tell the others that we'll meet them in the main mine." Lance pulled Keith along with him as soon as he finished speaking. He was very ready to get the hell out of Dodge.
He made his way back to the nearby cell and quickly scooped up both of their helmets. He put his own on before he threw Keith's to him. When he heard Keith's helmet hit the floor he turned to him. Keith bent down to grab it slowly but he seemed more like a zombie than a person when he did it.
Fucking crystal.
It's not like Lance was a crystal expert. Keith knew more than him and he didn't even have a clue about the mind control thing. It looked like he was still following the crystal's orders. Apparently, 'snap out of it' wasn't specific enough.
What if nothing was? Would Lance have to control him forever.
Eat Keith.
Sleep Keith.
Go use the bathroom Keith.
Don't hurt me Keith.
Lance shuttered as he stared into Keith's pupil-less eyes.
He wished they had never came to this planet in the first place.
Lance pulled the crystal from his pocket. He had a hunch. He closed the distance between the two of them before Keith could put his helmet on and smacked the crystal onto Keith's face. He held it there and willed it to work.
Miraculously, it did. Keith's eyes blinked a few times and then the yellow faded away for white and his purple gray eyes were back. He even shrunk down to normal galra Keith size as his ears swiveled back and forth.
"Keith." He called his name and Keith's full attention was directed at him. He was back. Lance embraced him quickly in a spur of the moment decision, their armor clanking together loudly and pinching uncomfortably in jointed areas, but he didn't care. It wasn't a wonderful hug by any means, it was one handed and Keith's arms had found themselves dangerously close to his aching shoulder as he returned the hug, but it made Lance feel a little better. Like it made Keith a little safer. But nothing could last forever.
"Lance, are you okay-"
"Let's go." Lance said as he let him go and turned on his heel to lead the way out.
...
Thanks for reading! Don't forget to vote if you liked the chapter!
Due to a need for funds I'm going to offer a little writing commission- If anyone donates to my Ko-fi (and screen shots it to provide proof) I'll write something voltron related for you! (Like 500 words or something) All ships are welcome.
Send the screen shot to my tumblr or insta (Both are under the username renncandraw along with my ko-fi account) and we can talk!
Luv ya!