Save Me

4-The Phone Call

"They came from nowhere," Lance 2.0 stated, "one moment Keith and I were talking by Allura's monument, and the next we were being surrounded on all fronts by Galran rebels. And so the first battle on New Altea commenced. Keith and I were able to get away from the main battle. We decided to head to the comm centre and send out a distress signal to the surrounding galaxies, but we encountered more rebels on our way to the centre.

"Next thing I know, I'm on the ground, in pain and I can't feel my legs. Keith is calling out my name, telling me to get up but every time I tried to move my feet, there was immense pain in my back, but my legs and feet just wouldn't listen. Once Keith had dealt with the remaining Galra, he picked me up and carried me to the room with the comms. I began to work on sending out distress signals to anyone who would receive.

"Keith decided it would be best for him to go and do a security check," Lance 2.0 paused, "I wish I didn't let him go. No one had responded to our cry for help, and Keith had been gone too long. I tried to stand so I could walk to the doors Keith had locked. I fell over, and I realised that I could no longer use my legs and I began to panic.

"I heard a loud bang, which scared the absolute crap out of me, but it definitely helped me regain my breath. Since I couldn't move my legs, I 'crawled' to the door. I didn't know who was out there, but I knew it was either Keith or the Galran rebels. Either way, I didn't fear death, because I had done all I could, so I opened the door.

"Keith didn't go down without putting up a good fight. Keith was at the door, he walked in, locked the doors behind him, and collapsed. He was covered in the blood of our enemies and his own. Keith had lost too much blood, and he died with a smile on his face. I felt like he was teasing me, but I knew better."

As I listened to Lance 2.0, his words were like a punch in the gut. I couldn't form proper sentences. How am I supposed to respond to that? I thought. I asked the only thing that came to mind, "How do I fix it?"

You don't," Lance 2.0 dramatically said, "you change it. You learn from it, and you grow. I'm telling you all of this, Lance so you don't make the same choices that I did."

I pondered what had been revealed to me by my future self. I was still trying to process that his, or rather our only friends were going to die, and how they were going to die if I didn't change...

"So then...how do I change? How do I move forward?" I asked.

"Well," Lance 2.0 began, "I think what you need to do is learn how to reach out. If there's anything I failed at, it's that I didn't reach out because I didn't want to reach out. I expected that someone would ask me if I was okay, but even then I wouldn't be truthful. I was contradicting myself and my friends and I didn't really start to open up until Keith found me having an anxiety attack, but even by then, it was too late."

Lance 2.0 paused, regaining his composure, and continued on, "Lance, you need to move forward. Allura is not coming back. For the sake of your friends, and yourself, you need to learn how to use your new abilities. For the sake of those who love you, you need to talk to someone and tell them that you're not okay. For the sake of those you love, you need to move forward. I'm not saying to forget because that won't happen, but you need to process your feelings. You need to feel them and let them out."

I sat there. This was not how I was expecting my night to go. It was almost 6:00am...that was regular wake up time from my beauty sleep...not that it mattered at this point.

"I only have 2% left on my pager..." Lance 2.0 sighed and continued on, "Lance, don't forget what I've told you. To be honest, I don't know how long I've got, but I need to leave information for whoever might find our SOS."