Connections - klance

>>4<<

"Where's Lance?" Keith asked, his voice sharp. Everyone's eyes widened as they realized what had already hit Keith.

"He might still be asleep," Hunk offered. Keith stormed through the hall towards Lance's room.

"If he's sleeping in there, I swear I'm going to kill him," Keith muttered to himself, the rest of the team following close behind.

"He DOES always sleep with headphones on," Pidge offered, reasoning through the situation.

Keith's scowl deepened. He pressed the pad to Lance's room, and the door slid open. He studied the empty room, pain filling his chest. The rest of the team stood silently behind him.

A pair of headphones and a sleep mask lay on the ground. The blanket was twisted and bunched at the bottom of the bed. Obvious signs of a struggle.

Shiro was the first to speak. "We need to put all of our efforts into finding Lance." He hesitated a moment before continuing. "How can we find him? Is there any way to track that pod?"

Allura shook her head. "I didn't have time to put a tracker on it, and there's no way to distinguish it from the thousands of other Galra pods in the universe. Unless Pidge has any ideas?"

Pidge frowned. "Allura's right. Without any way to distinguish the pod, there's no way we could find it."

"There IS something unique about that pod," Keith growled. "It has Lance on it."

Allura looked at him with pity. Keith hated that.

"Unless he was wearing his armor, which I highly doubt considering the state of this room, there's no way to track him, Keith." Allura slumped her shoulders, turning to Shiro. "I'm afraid that I see no possible solution."

Shiro thought for a moment. "We might not be able to track him, but the Galra DO keep fairly good records of prisoners. Our best bet is probably just to look through whatever records we can get our hands on, following where it leads." He sighed. "It's not much, but it's a chance."

"Uh, how are we going to form Voltron with Lance gone?" Hunk piped up. The room was silent.

"I could try communicating with the blue lion," Allura suggested, breaking the silence. "We might be able to bond, and I could take Lance's place temporarily."

"You can't just take someone's place," Keith snapped, glaring at the princess.

"Well, it's a temporary solution," she replied, a little hurt. "I don't want to take his place, Keith. There's simply no way we could fight without Voltron, especially if we'll be hunting down Galra ships for information." Keith glanced away angrily, studying the white tile.

"It's decided then," Shiro said with a sigh. "Allura, you ought to try bonding with the blue lion as soon as possible. If it'll take you, then that'll be our plan. If not..." He trailed off. "Well... let's just hope it does." Allura nodded, rushing towards the blue lion's hangar.

"We also need to start initiating battles with the Galra," Shiro continued. "Coran, send out a scan to see if there are any Galra ships nearby. Judging by the size of the pod, they probably took him somewhere close."

"Absolutely," Coran replied, a bit of his usual vigor absent from his voice. He swept out of the room, leaving Keith with Shiro, Hunk and Pidge.

"What can I do?" Keith asked, turning to Shiro.

"There's not much else we can do. Rest. Train. We have a lot of battles facing us." Shiro ran a hand through his hair, sliding it down to the back of his neck. Hunk shifted uneasily.

"We'll find him," Hunk said confidently. Silence. His face melted into a worried frown.

"We WILL find him, right?" Hunk repeated. Keith sighed.

"Go to bed, Hunk. We're going to need our rest." Keith stepped down the hall and into his room, collapsing onto the bed with a sigh.

Quiznak.

(624 words)