Work Text:
Name one thing, just one, that reminds you of Lance.
Such as question has never been posed, not to Keith at least, but that didn't stop him from wondering sometimes.
Once, Keith had connected the idea of Lance to being selfish, egocentric, boastful, yet funny and popular. He was always too close up in people's spaces, taking everyone's attention in, letting no one escape from those fierce eyes of his. Naturally blue and captivating as they were.
But he was also kind and open and all too naive for war. The very picture of freedom and happiness.
Keith wasn't thinking any of these things right now.
"You can do better, Lance! Come on!", Allura shouted over the training deck, as she battled with Lance one on one. Her whip snapped at Lance, almost kicking his own weapon out of his hand.
Keith and the rest were allowed to stand by and watch for the moment, as Allura practically bullied Lance into a failed example of swordmanship.
And yes, that was a thing now, apparently. Lance had a sword.
Keith marveled at the sight alone. It was, as Allura had stated, an Altean broadsword. Made for fierce warriors, ruthless leaders and short range.
Keith pondered about that for a moment, as he watched Lance run for his life, jumping over holographic obstacles to escape from Allura's impenetrable weapon.
Short range. It should be obvious. Lance, always up in other people's spaces, getting far too close to them.
But Keith also knew Lance a lot better now. Knew that the boastful person he saw, was mostly a facade. It was a hard lesson to learn, the day that Lance had approached him and asked him, if perhaps it were better, if he, Lance McClain, super soldier extraordinare, should step down from being a paladin, because he didn't deem himself fit enough, capable enough of presuming the position.
"I don't know what you mean, princess, I'm doing fine, right over here!", Lance yelped back.
From a distance, of course. He was, ironically, a long range fighter.
Their sniper, the sharpshooter. Somehow, Keith pondered, this made sense. It also defied all logic.
Always close to people. Always at a distance. There was no in between with Lance. He was either all up in your space of not in it at all.
Keith's eyes fell away from the scene for a moment, as he drank from his own bottle and let his sight wander over to the rest of the paladins. For some odd reason, Hunk seemed concerned, while he watched the fight with growing concentration.
Pidge was surveilling the thing, no doubt making mental notes on Lance's progress with the broadsword. She's never admit it, but she viewed Lance as a high priority, if she ever had to face all her crew members in a battle. Something she had done before and thought it essential to take down Lance first. Somehow, Lance had never received that compliment for what it was.
Shiro was watching the scene as well, but he was holding on to his arm, as if not to squirm anytime that Lance was being hit by that whip.
All the while, Coran was making commentary on their behalf. He would have made a decent moderator in any show. (Just not the Voltron show, please.)
Allura's laugh brought Keith's attention back to the fight. "Oh come on, Lancey Lance! You have a sword, you can use it! You're not afraid of my whip, are you? I would have thought you were into that kinda thing." Her voice was teasing and full of joy. Sometimes the Altean seemed to forget that humans didn't have the same superstrength that her race had.
She meant none of it in vain, but the silence that followed after, was odd.
Keith paused in his attempt to drink another sip of water, as he saw Lance freeze. So much so, that he got hit by Allura's bayard right in the left shoulder.
Another yelp and Lance was toppling down to the ground. The form of his bayard, the broadsword, flickered somewhat, before it manifested back into the sword.
"As much as I like a good whipping, Princess...", Lance yelled over the obvious pain that even bayards set to stun would cause. "I'd rather establish a safe word first."
Allura laughed at his joke, his flirting.
This was another thing that had changed, Keith supposed. Though not in Lance but in Allura. She had grown, somewhat - amicable - to his flirting. For some reason it never crossed the border of a joke. Which, as Keith's beating heart could tell you, was quite the relief for the very gay half Galran.
Not that Keith would ever admit to it. Even if he couldn't deny the jealousy welling up in his mind.
Keith shook it off.
Another sound of the whip and Lance merely dodged it. Keith's adrenaline was high just from watching. He'd feel much better, if he were the one to fight Allura. Not that he would fare any better. Lance had made some acknowledgeable improvements, while Keith was flying on a rock in space, spending two years of his life taking walks with his Galran mom and doing yoga of all things.
Pidge shook her head at their antics.
Keith didn't really know what it was, but something in that moment struck him as odd. Not about his friends, no. Something about Lance.
"Take it easy, Lance. Only 10 more minutes, then the lesson is over!", Hunk yelled over to Lance. And the feeling in Keith's chest only grew. He's had this odd feeling, since the training session had begun. But watching as Lance's face twisted with something like concern, he found it hard to ignore. It was like there was some kind of fuse laying right there in front of them, just waiting to be lit.
The flame was send by Coran's commentary:
"And there you have it, folks! Lance McClain, ladysman and casanova, is now handing his butt to the princess Allura. No man has ever won against her and it doesn't seem, Lance will soon either. Let's pray the princess has mercy on him and let's him serve her, as her loyal -"
No, Keith had not imagines it. Lance's bayard flickered once again. The sword disappeared and the man, still on the run from Allura, beat into it with growing desperation.
"Yeah, what says you, Lancelot of the bluest of lions -", Allura made a stance, posing like a mad villain from a bad cartoon. "Will you bow to me and be my pet?"
The joke was lost to a breeze.
Lance had come to an abrupt stop. He had stopped breathing and stared ahead, ignoring the fake dust of the fake terrain that Allura's whip had kicked up into the air.
Slowly, he turned around. Allura noticed and once again raised up her whip, waiting for a pun.
Keith's paused as well now and his eyes zeroed in to Lance's. He was staring at her, only seeing the whip, while his own bayard remained a flickering glitch in his hand.
And then, one Lance's eyes zoomed out, incredibly small, nothing more than a simple dot in the white that surrounded it. It was just the one. The other remained normal sized, as if it wasn't able to do the same.
And his bayard reformed.
It happened too fast for Keith to really process seeing it, as Lance suddenly shot forwards, not making a single noise.
Hunk was yelling, Pidge had stopped laughing, Coran had stopped commenting and only Shiro was yelling Lance's name, but a second later, Allura's whip was kicked out of her hands and herself was thrown to the ground. A hard bumpf announced her head hitting the ground.
Somehow, Lance had managed to kick her off balance, one knee now resting on her thighs, another hand grabbing her neck, while the second arm held a dagger against her throat.
"I am NOT-", Lance's voice was dark and scary, "- your fucking pet!"
Now, Allura could have easily regained control. However, could you blame her for being stunned by that? Staring into Lance's mismatching eyes, as though he were a maniac trying to murder her? In fact, her own eyes were wide. She gasped for breath. And then, the dagger breached skin. The dagger, blue and purple, like an army knife but more Galran. More deadly. Only then did she drop kick Lance in the guts and jumped to her feet. She kicked the Bayard out of Lance's hand, before she stepped up and loomed over him, a warning in her eyes, while one of her hands grabbed for the blood on her neck, slipping through her fingers.
"Lance, what the actual HELL!", she yelled. Her voice never failing. It was filled with emotion. Fear, not of Lance, but for him.
Lance blinked at her. In fact, he blinked rapidly, until his eyes returned to equal sizes again.
"I... what?", he asked, as if still in daze. He was still on the ground, not even standing up as he seemed to take in the surroundings, as if for the very first time.
Allura took a deep breath. "I asked, what the HELL was that?", she asked. "I'm fucking BLEEDING, Lance! Your Bayard should be set to STUNNED!"
Lance looked down at his Bayard, which was a fucking dagger. This time, Lance's eye widened in shock. Not a second later, the Bayard returned to it's original form.
Keith held his breath. He looked at the others, but they all remained equally confused.
Lance included.
"I.... no", he said, his voice riddled with guilt, bordering on panic. He seemed completely out of focus.
And wasn't that also a word that applied to Lance too well? Never focusing on anyone. Always jumping around, completely irrational. And yet... yet, when he fought, he fought precise. He was focused. He was their sharpshooter after all.
It made so little sense. Especially this thing that had happened just now that painted their dynamic in shadows for once, instead of the inviting colors that Voltron was made of.
Allura's incredulity was absolutely warranted, but Lance's fear wasn't. He suddenly jumped to his feet, not even reaching for his Bayard.
"Quiznack, Allura, I'm sorry! Believe me, I didn't mean to hurt you! I was SURE I had it on stunned! Really!"
Allura's eyes softened. She often showed a hard exterior, but she was so full of forgiveness. Even towards her worst enemies. Keith was certain, if one day, Zarkon made a 180, she'd be able to forgive him, too. It was her greatest strength, disguised as a weakness.
"It's fine. I'm surprised you made it that far. None of you have ever knocked me off my feet. Except Pidge and Shiro."
Keith waited for Lance's usual remark: "Pidge cheated.", but it never came. Instead, the blue paladin exhaled a sigh of relief and he send her a grateful smile.
"Thank you, Princess."
"Also, since when did you unlock a dagger?" And just like that, Allura's shock was replaced by genuine curiosity. Excited curiosity. Her eyes beamed with interest, as she walked up into Lance's space, but something was off. Something was off about Lance. He'd usually jump on every chance to brag for his accomplishments or attention from Allura, but this time, he didn't. He stepped back.
"Lance, are you alright?" Hunk's voice was soft. He had stepped onto the training deck and now between Allura and Lance. He looked worried, and that should mean something, since no one knew Lance better than his best friend did. What's more, Hunk kept a distance. As if he tried not to let anyone close to him. Not even himself.
Lance took a deep breath. His eyes glanced towards the Bayard that lay unmovingly on the ground. And he stared at it, as if it had grown two heads. "I think I should go back to my room.", he said, surprising everyone with how tired his voice was.
"What? But we just started training!", Allura protested. "And you've been doing well today!", she reminded him, but before Lance opened his mouth, Hunk interfered.
"No, Allura. He's right. He should go and sleep this off."
"Sleep what of?", Keith heard himself ask and that turned many eyes his way.
"Keith,... don't." Hunk shook his head at him.
Lance didn't even react. He paused for another moment, closed on to his Bayard and hesitated before picking it up. As if he were afraid of it. Then he dematerialized it to his belt and left the room.
He left nothing behind except for confusion.
----------------------------------------------------
No one ever confronted Lance about that day. At first, because Hunk made sure they left Lance some space. But after a week or two and at least a dozen battles against Zarkon, it felt too awkward to bring it up again.
Lance didn't get a hit against Allura again after that. And the dagger never reappeared. Neither in a fight, nor outside of it. No one dared to ask.
In hindsight, Keith wished he had. Keith wished that anyone had asked, really. Apart from Hunk, who apparently knew what was going on. And despite him being Hunk, a global gossip, none of the truth ever found their way to the other paladins.
It wasn't until one fateful day, that they learned what had been wrong with Lance that particular day.
And it happened to be a horrible day. A day that went so magnifyingly wrong, that neither could have anticipated this.
They had been in the middle of fighting Zarkon, when a tractor beam had gotten a hold of the Blue Lion.
As they had been in the middle of a fight, all they could do was hope that Lance would hold on. But the ship that had captured him, had never been after the lion. They had send drones out to capture Lance. And Lance, being all too preoccupied with himself being stuck, had been overwhelmed by the sheer amount of drones that attacked him. They knocked him out and pulled him out of Blue. After that, the Blue lion hung dead in space. The bounty hunters, or whatever they called themselves, gone.
The fight against Zarkon's latest robbeast, barely won.
And Lance? Nowhere to be found.
They had no choice but to return to the Castle of lions and search for him. The quiet in the castle more deafening then ever, without Lance to fill it in with jokes and laughter.
And then, days later, a message reached them. Or rather a video that showed them a man in a black suit, teeth as big as his horns and his eyes as dark as his collar.
He was genuinely amused, as he stepped aside, so the camera could focus on his captive. Or rather, what was left of him.
Lance had been bound to a chair with chains. Completely stripped of his clothes, except for a bit of cloth that kept his modesty. He had a dead look in his eyes, but he seemed otherwise unharmed. Other than that he looked like a shell of himself. Starved and tired. However, not frightened. More like... he had given up on something.
Just watching it, had Keith's insides curl with hatred and pain and fear. All at once, he felt completely helpless.
"Welcome, Paladin's of Voltron to my little show. I was hoping you'd find my channel all on your own, but it appears you haven't. How rude of you. I've had entertainment for you for days."
Keith growled and was about to speak up, when Hunk stopped him by merely shaking his head.
"You're wasting your time.", Lance said and there was a smile to his voice. "You captured the wrong paladin. They will ignore your message. I'm far less important than you may believe."
"Silence!" The man snarled at Lance and from somewhere, a man tugged at Lance's hair. Lance winced for a second, but he didn't scream. Didn't do anything, really.
Keith felt his heart constrict at Lance's words. Did he truly think so little of himself? So little of THEM? Or was this a ruse?
"This is Allura of Voltron! We can hear you. Give us back our Paladin."
The man on the screen turned back around and smiled widely, as he must finally be able to see Allura. "See, Paladin? I told you. Your friends are heroes. And heroes come, even for the most worthless of their crew."
Lance ignored him. "Allura. Turn Voltron around. Leave me here. I'm fine. They won't get any information out of me, I swear it."
"Oh hold your tongue, paladin!"
Again, the guard behind Lance stepped forward and punched Lane in the face. Hard enough they could hear a crack through the coms. Lance merely groaned, then spit out a bit of blood and what seemed like a tooth.
"Ignore him, Allura! Please! I'm fine! You can get someone else to fly my lion. It's okay."
"Are you deaf as well as dumb?" Finally, the man whom Allura was trying to talk to was distracted by Lance. "Haven't we tortured you enough already? Is stretching your limbs not enough? Do you want me to start breaking your fingers?"
Lance huffed out an incredulous laugh. "Listen here, buddy. You can hurt me, but you can't hurt me worse than what I'm already used to. You can try whatever the fuck you want, I don't care. You're not getting Voltron and that is final."
He said it with such clarity and determination in his voice that Allura chimed in again. "What do you want for him? We can negotiate!"
"The lions.", was the obvious answer.
"Everything, except the lions.", Allura swallowed.
"See that, Paladin? You're not important enough to them to give out their little space kitties. How does that make you feel?"
"Well, DUH. I've been telling you." Lance rolled his eyes. "The lions are sentient. You think my meager life is worth 5 of theirs? Idiot."
"Korg, how many times do I need to tell you that I want him silenced?"
"No fair. You asked me questions. Sorry, Korg. I bet he's just having a rough day." Lance nodded at the confused guard with something akin to empathy.
"Korg, use a knife, for goodness sake."
The next thing they saw should have made Lance scream. But the knife the guard thrusted into Lance's arm barely pieced skin. No blood came out and Lance just shrugged at the odd look he received for that.
"That skin was expensive, asshole."
"How about we strip you off your skin, then? If it's that expensive, maybe it will sell well on the market."
Lance blinked, then shrugged. "Possibly. I doubt it would fit anyone, though."
"Korg, relieve him of his skin."
"NO!", Allura shrieked, but Lance didn't even seem worried.
Ironically, the only person who remained reasonable in the room was Hunk. "Sir. Be reasonable. He is of no worth to you. But he is right. His lion will simply choose someone else, if you kill him. Besides, all the lions need a pilot. Not anyone can fly them."
"But this boy is replaceable? Korg. Skin him!"
Hunk still remained calm, even when the guard pressed the knife deeper into Lance's skin and started peeling it off. Or rather, tried to. Lance watched him and shook his head. "Higher up, Korg. There should be an opening somewhere. Here, let me show you."
Lance's left arm, tied loosely to his chair by a long chain, came up and his nails duck into a part of his skin just underneath his collarbone. When he pulled down, a whole layer of skin followed, showing nothing but bare muscle and veins underneath. Lance pulled down the skin like a sweater, until he reached his hands.
"That part is always tricky, you wanna help?"
Keith froze, as did his fellow paladins. All except for Hunk, of course.
"We happen to have a paladin on this castle ship who can fly the blue lion, even Lance can't. But we care for him and he's good at what he does. So return him, immediately."
"Why can your paladin take of his skin?"
The attention was no longer on the negotiation. And there was horror in that voice. What a strange sight that was, that the Galran soldier was more horrified of his captive than Lance was of him?
"You think this is my first time being tortured? Or my first war? Pff." Lance scoffed and grinned at the man. "I've been skinned before. I'm a kidney short. Got a fake stomach. Titanium bones in my legs, cause my own were broken too many times to walk on. Go on. Surprise me. Is there more pain you can offer? I'm curious to find out."
The man stared at Lance like he had just said what he just said.
Lance's stare was cold. The humor in them was daring and murderous.
"Oh, we can do far worse than that."
"Worse than an open heart surgery without tranquilizer?", Lance asked, an eyebrow raised.
"I'll rip your eyes out! Slowly. With a spoon!"
Lance's glare turned into a calm smile. His right hand went for his left eye and he pulled it out, like he did it every day. Lance showed him the fake eye. Then the blue Paladin put the eye right into his captors hand. The man stared down on it in horror.
"Don't mind the trouble, honey.", Lance winked at him with the gaping hole in his head.