Starchild (COMPLETED)

Chapter 5

Connected by the intercoms wired into their helmets the paladins had disbanded, each one assigned to either the north, south, east, west wing of the ship armed with their respective bayards.

The lions had remained behind under the careful watch of the green paladin, who opted to remain behind to provide technical support in the case of an unaccounted-for emergency.

'Man, the Galra really were like fucking cats!'

It was all Lance could do from tripping over his own two feet as he stumbled blindly through a seemingly endless darkness.

"Ugh I can't see shit!" Came Keith's static report, a buzzing nuisance in the blue paladin's ear breaking the eerie silence he'd become accustomed too since their separation.

"There's no need to risk alerting the enemy of your whereabouts by using your flashlights" Allura intercepted, her voice as clear and as much of a nuisance as Keith's constant updates were.

Testing the weight of his weapon in his left hand, Lance used his right to pry off his helmet, staring at it with a growing discontent.

It was a simple mission! Get in, grab shiro, get out. He knew it was a risk but impatience guided his next actions as he delved deeper into the maze of reinforced metal and suffocating paranoia, his only means of communication left unguarded and engulfed in an empty darkness.

The door had opened itself.

If Lance hadn't been painfully aware of a growing sinister-like presence he probably would've laughed at how ridiculously cliché his situation was.

'Seriously? Who comes up with this stuff?'

The blue paladin found himself in what appeared to be the prisoner's quarters. Resembling a slum, Lance's stomach lurched at the thought of such minimal space shared between possibly untreated and mistreated species.

Pushing the stock of his blaster against his shoulder, he applied a slight pressure to the trigger focusing solely on aim as he tread carefully past empty cells.

'If whatever the hell was out there knew he was here then he was going to give whatever it was a good look at who it was messing with.

Sharpshooter-'

"Lance~"

The blast which followed echoed spectacularly as it dented a wall. Had the shot been more aggressive it would surely have provided the ship's oxygen supply a means of escape.

"Don't be afraid" the voice purred just as Lance turned to face the outlined silhouette with widened eyes and a quivering form.

"Who the quiznack are you?" Lance spoke, once again readying to fire in an act of defense "How do you know my name!?"

The stranger simply smirked beneath the shadowing hood of his cloak, an aura of cockiness o match the blue paladin's very own bloated ego.

"I can' help but think his memories were really an injustice to you" the humanoid-mimicking murmured more to himself as he swiftly revealed his face to the young paladin.

With a sharp gasp, Lance instinctively tensed, a scowl weighing down the corners of his lips in an uncharacteristic manner "Galra" he spat venomously.

"Didn't you hear? You guys lost" the blue paladin mocked hoping his smug façade was enough at the very least intimidate the enemy into retreating with his tail between his legs.

'Wait. Did the Galra ever have a tail?' He'd have to ask Keith

"Lance" interrupted Lotr's voice in an almost seductive manner as the Galran prince stepped forward so that the barrel of Lance's blaster was pressed firmly against his chest.

An invitation.

"You don't need to pretend with me" there was that knowing smirk, taunting the blue paladin's helplessness.

After all knowledge was power, and for Lance this was a losing battle.

"I believe this is what you were looking for" Lotor's fingers strained and struggled with grasping even the lowest width of the black paladin's helmet, his claws maliciously digging into its side in a crushing manner.

When he blue paladin eventually stopped spluttering, and choking on a rhythmically contracting throat and a sudden burst of crippling anxiety, his first coherent thought was;

'At least there's no skull attached.'

Only doubling the nausea slowly infecting his mind and paralyzing his limbs into submission causing him to lower his bayard in an act of sheer vulnerability.

Taking his silence as an invitation Lotor then held his free hand out, palm flat – a small almost 2-dimensional disc nestled in between his fingers which projected holographically at the smallest of gestures.

Lance could only submit, his fingers barely attached to his blaster's trigger as it swung uselessly at his side, the barrel digging into his calf recklessly.

"He will be forced into the arena with me" Lotor spoke through the moving images, watching as Lance visibly cringed when shiro doubled over as an appropriate reaction to a knee against his chest.

The Galran prince knew where to strike without leaving a mark, so unlike the brutish acts of his soldiers.

Tears fell in unison from his eyes -a breath taking sight for the young prince - as Lance continued to watch, enraptured and sickened by each blow fed to their imprisoned leader.

"S-stop."

The blue paladin's command came out weak and hoarse, his voice trembling with desperation, his heart aching with each beat until he was willing for its complete silence.

"Arrangements can be made" a sick joke to Lance's need to believe in hope "for a price." Lotor held out a hand and with a dizzying mind Lance couldn't help but notice how fucking small they were compared to his own.

Everything about that Galra was small, he could have easily taken him out, mounted him over a shoulder and brought him aboard the castle ship as a prisoner, like some hunter's prize to be skinned and hung.

What was wrong with him?

As Lance reached for his outstretched hand, he told himself that he was doing the right thing. He was sacrificing himself for the head of Voltron – another paladin would be found and given the blue lion.

However, a small part of him, no matter how irrelevant and miniscule that part was, wanted to go with the galra, and that part disturbed him a great deal.

"Lance!"

Keith was there, breathless, flushed and wielding his double ended blade with a fury to defy any creature, silently thankful for the trackers embedded into their helmets.

Lotor's hands were now comfortably placed on the blue paladin's shoulders, his long slender frame shielding his captor's body from harm.

The Galran prince allowed Keith a moment of his attention and with a look of complete boredom he leaned in close to Lance's ear and whispered his name softly with a tone of warning so practiced and polished by parent's silently scolding their children in a public space.

The blue paladin slowly replaced his blaster into a firing position, the barrel pointing directly at his colour's opposite, giving keith no time to react.

His aim was true.

Darkness took over.