The Blood on Her Hands

In the Cell

It had been a year.

A year since I had seen my friends, a year since I had been captured.

One last year to be human.

Haggar's chilling voice cut through my thoughts. "Don't worry, paladin. It won't hurt. At least, I think. You will have been the first. It's quite the honor."

The electricity sparked through my body, but I couldn't scream. It felt like I was frozen, unable to move. The sparks slowly grew, and my vision was starting to go black.

Before I dropped unconscious, though, Haggar whispered in my ear.

"You won't remember anything."

_______________________________________

They had been stuck in the cell for three quintents, but it was getting harder to keep track of the time. Hunk had insisted that they stay together, but Keith and Lance couldn't stop arguing, and it was getting on everyone's nerves. Matt had stayed silent the whole time, sitting in one corner, ignoring the others.

Shiro sighed. As he looked over his team, he felt tears threatening his eyes. One of them was missing.

Two years ago, they had followed the Galra to an abandoned planet. They had believed that it was a prisoner ship, unloading rebels. It had all been a ploy, and Pidge had been captured, saving the team in her stead.

No, not Pidge, his mind helpfully supplied. Katie.

It had been two years since they had last seen her, but they had tried. The team had stormed all the ships they could find, but none of them held the right info.

The saddest part though, was Green. She had chosen Matt. A couple quintents after her disappearance, they had lined up to try, even though it hurt them all. Matt was the last to go, silently crying. As he had approached the particle barrier, Allura shooed everyone out of the room. Dobashes passed, but then the telltale crackle of the particle barrier could be heard. Matt had come out, his face warring between sadness and excitement.

"Shiro?"

Shiro blinked out of his thoughts to see Keith crouched by his side, peering up at him worriedly. "Are you okay? You're... crying."

He quickly wiped at his face, embarrassed to be caught like this. "Fine. I'm fine. Perfectly fine. Just ... thinking. Remembering."

Keith gently hugged him. "I know. I know. Do you need to talk about it?" Shaking his head, Keith pulled back, Shiro could swear his eyes were shiny.

Lance looked over from where he was talking to Hunk. He glared at Keith before approaching Shiro. Unfortunately, the chain on his leg only allowed him to go so far, so he stopped three feet away.

"Shiro... were you...?" Lance shoved Keith away, knocking him to the ground.

"Excuse you!!" Keith struggled up, then shoved him right back. Lance landed on his butt with a thud, and Hunk quickly got in between the two.

"Hey! Guys. Guys, you gotta calm down. No fighting." Hunk patted their shoulders before going to Shiro himself. "Do you want to talk about it? You don't have to of course, but I just thought it might be nice. Sorry if you don't want to, I don't want to like, force the talking thing, I was just trying to be a good friend and all..." Hunk rambled.

Shiro chuckled. "Yes, you're a good friend Hunk, but... I still don't really want to talk about it." Hunk nodded, hugging Shiro as well.

"Totally get it." He crawled away, taking Keith with him. Lance glared at his friend, before turning to Shiro himself. "Buddy, are you, like,- do you need-"

"OH MY GOSH, YES, I WAS CRYING, YES, I'M FINE, AND NO, I'M NOT GOING TO TELL YOU WHAT'S BOTHERING ME!! Could you just- Could you just leave me alone? Please?" Lance looked away quickly, his voice shaking.

"Oh. Uh. Yeah, I guess. Sure. Sorry." He crawled away, and Shiro immediately felt bad. "Lance, no, I'm sorry, it's just-"

He looked back at Shiro, but this time he was glaring. "What? You're stressed? You're sad? Well guess what- WE ALL ARE. We all feel the same, but do we blow up at our friends when they're trying to help? No, no we don't. We are all feeling the tension. I mean, we're in a freaking cell. A Galra cell! But just because you start crying means that you're the only one who's scared. And don't you dare think-" His words cut through Shiro like a scythe, "- don't you dare think that you're the only one who remembers."

At this point, Lance is crying. Tears streaming down his face, he turns away, sitting next to Matt, who was staring wide-eyed at nothing, softly chuckling. "We're... Guys, we're Team Voltron. Defenders of the Universe. The rebels were so happy when I joined, as if Voltron would fix everything in one swoop. But... Team Voltron is in a Galra cell, arguing. We are supposed to save the universe."

Hunk is silent as he stands and crosses to the middle of the room.

"Guys. We're breaking apart. Badly. We need to fix this. Otherwise, the Galra are just going to use this to their advantage and break us apart even further. We need to do something, like one of those team bonding games that we used to play at the beginning. We could tell secrets! Or, uh, um... share memories." Hunk pulls Keith up, grabbing Lance in the same way. Shiro stands up by himself, unable to look Lance in the eye.

"Okay, guys, lets-"

The door to their cell bangs open, startling them all. Standing in the doorway are guards, grinning maliciously. They scan the cell for a sec, before yanking them all out and knocking them unconscious. All in the period of a tick.

Sorry that this one is so short. Hopefully, it'll get longer. I don't know. I literally just thought of this and wanted to make a story. Hope you like it!

(Also, I had to edit this because I completely forgot about Matt.)