Broken Trust

Chapter One

"We can't hold on much longer!" Pidge cried into the coms. She once again tried Green's control only to receive a sound of groaning metal as they struggled against the dark purple tendrils wrapped around their limbs and torso holding them to the ground.

Keith and Lance who were already on the surface rushing the civilians to safety, looked over to see the condition the lions were in and began running over to them. At seeing the Galra hoarding around the lions, Keith growled and summoned his bayard. Lance grabbed his arm and Keith looked at him.

"Ignore them, the lions won't let them in," he reasoned trying to pull him away. "We need to find out how they're trapping them and free them," Keith impatiently ripped his arm away and turned to the Galra. He gave a loud battle cry and sprinted into the fray leaving behind a face-palming Lance. He contemplated joining him but when a streak of the black lighting shot out from behind a nearby cove by the lions, he instead made his way to the spot and ducked down behind an outcropping. He peeked over it and watched the circle of four druids chant ominously and hold their hands out towards the lions. He breathed out and shot up, nailing one of the druids in the back knocking them down instantly.

"Ack," he gasped when a bolt of lightning struck him on the side of the ribs. Thankfully his armour took the brunt of the damage but he still felt winded.

"Get him," one of the druids hissed to the other two. They immediately turned and faced the rock that Lance was hiding behind. He didn't give the chance before he was taking another shot that went through the left druid's forehead. They slumped to the ground bonelessly and before Lance could take cover again he was snatched out from behind the rock and speeding forward and stopped right in front of the druid.

"Nice day?" Lance tried with a small grin. He couldn't see the druid's face but he could tell that it was unimpressed with him. He saw the druid's hand slowly curl into a fist at his side and gradually felt his chest constrict. He started struggling earnestly and clawed at the front of his armour as his breath left him quickly and a crushing feeling built in his ribs. He felt his arms pin themselves to his sides and he couldn't look away from the shadow where the druid's face was supposed to be. It let out a deep laugh and clenched his hand tighter making Lance choke in pain. He lashed out with his foot catching the druid on the side and making it release it's hold on Lance. He stuck his bayard in its gut and pulled the trigger, he didn't allow himself to think anymore about it before he turned to the last druid. It was watching him with a blank stare but hadn't made a move to stop whatever spell he had on the lions. Without hesitation, Lance took the shot and turned before he could see the body fall. He watched as the Lions took off from the ground and begin to battle the Galra ships and ran back to where Blue was waiting patiently behind her particle barrier.

"Alright, team lets finish this!" Shiro said encouragingly. Everyone cheered in response and threw themselves into the fight. They were able to destroy many of the fighter ships before the warship began to retreat away from them. They decided to chase after it for a bit before it flew into warp speed and disappeared from their sight.

"Let's head back to the Caste, we'll debrief on the bridge when we get back," Shiro said turning Black around. There were sounds of approval and understanding from the paladins as they too turned and followed their leader back to the ship. They docked in their hangers and left their lions to head up to the bridge.

Lance leaned back in his chair and took a shallow breath in. He flinched and gave a short groan before tenderly touching his ribs. He knew that his ribs weren't broken but it was possible that they were bruised. He heaved himself up, feeling the weariness in his body. All h wanted to do right now was go to sleep and not wake up for days. He sighed but started to drag himself towards the door. He walked through the bridge door and saw everyone gathered around a sheepish looking Keith. He quirked an eyebrow in confusion and started walking towards them.

"Thanks so much Keith, I don't know what would have happened if you weren't there," Shiro said earnestly, giving the red paladin a pat on the back.

"Yeah, that was awesome!" Hunk cheered.

"How did you even do that?" Pidge asked inquisitively. Keith didn't say anything and instead just shrugged his shoulders.

"Oh don't be so modest Keith, you did something great today and saved three of your teammates," Allura added with a smile. With that, Lance understood what was happening and he strode forward even quicker. He was used to not taking credit for some of his heroic actions but this time they didn't even consider that it was him that he had any part of their rescue. Even though Lance told Keith that fighting the soldiers wouldn't help anything.

"Hey, why are you thanking Keith?" He asked. "I'm the one that got the lions off the ground," they looked at him with blank stares.

"What are you talking about Lance?" Hunk asked.

"Yeah, we didn't even see you the entire time," Pidge said. Lance's eyes widened and he stepped back from them slightly.

"You don't always have to try and take credit for other people's accomplishments," Keith said with a huff crossing his arms.

"What?" He asked in surprise. "I don't do that," he defended himself glaring at the red paladin who only glared back.

"Okay guys, knock it off," Shiro said getting in between the two of them. Lance leaned back away from him, as did Keith. He sent a smirk to Lance.

"I did something cool and you can't handle it, huh?" Keith mocked. Lance's eyes widened and he looked at Shiro to gauge his reaction and only saw him looking at Keith fondly.

"Okay, you know what?" Lance started gaining attention from everyone in the room. "I can't handle it anymore because you did do something cool. You left to pointlessly fight the Galra soldiers around the lions while I had to go and fight four druids all by myself and because you have a damn martyr complex," he stepped past a silent Shiro and poked Keith in the chest.

"I told you that the lions weren't going to open up for anything but you decided to not only risk the Galra taking the lions but also your own life; all for the sake of picking a fight with a few foot soldiers!?" Keith didn't try to look in Lance's face and instead decided to look at the ground. Lance sighed and stepped back to look at the rest of the team.

"I'm sick of you guys thinking that I'm not contributing to the mission, no matter what I do, no matter how many Galra I'm able to take down. You always think that it is someone else's doing. I get it. I honestly do. I know that I'm not the strongest person on this team, and I understand that I'm the weakest link here but I'm not one to give up," Lance stated earnestly looking at each of his teammates with tears in his eyes.

"I just wish that you could understand how much it hurts that you don't even consider that I could save this team once in a while," he broke out. His chin trembled in anger and sadness towards his teammates and he quickly swiped his arm across his eyes.

"I just want to help," he stated brokenly before he ran out of the room in tears. They watched helplessly as he darted out of their sight.

"What did we do?" Pidge asked quietly to the silence of the room. They looked around at each other and could only shake their heads solemnly.